Education is Forbidden: the Effect of the Boko Haram conflict on education in North East Nigeria

Question 1

what is Bertoni’s research question

Answer 1

how does the intensity of the Boko Haram conflict affect school enrolment and educational attainment (measured by years of education completed) for individuals living in northeast Nigeria during the period of 2009-2016

Question 2

effect of boko haram conflict on school enrolment

Answer 2

a one unit increase in fatalities leads to a 0.09 percentage point reduction in enrolment
- local conflict exposure significantly reduces school enrolment

Question 3

effect of the boko haram conflict on school enrolment robustness checks

Answer 3

the negative impact of local conflict exposure on school enrolment is robust across different samples and methodological checks.

Question 4

effect of the boko haram conflict on school enrolment heterogeneity

Answer 4

• effect of local conflict exposure on enrolment does not differ between boys and girls
• for students beyond the compulsory school age, conflict exposure leads to an even larger reduction in enrolment
• while local conflict reduces school enrolment overall, its impact is uniform across genders and significant stronger among older, non mandatory students

Question 5

effect of the boko haram conflict on school enrolment alternative conflict measures

Answer 5

boko haram’s school specific attacks have the most pronounced impact

Question 6

effect of the boko haram conflict on school enrolment fatalities and conflict events at various distances from the village

Answer 6

• the negative impact of conflict on school enrolment is high localized - only violence within 5km of a village significantly reduces school attendance
• more distant conflict (beyond 5km) has little to no measurable effect, reinforcing that proximity to violence is a key determinant of educational disruption

Question 7

effect of the boko haram conflict on years of education completed

Answer 7

• conflict significantly reduces educational attainment with each additional fatality lowering school completion rates
• education itself appears to be a risk factor, as violence is more intense in areas with higher levels of schooling likely because urban centers with more schools become conflict hotspots

Question 8

table two column definitions for bertoni

Answer 8

1: includes only individual and school year fixed effects
2: add a set of time varying household characteristics
3: a full set of LGA specific time trends to control for the unobserved time varying local conditions

Question 9

conclusions for bertoni

Answer 9

• conflict exposure decreases school enrolment
• effect is larger for students who are no longer of mandatory school age
• conflict reduces the number of years of education completed with the effect being larger for male students

Question 10

what does LGA stand for in the bertoni paper

Answer 10

Local government area