Children's education and home electrification: A case study in northwestern Madagascar

Assessments of the impact of electrification on the quality of life of households in developing countries have increased over the last decade. One aspect that has still received little attention is education and the ability of children to keep up at school. The underlying hypothesis is that electrification enables children to do their homework in the evening and so keep up with their school work. To this first hypothesis we add a second one, concerning the relation between access to electricity and attendance to school according to gender. Although most household tasks are carried out by the mothers, their daughters are also involved, and electrification could have a beneficial effect by making easier for girls to do their homework in the evening and easier for the mothers to help them. We will check the validity of these hypotheses using a case study of 162 children attending school in a small town in northwestern Madagascar. ► We use a sample of 162 children in Madagascar to test the effect of access to the electricity supply in home to the education of children. ► We also test the effect to the electricity supply in home to gender-specificities. ► Our results confirm that electrification can contribute to reduce social reproduction with regard to education. ► Our results also show that electrification helps to reduce gender inequalities.