Educational attainment among Venezuelan youth: an analysis of its determinants

Abstract

The paper uses data from the 1987 Household Survey to analyze the determinants of educational attainment among those aged from 10 to 18. Two-thirds of the children in the sample are still in school, and 12% of those who have left school are illiterate. Two percent of the sample have never attended school and 42% have repeated at least one school grade. The mean educational attainment of those who left school is five years of education. The major factor relating to whether a child is in school or not is urban residence, evidently reflecting parental income. Males are especially at risk of not being in school, repeating a grade and being illiterate. The implications of the findings is that greater attention has to be given to providing incentives to male youth to remain in school, perhaps in the form of targeted subsidies to potential dropouts of the primary school system in rural areas.