Whether and how government policy should affect fertility is a controversial ethical issue. However, the UN International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in September 1994 highlighted the importance of enhancing female education as part of a successful population policy. More educated women commonly tend to have smaller families, although this is less marked in Africa than elsewhere.
Perhaps the best evidence on the relationship between fertility and female education in Africa is that provided by the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) carried out in the late 1980s. Table 9 provides descriptive statistics on the differentials by education in total fertility rates of women aged 15-49 in fourteen African countries. Women with primary education tend to have fewer children in most countries, but the relationship is weak. By contrast, women with post-primary education have markedly fewer children. These associations persist even after controlling for other variables (Ainsworth, Beegle and Nyamete, 1995)9. In half of the countries, there was no significant association between primary education and fertility after controlling for income, age and a few other variables. For the other half of the countries, there was a significant negative relationship but it was less strong than with secondary schooling. By contrast, there was a universally negative relationship between fertility and female secondary schooling.
The effects of higher secondary schooling (11 years of schooling or more) were 2-4 as large as those of lower secondary schooling. Husbands’ education also had a negative effect on fertility where it was significant, although the effect was weaker than that of wives’ education. Education appears to reduce fertility more in the DHS data than in the earlier World Fertility Surveys carried out in the late 1970s (see UN, 1987). Although this may partly be accounted for by methodological differences in the data analysis, this seems to reflect a genuine change over time. In particular, amongst women in the older cohort (aged 35 and over) of the DHS, schooling of less than eleven years was seldom associated with lower fertility.
The associations between female education and fertility are likely to be, at least partly, causal.
Educated women may be able to obtain higher wages, increasing the opportunity cost of time spent rearing children. They may also have a preference for more educated children, making it more expensive to have large families. Education may also change knowledge of and attitudes towards the use of modern contraception. However, there is a simultaneity between female education and fertility. In most countries, child-bearing and school attendance are incompatible, so girls face a choice between staying on at school and marrying young. This may partly explain why higher secondary schooling has such a large impact on fertility, since the age of students often coincides with the typical age at marriage in many African countries.
Human Capital and Economic Development Simon Appleton and Francis Teal
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