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Child Labour and Schooling in South Sudan and Sudan: Is There a Gender Preference?
Author(s) -
Bérenger Valérie,
VerdierChouchane Audrey
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
african development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1467-8268
pISSN - 1017-6772
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8268.12200
Subject(s) - girl , child labour , poverty , gender inequality , inequality , attendance , population , multivariate probit model , preference , socioeconomics , geography , demographic economics , political science , sociology , economic growth , economics , demography , psychology , microeconomics , mathematical analysis , developmental psychology , chemistry , mathematics , gold mining , econometrics
Based on the 2009 household surveys conducted in Sudan and South Sudan, the objective of this article is to analyse gender inequality for the young population aged 10 to 14 who should be at school. Although education is free in both countries, children's enrolment at school is low especially for girls, many of them stay home performing domestic chores or have an economic activity particularly in rural areas. The bivariate probit model highlights the key role of the household head's education, gender and poverty status in determining children's schooling. Drawing on Pal ([Pal, S., 2004]) who extended the Oaxaca‐Blinder decomposition, we confirm that children's activity in Sudan and South Sudan is strongly determined by the fact of being a girl or a boy. The article also provides some policy recommendations to address the issues of low school attendance and high gender inequality.