Nigeria has long faced the challenge of enabling all children access to education. Yet estimates of the number of primary school-aged children that are out of school differ significantly. This EDOREN report addresses this question by using data from the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) from 2003, 2008 and 2013, to identify the overall number of out-of-school children and over-aged school going children. It explores the following specific questions:
- When controlling for other characteristics, has the impact of household wealth on access to basic education increased, remained the same, or decreased over the past decade? Does wealth influence whether children who are attending school are on-age or over-age?
- What is the trend with regard to gender gaps in access to basic education and age-appropriate school attendance?
- Are there regional gaps and if yes how have they evolved over time?
- Do trends in terms of wealth and gender effects differ across the country?
It findings include: that school attendance status remains closely related to household wealth; that the probabilities of remaining out of school have declined for most children except the poorest; and that the reduction in the probability of staying out of school has been particularly visible among female children aged 6 to 15. While a gap still persists, it has been closing over the past decade, and in particular in the North Western/Eastern region.