An analysis of inequalities in school performance between public and private students in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper investigates which micro factors among student, classroom, teacher, and school characteristics explain inequalities in public-private school achievement at the end of primary school in 14 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Using data from the 2019 CONFEMEN Education Systems Analysis Program (PASEC) assessment and an empirical strategy that leverages an educational production function, an Oaxaca-Blinder, Juhn Murphy, and Pierce decomposition, the main findings are as follows. Private schools provide a higher quality of education than public schools. The variables gender of the student, age and gender of the teacher, and number of inspections contribute to reducing inequalities between the two groups, while the variables home language, kindergarten attendance, socioeconomic level of the student's family, age of the student, and location and infrastructure of the school contribute to maintaining educational inequalities. Students who do less well in private schools are less likely to succeed in public schools. Those who do well in public schools are equally likely to do well in private schools.