Achieving Gender Equality in Education | (News and Research 362)
Achieving Gender Equality in Education: Examining Progress and Constraints | Bentaouet Kattan, Khan, Merchant | Education is a human right for all children, yet many marginalized groups are disproportionally excluded from pursuing an education. Enrollment outcomes have increased for both girls and boys in recent decades, but learning remains a critical issue. Girls’ enrollment, attendance, and dropout rates are especially challenging in low-income countries and countries facing fragility, conflict, and violence. The sizable gender gap in female labor force participation after education also indicates that education and learning do not translate into labor market returns for women in the same way as they do for men. Schools play an important role in the fight for gender equality. Schools empower all students, serving as incubators where students can learn about their own potential and rights in the world around them. The education girls receive at schools plays a huge role in shaping their future. United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 commits to ensuring every child in the world receives a free, quality education. With the push to get every single girl in school, the potential for impact in creating gender equality through education is huge.
Returns to Education for Women in the Mid-20th Century: Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Laws | Li | Women had a similar level of schooling to men during the mid-twentieth century United States, but research on the returns to education for women is scarce. Using compulsory schooling laws as instrumental variables, this paper examines the causal effect of education on women’s labor market and marriage market outcomes. I examine both outcomes because women frequently traded off employment and marriage due to marriage bars and gender norms against married women working. I show that an additional year of schooling increases women’s probability of gainful employment by 7.9 pp. and women’s wage earnings by 15 percent, which can be explained by women’s entry into skilled occupations. Given the large returns on earnings, education surprisingly does not increase women’s probability of never marrying, but it does increase the probability of divorce and separation. In addition, women’s education positively affects the husband’s and the household’s labor supply and earnings, conditional on marriage formation and the husband’s education.
ECA Talk: Estonia’s Education Miracle – Higher Social Mobility, More Innovation | Presentation by Kristina Kallas, Minister of Education and Research of the Republic of Estonia. According to the PISA 2018 test, Estonian students were the top performers in both Europe and the OECD in all three domains of assessment – reading, mathematics, and science. Furthermore, compared to other PISA participating countries, there is many students who meet a high level of academic skills despite socio-economic disadvantage.
The Future of Work: Implications for Equity and Growth in Europe | Dalvit, de Hoyos, Iacovone, Pantelaiou, Peeva, Torre |This report examines the relationship between technology, economic growth, and equity. By analyzing the impact of technological progress on firm-level productivity, market concentration, and outcomes for workers with different education levels—we can gain insight into technology’s effects on the European Union labor markets.
Digital personalized learning: A cost-effective solution for math remediation for college students in Ecuador | Angel-Urdinola, Avitabile, Chinen | Many students who graduate from high school are academically unprepared for college, especially in subjects like mathematics. Globally, data reveals that 40 to 60 percent of lower secondary education graduates struggle with mathematics proficiency). Consequently, many college-entrants grapple with math skills gaps, hindering their academic progress. This lack of academic readiness is one of the main reasons why about 40% of college enrollees fail to obtain a degree. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened this situation, exacerbating learning losses on core foundational skills, especially among socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
Liberia education study shows big literacy gains | A randomized control trial of a catch-up program for out-of-school kids has shown impressive results with students reading three times more words per minute than kids in the control group after just 10 months.
Transforming Lives at the Institutional Level: Equity Promotion Initiatives Across the World | Jamil Salmi |Transforming Lives at the Institutional Level explores innovative higher education initiatives from around the world aimed at enhancing access and success for underrepresented and marginalized groups. Through 31 case studies spanning seven global regions, this volume offers invaluable insights and lessons learned to inform equity promotion policies and practices.
Innovative Financing: How Education Bonds Can Help Students in South Asia | Shamsul, Mamun | In South Asia, learning poverty – when children are unable to read and understand simple text by the age of 10 – has reached an unacceptable level. One of the underlying causes is low government spending on education. Low-income countries spend on average 3.6% of GDP on education, according to the Education Finance Watch Report 2023.
How building up the human capital of the world’s poor can help lessen the climate crisis | Doberman | The accumulation of skills can be a driver of adaptation to climate change. Human capital facilitates occupational change and increases migration opportunities. Tim Dobermann studied how historical investments in education facilitated adaptation in India. He finds that areas that benefited from expansion in schooling saw labor leave agriculture in response to climate change.
Can German vocational training combat skill shortages in developing countries? Evidence from dual training system in the Philippines | Yamauchi, Kim, Lee, Tiongco | This paper examines the labor market impacts of the Philippine Dual Training System (DTS), a vocational training program that combines firm-based on-the-job training (OJT) and conventional institution-based training, using a recent survey that tracked graduates from DTS and regular institution-based programs. The estimation results using fuzzy regression discontinuity design show a significantly positive impact on the most recent monthly earnings. The impact significantly increases with the OJT intensity, measured by the number of hours a week in OJT. The above results imply that vocational training must be aligned with actual production technologies and work practices to narrow skill gaps and create positive returns.
Education, economics and public policy 