As Maria Pohl, Ewa Batyra and Albert Esteve demonstrate, despite recent progress, differences in school enrolment by children’s living arrangements persist in Africa, driving diversity within and between countries. Children not living with both parents or residing only with their father remain disadvantaged relative to those in two-parent households, while children living with their mother only often display higher enrolment rates.
Children’s household contexts and their living arrangements in sub-Saharan Africa have long been a research focus within family demography. Households are, on average, larger and more diverse than those in other world regions (Esteve et al. 2024; Pohl et al. 2025), and children often live temporarily or permanently in households without one or both of their biological parents. This is due to relatively high adult mortality, frequent union dissolution and repartnering, and fostering, a traditional child-rearing practice. The experiences and implications of orphanhood and child fostering have received substantial research attention (e.g., Beagle et al. 2010; Cotton 2021). However, the trends and links between children’s living arrangements and their educational outcomes have been less widely studied from a comparative perspective.
In a recent paper, leveraging 60 IPUMS-International census samples across 24 African countries from 1976 to 2019, we explored how children’s living arrangements are associated with school enrolment trends (Pohl, Batyra, Esteve 2026).
Educational expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced a significant educational expansion in recent decades, yet progress toward universal school enrolment still differs across countries. Despite international initiatives like the Sustainable Development Goals, many countries struggle with low primary completion rates and limited secondary education access, often hindered by the historical legacies of colonial rule, rapid population growth, and the economic burden that education places on both governments and private households (Figure 1). Southern African nations have reached near universal school enrolment, and most East African countries, like Malawi, have seen rapid increases and nearly doubled their enrolment rates over three decades. Rates remain low in Ethiopia and South Sudan, however. In West Africa, school enrolment remains below 80% in most countries, despite notable improvements. Nonetheless, even modest percentage increases represent vast achievements in absolute terms, as educational systems have had to keep pace with population growth.
Why do living arrangements matter for school enrolment?
While the importance of macro-level factors like public infrastructure for school enrolment is well-documented, the household environment is an understudied dimension that reflects broader enrolment inequalities. The household serves as a pivotal site for resource allocation and socialization, and is crucial in influencing a child’s development and human capital accumulation. In the African context, kinship-based relationships and family networks are core pillars of societal organization. Compared to other world regions, parental absence from the household is relatively more common and is sometimes a strategic move to enable children to access better educational opportunities (Akresh 2009; Bachan 2014). Parental absence is also frequently a response to domestic crises such as death or union dissolution. Subsequently, children living in a household without one or both biological parents may face disadvantages due to resource dilution and socioeconomic instability linked to parental absence, even though factors like remittances from migrant parents or the presence of grandparents may mitigate these gaps.
The relationship between family structure and education is moderated by macro-level dynamics. In countries where school enrolment is high, the role of living arrangements may be less important, whereas in low-enrolment countries, the household environment remains a critical determinant of access to schooling. Furthermore, the social acceptance of family forms plays a role: where single motherhood or fostering is common, such arrangements may not carry the same educational penalties as they do elsewhere.
The living arrangements of children in sub-Saharan Africa
Children’s living arrangements across the countries included in our analysis show a remarkable degree of stability over time, though regional variations persist (Figure 2). In most East and West African countries, over half of children reside with both biological parents, while in Southern African countries the share of children in this arrangement has declined sharply, with increases in mother-only or no-parent households. West Africa maintains a relatively high prevalence of children living without biological parents. Few children in countries across all regions live in a household with only the biological father present. The relative stability over time suggests that broad economic, social, and demographic changes experienced by many sub-Saharan African countries do not necessarily translate into changes in children’s living arrangements.
The emergence of a “mother-advantage”?
The results of our regression analysis indicate that, even after controlling for individual and household characteristics, children’s living arrangements remain a significant predictor of school enrolment, though the dynamics vary over time and by country. As shown in Figure 3, children living without parents or with only their father consistently face lower odds of enrolment compared to those with both parents, and a notable “mother-only” advantage has emerged in several countries. These findings are in line with research suggesting that women may have a stronger preference for their children’s educational attainment (Crespin-Boucaud and Hotte, 2021) and that women’s decision autonomy is positively associated with preference for schooling, at least in the case of daughters (Luz and Agadjanian 2015).
Further regression results shown in Figure 4 highlight that as school enrolment increases over time, the disparities between different household structures tend to diminish; however, in more traditional or homogeneous societies, the educational gap for children not living with both biological parents remains pronounced. While enrolment is rising across countries, the persistent influence of family structure highlights that the road to educational equity is shaped by specific domestic contexts.
Conclusions
Overall, our analysis reveals that children’s living arrangements are a crucial determinant of school enrolment in the context of educational expansion in sub-Saharan Africa. We find a “mother-advantage” in several countries, particularly in West Africa, where children living with only their mother often have higher enrolment rates than those in two-parent homes. Children residing only with their biological father or without any biological parents face persistent disadvantages. While the traditional fosterage system can sometimes facilitate educational access, children in these non-parental arrangements generally remain the most vulnerable to being left behind.
Importantly, our results suggest that the influence of living arrangements tends to weaken as countries move toward universal primary education. In nations like Botswana, where diverse family structures are socially common and enrolment is high, differences in enrolment across living arrangements have decreased substantially. However, in more traditional societies where two-parent homes are the norm, children in alternative arrangements continue to face educational disadvantages. We argue that achieving the goal of universal school enrolment requires moving beyond macro-level policies to address the barriers faced by children in different household contexts.
References
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Beegle, K., Filmer, D., Stokes, A., & Tiererova, L. (2010). Orphanhood and the Living Arrangements of Children in Sub-Saharan Africa. World Development, 38(12), 1727–1746. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2010.06.015
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