Impact of female Education on Fertility: Perspective Bangladesh

Introduction: Of the recognized determinants of total fertility i.e. how many children, on an average that would be born per woman, female education, experts consider, to be the single most powerful factor that affects fertility through various intervening variables. But despite the prevalence of low rate of female education, Bangladesh has exceptionally cut its fertility by over 60 per cent, from 6.9 children per woman in 1970-1975 to an estimated 2.4 in 2005-2010. In such a contrasting situation, in Bangladesh how much impact the female education has on the reduction of total fertility needs investigation. As female education impacts total fertility rate (TFR) both directly and through some intervening variables, therefore, efforts will be made, on the basis of available data, to see how much impact female education has, in Bangladesh, on the reduction of TFR . In Bangladesh, female education has not yet reached the level that population scientists consider the threshold level to have impact on TFR, thus , in contradiction of demographic theories, it is plausible to hypothesize that female education has little effect on TFR in the context of Bangladesh.
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1971-75 1991-93 1984-88 1994-96 1986-88 1997-99 1989-91 2004-06 6.3 5.1 4.8

4.3 3.4 3.3 3.3 2.7

Figure 1: Trend in Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in Bangladesh from 1971-2007

fertility of nearly two children per women up to the early 1990s. Fertility then plateaued at around 3.3 births per woman for most of the 1990s. This was followed by another noteworthy decline in fertility during the current decade. The 2007 BDHS data, along with earlier rounds of the survey beginning in 1993, indicate that the decline in fertility has continued during the last three years, reaching 2.7 births per woman.
(Mitra et al., 1994; Mitra et al., 1997 ; NIPORT et al., 2001; NIPORT et al., 2005).

1.01: FERTILITY TRENDS: Trends in fertility in Bangladesh since the early 1970s can be examined by observing a time series of estimates produced from demographic surveys fielded over the last three decades, beginning with the 1975 Bangladesh Fertility Survey (BFS). Data from the 2007 BDHS and previous surveys show that following a nearly decade-long plateau in fertility from 1993 to 2000, fertility in Bangladesh has resumed its decline. The estimates shown in Fig:1 describe the ongoing fertility transition in Bangladesh. Fertility has declined sharply, from 6.3 births per woman in 1971-75 to 2.7 births per woman in 2004-2006. There was an initial rapid decline in

3 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 No Education Primary Complete

2.9

2.9 2.5 2.3

Primary Incomplete Secondary Incomplete

Secondary Complete or Higher

1.02: TFR trend by background characteristics: Considering the background in terms of level education, it can be seen that women who completed primary and who did not have the same rate of total fertility (2.9) whereas the educated and uneducated group have a no big difference in total fertility (3 and 2.3 respectively). It is noticeable that in the three big groups with both literacy and no literacy have almost no differences in number of babies per woman.

Figure 2: TFR by background characteristics in Bangladesh(2007) Data Source: Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2007

61 60 59 58 57 56 55 54 53 52 51

60.3

No education Parimary Incomplete Parimary Complete

57.5

54.6

54.3 54.2

Secondary Incomplete Secondary Complete or Higher

Figure 3: Percentage of the use of contraceptive, by background characteristics Data Source: Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey(BDHS) 2007

1.03: Contraception use trends: Female education made little difference in the use of Contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) differentials among the educated or uneducated women i.e. women with no education, with primary complete and with secondary incomplete. Women with secondary education or higher show negligible progress compared to the women who could not complete primary level of education. Therefore, it is evident that in the context of Bangladesh fertility transition has been impacted by education by very little.

80 76 75 71 70 65 72 73

80

No education Primary Complete Secondary Complete or Higher

Primary Incomplete Secondary Incomplete

Figure 4: Percentage of married women with two children who want no

more child by background characteristics Data Source: BDHS 2007

1.04: Fertility desire trend: Overall, the desire to limit childbearing is higher among women with no education than among those with any level of education. For example, 76 percent of currently married women with no education want to stop childbearing, compared with three other groups with some education. Examining the relationship between fertility desires and educational attainment by number of living children reveals no clear association, although women with higher education have less desire to have more than two babies(BDHS, 2007).

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1991 1995 1997 1998 1999 2005 2006 2007 2008 Literacry rate of Women in Rural area Literacry rate of Women in Urban area Contraceptive Prevalence Rate

Figure 5: Correlation of female education with CPR Data Source: World Bank, BDHS 2007, 2003, 1990

1.05: Correlation of female education with CPR: The CPR trend from 1997 to 2006 has positive correlation with the literacy trend in women in rural area i.e. both trends have risen steadily while literacy rate in the urban remained almost flat throughout the time period. Alongside that, while from 2006-2008 literacy rate in both urban and rural area increased, in sharp contrast, CPR decreased at the same time showing a negative correlation. This depicts a strange picture of correlation with the rate of contraception use. Probably in case of Bangladesh, CPR has no relation with female education, but it has correlation with the strong family planning campaign.

2.01: Discussion: Bangladesh is a wonder case in regard to the decline in TFR. That is why, numerous studies have been conducted on the fertility trend in Bangladesh to determine what factor is or factors are to be credited for a rapid fall in TFR (6.3 in 1975 and 2.3 in 2007) in such a short period of time. This reduction in TFR is even much faster than the developed countries where TFR dropped by 50 percent given the high socio-economic indicators and high rate of education, almost 100 percent. Most studies agreed on the issue that female education emerged as the single most important variable affecting both contraceptive use and fertility regulation (Khuda & Hossain, 1996). Indeed, the powerful effect of education on reproductive behaviour is undisputed. Data from the World Fertility Surveys and the Demographic and Health Surveys confirm the strong positive effect of education on reproductive behaviour (Schultz 1994; World Bank 1994). Similar evidence is also available from other studies (e.g., Cochrane 1979; Caldwell 1980; Jejeebhoy 1992). But the study conducted by Martin K.A(1985) to determine whether in Bangladesh a wife's educational level significantly affects her desire for more children, or whether Bangladesh has not yet reached the threshold of socioeconomic development where education has any effect on the number of additional children desired. Holding the effect of variables such as the education of the husband, age, age at first marriage, work status of wife, number of living male children, and infant mortality constant he tried to find the impact of education on desired fertility, and concluded that Bangladesh is not at the developmental level where education has a significant effect on desire for additional children. It is practicable to take it for granted that Bangladesh has not yet reached the level of female education and other socio-economic indicators that can have drastic effect on fertility transition. Despite the absence of environment conducive to the fall in total fertility, Bangladesh has made it happen by dint of strong family planning programs in tandem with other socio-economic indicators, particularly female education and women empowerment. Khuda & Hossain(1996) in their study argue that Bangladesh is the best example of a country with a strong family planning program effort which has brought about a significant fertility decline, even when social and economic development is at a low level and not improving much. Bangladesh ranks low on almost every social and economic development indicator. Nevertheless, an intensive family planning program has been followed by a substantial increase in the use of contraception and the consequent fertility decline. They also argue that the speed with which reproductive behaviour changed in Bangladesh, especially in the absence of much parallel change in social and economic development in the country, strengthens the argument that the family planning program has had a considerable influence on fertility decline (Freedman 1995). The Bangladesh case has, no doubt, strengthened the argument that a strong family planning program can make a positive contribution to the process of demographic transition. Already, there is evidence of the impact of family planning programs on contraceptive use dynamics (Phillips, Hossain and Koblinsky 1989; Phillips et al. 1993; Hossain, Phillips and Haaga 1994). A more pronounced effect is observed when standard quality of care is ensured (Hossain, Khuda and Phillips 1995).

The Khuda & Hossain study sums up with agreement that Bangladesh has, actually, challenged conventional demographic transition theory, which generally associates fertility decline with economic development. However, alongside persistent family planning campaign, female education has accelerated the pace of fertility decline through different socio-economic variables such as female employment as well as access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and the media (radio). Female education has manifold effect on improvement in womens status what is considered a critical determinant of fertility decline in Bangladesh. Most studies are at one on the point that during the last 30 years womens status in terms of education, employment, and decisionmaking power has undergone major changes in Bangladesh. Also, there is evidence that such changes have contributed to increased contraceptive use and consequent fertility decline (Khudaa et al. 1990; Khudaa and Barkat 1992). The Khudaa & Hossain (1996) study claim that access to safe drinking water and sanitation can be argued to have had some effects on infant and child mortality, and therefore, on fertility decline. Ideational changes resulting from increased access to the media have fostered modern outlooks and attitudes, thereby lowering high-fertility norms, even among the poor. Furthermore, landlessness and impoverishment have altered the economic value of children, especially sons. Consequently, there is evidence of a poverty-led demand for contraception. Conclusion: To sum up, it is indeed hard to determine the precise impact of female education on the total fertility of a woman because fertility is affected by many major and minor determinants and female education as one of them both directly and through other factors has effect on fertility. In case of Bangladesh given the rate of female education, fertility trend shows minimum or even no distinct relation with female education, especially when fertility desire, contraception use and total fertility are considered. Moreover, TFR and CPR in case of an educated woman were no significantly different from an uneducated woman. Thus, it ratifies the hypothesis that till now female education has very little impact on fertility in Bangladesh. That is why, it can be a policy suggestion for the government of Bangladesh that to attain the replacement level of fertility by 2015 (an MDG goal) family planning programs must be vigorously pursued alongside uplifting women status through female education.

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