Convergence or Reversal ? The Evolution of the Gender Gap in Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

Hardi Ahmed, Damien B. C. M. de Walque and Carolina Lopez

No 11455, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: The generational evolution of gender gaps in education in Sub-Saharan Africa remains poorly documented at the regional scale. This paper uses micro data from Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys from 35 countries (approximately 736,000 individuals), complemented by international educational assessment and monitoring program (managed by the Conference of Ministers of Education of French-Speaking Countries) test scores for 14 francophone countries. The paper traces gender differences in educational attainment and learning by birth cohort. The findings show that attainment gaps narrow sharply across cohorts: the female disadvantage falls from 13–15 percentage points in primary and secondary attendance and 1.9 years of schooling among those born in the 1970s to far smaller values among the most recent cohorts, and it is statistically insignificant across most of the youngest birth cohorts. Among those born after 1999, females exceed males in secondary attendance and years of education in a majority of countries. However, convergence is uneven. It partly reflects stagnation in boys’ secondary attendance rather than female gains; learning gaps show no uniform direction across countries and often run counter to attainment; and wider attainment gaps persist among rural, poorer, and Muslim populations.

Date: 2026-09-16
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