Education and Inequalities in Rural Vietnam in the 1990s

This article examines the determinants of children's schooling during the 1990s in rural areas of Vietnam. It focuses on the impact of family attributes on the likelihood of children remaining in school or leaving during the primary and secondary school years. Using data from the Vietnam Living Standard Survey (VLSS) of 1992-93 and 1997-98, the authors apply the survival analysis technique to follow a group of 3301 children aged between 6 and 13 over a 5-year period. In addition to the characteristics of the children and their families, they consider community attributes as larger contextual variables that also affect children's school leaving. Overall, they found very significant socioeconomic differentiations between families with respect to schooling, which puts economically disadvantaged children at risk for having their schooling interrupted at a young age. The results also indicate that for girls, compared with boys, the likelihood of staying in school is more responsive to household and community characteristics. (Contains 4 tables, 5 figures and 5 notes.)