Factors explaining rural-urban learning achievement inequalities in primary education in Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Cameroon

What explains rural-urban learning inequalities is still under debate. This study investigates factors that account for learning inequalities in Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Cameroon and then explores patterns of similarities across the four countries. It employs the Program for the Analysis of CONFEMEN Education Systems (PASEC) data which it analyzes using recentered influence function decomposition. Findings suggest that for all countries, tangible and intangible factors explain between 51.10% and 48.9% of the learning inequality at the mean, respectively. The decomposition across the distribution reveals that tangible factors explain between 41.50% and 65.3% of the learning inequality, which implies that intangible factors explain between 34.7% and 58.5% of the disparity. The cross-country analysis at the mean reveals that tangible factors explain between 45.60% and 69.1% of the rural-urban learning gap and intangible ones between 30.9% and 54.4%. Across the distribution, tangible factors account for the gap between 17% and 96.40% and intangible ones between 3.6% and 83%. Across the countries investigated, the gap is explained more by school-related factors. Implications of the findings are discussed in the article.