Intergenerational Transmission of Indigenous Languages and Schooling Inequalities in Peru

Traditionally there is a perception of indigenous people as economic, social, and culturally homogeneous. However, the intra-group analysis of these populations reveals significant disparities within.

This paper aims to determine how differences in the linguistic legacy of parents with native language in Peru, influence the production of schooling inequalities among their children.

Using National Household Survey 2007 data on children whose parents have an indigenous language as mother tongue, first, we describe how parents transmit their native mother tongue to their children, finding that: more than half of the children did not inherit the native language of their parents; about half of the children belong to brotherhoods that are entirely native speakers of Spanish, and that there is a greater tendency to inherit the language of parents in poor households and in rural areas.

Then, we build four logistic regression models to determine de influence of the mother tongue on: the probability of pass the school year, assisting with delay of grade and delay of level to primary school; and to achieve basic school, controlling by socio-demographic and educational policies variables. We find that: children who inherited indigenous language are more likely to attend with delay of grade at primary school and do not achieve basic education. However, we not find a significant influence of this language on attended with delay of level the primary school, probably linked to a "selection effect" of continuing in school while child have the formal age for the level which is attending (well documented in literature). Also, we have not find significant influence of having Spanish mother tongue on the pass school year, probably linked to a dilution of its effect by variables like: age, condition of poverty and of migration of their parents.