Working-age adult mortality, orphan status, and child schooling in rural Zambia

Zambia has been facing the challenge of rising HIV prevalence and the possibility of losing gains in education sector, where households suffering the death of a working-age (WA) adult may pull their children out of school due to family labour shortages. This paper measures the impact of WA adult mortality and morbidity on primary school attendance and school advancement in Zambia.

Principal findings are that:

• the effect of WA adult mortality and morbidity does not have a significant negative effect on primary school attendance except in some cases when the gender of the child is considered
• for example, households in rural Zambia are more likely to respond to adult mortality or morbidity shocks by reducing the attendance of girls relative to boys
• similarly, effects of chronic adult illness on child school attendance depend upon the household position and gender of the ill adult
• still, the negative effect on girls’ attendance does not appear to result in delayed grade progression
• there are no significant negative effects of orphan status on either child school attendance or school advancement
• in general, the examined impacts are significant or larger among children from poor households

The paper underscores the following conclusions:

• it seems that there is a clear gender bias in rural Zambia in how households respond to the death or chronic illness of a working-age adult
• mitigation measures appropriate for rural Zambia may include conditional cash transfers targeted to girls from poorer households which have incurred mortality/morbidity shocks
• yet, targeted schooling subsidies alone may not reduce schooling deficits (e.g. poor schooling progress may be due to the psychological trauma)
• Zambia should continue to provide universal free primary schooling
• “Education for All” itself is an important policy that can help reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and thus the potential for negative shocks to child schooling