The combined effect of free and compulsory lower secondary education on educational attainment in Sub-Saharan Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6429580 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alfredo Hidalgo-San Martín (0009-0003-0545-6605), Aleta Sprague (0000-0002-5794-1851), Amy Raub (0000-0002-5207-0807), Bijetri Bose (0000-0001-6239-7566), Pragya Bhuwania (0000-0001-9029-1662), Rachel Kidman (0000-0001-7202-5571), Jody Heymann (0000-0003-0008-4198) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 113 |
| Pages | 103218-103218 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Educational Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0738-0593 • E-ISSN: 1873-4871 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103218 |
| OpenAlex | W4406792622 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 27 |
Greater educational attainment has vast economic, health, and intergenerational benefits, yet less than half children in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school. In contrast to primary education, there is limited research on the impact of national policies at the secondary level on educational attainment. A significant number of low-income countries continue to charge tuition for secondary education and a majority do not make secondary school compulsory. This study is the first to simultaneously assess reforms to tuition-free and compulsory education at the lower secondary level. Using a novel global dataset on education policies and data from the Demographic and Health Surveys, we used a differences-in-differences approach to examine how the introduction of tuition-free and compulsory lower secondary education policies in seven sub-Saharan African countries affected grades completed and starting secondary education by sex, wealth quintile, and rural/urban residence. Results show that making lower secondary education compulsory, in addition to tuition-free, had a significantly larger impact on educational attainment compared to providing tuition-free lower secondary alone. Exposure to tuition-free, compulsory lower secondary increased girls’ average educational attainment by 1.6 grades, and boys’ attainment by 1.4 grades, compared to cohorts exposed to only tuition-free. Girls and boys were also 13.5 and 14 percentage points more likely to complete some secondary, respectively, than their peers in countries that had made lower secondary education free, but not compulsory. Children from families in the lower wealth quintiles had a significantly larger improvement in progressing to secondary education when education was both tuition-free and compulsory
Compulsory education · Demographic economics · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Educational attainment · Mathematics education · Political science · Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology
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Assessing the Relationship Between the Implementation of Compulsory Education Laws and Girls’ School Attendance in Twenty-Seven Countries
Tuition-free lower secondary education and women's healthcare decision-making in Sub-Saharan Africa
Long-term effects of free education on intergenerational income mobility
Realizing the right to education for all
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Returns to investment in education
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Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing
Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods
The effects of cost elimination on secondary school enrolment in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Educated Mothers, Well-Fed and Healthy Children? Assessing the Impact of the 1980 School Reform on Dietary Diversity and Nutrition Outcomes of Zimbabwean Children
The urban–rural education gap
The divergence of human capital levels across cities
Free secondary education policy and education attainment
The duration of compulsory education and the transition to secondary education
Do inclusive education laws improve primary schooling among children with disabilities
Women's schooling, fertility, and child health outcomes
The causal effect of increased primary schooling on child mortality in Malawi
The Effects of Education on Financial Outcomes
Effects of tuition-free primary education on women's access to family planning and on health decision-making
The effect of increased primary schooling on adult women's HIV status in Malawi and Uganda
Impact of Tuition-Free Education Policy on Child Marriage and Early Childbearing
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |