Female education levels and fertility in Kenya

Abstract

The main aim of the study was to investigate the effect of female educational levels on fertility in Kenya. To realize this goal, other variables were introduced as confounding variables since education has both direct and indirect effect on fertility. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis tools were used. The study realized the goal, as intended where the higher educated a woman is the fewer the number of children she will give birth to. The unit of analysis for the study was individual woman and the aim was to find out the relationship between fertility measured as children ever born and educational level of a woman. The data used for the study was the Kenyan Demographic and Health Survey, 2003 data set as collected by the Central Bureau of Statistics. This was a national survey that covered the whole nation. The findings of the study show that education is a very important determinant of fertility. Also, the study shown that education alters or interferes with the demographic variables such as age to influence fertility. Increase in level of education results in increased use of contraceptives and also, early marriages leads to longer duration of marriage indicating lower level of education and more children ever born. Also number of children (family size) is surprisingly homogeneous throughout the educational spectrum when all other factors are controlled for. While the least educated and the better educated share the small family norms, the gap between the two groups in contraceptive use is large. Better-educated women have broader knowledge, higher socio-economic status and less fatalistic attitudes towards reproduction than the less educated women v meaning that the better educated have fewer children (less than 3) whereas the less educated have many children. The study recommended that more research is needed in this area particularly by redefining and giving female education a new look to enable conclusions from future researches to show the aspect! component of female education that causes fertility decline. Also proper laws should be put in place to ensure that the girl child stays in school beyond primary level and female education to form a core value for any planning which will ensure that all their needs education wise is met.