The Impact of Adult Mortality and Parental Deaths on Primary Schooling in North-Western Tanzania

Abstract

Mortality of parents and other adults due to the African AIDS epidemic could reduce children's primary schooling by reducing households' ability to pay fees, raising the opportunity cost of children's time, and leaving orphaned children with guardians who care less about their education than would their parents. This study measures the impact of adult deaths and orphan status on primary school attendance and hours spent at school using a panel household survey from north-western Tanzania, an area hard-hit by the AIDS epidemic. Attendance was delayed for maternal orphans and children in poor households with a recent adult death; there was no evidence that children 7-14 dropped out of primary school due to orphan status or adult deaths. However, among children already attending, school hours were significantly lower in the months prior to an adult death in the household and seemed to recover following the death. In addition, girls sharply reduced their hours in school immediately after losing a parent. Improvements in school quality and better access to secondary education would improve outcomes for all children, including those affected by adult AIDS mortality. Beyond that, public policy needs to focus on the special schooling constraints faced by children affected by adult deaths, both in terms of increased opportunity costs of their time and the psychological impacts, with an eye to how they might be mitigated and at what cost.

Gendered production and consumption in rural Africa

“…In a sample from northwestern Tanzania, hours in school were reduced substantially for girls after parental death (32). Analysis of a nationally representative sample from Burkina Faso found that girl orphans were much more likely to suffer from delayed schooling than boy orphans (33).…”

Children’s school participation and HIV/AIDS in rural Malawi:

“…Recent studies using longitudinal data note that children's school dropout may occur prior to the death of a parent in addition to the period immediately following it (Ainsworth, Beegle and Koda, 2005;Evans and Miguel 2007). This finding is attributed to shifts in household labor demands, reduced income, and higher expenditures brought on by the period of illness preceding a parent's death.…”

“…None of these studies empirically evaluate whether variations in parents' perceptions of the epidemic may be associated with differences in educational outcomes among the population of non-orphaned children, even though some of these studies (e.g. Ainsworth, Beegle, and Koda 2005) acknowledge that such a relationship may exist.…”

“…Recent research utilizing longitudinal data and fixed effects models finds that parental death has a significant effect on educational attainment (Case and Ardington 2006;Case, Paxton and Abledinger 2004;Yamano, Shimamura and Sserunkuuma 2006), although effects are most commonly found for older children. Furthermore, longitudinal studies in Tanzania and Kenya found that school dropout often occurred prior to the death of the parent (Ainsworth, Beegle, and Koda 2005;Evans and Miguel 2007), most likely due to changes in the household income, increased expenditures on health, and shifts in labor demands following the onset of the parent's illness. Young (2005) notes that in South Africa school enrollment among 7 to 15 year olds remained constant throughout the 1990s, despite the rise of the epidemic.…”

Outcomes of Orphanhood in Ethiopia: A Mixed Methods Study

“…Girls in these households were less likely to be in school prior to the death of an adult than children in unaffected households; however, boys were less likely to be in school after an adult death Yamano and Jayne (2005) Tanzania (panel data on children orphaned before 1991) Maternal orphans less likely to be enrolled, or if they were enrolled, likely to have completed fewer years of schooling and had less money spent on their education than children whose mothers were alive during their childhoods Ainsworth et al (2005) Ethiopia (1,000 maternal orphans aged 10-18) Girls who were maternal orphans scored significantly lower than boys on emotional and social adjustment items from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 and were less likely to be in school. Maternal orphans of both sexes whose mother had died of AIDS were more likely to be in school than those whose mother had died of non-AIDS related illnesses.…”