External Evaluation of Oportunidades2008

Ten Years of Intervention External Evaluation of Oportunidades 2008 in Rural Areas (1997-2007) Volume III The Quality Challenge: Educational Outcomes of Oportunidades External Evaluation of Oportunidades 2008. 1997-2007: 10 Years of Intervention in Rural Areas Volume III The Quality Challenge: Educational Outcomes of Oportunidades First edition, 2008 D.R. © Secretaría de Desarrollo Social Coordinación Nacional del Programa de Desarrollo Humano Oportunidades Insurgentes Sur 1480, Colonia Barrio Actipan Delegación Benito Juárez 03230 México, D.F. Impreso y hecho en México Printed and made in Mexico ISBN The Quality Challenge: Educational Outcomes of Oportunidades 69 Chapter II Explaining the Educational Impact of Oportunidades: Stakeholders, Factors & Processes AUTHOR Alejandro Agudo Sanchíz With the collaboration of: Daniela Jiménez Rodríguez Suggested citation: Agudo Sanchíz A. Explaining the Educational Impact of Oportunidades: Stakeholders, Factors & Processes. In: External Evaluation of Oportunidades 2008. 1997-2007: 10 Years of Intervention in Rural Areas. Volume III, The Quality Challenge: Educational Outcomes of Oportunidades. Mexico DF: Secretaría de Desarrollo Social, 2009. Executive summary he objective of evaluating the impact and results gathered in this document is two-fold: a) to discern the possible Tdifferential impact of Oportunidades on indigenous and non-indigenous households exposed to the Program over a period of ten years, and b) to analyze the role of educational service providers as points of intersection between the Program and long-term beneficiaries. In addition, said services will be analyzed in terms of conversion factors needed for the human capacities that the Program stimulates in the beneficiaries to become reality. Thus, several databases were used to identify localities and beneficiaries, both indigenous and non-indigenous, whose situations after a decade of exposure to Oportunidades could be contrasted with others who were never incorporated into the Program. For the purpose of maximizing the differences among intervention variables in the study, an analytical sample was designed with very precise criteria for the households participating in the case studies: indigenous or non-indigenous and long-term beneficiaries or non-beneficiaries whose characteristics in 1998-1999 were as similar as possible. In particular, the households must have had children (first- or last-born) who were between second and fourth grade during 1998-1999. These youths constitute the interest group whose educational and work trajectories will be analyzed to detect the possible impact of or weaknesses in the differential activities and capacities of beneficiaries and former beneficiaries of Oportunidades. Instruments were used to obtain the most precise “snapshot” possible of the situation in each household in 1998 and 1999. The techniques used included guides for interviewing different members of the households; these guides were designed to obtain clear and detailed information about domestic and individual trajectories in the areas of education and work/employment. Other instruments consisted of guides for interviewing educational services providers. Finally, a specially developed cartography was used to detect gaps and strengths in the coverage of Oportunidades and educational services in the regions studied. The results of the study underscore possible differential impacts among not only indigenous and non-indigenous beneficiaries of the Program, but also among very heterogeneous rural populations with contrasting capacities for meeting the requirements to take advantage of the support from Oportunidades by matching those requirements with external conversion factors such as those services whose use is fostered by the Program. The information presented in the present document is supported, in part, by the human capacities approach to substantiate the statement that different persons with contrasting capacities need different types and quantities of support to reach similar levels of well-being.1-3 Thus, the way in which the diversity of the country influences the possibilities for Oportunidades to make an impact is underscored, thereby identifying the need to adapt the Program to such diversity. The results of this study are summarized below. First, the principal conclusions of the evaluation of the Oportu- nidades Program’s educational impact are presented, followed by a SWOT analysis (summarizing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) of that evaluation: • Differentiated results are reported for Chiapas and Oaxaca on one hand and Chihuahua and Sonora on the other. The increase in and densification of educational coverage in the southern states has produced significant benefits and has even resulted in a loss of importance for boarding schools. In contrast, the educational effects of the Program in Sonora and Chihuahua are less robust, and its advantages are evident in broader offerings of boarding schools as an educational alternative for populations from very disperse localities. 72 External Evaluation of Oportunidades 2008 • These findings uncovered an encouraging result related to the central objectives of the evaluation (the differential impact of the Program and the role of educational services): in Oaxaca and Chiapas, the Program has contributed to prolonging the educational trajectories of children and youth, and that impact is greater –not less– for indigenous individuals than for non-indigenous individuals. Furthermore, among both indigenous and non-indigenous individuals, the positive impact is greater for females than for males. Therefore, the Program has contributed to narrowing two gaps in education in the southern region –ethnic and gender. Where Oportunidades coverage and educational services were less dense, the interethnic and gender gaps remained (albeit decreased) in Chihuahua and Sonora, especially in the case of indigenous females, rather than reversing themselves as in the regions studied in the south. Therefore, the hypothesis about the differential impact of the Program can be refined or reformulated as follows: The positive impact of prolonged educational trajectories for indigenous females is reduced where educational coverage and coverage of Oportunidades are less dense. • Many localities exist in the northern regions where there are more schools (especially at the elementary education level) than health centers, and thus fall within the radius of action of the former, but outside that of the latter. This means that the criterion requiring a locality to have both services in order to be incorporated into the Oportunidades Program so that its components function in a comprehensive manner could be problematic, especially in Chihuahua; that is, many indigenous students from rural localities without nearby health centers do not have the support of the Program in spite of their need for it and the fact that they live close or relatively close to elementary schools. • In bilingual elementary schools and tele-secondary schools in indigenous localities in the southern states, we found that more than 90% (and on occasion nearly all) of the students are beneficiaries of the Program. Fur- thermore, in elementary and secondary schools, especially in Chiapas, we found a greater number of girls (who in some cases constituted more than 60% of the school population) than boys. However, the percentage of beneficiaries is less in northern schools (ranging from 30 to 47%); in the case of the elementary schools studied in the Pima region of Yepachi-Maycoba, no Oportunidades beneficiaries were found. • Nevertheless, the presence of inter-institutional collaboration was identified, which involved private and public entities at the municipal, state and federal levels focused on various aspects such as the provision of scholarships and boarding schools and the capacity-building of students at various educational levels. Such strategies are directed at the decrease in educational disadvantages experienced by indigenous students in rural areas, and some strategies can mitigate the problems stemming from low educational coverage and lack of academic scholarships from Oportunidades (especially in the Sierra Tarahumara). • Even where educational offerings are sufficient, infrastructure and maintenance are found to be lagging and schools lack resources. In the four states considered, important factors were identified in the existing educational gap between urban and rural areas–particularly those affecting the indigenous population since this population is, in many cases, found to be in rural areas. Elementary schools, which are usually the oldest, are more poorly equipped, maintained and renovated; because of their characteristics and missions, tele-secondary schools in rural areas depend to a great extent on certain audiovisual resources and an adequate electricity supply, as well as ventilation and air conditioning in hot regions–but such resources are usually deficient or non-existent. Thus, the establishment of tele-secondary schools and their relative abundance in Chiapas and Oaxaca would, in prin- ciple, decrease the inequalities between rural and urban areas in terms of coverage and educational offerings, but deficient infrastructures perpetuate or increase such inequalities when compared to technical high schools in urban centers and municipal capitals. • School dropout is due, in part, to problems with educational coverage more than coverage by the Oportunidades Program

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