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> - **IPolicy,** . **Resear.h, and ExternaI Affaire** -- __ -

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# **Education and Employment**

# WPS 472

This paperajoint product of the Education and Employment Division and the Women in Development - Division, Population and Human Resources Depariment is part of a larger effort in PRE to determnine how to improve women's access to education in developing countries and<sup>if and how that education</sup> improves their productivity and family welfare. The paper will be part of a<sup>book on women and the</sup> economy of Peru to be published by thle Bank. Copies of this paper are available<sup>free from the World Bank,</sup> 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433. Please contact Cynthia Cristobal,<sup>room S6-033, extension</sup> 33640 (47 pages, including tables).

Since the mid-1950s, Peru's education policies have been designed to raise skill levels and make education available to more of the population. Those policies rested mainly on expanding the number of schools. As a result, school enrollment rates and attainment levels rose. But an apparent parental preference to educate sons more than daughters meant that boys' schooling levels rose more quickly than girls.' Policies were not enough to brings girls' schooling even with boys,' especially in rurai areas.

School quality, measured crudely by the supply of textbooks and the number of teachers, appears to have improved the schooling of women. Girls who had a textbook for their own use attained more than half a year of schooling than those who did not. Changes in attitudes and bt>ter economic opportunities for educated women also seem to have strengthened the demand for educating rural girls.

Parents' years of schooling and occupations were significant deterrninants of educational levels. The impact of these socioeconomic factors lessened over time as the number of schools expanded and primary education became more available.

The relative effects of parents' education differed for boys and girls. In the adult sample, both parents' education had a strong positive effect on daughters' education; for sons, the father's education had double the effect of the mother's education. In the youth sample, the mother's education had a stronger effect on the daughter's education. These differences reflect a preference on the part of fathers to send their sons to school, which mothers partly counterbalanced.

Peru's education policies have reduced the direct costs associated with going to school. But time allocation patterns reveal that the opportunity cost to the family of school attendance could be an effective barrier to further improvements in school enrollment and continuation rates. Even at a young age, girlsespecially in rural families - participate in the labor market and contribute substantially to productive work at home.

The PRE Working Paper SCriCs dissemiiiates thc findings of work under way in the<sup>Bank's Policy, Rcsearch, and Extemal</sup> AffairsComplex. An objective of thescrics is to get thesc findings out quickly, even if<sup>presentations arc less than fully polished.</sup> Thc findings, interpretations, and conclusions in these papers de not necessarily reprcsent<sup>official Bank policy.</sup> Produced by the PRE Dissemination Centcr