Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

0120CHAPTER 3Education for All Global Monitoring ReportCountries needto invest in morerobust andconsistent dataanalysis toidentify areasof concentrateddisadvantageMeasuring marginalizationin educationIntroductionIn all countries, whatever their level ofdevelopment, some individuals and groupsexperience extreme and persistent disadvantagein education that sets them apart from the rest ofsociety. They are less likely to enter school, to startschool at the correct age or to complete a fullcycle of education, and they are more likely to leaveschool with lower levels of achievement. As well asbeing a sign of social deprivation in its own right,disadvantage in education is a cause and an effectof marginalization in other areas and a powerfultransmitter of deprivation across generations.Defining who is marginalized is problematicbecause there is seldom an agreed definition ofthe term within any one country, let alone acrosscountries. Establishing what marginalization entailsin education presents another set of problems.Most people would accept that it encompassesquantitative deprivation, as measured by yearsin school or the level of education attained.But it also incorporates a qualitative dimension.The marginalized typically demonstrate lower levelsof educational achievement. The Convention on theRights of the Child calls on governments to providean education that leads to the ‘development of thechild’s personality, talents and mental and physicalabilities to their fullest potential’ (United Nations,1989, Article 29). For many children, though,the experience undermines learning potential,disempowers and stigmatizes them (Klasen, 2001).This section identifies some of the characteristicsthat predispose individuals and groups to extremeand persistent disadvantage in education. Whileall countries endorse the principles of equalopportunity and universal rights, the evidenceshows that, when it comes to opportunities foreducation, some people are more equal thanothers – the marginalized being the least equalof all. Inequalities linked to parental income,gender, ethnicity, race and other factors continueto restrict life chances and fuel marginalization.Understanding marginalization is one of theconditions for overcoming it. Too often,governments express commitment to equalopportunity in education but fail to monitor whatis happening to the individuals and groups beingleft behind. One of the central messages of thissection is that countries need to invest in morerobust and consistent data analysis to identifyareas of concentrated disadvantage. The newinternational data set prepared for this Reportprovides a tool that governments, non-governmentorganizations and researchers can use to makethe marginalized more visible.Using a quantitative analysis of marginalizationin low-income developing countries, this sectiondraws on the DME data set to identify individualsand groups facing heightened risk ofmarginalization, with respect both to absolutedeprivation, defined in terms of years in school,and to disadvantage relative to the rest of society.The section looks also at individual and groupbaseddisadvantage with respect to learningachievement. While the dimensions andcharacteristics of marginalization differ betweendeveloped and developing countries, rich countriesare also characterized by extreme and persistentpatterns of deprivation.The Deprivation and Marginalizationin Education data setMeasuring marginalization in education is notstraightforward. Household surveys and otherdata provide insights into the relationship betweenpoverty, ethnicity, health, parental literacy and othercharacteristics on the one side and education onthe other. But while these are all characteristicsassociated with marginalization, they do not operatein isolation. The marginalized in education are oftenpoor and female, and from an ethnic minority livingin a remote rural area. Understanding how differentlayers of disadvantage interact is a first steptowards breaking the cycles of disadvantagethat push people into marginalization.Invisibility adds to measurement problems.Concentrated in slums or remote rural regions,the marginalized are often hidden from viewand government agencies sometimes have limitedaccess to detailed data for monitoring theircondition. All too often the same agenciesdemonstrate a marked indifference to the socialcircumstances of the marginalized, reflectingthe indifference of political elites.The new DME data set assembled for this Reportis a statistical tool that helps chart the dimensionsof marginalization and identifies patterns of138