School Enrollment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Family Economic Well-Being and Socio-Demographic and Other Influencing Factors

Crispin Mabika, University of Kinshasa
David Shapiro, Pennsylvania State University

This paper examines school enrollment of youth in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with a view to identifying the roles of family economic well-being, household socio-demographic factors, and other influences on the school enrollment of children. We use data from a 1999 survey that covered four provinces in the western portion of the DRC. The survey took place at the end of a disastrous decade for the DRC, during which economic crisis, civil disorder, and then civil war were all prevalent. Following an overview of the economic situation, the paper examines descriptive data on school enrollments, with a focus on differences by gender, economic well-being, and place of residence. We then report results of multivariate analyses of school enrollment and a number of others that influence school enrollment, overall and separately by gender and by place of residence (urban, rural).