A multilevel analysis of late entry in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper explores how factors operating at the state and community levels are associated with the prevalence of late school enrolment in Nigeria. We investigate the following three research themes. First, whether late entry varies across states and across communities and how much of this variation can be explained by the composition of communities and states. Second, whether community wealth and state wealth are stronger predictors of late entry than household wealth. Third, whether wealth has different effects on the probability of late school entry in different states and in different communities within states. Using the 2010 Nigeria Education Data Survey, and a three-level multilevel logit model, we show that a substantial proportion of the variation in late school entry is explained by community-and state-level factors. We further find that children living in specific communities in Nigeria may face a double disadvantage in terms of on-time school enrolment. In these communities, not only is there a large proportion of children entering school late, but also household wealth has strong effects on the probability that a child is sent to school on on time. These communities could be targeted for educational interventions aimed at promoting on-time school enrolment.

Exploring regional and gender disparities in Beninese primary school attendance: a multilevel approach

“…For instance, those in the lowest wealth quintile were some 29% less likely to attend school than those in the richest (the reference category). This echoes results in studies such as Huisman andSmits (2009), or Delprato andSabates (2015) (Nigeria), which also found an increasing likelihood of school attendance as household wealth level increased, although Lincove (2012) found no effects of household wealth on primary school attendance in Uganda. The effects of household wealth again suggest some difference by gender: girls from the poorest households face a slightly lower disadvantage to boys, compared to the upper quintile, perhaps a reflection of the higher value placed on boys' work.…”

“…Lincove (2012) or Huisman and Smits (2009) found distance to school to be inversely related with the likelihood of school attendance; Delprato and Sabates (2015), however, found no effects on the likelihood of late entry in Nigeria. 10 Turning to the benefits of attending primary school, these might not be immediately clear to parents or students in a developing country context.…”

“…Indeed, it is probable that these factors might be driven more by norms at the community or state level, than at the household level (Delprato and Sabates 2015). In societies where patriarchal norms persist, parents may place a higher value on the education of boys over girls.…”

“…As shown in section 2, stark regional disparities exist Benin with regards to primary school attendance rates. Whilst a number of studies acknowledge that factors at the household, community or district level might impact on school attendance in SSA (for example Lavy [1996]; or Huisman and Smits [2009]), only Delprato and Sabates (2015) have explicitly modelled this econometrically by taking account of unobserved heterogeneity between higher level clusters. However, their study focused on late entry as opposed to primary attendance.…”

“…After controlling for both household and commune level factors, less than 5% of the variation in attendance is due to commune-level factors, suggesting that the majority of the between-commune variation in attendance rates is attributable to household-level characteristics. In a similar vein to Delprato and Sabates (2015), a random slopes model is also estimated, where the wealth coefficient is allowed to vary between communes. This identifies those communes where attendance is below average, but the effect of household wealth on school attendance is above average.…”