The educational level of adults is one of the most important indicators of poverty in Mozambique. More than a decade after the agreement that ended the 16-year civil war, educational levels remain extremely low. Getting more children, and particularly girls, into primary school is a major challenge. And the challenge does not end with getting children into school: it is also important to reduce drop-out rates and ensure that more children complete primary school.

A report from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) assesses the results of a study on the effect of adults’ education on current living standards, the factors that influence children’s enrolment in (and drop out from) school and the policy measures available to the government.

Analysis of Mozambique’s first government-led national household survey of living conditions shows that  an adult’s schooling brings important benefits to households in terms of higher levels of income and consumption as well as important benefits to communities as a whole.

The IFPRI report presents evidence that:

• Adult schooling – especially of women – helps improve infant health: in rural areas, the probability that a child has had all its vaccinations, has a health card and maintains regular contact with health services, is related to female educational levels.
• Even basic literacy helps reduce poverty. Where a household head has gained basic literacy skills, there is an increase in per capita household consumption (a measure for income): on average 19 percent in urban areas and 6 percent in rural areas.
• Higher levels of education increase incomes further, especially in rural areas. For example, households with an adult woman who has completed the first stage of primary school have consumption levels that are, on average, 18 percent higher in rural areas and 6 percent higher in urban areas.
• In rural areas, boys are more likely to be sent to school, and once in school, they are more likely to stay there longer and proceed more quickly through the system. In contrast to this, in urban areas, household income and parents’ education levels are more important to children’s schooling than the sex of the child.
• The proportion of male and female teaching staff appears to be important when families decide whether or not to send girls to school, especially in predominantly Muslim north-eastern Mozambique. Male teachers sometimes require students to perform chores such as fetching wood and water and thus parents are reluctant to send girls to school to be taught by male teachers.
• School quality and proximity increases enrolment rates and reduces dropout rates, but household income and parents’ education have a stronger influence on children’s schooling.
• As much of the agricultural work in Mozambique is done by women, low levels of female literacy also has important implications for adopting technology and other interventions aimed at raising productivity in agriculture.

Policy implications from the research also suggest that:

• An immediate and important policy intervention that would provide major social and private benefits in the future, is to devise strategies to increase female enrolment and retention in primary school. Adult education or literacy campaigns in rural areas not only benefit adult participants, but can also dramatically raise girls’ enrolment in primary school.
• Efforts need to be made to train and employ more female teachers to raise the proportion of female teachers above the current 11 percent. Recruiting and incentives for teacher training targeted towards women would help in this regard, as would improvements in working conditions, especially in how teachers are assigned to schools.
• In urban areas policies should be directed at reducing the dropout rates of children aged 10 and older by finding ways to reduce the costs of attending school such as school lunch programmes, free uniforms or supplies.
• At this time in Mozambique, targeting construction and placement of new schools to provide more within easy reach is a more cost effective method of raising enrolment rates than improving the quality of the existing infrastructure.
• Any deterioration in the current pupil to teacher ratios would reverse trends towards increased enrolment and education outcomes.

Source(s):
‘Human capital, household welfare and children’s schooling in Mozambique’, Research Report 134, International Food Policy Research Institute, by Sudhanshu Handa and Kenneth R. Simler with Sarah Harrower 2004 Full document.

Funded by: World Bank, Danish International Development Assistance (Danida), and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

id21 Research Highlight: 7 September 2005

Further Information:
Sudhanshu Handa
Department of Public Policy
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Rosenau Hall, CB# 7400
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400
USA

Tel: +1 919-843-0350
Contact the contributor: shanda@email.unc.edu

Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

Kenneth R. Simler
Food Consumption and Nutrition Division
International Food Policy Research Institute
2033 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006-1002
USA

Tel: +1 202-862-5600
Fax: +1 202-467-4439
Contact the contributor: K.Simler@cgiar.org

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Other related links:
'Getting war-affected households back on their feet: lessons from Mozambique'

'Pathways of influence: Social capital and household welfare in South Africa'

'Literacy skills – proven pathway out of poverty'

'Tackling adult illiteracy: encouraging news from Uganda'