Association between completing secondary education and adulthood outcomes in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda

Publication date: July 2019Source: International Journal of Educational Development, Volume 68Author(s): Amita Chudgar, Youngran Kim, Alyssa Morley, Jutaro SakamotoAbstractIn this paper we examine descriptively the relationships between completed secondary education and social, informational, and economic adulthood outcomes of 15–24 year old males and females in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. We find that completing secondary education is associated with higher media access and somewhat better health related knowledge. However we also find that completing secondary education is not necessarily associated with a greater sense of agency within the family, disapproval of domestic violence against women and preference for female children. Importantly we find that those with completed secondary education are not necessarily more likely to be employed than those without. Against the backdrop where secondary education completion is increasingly recognized and promoted as an important educational benchmark for youth, our analysis raises questions both about the “promise” and the “relevance” of secondary education as it is currently delivered in many low-income countries.
Source: International Journal of Educational Development - Category: Child Development Source Type: research