Barriers to secondary school completion for Afro-Peruvian girls
Eliana Villar MárquezTuesday, November 6, 2018
For decades, indigenous populations were considered the poorest and most vulnerable minority ethnic group in Peru. However, when it comes to education, recent data show that Afro-Peruvians may be an even more vulnerable minority in the country than previously realized. As Figure 1 illustrates, Afro-Peruvian females aged 15 and older are either equally or more disadvantaged than their indigenous counterparts in rural areas.
In a multicultural country like Peru, data on ethnic minorities are key to informing public policies about neglected populations. But until three years ago, when a Special Study on Afro-Peruvians (EEPA) was released, there was very limited data on them. As a result, Afro-Peruvians featured minimally in public policies, and little to no social programs were designed to specifically target Afro-Peruvian girls’ marginalization.
Figure 1. Maximum level of education reached by females
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The EEPA showed that Afro-Peruvian girls, in particular, struggle to complete more than a basic education and, consequently, do not have the same opportunities to accumulate enough human capital to get decent work to escape poverty. For instance, along Peru’s northern Pacific coast, where the Afro-Peruvian population is most heavily concentrated, only 26.9 percent of those girls access education, compared with an average of 42.3 percent for all girls in the same geographic area.
To better understand the factors limiting Afro-Peruvian girls’ opportunities to complete education, I conducted fieldwork in the Afro-Peruvian community of Yapatera as well as a literature review of studies conducted by Afro-Peruvian organizations, United Nations agencies, and by the Grupo de Analisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE), among others. My research suggests that family conditions, poverty level, and gender inequality are three main factors that the Peruvian government, NGOs, and researchers need to pay closer attention to in order to improve Afro-Peruvian girls’ secondary school completion rate. Below, is a sample of what I learned about family conditions.
More:
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2018/11/06/barriers-to-secondary-school-completion-for-afro-peruvian-girls/
