Education is an influencing factor of health. In general, higher levels of education leads to better health. In 2010, a total of 4,6 million children were out of school in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania and Uganda together. Since 1990 to 2010 progress is made in for example Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Not in every country this progress is made, for instance in Eritrea the numbers stayed the same. Also from some countries data isn’t available, for example in Somalia and South Sudan. Despite the lack of data, there can be predicted the number of children that are out of school will be high, because of the conflicts going on in these countries. East Africa faces a huge disparity within countries between the rich and poor in terms of school enrolment. In figure 1 this is shown by the percentage of children aged 7 to 16 years from the poorest and richest households that never have been to school. In Somalia this gap is the biggest, where 92% of the poorest never been to school in compare to 13% of the richest. In Rwanda the gap is the smallest with 3% of the richest never been to school and 11% of the poorest. Lack of schooling gives problems in later life with finding a well-paid job and thus being able to financially care for yourself and your health.
Source: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000219351
Sources used:
– https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775711000525
– https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000219351
East Africa 
Miyase Cetin posted this comment on 22 november 2019 14:!6. Because we moved the blog post to another place, the comment disappeared. That’s why we (the authors of this blog) place it again.
“Hi,
Interesting blog post about education as an influencing factor of health! You mentioned in the first paragraph that from some countries data about education is not available and gave as an example Somalia. But in Figure 1, the percentage of children from Somalia that never have been to school is given, so maybe you mean another country? Or do you mean that more accurate data is missing about Somalia?
Further, it is good to read about the fact that the under-five-mortality is decreasing! But what is the reason for this? It would be nice to add that too. Keep going!
Miyase Cetin”
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Dear Miyase,
Good questions! What we mean is that the number of children out of school in Somalia is unknown. Due to the conflicts there, there is a lack of national data. The figure refers to the percentage of children aged 7-16 years from the poorest and richest households that never have been to school, this data is available because of the effort of EFA Global Monitoring Report team.
Kind regards,
Jinke, Joanne, Marieke, Thom and Imke
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Dear group,
I enjoyed reading your blog. I think you made clear why you are focusing on this specific region and what your target group is. I also found it very interesting to read about the underlying factors which all have their effects on health. However, in this post on education, I missed some clarifying numbers on health that could have been added to your explanation that a lack of schooling will lead to worse health outcomes. For example, how is Somalia performing in terms of health indicators compared to Rwanda? That would clearly explain the effect of lower education, like you did in the next blog on economy.
Kind regards,
Lisa
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Dear Lisa,
Thanks for your comment. Education influences health in some different ways. For instance higher educated people have a higher income, healthier behaviours, social/phsycological benefits and live in healthier neighborhoods. Also health influences education. Healthier people have a higher attendance in school, better concentration and less learning disabilities. Via this link you can find a nice model showing these two pathways: https://societyhealth.vcu.edu/work/the-projects/why-education-matters-to-health-exploring-the-causes.html
However, it is hard to compare the health outcomes of two countries and explain these only on the educational level, as there are many other factors also influencing the health outcomes (for example economy and political situation). If we look at Somalia and Rwanda, there are differences in health outcomes, for instance the life expectancy. In Somalia the life expectancy is 56,7 years and in Rwanda 68,3, but of course this is not only because of differences in education.
We hope you found this extra information interesting and that it clarifies your questions.
Kind regards,
Jinke, Joanne, Marieke, Thom and Imke
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