Education Attainment of Girls in Burkina Faso’s Sahel Region – Multiple Decrement Life Table Approach

Marlene A. Lee , Population Reference Bureau

We use a multiple decrement life table approach and the most recent available administrative data to quantify and illustrate the effect of pregnancy, early marriage, and unpaid care work on girls’ primary and secondary education in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso. Preliminary results suggest that elimination of dropouts caused by early marriage, pregnancy, and unpaid care work would increase Sahel girls’ average years of education in Burkina Faso by about 30 percent. In this region, unmeasured structural causes seem to have more impact on girls’ dropping out than family formation and unpaid work. Earlier studies using reproductive histories suggest that our estimates of the cause-specific probability of dropping out because of pregnancy or marriage is low. However, the relative effects of eliminating different causes seem consistent with the relative effects of school closings because of civil conflict, which would affect all girls, and the effects of specific causes which only affect some girls in the region.

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 Presented in Session P3. Poster Session Migration, Economics, Environment, Methods, History and Policy