The Impact of Fertility Rate, Gross Domestic Product, and Education Spending on Secondary School Female Enrollment

Abstract

Lack of secondary school education has adverse economic impacts, and this problem is severe for female students who have lower enrollment rates than male students, especially in low-income countries. To better understand the causes for lower female enrollment in secondary schools across the globe, we analyzed socio-economic factors that were likely to influence secondary school female enrollment. Specifically, we evaluated adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women ages 15-19), per capita GDP, government spending on education (% of per capita GDP), and government spending on education (US$ per capita). Inferences on the relationship between secondary school female enrollment and the 4 variables were made from scatter plots, boxplots, regression and correlation analyses. Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient (r) was used to measure the strength of linear relationships while non-linear monotonic trends were characterized using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (r_s) . A negative linear correlation (r = -0.798) was observed between female enrollment and fertility rates while a strong positive non-linear correlation was observed between government spending on education and female enrollment rates as indicated by a Spearman’s coefficient of 0.799. Overall, our analysis indicated that reducing teenage pregnancies and increasing government spending on education, even to relatively modest levels of $100 – $200 per capita can bring female enrollment rates in the 50 – 75% range which can lead to significant gains both at the personal and national level.