Child labor and schooling in Malawi: Does mother’s employment matter ? by Michael Masiya

Child Labour And Schooling In Malawi: Does MothersEmployment Matter?

Michael Masiya

Richard Mussa

LAYOUT

• Introduction• Trends in Schooling and Employment• Empirical Strategy• Data and Sample Characteristics• Results• Conclusion and Policy Implication

INTRODUCTION

• Child labor is widespread and bad for development• A number of studies show that child labour

adversely affects the educational achievement of children who combine work and school, often resulting in their premature leaving of school• The presence and influence of the mother in

the family increases children welfare, in terms of educational opportunities and protection from work activities. Such influence varies depending on the working status of the mother.

INTRODUCTION

• In an attempt to unravel the underlying factors behind child labour, a few studies have examined the role of mother’s employment. • However, inconclusive inter-relationships have

resulted in ascertaining the impact of mother’s employment on child labour and schooling.• This uncertainty could have grave policy

implications hence the study aims to provide evidence-based advice by first, examining the relationship between a mother’s employment and child labour. Secondly, assessing the relationship between a mother’s employment and child schooling.

INTRODUCTION

• Finally, the paper investigates if there are differences in the effect of mother’s employment on child labour and schooling for a male and female child.

TRENDS IN SCHOOLING AND EMPLOYMENT

• Overall, there are high primary school enrollment rates in Malawi [Figure 1]• A higher rate of girls than of boys enrolled

in primary school [Figure 2]• A general increase in the female labour

force participation over a period of 9 years [Figure 3]• High child labour incidence in Malawi [

Figure 4]

EMPIRICAL STRATEGY

• The study employed the use of a Multi-level trivariate probit model which was presented as:

(Mother eq.)

(child sch. Eq.)

(child wrk. Eq.)

• Where=net utility of mother j for working,and are net utilities of mother j for sending her child to school and work respectively.

• There are child level covariates zij (child’s age and gender), and mother level covariates xj (mother’s age and education, household structure, partner’s occupation, household’s wealth, geographical area).

DATA AND SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS

• Data used is IHS3 whose survey was carried out in the period of March 2010 to March 2011• The total number of 5 to17 year olds in the

full sample is 18, 644. Excluding adopted and relatives the sample reduced to 14, 991.A child considered working if they worked for more than 14 hours a week.• From the IHS3 questionnaire, individuals who

held a job in the last 12 months prior to the survey were considered employed.

RESULTS

• A significant covariance of 0.018 implies that unobservable that increase the likelihood of mother’s employment also increase the likelihood of her child’s schooling.

• Another interesting result is the covariance which is negative and has a value of -0.042 implying that unobservable that increase the chances of mother’s employment also reduce the probability of her child working. [Table 1]

• The correlation between child schooling and child labour, -0.004, means that there are lower chances of a child going to school if they are working.

• There is no difference in the impact of mother’s employment on child labour and schooling for a male child and female child.[Table 2]

CONCLUSION AND POLICY IMPLICATION• The government of Malawi should realize that child

labour should not be combated only because of its own nature that it is detrimental physically but also because of its negative impact on education of the child.• By promoting interventions that ensure that more

women in families are employed, the Malawi Government would be killing two birds with one stone: First, this would significantly reduce the extent of child labour and secondly, it would improve school attendance of children be it in rural or urban areas. • Promote 50:50 campaign enhance women

empowerment• Malawi to encourage the education of the girl-child.

END

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES