Education, Child Marriage, and Work Outcomes Among Young People in Rural Malawi

Objectives

The study aimed to examine whether child marriage changes how education translates into paid and unpaid work among young people in rural Malawi. It assessed how grade attainment, reading with comprehension and numeracy skills relate to participation in paid and unpaid work, and whether these relationships differ by age at marriage and by gender.

Findings

Child marriage was highly prevalent among young women and rare among young men, while paid work was uncommon for women and much more common for men. Young people who married as children had lower schooling attainment and weaker literacy and numeracy skills than those who married as adults or remained unmarried. Higher grade attainment was associated with a greater probability of paid work for young women who married as children and as adults, and for young men with some secondary schooling, but the overall link between education and paid work was modest.

Child marriage did not strongly change the way reading and numeracy skills translated into paid work for young married women, and only reading skills showed clear positive associations with paid work for young married men. Grade attainment reduced unpaid work for young women married at ages sixteen to seventeen and for unmarried young women, while among young unmarried men higher schooling was linked to more unpaid work. Overall, the relationship between education and work was weak, reflecting limited learning, scarce paid work opportunities and persistent high levels of child and young adult marriage.

Recommendations

Efforts to improve economic outcomes for young people in Malawi should focus on strengthening learning outcomes rather than only increasing years of schooling, so that literacy and numeracy skills are sufficient to support access to decent paid work. Policies should also expand opportunities for paid employment, particularly for young women, so that education can be converted into meaningful work. Strategies to reduce child and young adult marriage remain essential, but should be combined with investments in school quality and labour markets, as delaying marriage alone will not ensure that young people can translate education into better economic outcomes.