Abstract
The issue of energy access and its influence on education in rural sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Uganda, remains significant but underexplored. This paper examines how time spent gathering and cooking with fuelwood affects schooling of rural children in Uganda. Over 97 % of rural households in Uganda rely on traditional fuels for cooking, with 87.6 % particularly using fuelwood. Drawing on Uganda National Household Survey (2019/20) data, the study employs an Instrumental Variable Probit model for the analysis. We observe that a minute increase in time spent collecting fuelwood reduces schooling by 0.4 %. Use of traditional cookstoves lowers schooling by 24.3 %, while improved cookstoves increase schooling by 6.4 %. Factors like child gender, region, and education of the household head significantly influence schooling. However, household income and child age are not significant in this study. This can be attributed to government's provision of free universal primary and secondary education, where household income does not directly influence access to schooling. Additionally, since all children in a household are involved in fuelwood collection regardless of their age, child age becomes insignificant. This study contributes to understanding how energy poverty perpetuates educational inequalities, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. We recommend subsidised modern renewable technology dissemination to rural communities to reduce reliance on collected fuelwood thereby freeing up school time, campaigns for uptake of improved cookstoves and affirmative action for equitable education access. Future research can focus on exploring community-specific interventions for modern renewable energy adoption and how they influence child schooling not only in Uganda but across sub-Saharan Africa.
