Higher Education Aspirations and Social Mobility Among Secondary School Students: Exploratory Insights and the Moderating Effect of Fair Education

Undeniably, schools play a crucial role in helping students aspire to and facilitate a successful transition to higher education through fair and equitable education, paving the way for students’ upward social mobility. However, schools may not be aspiring places for learners and may often lag behind to be fair enough by hindering learners' opportunities for optimal development, hence curbing learners’ aspirations for upward social mobility. Thus, the undergone study explored students’ Aspirations for Higher Education (AHE) 1. pervasiveness of Fair Education (FE) 2. and contributing in burgeoning students’ Social Mobility Aspirations (SMA) 3. A total of 1,039 secondary public school students participated in the study. Quantitative data were collected via a self-constructed questionnaire on three study variables. Descriptive statistical analysis involved questionnaires’ item-wise percentage analysis, mean values and standard deviation, whereas the linear regression model and Andrew Hayes PROCESS macro were exploited to observe model fit, main effects and interaction effects of study variables in SPSS. Findings highlighted the widespread nature of educational inequities manifested in teaching and learning processes. The students’ responses to Higher Education Aspirations (HEA) and Social Mobility Aspirations (SMA) were rated high. Higher Education Aspirations (HEA) significantly predicted Social Mobility Aspirations (SMA). Also, moderation analysis revealed robust main effect of Higher Education Aspirations (HEA) on Social Mobility Aspirations (SMA), as well as robust interaction effects as well as conditional effects of Fair Education (FE) between the relationship of Higher Education Aspirations (HEA) and Social Mobility Aspirations (SMA). Also, the study underscored a significant grounded phenomenon of our society, wherein, amidst adversities faced by less-privileged students’ strata enrolled in public schools, high aspirations for Higher Education and upward social mobility denotes achievement resilience and hopefulness of students for future success. Also, the study recommends serious reforms by school administration to bring about policies and shape accountability mechanism to transform public sector schools in fair and equitable learning places for students.