The Effect of Armed Conflict on Student Achievement and Access to Higher Education in Afghanistan
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- There is limited empirical evidence of the effects of armed conflict on student achievement and access to higher education in war-torn countries. This study focuses on Afghanistan and examines this issue using data from its national university entrance exam—the sole determinant of university admission—among all high school graduates in 2014–2019. Exploiting the province-year variation in exposure to conflict-related casualties in the country over this period, the effect of conflict on exam results is estimated generally and separately for male and female students. Human loss to the conflict is theorized as a source of psychological distress to explain the complex relationship between armed conflict and student exam results. Findings show that one standard deviation increase in conflict intensity at the province-year level reduces student’s probability of passing the exam by 2.9 percentage points and their total exam scores by 0.096 score points, with greater detrimental impact on girls’ exam results. I find that the probability of passing the exam decreases by 5 percentage points for female students and by 2 percentage points for male students and student exam score reduces by 0.21 score points for female students and by 0.06 score points for male students. Findings show no negative effect for the percentage of students taking the exam. This study promotes an understanding of young adults’ academic performance and attainment of higher education in relation to the presence of armed conflict in their country. The findings have implications for future research both in Afghanistan and other war-torn countries.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | August 2021 |
| Date modified | August 12, 2021; December 5, 2022 |
| Publication date | August 12, 2021 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Darwish, Sajia |
|---|
Subjects
| Subject | Armed conflict |
|---|---|
| Subject | Higher education |
| Subject | Afghanistan |
| Subject | Educational attainment |
| Subject | Stanford Graduate School of Education International Education Policy Analysis |
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Related item | |
|---|---|
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/qh879pj1930 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Darwish, S. (2021). The Effect of Armed Conflict on Student Achievement and Access to Higher Education in Afghanistan. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at http://purl.stanford.edu/qh879pj1930
Collection
Graduate School of Education International Comparative Education Master's Monographs
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- Contact
- sajiadarwish8@gmail.com
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