Internal migration, children’s schooling and gender gaps in education

In many sub-Saharan African countries, a large number of people migrate internally due to economic, demographic and political factors. We ask whether household mobility affects child educational outcomes and in what direction. Because girls and boys face different challenges in achieving education, and families often underinvest in girls’ human capital, we focus on gender differentials. We study the case of Uganda, a country where universal basic education and gender equality are still complicated goals. We use the National Panel Survey of 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011 to develop fixed effects models of the relationship between mobility and children’s educational outcomes: school delay and attendance. We find that moving with the family during primary or lower secondary school decreases delay in schooling and increases school attendance for boys, while we do not find any significant effect for girls. We argue that our results confirm pro-male preferences of families, where girls do not benefit equally from the opportunities offered by internal migration. Expanding girls’ opportunities, as well as providing adequate services, are crucial steps in achieving gender equality in education.