Smallholder households and children’s schooling in primary education in Mozambique

We use a unique dataset of Mozambique smallholder farm households to estimate children’s school attendance and educational attainment in primary education. Our results indicate that schooling is age-dependent, with increased dropouts from age 12. In male-headed families and rural areas, girls attend less and have lower odds of finishing primary education. However, among female-headed households, boys and girls attend school equally, and girls are more likely to complete primary education. Generally, female heads increase children’s odds of attaining primary. Moreover, since rural youth rank first among people migrating to suburban/urban areas for work, remittances influence schooling negatively. These findings suggest that gender, household headship, and migration all play a role in determining children’s schooling in Mozambique.