Evidence on the marginal impact of a compulsory secondary education reform in Senegal on years of education and changes in high school decisions

Abstract

This paper analyses the marginal impact of a compulsory secondary education reform in Senegal. The policy increased compulsory education from 6 to 10 years, incorporating lower secondary school to compulsory education. Using data from the Demographic and Health Survey 2017, we investigate the effect of the policy in increasing compulsory education completion and changes in post-compulsory schooling decisions. Our results show that the compulsory education policy significantly increased compulsory education completion, and improved post-compulsory grades completion. However, completion of the last post-compulsory grade in high school to obtain a secondary certificate was not affected.