Understanding factors associated with attending secondary school in Tanzania using household survey data
Understanding factors associated with attending secondary school in Tanzania using household survey data
Background Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable access for all by 2030, leaving no one behind. One indicator selected to measure progress towards achievement is the participation rate of youth in education (SDG 4.3.1). Here we aim to understand drivers of school attendance using one country in East Africa as an example. Methods Nationally representative household survey data (2015–16 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey) were used to explore individual, household and contextual factors associated with secondary school attendance in Tanzania. These included, age, head of household’s levels of education, gender, household wealth index and total number of children under five. Contextual factors such as average pupil to qualified teacher ratio and geographic access to school were also tested at cluster level. A two-level random intercept logistic regression model was used in exploring association of these factors with attendance in a multi-level framework. Results Age of household head, educational attainments of either of the head of the household or parent, child characteristics such as gender, were important predictors of secondary school attendance. Being in a richer household and with fewer siblings of lower age (under the age of 5) were associated with increased odds of attendance (OR = 0.91, CI 95%: 0.86; 0.96). Contextual factors were less likely to be associated with secondary school attendance. Conclusions Individual and household level factors are likely to impact secondary school attendance rates more compared to contextual factors, suggesting an increased focus of interventions at these levels is needed. Future studies should explore the impact of interventions targeting these levels. Policies should ideally promote gender equality in accessing secondary school as well as support those families where the dependency ratio is high. Strategies to reduce poverty will also increase the likelihood of attending school.
Pezzulo, Carla
876a5393-ffbd-479a-9edf-f72a59ca2cb5
Alegana, Victor A
f5bd6ab7-459e-4122-984f-2bdb5f906d82
Christensen, Andrew
eb763ce7-78c7-4e39-85fc-e5734f0d4651
Bakari, Omar
df5a7a51-efb6-4e59-abde-00841fefb622
Tatem, Andrew
6c6de104-a5f9-46e0-bb93-a1a7c980513e
25 February 2022
Pezzulo, Carla
876a5393-ffbd-479a-9edf-f72a59ca2cb5
Alegana, Victor A
f5bd6ab7-459e-4122-984f-2bdb5f906d82
Christensen, Andrew
eb763ce7-78c7-4e39-85fc-e5734f0d4651
Bakari, Omar
df5a7a51-efb6-4e59-abde-00841fefb622
Tatem, Andrew
6c6de104-a5f9-46e0-bb93-a1a7c980513e
Pezzulo, Carla, Alegana, Victor A, Christensen, Andrew, Bakari, Omar and Tatem, Andrew
(2022)
Understanding factors associated with attending secondary school in Tanzania using household survey data.
PLoS ONE, 17 (2 February), [e0263734].
(doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0263734).
Abstract
Background Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable access for all by 2030, leaving no one behind. One indicator selected to measure progress towards achievement is the participation rate of youth in education (SDG 4.3.1). Here we aim to understand drivers of school attendance using one country in East Africa as an example. Methods Nationally representative household survey data (2015–16 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey) were used to explore individual, household and contextual factors associated with secondary school attendance in Tanzania. These included, age, head of household’s levels of education, gender, household wealth index and total number of children under five. Contextual factors such as average pupil to qualified teacher ratio and geographic access to school were also tested at cluster level. A two-level random intercept logistic regression model was used in exploring association of these factors with attendance in a multi-level framework. Results Age of household head, educational attainments of either of the head of the household or parent, child characteristics such as gender, were important predictors of secondary school attendance. Being in a richer household and with fewer siblings of lower age (under the age of 5) were associated with increased odds of attendance (OR = 0.91, CI 95%: 0.86; 0.96). Contextual factors were less likely to be associated with secondary school attendance. Conclusions Individual and household level factors are likely to impact secondary school attendance rates more compared to contextual factors, suggesting an increased focus of interventions at these levels is needed. Future studies should explore the impact of interventions targeting these levels. Policies should ideally promote gender equality in accessing secondary school as well as support those families where the dependency ratio is high. Strategies to reduce poverty will also increase the likelihood of attending school.
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journal.pone.0263734
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 25 January 2022
Published date: 25 February 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
VAA is funded through a Wellcome Trust Training Fellowship (number 211208). The study was funded by the of the Garbett Family Foundation grant to University of Southampton. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, data preparation, or writing of the manuscript. We thank the DHS Program staff and UNESCO UIS staff for their inputs on the construction of the school attendance indicators.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © 2022 Pezzulo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Local EPrints ID: 455335
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/455335
ISSN: 1932-6203
PURE UUID: f830e229-daf2-4a6a-a837-1c611e043e11
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Date deposited: 17 Mar 2022 17:33
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:32
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Author:
Andrew Christensen
Author:
Omar Bakari
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