Keywords
Social inequality
Private education
Schools
Latin America
How to Cite
Abstract
According to available data, Latin America is the region with the highest levels of socioeconomic school segregation. This challenge requires understanding its causes to support the design of effective policies to combat it. This research aims to determine the impact of private schools on the segregation of socioeconomically disadvantaged students in primary and secondary education. To achieve this, we use microdata from the ERCE 2019 and PISA 2022 international assessments. The final sample consists of 228 092 students —146 410 in primary education and 81 682 in secondary education— attending 6981 public and private schools across 16 Latin American countries. To estimate the impact of private schools, the segregation of socioeconomically disadvantaged students (the bottom 25 % of the ISECF/ESCS in each country) is decomposed using the Hutchens index. The results indicate a significant impact of privately managed schools on school segregation, accounting on average for 22.4 % of the segregation in primary education and 24.5 % in secondary education, with substantial differences across countries. These findings show the role of the private sector in accentuating educational inequalities. This highlights the need to move towards more inclusive education systems that guarantee real equality and reduce structural segregation in the region.
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Copyright (c) 2025 F. Javier Murillo, Claudia Guiral, Raquel Graña