A Study On The Education Inequality Between Migrant Children And Local Urban Children

The previous studies of education inequality between migrant children and local children have paid little attention to the influence of extracurricular activities.This thesis focuses on the influence of extracurricular activities on the education inequality between migrant children and local children with urban hukou as well as the mechanisms of the impact.According to my analysis of China Education Panel Survey in 2013-2014,it is found that extracurricular activities affect academic performance through non-cognitive ability and peer social capital.The extracurricular activities have exacerbated the inequality in academic performance between migrant children and local urban children through their difference in extracurricular activity participation and in extracurricular activities' effects on them.First of all,the impact of extracurricular activities on academic performance is mediated by non-cognitive abilities and peer social capital.Both structured extracurricular activities and non-structured extracurricular activities can help foster non-cognitive and peer social capital,which have positive effects on academic performance.Secondly,the difference between migrant children and local urban children in participating in extracurricular activities will further increase the gap between their academic performance.For one,Migrant children are less likely to participate in structured extracurricular activities and more likely to participate in non-structured extracurricular activities than local urban children.And the positive impact of structured extracurricular activities on academic performance is lager than that of non-structured extracurricular activities.For another,the effects of extracurricular activities on children's academic performance differ between migrant children and local children in inflow cities.The positive impact of the structured extracurricular activities on migrant children is less than that impact on local urban children,which can further aggravates their gap in academic performance.Last but not least,it is also found in this thesis that the education inequality between migrant children and local urban children can be explained by family background factors,which is of great significance to understanding the education disadvantage of migrant children.