Perception of Scholarship Holder Prisoners of Guayaquil on the Costs-Benefits of Higher Education

Abstract

Education is a fundamental human right that increases individual and social abilities and freedoms. Its exercise is consecrated in global and national regulations that provide the framework to implement plans, policies and projects to improve their coverage and quality, propending the inclusion of vulnerable groups. Among them is the penitentiary population, for which these regulations must also contribute positively in the process of social rehabilitation. In 2015, the Ecuadorian government awarded, for the first time, scholarships for higher education to the best-rated prisoners in the National Higher Education Exam (ENES, for its acronym in Spanish). They attend classes in prison and, if they acquire their freedom, they can go to the assigned university with the direct costs covered by the State. Much of the success of this initiative depends on student retention-persistence, which makes relevant the analysis of desertion causes that can be studied from different approaches. Among them, the economic, raised in this article, which identifies the benefits and costs received by scholars of a prison in Guayaquil, from a qualitative perspective. The findings of the investigation show that, when released, the scholarship holders experience a decrease in benefits and an increase in costs, which negatively affects the decision of student permanence.