How strong are socio-economic inequalities in school tracking in Luxembourg?
The Observatoire was pleased to participate in the Second International Conference on Inequalities and Opportunities in Bari, Italy, organised by the Department of Economics and Finance of the University of Bari in collaboration with the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER). The event brought together researchers and practitioners from all around the world to discuss recent trends in educational mobility, inequality of opportunity, and well-being.
During the session on Education, Iryna Kyzyma made a presentation on the topic ‘’Socio-economic inequalities in school tracking in Luxembourg: The role of individual and peer characteristics”, highlighting key findings from the EvoSS project (‘Evolution of Social Segregation’).
The results show significant socio-economic inequalities in both school performance and track orientation at the end of primary schools in Luxembourg. On average, children from less advantaged backgrounds perform worse at school and are less likely to be oriented towards a higher academic track than their peers from more advantaged backgrounds.
The findings also show that peer effects play an important role, particularly the linguistic composition of children within the same school. A balanced linguistic mix among peers is associated with better performance in language subjects by everyone, highlighting the importance of promoting multilingual school environments.
Through this work, the OEJQS continues to pursue its mission to shed light on inequalities within the Luxembourgish educational system in order to eventually reduce them.