The effect of access to primary school on the timing of school enrollment in Ethiopia

One of the main features of the education system in developing countries is that the majority of students enroll in primary school long after the legal enrollment age, which is usually around 6 or 7 years.  Recent studies provide evidence that children who enroll in primary school late have lower life time wealth, higher grade repletion and school dropout rates and complete fewer years of schooling than those who enroll at the legal enrollment age. Given the high cost associated with delaying primary school enrollment, it is not well understood why most parents in developing countries enroll their children long after the prescribed age.

 This paper offers empirical evidence on whether access to primary school induces children to enroll in primary school at the legal enrollment age using household survey data from Ethiopia.  We  exploit  the  variation  in  the intensity  of  the  impact of the education reform  across  districts  in  Ethiopia  to  identify  the  effect  of  access to school on the timing of enrollment. Using pre-reform enrollment rate in primary school to measure the variation in the intensity of the impact of the reform, we estimate difference-in-differences models. The results suggest that the probability the child enrolls in primary school on time by age 7 has increased by about 40 percentage points as a result of the educational reform. It is also found out that the reform has decreased age at enrollment in grade 1 by about 4 months. These estimates highlight the important role access to school plays in inducing parents to enroll their kids in primary school at the legal enrollment age.