Inequality of educational opportunity: the relationship between access, affordability, and quality of private schools in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Using data from a census of private schools in one of Lagos, Nigeria’s administrative jurisdictions, this paper explores the linkages between a heterogeneous sector of private schools and issues of school access, affordability, quality, and ultimately social mobility for households at the bottom of the income distribution. Although a large private education market has buoyed Lagos’s growth towards near-universal primary enrolment, this heterogeneous school sector appears to be providing socially stratifying paths towards educational attainment. We apply Lucas’s theory of effectively maintained inequality to assess the extent to which access to higher quality education services within the private sector is determined by cost. We find that higher-cost private schools provide students with greater opportunities to study in institutions with higher quality inputs and increased potential for progression within the educational system. As such, it is highly likely that these schools are primarily accessible to students at the upper ends of the income distribution.

KEYWORDS:

• Private school
• low-cost
• school choice
• poverty
• access
• Nigeria

Notes

1. Those with annual incomes below US$1.1 per day are considered ultra-poor.

2. See Ashley et al. (2014) for a systematic review of much of the evidence on this question.

3. All use of the $ symbol refers to USD equivalent currency.

4. Schools must charge less than 10% of household income to enrol all children in the household.

5. The low-cost threshold of ₦25,000 was calculated using data on poverty rates and income levels in Lagos. Multiple studies of poverty in Lagos have demonstrated that roughly 50% of the state-wide population is living in poverty (National Bureau of Statistics, 2012; Tooley & Yngstrom, 2014). As such, median household income or expenditure is a useful approximation of the state’s poverty line. The median annual expenditure for a household in Lagos was ₦706,296 in 2013 (National Bureau of Statistics, 2013). Adjusted for inflation, median household income in 2014 would be ₦762,800 per year. This figure is close to that calculated using the World Bank’s global poverty line of $1.90 per day per household member; assuming three children per family—the household average for Lagos (Central Office of Statistics, 2005)—and adjusting to 2014 prices (from the 2011 Purchasing Power Parity used for the global $1.90 definition). According to this calculation, the poverty line for Nigeria in 2014 would be ₦737,193. We use the average between these two estimates—₦750,000—as the poverty threshold for this study. A family at this level would need to devote 10% of its total annual expenditure to enrol three children at a school charging ₦25,000 per year. Additionally, this benchmark matches the one provided by Tooley and Yngstrom (2014) in their definition of low-cost schools in Lagos.

6. In comparison to these private school inputs, public schools have significantly more crowded classrooms (the average primary pupil–teacher ratio is 40:1 versus 15:1 in the average private school); however, public schools offer complete access to exit examinations, and teachers have higher levels of education (70% of public primary teachers have a higher education degree, while only 12% of private school teachers hold a degree) and certification (98% of public primary teachers are certified, as compared to 47% of the average private primary teacher).

7. Unapproved schools who participate in school exit examinations are often able to do so through partnerships with public schools or approved private schools. Often, private school associations will facilitate cooperative partnerships among their members to enable students in certain unapproved schools to sit for the exam in an official capacity.