Over the years, studies have consistently shown that education is a critical factor influencing people’s health and use of health services. In Kenya, research shows that the use of family planning and other reproductive health services is quite low among women with no education and those who have not finished primary school. Only one in 10 women with no education uses family planning services, compared to six in 10 of those with secondary or higher level of education.
Among pregnant women, only one in 10 with no education delivers in a health facility compared to seven in 10 among those with a secondary education or higher. The low use of these reproductive health services has contributed to a high number of unintended pregnancies as well as maternal and child illness and deaths. Thus, improvements in reproductive health will depend in part on increasing education enrollment and retention rates across all levels of education. To accomplish this, the government must take measures to ensure that education is more accessible and affordable, especially to girls.
What Are The Linkages Between Health and Education?
The attainment of good health for all people is among the most important development goals worldwide. It is included in the development targets of most countries and in the universally accepted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted after 2000. However, for a population to attain and sustain good health, other critical factors outside the health sector must also be taken into consideration. Studies in a number of countries have shown that a woman’s use of family planning and reproductive health services, such as antenatal care, delivery, and postnatal care, is associated with her level of education.
One multi-country study found that women who had completed primary education were five times more likely than those with lower educational attainment to use the services of a skilled provider at the time of delivery. Also, the women who had completed primary school were more than twice as likely as their less educated counterparts to use modern family planning methods and make four or more antenatal care visits during pregnancy.
Reproductive health services and education are mutually reinforcing. Adolescent pregnancies diminish girls’ life prospects because the girls are usually forced or pressured to drop out of school, leaving them with little education and empowerment, which in turn perpetuate poverty. Pregnancies among adolescent girls are due to premarital sex or early marriages, over which the young girls hardly have a say. The situation is aggravated by a lack of awareness and low utilization of reproductive health and family planning services. In Kenya, 106 births occur for every 1,000 adolescent girls ages 15 to 19 annually—an extremely high rate of adolescent pregnancy. Therefore, efforts to increase girls’ education must also address the problem of adolescent pregnancy, so that girls do not become mothers before adulthood.
Author: Mark Gachagua
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