Peru: Impact of Socioeconomic Gaps in Educational Outcomes

Over the past few decades, Peru has shown significant increases in enrolment in basic education, which continues to rise. However, on average educational performance, while increasing, is still low (compared to national or international benchmarks). Furthermore, there are significant gaps in achievement between groups of students, which seem to remain stable or even increase over time (for example urban over rural). In this chapter, we present evidence to show that there is a strong association among the individual and family characteristics of students, their educational opportunities at school, and the outcomes of their education, so that they reinforce one another. Thus, the challenge for the educational system in Peru is to break this perverse triangle, so that the average outcomes will increase at the same time that inequities associated with socioeconomic characteristics diminish.