Armed conflict and schooling in Rwanda: Digging deeper

Investigating the impact of armed conflict on schooling in Rwanda, we present four key findings. First, we find a strong drop in schooling, both when using DHS data and when relying on two waves of population census data bracketing the violence. Second, in contrast to previous findings, we show that there is no leveling off, i.e. the drop is not stronger for non-poor and boys. Third, we demonstrate that the armed conflict caused a drop both in primary and secondary schooling attainment, be it through different channels; the drop in primary schooling driven by slower grade progression and increased drop-outs, while the drop in secondary schooling mostly due to a decline in school initiation. Finally, our results reveal a spatial mismatch between commune-level genocide intensity and the drop in schooling. We test for several potentially confounding factors, but find that none of these factors can fully account for the mismatch. We conjecture that the impact of armed conflict on schooling in Rwanda was nationwide, both because the disruption caused by the genocide affected every corner of the country and because - besides the genocide - other forms of violence took place in Rwanda in the nineties.