The Consequences of Being behind Grade for Long-Term Educational Outcomes in Rural Malawi

Pearl Kyei, Population Council

This paper studies the effects of lagging behind grade for age on educational attainment and achievement in rural Malawi. Lagging behind grade, is an indicator of schooling progress, common in sub-Saharan Africa, which has potentially harmful effects. Data come from the in-school sample of 888 boys and 870 girls in the Malawi Schooling and Adolescent Study (MSAS), a longitudinal survey conducted from 2007 to 2011. We use OLS models and probit models on a pooled sample with covariates lagged one time period to estimate the influence of lagging behind. The outcomes of interest are (1) age at school leaving, (2) literacy, and (3) numeracy. Overall, it we expect that being behind grade would be detrimental to educational attainment and achievement. Preliminary findings indicate this to be the case.