‘The Impact of Mother’s Education on Family Size’

‘The Impact of Mother’s Education on Family Size’

The stresses of climate change and explosive state of demographic transition in developing countries like the Gambia pose great challenge to sustainable development. As a result, there is need for orienting education in these countries for sustainable development in order to help them improve the capacity of their people to address environment and development issues. For countries with high fertility rates like the Gambia, girls’ education is paramount for sustainable development because an educated girl is likely to increase her personal earnings potential, and be more likely to delay marriage and pregnancy. Consequently, educating girls has been shown to reduce population growth and, thus, to less population pressures on the environment.

It is in this context that the study wants to determine the type and level of education that modifies fertility levels in the Gambia. An attempt would be made to find out the minimum period of schooling required for the mother to make an impact on family size; and the relationship between the type of school attended (English or Arabic) by the mother and family size. To collect information about ‘The Impact of Mother’s Education on Family Size’ the descriptive survey method of collecting data would be employed. The main tool for data collection would be that of questionnaire survey. The data collection would be based on personal information collected from mothers of different categories (Illiterates with no formal education, Basic Cycle School Graduates Arabic & English, Grade 12 Graduates Arabic & English, and Tertiary Institution Graduates). A total of 300 (50 from each category) married respondents would be selected to fill the questionnaires.

Being a micro level research, the results of the study would be applicable only to the study area; however, the study can serve as a useful indicator of direction to pursue more rigorous investigations on the impact of mother’s education on fertility in the Gambia; which will be useful in guiding educational planners, policy designers and other stakeholders in providing relevant and quality education for sustainable development.