An exploratory look at associated factors of poverty on educational attainment in Africa and in-depth multilevel modelling for Namibia.

Abstract

This study examines several indicator variables related to education and poverty in Africa from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). Many have described income and education as one of the fundamental determinants of health and as one of the indicators for socio-economic status. Firstly, data from thirty-six African countries were explored, geographical heterogeneity of the countries were discussed. Secondly, we carried out in-depth multi-level analyses using generating estimating equations on data for 72,230 respondents and from 5,436 households in the Namibia DHS (1992-2006). Results from statistical analyses indicate that age of household head, socioeconomic status of household, parent's level of education, family size and position of a child in the family play a significant role in the educational attainment of household members. We found that these household level characteristics are important predictors of educational attainment. Thus, government policy aimed at reducing household level poverty should be implemented to alleviate the economic power at household level thereby increasing educational attainment