Effect of Household Size on Educational Outcomes in Tanzania: A Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) Approach.

Abstract:

Education achievement is considered the ultimate driver for socio-economic development for the role it plays in developing more human capital in the country. This study examined the effect of household size on education achievement among individuals living in rural and urban areas in Tanzania. The study employed data from the Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics, Household Survey 2020-2021, which consists of a total sample of 1,381 households across 30 regions. To avoid potential endogeneity bias that may exist when variables are endogenous, the study utilized the Two Stage Least Square (2SLS) method to address the problem. The findings posit that the instrumental variables added in the study are strong enough to explain the variations of household size on education achievement in Tanzania. The findings shows a significant negative relationship between household size and education achievement in Tanzania. This complies with the resources delusional hypothesis that, in larger households available resources such as parental time, attention, and financial support are divided among more children, potentially reducing the individual resources available to each child and hence negatively affecting their education achievement. We therefore, recommended that the government through the Ministry of Education should provide support for larger families, especially those living in rural areas, including financial aid, education subsidies and access to free or reduced-cost education materials.