The Determinant Factors and the Costs of Schooling in Bolivia

This study examines some aspects related to the costs and efficiency of the Bolivian school system, using extensive cross section data from the ECIEL Survey of 1975.  Our fundamental interest in undertaking the study has been to test the following hypothesis (put in a simplified from): schooling and school resources are important in explaining academic achievement (as measured by suitable test scores) and over-age students (or their absence), whereas conditions of family background and environment are less relevant.  If the above theory of school success stands up to our test, we shall further examine the particular impact on achievement of various school resources.  The estimation of educational production functions, using regression and related analysis-of-variance methods, provides the basic methodological tool for most of our study.  The treatment of the educational models of cognitive achievement and backwardness is followed by a short discussion on the cost-efficiency problem, and on the equity issue.

The literature upon the way that school resources affect pupils is very scarce in Bolivia.  We can mention only the official reports of the Bolivian Ministry of Education, and the USAID sector assessment on Education.  A critical discussion of the use of resources in education is, however, badly needed.