Education Aspirations among Young People in Peru and their Perceptions of Barriers to Higher Education
This paper uses information from Young Lives to gain a deeper understanding of young people鈥檚 aspirations and their views of the main barriers they face.
Abstract
Data from the Young Lives survey in Peru show there is a gap between young people鈥檚 aspirations for higher education and their actual chances of accessing university or college. This paper uses qualitative information from Young Lives to gain a deeper understanding of young people鈥檚 aspirations as well as their views of the main barriers they face. 皇冠体育app authors analyse how aspirations are formed, to what extent they are related to parents鈥� educational aspirations for their children, and if they are stable or tend to change over time.
We find high aspirations among low-income young people and their caregivers and establish that education is highly valued by Peruvian families. Young people鈥檚 aspirations are influenced by their caregivers鈥� educational history and experiences. 皇冠体育app longitudinal nature of the data, both quantitative and qualitative, allowed us to identify that young people鈥檚, and particularly caregivers鈥�, educational aspirations changed over time, mainly in response to changes in the family鈥檚 socio-economic circumstances.
皇冠体育app study also identified several barriers preventing low-income youth in urban and rural areas from realising their educational aspirations. Besides economic and psychological barriers (mainly experienced as lack of family support), the papers points to the existence of additional barriers such as a lack of information available to secondary school students, and their parents, about higher education (what and where to study and how to apply) and the fact that schools do not play an active role in preparing students for a transition to higher education. Based on their findings, the authors discuss some policy recommendations aimed at overcoming those barriers.
Citation
Guerrero, G.; Sugimaru,C.; Cussianovich, A; De Fraine, B.; Cueto, S. Education Aspirations among Young People in Peru and their Perceptions of Barriers to Higher Education. Young Lives Working Paper 148. Young Lives, Department of International Development at the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK (2016) 24p
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