Globally, access to higher education has increased, but inequalities by socio-economic background remain. This article explores the relationship between early schooling opportunities (and learning) and progression into higher education in four low and middle-income countries. We analyse data from the Young Lives longitudinal study, following cohorts of young people from age 5 to 22 in four country settings: Ethiopia, Peru, Vietnam and India. We reveal wide variability in higher education participation between the four countries, with a common pattern of a very strong association between early learning and later higher education participation, even after allowing for a range of demographic characteristics. Whilst early learning is important in predicting later higher education participation, we also find that significant barriers to higher education participation remain for low socio-economic status groups, even if they initially show good levels of learning. We track the trajectories of children who have initial good levels of learning, and hence arguably the potential to progress to higher education, and assess the extent to which socio-economic background plays a mediating role in these trajectories. Pupils with initially good levels of learning at primary school age, but who are from poor backgrounds, fall back in terms of their relative attainment during secondary schooling years. This implies that socio-economic status continues to be a barrier to educational attainment throughout these children’s lives. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy initiatives aimed at narrowing inequalities in higher education access in poorer countries.

中文翻译：

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了解高等教育机会：低收入和中低收入国家的不平等和早期学习

在全球范围内，接受高等教育的机会有所增加，但社会经济背景造成的不平等现象依然存在。本文探讨了四个低收入和中等收入国家的早期教育机会（和学习）与进入高等教育之间的关系。我们分析了来自 Young Lives 纵向研究的数据，跟踪四个国家/地区中 5 至 22 岁的年轻人队列：埃塞俄比亚、秘鲁、越南和印度。我们揭示了四个国家之间高等教育参与的巨大差异，即使在考虑了一系列人口特征之后，早期学习和后来的高等教育参与之间也存在很强的关联。虽然早期学习对于预测以后的高等教育参与很重要，我们还发现，社会经济地位低的群体仍然存在参与高等教育的重大障碍，即使他们最初表现出良好的学习水平。我们跟踪具有良好初始学习水平的儿童的轨迹，因此可以说有可能进入高等教育，并评估社会经济背景在这些轨迹中发挥中介作用的程度。在小学阶段最初学习水平良好但出身贫寒的学生，在中学阶段的相对成绩却有所下降。这意味着社会经济地位在这些儿童的一生中继续成为获得教育的障碍。