Children's Schooling in sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Fathers, Mothers, and Others

Multinomial logistic regression techniques are used to estimate personal and familial determinants of childrens participation and progress in school in seven sub-Saharan African countries. Data are obtained from Demographic and Health Surveys for Kenya and Tanzania Cameroon and Niger and Malawi Namibia and Zambia. Findings indicate that most 10-14 year olds were currently enrolled in school with the exception of Niger. However few in this age group completed the first four years of primary education. Four conclusions are drawn. 1) Family and household characteristics in particular education of the head and living standard determined whether a child was enrolled and how rapidly the child advanced by grade level. Both factors were important but education of the head appeared to be the most important factor in explaining current enrollment rates and the timing of school entry. Standard of living was associated with the widest differences in attainment of four grade levels. 2) The chances of enrollment and progress in school appeared to be unrelated to the survival of parents. 3) Children benefitted educationally more from female headed households when compared to male headed households at the same resource level. 4) Specific gender differences varied by country. Family and household circumstances did not operate systematically across countries to the advantage of boys or girls. The proportion of children aged 10 years currently attending school who were at the appropriate grade level ranged from 96% in Tanzania to 59% in Malawi. By the age of 14 years the respective proportions were from 56% to 25%. The drop was attributed in part to grade repetition. The proportion who completed grade 4 by age 14 out of the ever-enrolled was 79% in Kenya 74% in Zambia 73% in Tanzania 68% in Cameroon 58% in Namibia 44% in Malawi and 23% in Niger.