Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
基督教传教的教育遗产：来自刚果民主共和国的证据
Educational legacies of christian missions: Evidence from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
摘要
This paper investigates the educational legacies of Christian missions established before independence, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, focusing on contemporary disparities in educational content, quality, access, and outcomes. Using georeferenced data from over 20,000 schools and two million students participating in the Examen National d’État (Exetat) between 2016 and 2019, as well as primary data from a phone survey of 624 school directors, we explore how proximity to Catholic and Protestant missions during the colonial period influences educational opportunities today. We find that schools near historical Christian missions offer a broader and higher-quality curriculum, with increased access to study tracks outside the basic Pedagogy section. Students attending these schools are more likely to pass the Exetat and achieve grades qualifying for university admission, although the magnitude of the effect is modest. Observable school-environment and quality characteristics attenuate the Catholic missionary-proximity coefficient by about half, while demand-side patterns point to additional differences in student composition. Our findings reveal that the strong partnership between missions and the colonial state entrenched spatial inequalities in educational access and quality, inequalities that persist to this day.
中文摘要
本文考察刚果民主共和国独立前建立的基督教传教活动的教育遗产，聚焦于当代在教育内容、质量、入学机会和结果方面的差异。我们使用2016年至2019年间参加国家考试（Examen National d’État，Exetat）的20,000多所学校和200万名学生的地理参照数据，以及来自对624名学校校长的电话调查的一手数据，探讨殖民时期与天主教和新教传教点的邻近程度如何影响当今的教育机会。我们发现，靠近历史基督教传教点的学校提供更广泛且更高质量的课程，并且更有机会进入基础教育学方向之外的学习轨道。就读于这些学校的学生更有可能通过Exetat，并取得有资格进入大学入学的成绩，尽管这一效应的幅度不大。可观察到的学校环境和质量特征使天主教传教点邻近性系数减弱约一半，而需求侧模式则指向学生构成方面的额外差异。我们的发现表明，传教点与殖民国家之间的紧密伙伴关系，在教育机会和质量方面固化了空间不平等，而这些不平等至今仍然存在。