Improving Access to Schooling in the Third World: An Overview

摘要

Literature on access to education is reviewed with access being defined to include both the availability of and the demand for education. Although access is basically a problem of insufficient resources, research clearly shows that distinct patterns of access to or exclusion from education exist in most societies. Eight factors influencing access are identified: remoteness of residence; poverty; gender; intra-family composition and birth order; race or ethnicity; religion; physical or mental handicaps; and lack of permanent residence. The paper then describes policy attempts to improve access to education. Such policies focus either on increasing the supply of education or on changing education demand. Three guidelines emerge from the review. Policies should take into account the interaction of factors that cause families to keep their children away from school. Policies that focus on single determinants of demand, even where these are clearly important, often fail. The report includes six-page bibliography.