Children’s Schooling in Rural Ethiopia: The Role of Household Food Security, Parental Education and Income

Abstract

Investment in children’s education is widely recognized as one of the basic requirements for economic development. However, for the vast majority of the poor in developing countries like Ethiopia, hunger and food insecurity are linked with low schooling among children. However, the effect of food security and other household factors on rural children’s schooling outcomes in Ethiopia remains largely unexplored. This paper used three different measures of schooling to examine the impact of household food security, and other household and child-specific factors on children’s schooling outcome using probit, Heckman sample selection, Tobit and IV regressions. The results revealed that household food security had a significant positive impact on all of the schooling outcomes and that this impact differed by gender in favor of girls. Income and the literacy of adult household members in general and mother’s education in particular also had a significant positive impact on children’s schooling. Children’s school achievements were on average lower for female-headed households (except for ever-attendance). On the other hand, child labor demand by household (for domestic chores and farm work) negatively affected children’s schooling (grade attainment and schooling efficiency). Interventions that raise household food security, literacy of adult household members, and household income in rural areas help enhance children’s schooling, thereby positively contributing to human capital development. Moreover, improvements in household food security would also have an important implication for intra-household distribution of wellbeing in such a way that helps enhance girls’ education in rural Ethiopia.

Keywords: Children’s schooling outcomes, Grade attainment, Household Food Security, Ethiopia