Introduction
This report is based on a three and a half month research study in Niger involving interviews with government officials at the local and national levels, NGO's, and qualitative data collection at the local level, in both rural and urban settings, including focus group discussions, life histories and in-depth interviews. The main objective of the study was to explore the qualitative aspects of why and how education for gins could lead to a change in fertility behaviour.
Since the link between increased education for women and decreased fertility was first made in Cochrane's 1979 study, the relationship has become a central part of the development discourse. The relationship is now widely accepted as causal and figures largely in the synergistic approaches to development programming. In reality, there is little in the form of qualitative evidence to illuminate or support this hypothesis. This study set out to develop a more rigorous understanding of the relationship between education, the role that it plays within the community, and its potential influence on fertility.
Background
Niger presents a particularly interesting case study of the education and fertility relationship because of its very poor education system and its fertility rate of 7.4. The country has a literacy rate of 14% (9% for females) and an overall primary school enrolment rate of 28.5%. Only 36% of this figure are girls; in rural areas female enrolment drops as low as 10%. Clearly Niger's education system is suffering from a number of debilitating constraints. A quick review of the country's recent political and economic history accounts for the very poor national education infrastructure, and the general strikes that have frequently drawn the country to a complete halt over the past five years have served to erode any belief that the schools will either be open or able to provide sufficient education for the students to pass the exams. Four out of the last six school years were cancelled due to time lost to strikes, and up until the middle of March, students had only received 14 days of education in the 1994-95 school year because of strikes.
Expectations of Formal Education
In addition to the problems of the education system itself is the question of how formal education is viewed by the local communities. In the course of conducting the qualitative surveys, it quickly became apparent that the school system is valued not for the basic skills it aims to provide for its students, but for the job that students, and their extended families, anticipate upon their graduation from university or professional school. The returns in the form of basic reading and writing skills, while recognised as useful, are simply not highly valued in the local communities. The overall levels of success in terms of passing the primary school exam and continuing on through the school system to university or professional school are very low. Most parents, particularly those in rural areas, have very low expectations of their children's ability to secure a civil servant position and are likely to view their time as better spent helping them in the fields or in the home. Moreover, with the increasing political and economic difficulties, and the recent announcement that the government could no longer guarantee civil service jobs to all graduates, people are becoming increasingly sceptical of the school curriculum's ability to provide their children with any valuable returns.
Female Education
For girls, the picture is even more bleak. In addition to problems of inappropriate curriculum, abysmally low pass rates and interruptions due to strikes, they are constrained by cultural norms which limit their activities outside of the home from an early age, encourage marriage around the age of 12, and which rely heavily on their labour within the home. Parents do not see the returns from primary school as sufficient to justify the loss of labour in the home. In addition, the widespread belief that school teaches girls modern ways which are in conflict with local behavioural norms and the fear that many girls become pregnant as a direct result of their association with the school makes parents, particularly mothers, very resistant to allowing them to even begin school. Years of failure to secure a job with the civil service on the part of those girls who did go to school, and lingering stories and rumours of pregnancies have created an atmosphere of quiet hostility towards the system.
In terms of education's effect on fertility and health, there is a widespread belief that educated girls are able to keep their children healthier and cleaner than those who did not attend school. Despite this, the risk is not seen as justified: pregnancy before marriage is viewed as extremely shameful for both the girl and her extended family. Under these conditions, the chances of them attaining the magic four years of primary school that might reduce their fertility are very slim indeed. Ironically, rather than looking upon education as a means of ensuring healthier families, the local belief is that school could actually contribute to increasing fertility.
Summary
While the population discourse assumes a direct and positive relation between primary education and decreased fertility, rarely has the impact of education in all of its forms been closely examined. In addition to exploring the disparities in perspective of the different values placed upon educational activities, this Nigerien based study explored the issues involved in the relationship between fertility and education. The results of the study will play a particularly important role in informing both curriculum and textbook initiatives for primary schools, as well as the larger scale ODA projects and programmes concerned with the relationship between "children by choice" and wider health initiatives.
