Family dynamics and educational outcomes for primary level

Background
Orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV (OVC) in sub-Saharan Africa have been found to be at increased risk of moving household and dropping out of school. Further work to investigate the relationship between child migration and school enrollment is required.

Methods
We used multivariate logistic regression models and data from two rounds of a cohort study of OVC in Manicaland, Zimbabwe to investigate the effect of migration on school enrollment after adjusting for other demographic impacts of the HIV epidemic (e.g.orphanhood).

Results
591 children aged 6-18 years, who were enrolled in school, were enumerated and followed-up between June 2003-November 2004 and July 2004-March 2006. Migration was significantly associated with dropping out of school (AOR 7.02; 95% CI 2.76-17.87; p<0.001) after adjusting for orphan status, relationship to primary caregiver and household wealth. Orphan status and relationship to primary caregiver were not significant, independent risk factors for dropping out of school.

Conclusion
Migration is a significant, independent risk factor for dropping out of school amongst OVC in Manicaland. Interventions are required that improve household stability to reduce child migration and also that target recently migrated children to ensure rapid return to school. 

The study aims to explore educational performances of children in the primary grades in Andhra Pradesh, India. For this, the study uses data from the Young Lives research. The study used bi-variate analysis to examine the status of educational performances of children; and logistic regression analysis to find out factors responsible for school performances. Educational performances have been examined using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test results separately for reading, writing and mathematical abilities. The preliminary analysis shows that large percentage of boys and girls are not able to read and write in the primary grades. But, their mathematical abilities are relatively better than reading and writing. The logistic regression analysis results show that along with other variables boys with reference to girls; standard BMI of children with reference to low BMI; children getting mid-day meal in schools with reference to not getting; economic activities of children with reference to not working children ; and children in grade 2 and 3 with reference to grade1 are statistically significant predictors for better reading, writing and mathematical abilities. Mother’s education, middle and rich class are also important determinants of reading and writing.

Age and education are two most basic and important information collected in almost all demographic and health surveys. Most of the demographic researches on fertility, reproductive health and contraception focus on females of particular age group especially who are in their reproductive period. Important demographic indicators like fertility, contraception and mortality are estimated on the basis of reporting of the eligible female respondent. The available literature on the concordance and discordance of the reporting of age and education between husband and wife is scanty. Hence, this particular study makes an attempt in exploring the degree of matching and mismatching in reporting of the education of the husbands by the wives in India. The present study analyses the concordance and discordance of the reporting of the husband's education by the wife and by the husband himself separately by using a nationally representative sample size of 42185 couples. It is found that in India among 23 percent of the couples, there is mismatch in reporting of husband's age as reported by the wife and the husband himself.

This study examines the influence of possible individual and household characteristics as well as the state level factors on the chances of completion of primary level education within 10-15 years of age (i.e. effective completion) in India with temporal perspective. The study is based on the information collected by the National Sample Survey (NSS) in its three rounds of survey canvassed during 1986-87, 1995-96, and 2007- 2008 in India. Adjusting for potential factors, the study found no significant change in the probability of effective completion of primary level education in India over more than two decades. A host of individual/household factors was examined having strong influence compared to state level educational, institutional and developmental factors.

Background: This paper examines the inequality of opportunity among Indian children in attending appropriate class as per their age up to elementary level (Std. I-VIII) of education during 1986–2008. The socioeconomic, regional and temporal perspective in underscoring the inequality of opportunity in time-bound completion of elementary education would be imperative to achieve universalization of elementary education in effective manner.
Data & Methods: Data from the three rounds of the National Sample Survey on ‘Participation in Education’ conducted during 1986-87, 1995-96 and 2007-08 were analyzed. In order to assess inequality of opportunity in attending appropriate class at appropriate age among children across selected circumstance groups, the study used the Human Opportunity Index (HOI). The HOI synthesizes measurements of both the absolute level of opportunities in a society and how equitably those opportunities are distributed into a single indicator.
Results: Adjusting potential socio-demographic and economic characteristics, the opportunity among Indian children in attending appropriate class as per their age up to elementary level has shown an increase of 20 percentage point during 1986-2008. The opportunity gap in gender and social group is catching up gradually due to increasing coverage rate in disadvantaged

Although there is substantial existing research on the relationships between labor migration and children's schooling, this research typically has emphasized the migrant versus non-migrant dichotomy. Labor migrants, however, are a diverse group: depending on their skills, networks, and available opportunities, some are economically more successful than others. In this paper, we examine the association between diverse conceptualizations of male labor migration and an important family outcome: the discontinuation of children’s schooling. The setting for our analyses is rural southern Mozambique, an area characterized by massive male labor migration, mainly to South Africa. The data come from a multi-wave panel study that has been monitoring rural women's reproductive health and well-being, their children's schooling, and their experience with male labor migration since 2006. We examine male migration success and accrued migration experience, and find that both are positively associated with children's schooling.

Studies examining the link between the number of siblings and children’s education in Africa have given mixed results. Moreover, the potential for unobserved heterogeneity bias raises questions about how best to interpret any observed association. Using DHS data from 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and a multilevel multiprocess model that controls for time-invariant unobserved mother-level characteristics, we find indications that younger siblings increase the likelihood of entering primary school. However, once a child is enrolled, the number of pre-school aged siblings is negatively related to educational progression. The number of siblings older than 15 increases the chance of primary school entry and completion, but has no effect on subsequent transitions. There are also some positive effects of the number of siblings aged 6-15. Girls are more adversely affected by having young siblings than boys, but also benefit more from having siblings older than 15. Nonetheless, on the whole, the number of siblings is not an important determinant of children’s education. The results underscore the need to develop detailed measures of sibling groups which capture age variations in school participation and potential contributions to production.

This article assesses the impact of demographic events (union formation and childbirth) on individual living standard; the heterogeneity across education levels and gender is estimated taking into account educational homogamy. We aim at producing a dynamic analysis of this influence over the life-course that goes beyond the standard cross-section approach of child-cost estimates and the use of equivalence scale (like the OECD equivalence-scale). More specifically, we consider the timing of demographic events, and of the enrolment in formal education as well as wage profiles of the individual and his/her partner. Such an analysis theoretically requires a long panel dataset, which is unfortunately not available for France. For this reason, our research strategy consists in simulating the career and family formation of a given cohort, using microsimulation techniques. We simulate union formation and childbirth, using an innovative dynamic model that simulates the diversity of careers for a given generation and that takes into account the heterogeneity of the initial education level. This approach helps us to simulate the age of union, mate matching function, age of childbirth in a way that is extensively presented in the paper.

Mothers and schooling is a topical area of investigation to address the issues in and around poverty and empowerment contexts. The methodology adopted was interpretive and qualitative data was collected from 10 mothers in resettlement colony in Hastsal, Delhi. Major tools used for the study are interviews and observation. Though there are various quantitative studies are done in the field in different geographical location than India which suggests more important role played by mothers in educational achievement and schooling of children but this study is specially looking at perception of a category of mothers regarding elementary schooling in India. These mothers are characterized as urban poor, migrated with poor literacy backgrounds. The theme for this work has been adopted from work done by Sacker et al. (2002) where the relationship between family social class and parental involvement has been discussed through a hypothetical conceptual framework. Major findings include, mothers perceive education as a tool for intergenerational class mobility and eligibility for highly paid employment but for girls, it is a tool for self empowerment and opportunity to deal with the outside world. Mothers perceive parents-teachers and government are pillars in determining quality education to children.

This paper searches for inequalities in scholar performance in the end of basic education (8th grade) among gender, socioeconomic status, geographic region, in Brazilian public schools with more than 20 students. The assumption is that there are attributes inside and outside school that can increase the difference of performance in standardized evaluations. In this paper INEP’s data from Prova Brasil 2009, which is a census review for basic education students from public schools, were used. In our analyses we intent to know which factor is of greatest significance for differentiating performance. To do so, we adopted a multilevel model and a decomposition of variable’s effect.