The quest for social justice in Eritrea : challenges in the domains of equal opportunities and outcomes in education

Abstract

Eritrea, like many African countries that emerged from liberation wars, inherited at independence in 1991 a system of education that had been neglected for decades and was characterised by glaring inequalities and injustices. As enshrined in its Constitution, social justice has been the cornerstone of Eritrea’s development strategy, including in the education sector. The Government of Eritrea has introduced various measures to reconstruct the education system and reduce social inequalities. Inspired by concepts of social justice and with emphasis on Amartya Sen’s capability approach, this study examines the factors that create and perpetuate educational inequalities among Grade 8 students. Grade 8 is the end of compulsory schooling, when students for the first time take national examinations. Assessments by the Eritrean Ministry of Education with respect to academic performance of Grade 8 students have exhibited wide disparities between students of different backgrounds. This study builds on those assessments, adding new data that provided insight into the inequalities among the Grade 8 students in terms of their backgrounds, experiences, motivations, and educational journeys. The thesis thus deepens analysis and understanding. The study focuses on socio-economic, gender, and spatial disparities vis-à-vis the objectives of equitable access to quality education for all. It uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches, with emphasis on the former. Purposive sampling strategies were employed to select research participants and to collect data through questionnaire surveys and in-depth and focus-group interviews. The participants included students, teachers, parents, and senior education officers. The data analysis employed thematic commentary, multilevel qualitative comparative analysis, and quantitative analysis including one-way ANOVA, Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficient tests, and the principal component analysis method. The findings highlighted both out-of-school and in-school factors. On one side were family socioeconomic backgrounds and home environments. These factors ranged from family living standards and social positions to parental awareness and capabilities regarding expectations of their children’s educational performance and the types of academic support that families could provide. The findings on out-of-school factors highlighted learning environments and experiences at home, enriched by the voices of children which has received relatively little attention in the research literature on educational inequality. On the other side were school factors which emphasised findings on the socio-economic contexts and capabilities of the participating schools and how such characteristics can be related to children’s educational opportunities and outcomes. The study has implications for policies and practices in understanding issues of in/equality through the lens of ‘capability approach’. The work draws on and contributes to understanding of experiences and patterns of developing countries striving to achieve equity and social justice in education. In particular, it contributes to the literature on inequalities in education in post-conflict reconstruction contexts, and to literature on the impact of a ‘no-war-no-peace’ situation on children’s education.

Keywords: capabilities, education, Eritrea, equity, inequality, opportunity, outcome, social justice