The determinants of parents school choice between public and private schools case study of high schools in ha noi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIVIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY LUONG THI AN THE DETERMINANTS OF PARENTS’ SCHOOL CHOICE BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS: CASE STUDY IN HIGH SCHOOLS IN HA NO

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

LUONG THI AN

THE DETERMINANTS OF PARENTS’ SCHOOL CHOICE BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS: CASE STUDY IN HIGH SCHOOLS

IN HA NOI

DISCIPLINE: Economics MAJOR: Public Policy CODE: 8340402.01

RESEARCH SUPERVISOR:

Dr Nguyen Thuy Anh

Dr Kawaguchi Jun

Hanoi, June 2020

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH SUPERVISOR:

Dr Nguyen Thuy Anh

Dr Kawaguchi Jun

Hanoi, June 2020

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 5

1.1 Research background 5

1.2 Research purpose 8

1.4 Research question 8

1.5 Hypothesis 8

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Definition of terms 9

2.2 Literature review on previous research 10

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 15

3.1 Methodology 15

3.2 Survey site 19

3.3 Survey process 20

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS & DISCUSSION 21

4.1 Summary of survey 21

4.1.1 The ratio of public and private schools in the survey 21

4.1.2 Gender of parents and children in the survey 21

4.1.3 The frequency & ratio of school characteristics choosen by parents in survey 23

4.2 Findings from the survey 27

4.2.1 The logistic regression results 27

4.2.2 In-depth interview 32

CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS 38

5.1 Implications 38

5.2 Limitations and further study 40

Appendix 1: Survey questionnaires 43

Appendix 2: List of in-depth interview questions 51

Appendix 3: Logistic Regression Model 52

1

First of all, I would like to send my thankfulness and appriciation to my supervisor

Dr Nguyen Thuy Anh, Dr Jun Kawaguchi during the time conducting research.Without of their guidence and consultations, I would not accurately determine onthe research and my thesis

Secondly, I would like to express my gratitude to Prof.Okamoto, Dr.Vu Hoang Linhand Dr Dang Quang Vinh for giving me feedbacks and advice to complete mythesis I also appreciate the support from Japan side, my tutor - Ms Misaki Sato,

Ms Sakuma gave me the approriate advise to upgrade my research and presentation

in Japan

Besides, I would like to say thanks to assisstants Ms.Nguyen Thi Mai Phuong, Ms.Pham Thu Ha, Ms.Pham Lan Huong for their supporting during the intership inJapan and my two-year studying at Vietnam Japan University

It would not make possible if there was no help from parents who conducted myonline survey, even though I do not know them all Especially, I would like toexpress my gratitude to whom gave me time to do an interview with them

Lastly, I would send great thanks to my family who spends time with me, andbesides me all the time with the best encouragement

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2: Component of model of School Choice 14

Figure 4.1 The ratio of public & private school in the survey 21

Figure 4.2 The ratio of parents gender in the survey 22

Figure 4.3 The ratio of children in public schools by gender 22

Figure 4.4 The ratio of children in private schools by gender 23

Table 4.4 The logistic regression result of the first model second model 27

Table 4.6 The second model’s classification table 29

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: The number of public and private school, student and student/teacher

ratio 6

Table 1.2: Goal of promoting non-public sector in education 7

Table 2 Literature on previous research 10

Table 3.1 List of variables used in model 16

Table 3.2 Table of classification of parents in the in-depth interview 20

Table 4.1 The frequency & ratio of school characteristics chosen by parents in general 23

Table 4.2 The frequency & ratio of school characteristics chosen by parents in Private school 25

Table 4.3 The frequency & ratio of school characteristics chosen by parents in Public school 26

Table 4.4 The logistic regression result of the first model second model 27

Table 4.5 The first model‟s classification table 28

Table 4.6 The second model‟s classification table 29

Table 4.7 The logistic regression result of the third model 29

Table 4.8: The third model‟s classification table 30

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research background

In Vietnam, education is recognized as a national priority as, since 2018, thegovernment has spent 20% of its budget on education1 Socialization education hasbeen paid special attention due to an important role in the development ofeducation, it is a decisive factor for socio-economic development

In Vietnam, educational socialization was officially introduced since Resolution No.90/ND - CP (August 21, 1997) In the resolution, directions and guidelines for thesocialization of educational, health and cultural activities have been raised Inparticularly, the expansion of investment sources, utilizing the potentials of human,material and financial resources in the society, has been emphasized Also, thegovernment promotes and uses effectively private resources, creating conditions foreducational development and higher quality It can be seen that educationsocialization refers to the process of transferring educational activities carried out bythe public to private In other words, socialization of education involves the process

of privatization, transfer of public educational institutions to the private, individualsimplemented under the management of the state According to Article 16 of theEducation Law 2019: All organizations, families, and citizens are responsible forcaring for education, the government plays the leading role, diversifying types ofschools and forms of education Socializing education needs to be understood withtwo basic contents: firstly, mobilizing social resources to perform educational tasks;secondly, transferring the implementation of the educational tasks directlyperformed by the State to non-state organizations and individuals complying withstate regulations, standards and requirements In the context of financial shortagefrom the state budget, the policy of educational socialization needs to bestrengthened, so people can participate in the educational sector

1 Article 96, Education Law 2019

In the context of Vietnam's implementation of socialization policies, the number ofprivate schools has increased.

Table 1.1: The number of public and private school, student and

student/teacher ratio

Public Private Public Private Public Private Public Private schools school schools school schools school schools school Number of

Schools

Number of

2264503 175416 2250972 174158 2290929 186246 2313315 195249 Student

Number of

54672 7592 55151 6822 55887 7070 68869 8642 class

Student/teacher

16.45 12.24 16.37 12.97 16.74 13.41 17.1 13.49 ratio

Source: Combined by author based on data of MOET 2

According to Resolution No 35/ND-CP (June 4, 2019) on “strengthenedmobilization of resource in the community for development of education andtraining in the 2019 – 2025 period”, which is regarding about strengthening themobilization of social resources for investment in education and trainingdevelopment in the period of 2019 - 2025, there are all forms of private education inall local with 2,955 establishments (accounting for 6.68% of the 44,228 educationalinstitutions), 1.35 million students (accounting for 6% of 22.5 million students) Forhigher education, there are currently 65 private higher education institutions withtotal of 244 thousand students, accounting for 13.8% of the total number of studentsnationwide, and there are 5 foreign higher education institutions operating inVietnam, training over 5,000 students annual For vocational education, by the end

of 2018, there are all 1,948 vocational training institutions (including 397 colleges,

519 secondary schools, 1032 vocational education centers), including 677 privatevocational training institutions and foreign-invested vocational training institutions(accounting for 34.7%)

2 Ministry of Education and Training

Mobilizing social resources for education and training is not a substitution but animportant supplement to the state budget, contributing to increasing the totalinvestment resources for education and training, improve the efficiency of statebudget use at public facilities.

Table 1.2: Goal of promoting non-public sector in education

Public schools have been supported by the government while private schools run attheir own expense, the difference between public and private schools is perceived asquality, facilities, and curriculum, …According to Coleman (1987), private schools produce better cognitive outcomes, provide a safer, more disciplined and structured learning environment So, private schools‟ tuition will be higher than in public

schools Many studies have investigated the correlation between education and

social mobility, they believe that the more education investment for children, the better their children's future is, that shows the choice of schools plays an important role In Viet Nam, for all level of education, there are two options between public

3 Resolution No 35/ND-CP (4/6/2019) on strengthened mobilization of resource in the community for development of education and training in the 2019 – 2025 period

and private schools According to the theory of rational choice, parents will be rational actor who decides the value preference for their children However, schoolchoice depends on many factors such as family background, parent educational status…Therefore, the study focuses on the factors that influence parents' choice between public and private schools.

1.2 Research purpose

The purpose of study to find out the determinants of the school choice of parents between public and private schools (family income, parent educational status, assessment of information, …) under the context of Viet Nam recently From thedata estimation, further discussion and recommendation for educational reform isimplemented

1.3 Significance of study

There are contribution

1.4 Research question

The research is conducted based on the main question:

What are the determinants of school choice between public and private schools

in Ha Noi?

1.5 Hypothesis

The determinants of school choice between public and private schools are:

parents‟s educational background, school characteristics (distance, quality,…) Among these factors, parents‟s educational background will be the main factor influencing on parents choice of public and private schools

1.6 Structure of the thesis

The thesis includes 5 chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 3: Methodology

Chapter 4: Findings from survey

Chapter 5: Conclusion and implication

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition of terms

Privatization is a process that can be defined as “the transfer of activities, assets and

responsibilities from government/public institutions and organizations to private

individuals and agencies” (Shanthi, 2008) Education privatization occurs in one of

the following forms: private provision of education (by private entities, generallyreceiving government subsidies), private funding and private regulation, decision-making and accountability (education services being monitored by those whoreceive the services directly - students and their families)

Socialization: According to the Mouveau Petit Larousse dictionary (1969),

socialization is process of turning productive materials and exchanging them into public goods Although there are various different definitions, however, in Vietnam,the term of "socialization" began from the Resolution of the 4th Central Conference (Session VII): Socialization policy issues are solved in the spirit of socialization Socialization is the process of transferring the contents and tasks of social policies that the State does not necessarily have to integrate, and shift them to private and private organizations on the basis of regulations and standards required by

government In many cases, Gainsborough (2010) defined that “socialization does imply the involvement of private actors, similar to the term „equitization‟ c phần hóa) that refers to the gradual privatization of state-owned enterprises”

Socialization Educational Policy: Socializing education is an educational policy

that has been implemented in many countries in the world Depending on the

country and the stage, this term is understood in many different ways such as

decentralization, long life education, learning society, and community education The term of socialization education indicate education for everyone and everyone doing education

Public school: “This is a school managed directly or indirectly by a public

education authority, government agency, or governing board appointed bygovernment or elected by public franchise.” (OECD, 2009) According to Education

Law 2019, public schools are run and gruaranted operational conditions by the state

or government

Private school: “This is a school managed directly or indirectly by a

non-government organisation; e.g a church, trade union, business, or other privateinstitution.” (OECD, 2009) Private schools are run gruaranted operationalconditions by domestic investors or foreign investors (Education Law 2019)

2.2 Literature review on previous research

Table 2 shows the literature review on previous research, and the contributions andlimitations for each of research paper are pointed out

Table 2 Literature on previous research

Researcher Contributions Methodology Limitations

school tends parents Quantitative physicalKhan.E.A.R, send their children to method: Logit characteristi

Quantitative ✓Themethod: combine ofEmpirical

Family size, parent Y=β_0+β_1β_0+β_1 parentResearch

education, teacher I+β_2 education isqualification, school Ed+β_3 hard to seeperformance are the Fs+β_4 the howNaeem.U.R, factors affect parents' DPbS+β_5 educatedJangraiz.K, schooling choice SP+β_6 parentMuhammad.T From the finding, WQS+β_7 influences, Sajjad.T, private schools should MOI+β_8 on school

QuantitativeSchool with higher- method:

educated parents and Conditional ✓Focus onhigher-quality schools logit model, the schoolThomas.W, are preferred over Rank-ordered characteristi

Parental education is

an importantdeterminants of whogoes to school at all Quantitative ✓Analyzing

Paul.G, scholarship) should be Multinomial of education,Harry.A.P, implemented to Logistic not focus on

Discuss about how andwhy parent exerciseschool choice Fromthat, the increasingattention to vouchers,tuition tax credits and

Theoretica Ellen B.G, other policies diminish ✓Analyzing

Kristie.J.R.P, financial barriers to under parent

l Research

presented, two Quantitative for many

Williams, socioeconomic status qualitative social has

Parents consider avariety of factors thatare specific to their

participating in private literature

Heidi.H.E, their experiences and On-desk parent's

There is anarrow slice

of theQuality of education is population

with teachers are Qualitative schoolLynn.B, 2004 majority factors method choice

Overview of

implication of policy On-desk OECDOECD, 2012 on funding schools research countries

Source: Combined by author

Working out with the determinants of school choice in parents perpective,Lynn.B(2004) investigated that social networks play an important role in showingthe decission making of parent, from the information that parents access theirnetwork the accuracy choice would be decided On this point, Ellen B Goldring &Kristie J.R Phillips (2008) investigated that there are two type of social networkswhich are interpersonal network and formal network Both of them inform theschool choice of parents

Beside of that, demographic differences was discovered as another factor In 2011,Khan Rana Ejaz Ali and Raza Maryam4 published a paper in which they describedthat the the child‟s school choice be influence on characteristics of the parents.They also found that parents with educational background are likely choose privateschools for their children It explains the educated parents choose private schoolinghas positive rate It is concluded that parents with high education give more expense

to the facilities of the private sector schooling Further more, educated parents arelikely to have higher income so that it could be understandable that they have morechoice on private school In addition, some of documents indicated that parents whoget higher educational have tendency of considering the importance of education,and they are more likely to find out information on the varieties of educationalchoices

Paul.G, Harry.A.P (1999) published on their paper that as incomes of Vietnamesethe more households have countinuing increase, the more parents are willing tospend on education

From the table 2, it can be understood that there are huge number of research onschool choice both empirical and theoritical research The research gap is studied onthe situation in Viet Nam the determinants of school choice between public andprivate schools in Ha Noi Authour will conduct emperical research

4 Reference

The model of school choice

The model of parental choice is depicted as Figure 2 The model will be utilized todesign the research and analysis

There are three factors as independent variables: household characteristics, parentattitudes about schools, previous schooling decisions These factors are expected toinfluence on the choice of a school Household characteristics affect to other factors(parents‟ attitudes about schools and previous schooling decisions)

Figure 2: Component of model of School Choice

Source: Parent and School Choice: Household Survey 5 In the model there are three factors of parents school-choice However, one

more factor “children‟s will and characteristic” is added more on the model, asfinding be pointed out that “children are choosing schools rather than their parents”(Mainda, 2001) This is factor designed in questionnaires by question that wherether

or not parents consult with children before they send their child to high school thatthey choose

5 Mary.F Williams, Parents and school choice: Household Survey (1983)

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

The research is conducted with mixed-method: qualitative method and quantitativemethod The quantitative method is used to estimate what is the main factorinfluence on school choice between public and private schools based on secondarydata The data from survey will be employed and processed through SPSS software,and binomial logit model and will be applied for analysis The independencevariables are anticipated: mother‟s schooling, father‟s schooling, householdexpenditure for education, household size, …

3.1 Methodology

There are number of factors influence on the parents‟ choice in selection of schools

In modelling the school choice, we assume that there are two choice for school: private schools and public schools The dependent variable in this research

high-is school choice between public and private schools, which high-is defined as:

- Public school: Y =β_0+β_1 1

- Private school: Y =β_0+β_1 0

If p is the probability that the parents choose public school

then 1-p will be the probability of choosing private school

The standard of model is:

Y: Choice between public school or private school : Vector of coefficients

Y =β_0+β_1 ln (p/1-p)

As in this study we have:

Y=β_0+β_1 CHOICE =β_0+β_1 f(CGen, MEdu, Fedu, HhPCY, HhSiz, SchRep, TchQua, SchFac,LagPro, Dist, Fee, SchSer, EntRa, AcRate, ChilCa) We have the empirical form

of the model as below:

Y =β_0+β_1

Table 3.1 List of variables used in model

1 if child is male, 0: 1: male

Household Characteristics

Dummy Variables1: Primary school2: Secondary schoolFather's education in 3: High schoolFEdu (Father's completed years of 4: Undergraduate level

Dummy Variables1: Primary school2: Secondary schoolMother's education in 3: High schoolMEdu (Mother's completed years of 4: Undergraduate level

Dummy Variables1: Under 20 million VND2: From 20 million VND to

40 million VND3: From 40 million VND to

60 million VND4: From 60 million VND to

80 million VND

Characteristic of school

Dummy variables4: Extremely Important

2: Moderately important1: Slightly important0: No more at all importantDummy variables

4: Extremely Important

TeaQua Teacher Qualification 3: Very important

2: Moderately important1: Slightly important0: No more at all importantDummy variables

4: Extremely Important

2: Moderately important1: Slightly important0: No more at all important

Dummy variables4: Extremely Important

2: Moderately important1: Slightly important0: No more at all importantDummy variables

4: Extremely Important

Dist Distance of school from 3: Very important

1: Slightly important0: No more at all importantDummy variables

4: Extremely Important

2: Moderately important1: Slightly important0: No more at all importantDummy variables

4: Extremely Important

2: Moderately important1: Slightly important0: No more at all importantDummy variables

4: Extremely Important

2: Moderately important1: Slightly important

0: No more at all important

Dummy variables4: Extremely Important

AcRate University Acceptance 3: Very important

1: Slightly important0: No more at all importantDummy variables

4: Extremely Important

2: Moderately important1: Slightly important0: No more at all important

Source: Listed by author

The qualitative method is designed with in-depth interview to clarify parent‟sdecision of school choice for their children The questionnaires are created based onthe component of school choice model which is introduced in literature review, andLikert scale will be used to measure for each factor The survey was planned toconduct in Ha Noi with the aim of interviewing 9 parents who have children arestudent in public schools or private schools

3.2 Survey site

Hanoi is the capital of Viet Nam with the area of over 3000 square kilometre, andthe estimated population of over 8 million, it is the second largest city in Vietnam.Located in the northwest of the red river delta, Ha noi is the commercial, cultural,and educational centre of Northern Vietnam The nominal GDP of Ha Noi isestimated about US$32.8, it is considered the second most productive economiccenter of Vietnam Beside of that, Ha Noi is the largest center of education in Viet

Nam, and most of university in Viet Nam are located in Ha Noi For the high schoollevel, there are the majority of public high school in Ha Noi.

Ha Noi is chosen as a case study for some reasons Firstly, Hanoi is the capital ofVietnam, which has 30 districts with both rural and urban areas, thus, it can be used

to analyze regional and geographical differences in school choice Secondly, Hanoihas a high number of private schools (33%) out of all high schools, much more thanother cities in Vietnam so it is suitable for analysis

3.3 Survey process

As planned, the survey will be conducted at 10 public and private schools in Hanoi.However, due to the outbreak of Covid-19, an online survey was conducted instead.The method used in data collection is the snowball method The survey wasconducted from April 17th to May 5th, and out of the 162 questionnaires collected,

8 questionnaires could not be utilized due to incorrect and illogical information.Thus, 154 valid answers can be used for analysis

For the in-depth interview, each interview was taken place in 20 minutes for furtherinformation which could explain detail the choice between public and privateschools Due to the effect of Covid-19, the author could not arrange direct meetingswith informants, instead of that, the author connected to parents who are willing tojoin the in-depth interview by the phone call that supplied by them in the onlinequestionnaires The interview be conducted with nine parents, three parents havechildren in private schools, and the rest are parents who have children in publicschools

The table below is the classification of interviewees by the region and type of school

Table 3.2 Table of classification of parents in the in-depth interview

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS & DISCUSSION 4.1 Summary of survey

4.1.1 The ratio of public and private schools in the survey

The number of students attending public schools in Hanoi is the majority (69%)over private school (31%), this can be seen through some reasons: the number ofprivate schools in Hanoi (73 schools) is a half of the number of public schools (147schools), and the number of students per class of private schools is less than publicschools

Public school Private school

31%

69%

Figure 4.1 The ratio of public & private school in the survey

Source: Collected by author

4.1.2 Gender of parents and children in the survey

The chart below shows that 85% of the participants are mothers of high schoolstudents, while the remaining 15% are fathers This can be understood that inVietnamese culture particularly, mothers are more concerned about their children‟seducation than their fathers

The chart shows the ratio of students attending public and private schools bygender We can see that the percentage of female students attending public schools(56%) is larger than male students attending private schools (44%).

Male (public) Female (public)

44%

56%

Figure 4.3 The ratio of children in public schools by gender

In contrast to this, in the case of private schools which have 82% of male studentsgoing to private schools while only 18% of female students going to privateschools

Male (private) Female (private)

18%

82%

Figure 4.4 The ratio of children in private schools by gender

Source: Collected by author

From the ratio of children in public and private schools by gender, it seems that

female students are likely to attend public schools rather than private schools

Nevertheless, male students are likely to attend private schools rather than public

Table 4.1 The frequency & ratio of school characteristics chosen by parents in

general

Extremely

School

reputation

Source: Collected by author

In general, parents who have students attending private schools thought that “school

is suitable for children ability” and “teacher qualification” is the main factor

In table 4.1, there are 74.48% of parents who regard “school is suitable for childrenability” as the most important factor when they choose schools, following is

“teacher qualification” with 68,97%, and the third factor is “university acceptancerate” which 50.34% of parents concern extremely important

Table 4.2 The frequency & ratio of school characteristics chosen by parents in Private

school

Frequency Ratio Frequency Ratio Frequency Ratio Frequency Ratio Frequency Ratio School

This trend is the same with public school and private school From table 4.2, it can

be seen that 80% of parents in case of private schools concern “school is suitable forchildren ability” and “teacher qualification” as crucial factors

Additionally, “school facilities” is third factor which the ratio of parents who thinkthis factor is extremely important is 64.44% Obviously, this could be understoodthat private schools invest on school facitilites to make learning ability environmentand attract more student entering.

Table 4.3 The frequency & ratio of school characteristics chosen by parents in Public

school

Extremely

Frequency Ratio Frequency Ratio Frequency Ratio Frequency Ratio FrequencyRatio