Automatic Grade Progression, Educational Attainment, and Child Labor in Zambia

media release: Africa Talks is a monthly talk series purposefully launched by the African Studies Program at UW-Madison in collaboration with the African Center for Community Development, Inc to coincide with the 50^th Anniversary of Africa at Noon. This year, we want to celebrate 50 years of sharing scholarships on campus by reminding our community that the work we do must extend beyond the walls of the university. Every last Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., advanced graduate student affiliates of the African Studies Program will present a one-hour talk to community members in Madison and its environs. Media spotlight on Capital City Hues.

I examine the impact of the automatic grade progression policy implemented by the Zambian government from 2013 to 2022 on educational attainment and child labor among school-going-age individuals affected by this policy. I use the annual 2012 to 2022 Labor Force Participation Surveys compiled by the Zambia Statistics Office (Zamstats), and school-level scores on the national grade 7 examinations to assign treatment and control groups based on district-level failure rates. An individual of grade 7 school-going age residing in a district with a high level of failure rate (above 50% of total is assigned as being treated, and individuals with similar characteristics (as the treated cohort) living in districts with low failure rates serve as controls. I use a difference-in-difference framework, with 2018, the year in which the policy was emphasized (took effect), as the cutoff for a pre and post-automatic grade progression. The outcomes of interest are the years of schooling and the number of hours spent working for money for children under the age of 18.

Speaker: Theresa Ng’andu

Theresa fifth year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics. Her field is development economics, with a focus on environmental and health economics, and the economics of education. She will be on the job market for the 2026 – 2027 academic year. In her free time, she likes to avoid her research problems by running, taking walks, reading fiction (mostly novels), and attending live concerts.