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Home » Countries » India » Educational Attainment in Years (Is it formal years?)
Educational Attainment in Years [message #28973] Sat, 06 April 2024 14:43 Go to next message
krittika03 is currently offline  krittika03
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Registered: March 2024
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Hi, I am trying to understand the single years of educational attainment numbers since I am using them for my project. Are the years in formal schooling? For example, is one year of school Class 1, or is any year of schooling subjective to how the respondent has perceived it?
Re: Educational Attainment in Years [message #28981 is a reply to message #28973] Mon, 08 April 2024 09:51 Go to previous messageGo to next message
fred.arnold@icf.com is currently offline  fred.arnold@icf.com
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Registered: May 2021
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If you are using the educational attainment information from the Household Questionnaire, there are two questions about every person age 5+ in the household listing that are asked of the household respondent. The question in Column 19 asks if (NAME) has ever attended school. If yes, the question in Column 20 asks "What is the highest grade name has completed?" The schooling questions relate only to formal schooling, and they do not include religious education for example. The questions do not ask about the level of education (unlike other DHS surveys). It is important to understand that the question refers to the highest grade that has been completed. In other words, if the person attended a particular grade, but did not complete that grade, the incomplete grade is not counted. The interviewers are told to be sure that only completed grades are included. If the person ever attended school, but did not complete even one grade of school, the response category is 00 = LESS THAN 1 YEAR COMPLETED. Table 2.17 shows the percent distribution of the de facto female and male household population age 6 and over by the highest number of years of schooling completed. The levels of schooling in that table are no schooling, <5 years complete, 5-7 years completed, 8-9 years complete, 10-11 years complete, and 12 or more years complete.
Re: Educational Attainment in Years [message #28984 is a reply to message #28981] Mon, 08 April 2024 12:15 Go to previous messageGo to next message
krittika03 is currently offline  krittika03
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Registered: March 2024
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I am using the MR and IR (men and women's) files for educational attainment, so I am still confused about what the years mean?
Re: Educational Attainment in Years [message #28985 is a reply to message #28984] Mon, 08 April 2024 12:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
fred.arnold@icf.com is currently offline  fred.arnold@icf.com
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Registered: May 2021
Senior Member
For both women and men in the eligible age category for being interviewed, the education questions are the same as the education questions in the household questionnaire. Question 105 for women and question 107 for men asks ""Have you ever attended school?" If yes, Question 106 for women and Question 108 for men asks "What is the highest grade you completed?" There are no questions on the level of education attended or completed. The only relevant information is on the highest grade completed. The grade had to be completed to be counted. Again, the questions refer only to formal schools, not religious schools or other types of schools.
Re: Educational Attainment in Years [message #28987 is a reply to message #28985] Mon, 08 April 2024 14:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
krittika03 is currently offline  krittika03
Messages: 7
Registered: March 2024
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that makes sense! so just so I have understood properly, the 1 year is 1 year of formal education say grade 1? Sorry, I really need to make sure I got it right because my first model just uses educational attainment as the predictor variable. So in R, I have used:

DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU <- as.factor(case_when(
DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU == 0 ~ "No Education",
DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU %in% 1:5 ~ "Primary Education",
DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU %in% 6:8 ~ "Upper Primary/Middle School",
DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU %in% 9:10 ~ "Secondary School",
DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU %in% 11:12 ~ "Higher Secondary",
DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU %in% 13:15 ~ "Undergraduate Degree",
DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU %in% 16:18 ~ "Postgraduate",
DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU %in% 19:20 ~ "Advanced Studies", # For doctoral or specialized studies beyond postgrad
TRUE ~ "Other" # Handles any unexpected values
))

DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU <- factor(DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU, levels=c("No Education", "Primary Education", "Upper Primary/Middle School", "Secondary School", "Higher Secondary", "Undergraduate Degree", "Postgraduate", "Advanced Studies"))
DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU <- relevel(DHSWomen_25Above$WOMEDU, ref = "High School")
Re: Educational Attainment in Years [message #28988 is a reply to message #28987] Mon, 08 April 2024 15:11 Go to previous messageGo to next message
fred.arnold@icf.com is currently offline  fred.arnold@icf.com
Messages: 84
Registered: May 2021
Senior Member
Your list of educational years and the levels is correct. Just to repeat, we never ask respondents for their highest educational level completed. They only tell the interviewer the highest grade they completed, not the level they completed. You should be particularly careful about the levels after higher secondary.
For example, someone who completed 13 years of education is not likely to have a graduate degree.
Re: Educational Attainment in Years [message #29003 is a reply to message #28988] Tue, 09 April 2024 19:31 Go to previous message
krittika03 is currently offline  krittika03
Messages: 7
Registered: March 2024
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thank you for your helpful comments! i am just thinking of categorizing 13+ as above high school education.
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