Sending kids to school: Freeing up or redirecting parent labor supply?

In most households, parents must work in order to provide for their families. However, childcare responsibilities can constrain the time available to work, particularly for mothers. On the other hand, older children’s contributions to household production can allow parents to reallocate time to other activities. This study explores how adults with school-aged children in Kenya adjusted their labor supply in response to changes in their time constraints during COVID-19 school closures. We consider whether childcare demands or child labor contributions are more important in determining parents’ labor supply, an important question for schooling and childcare policies.

Children, schooling, and constraints on parents’ time use

Children require both care and supervision, and the nature of this care varies depending on their age. In Kenya and many other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), formal early childhood care is not common (Samman et al. 2016) and most care is concentrated within the household. In addition to parents, other adult relatives and older siblings are also important sources of childcare. One exception is that, for school-aged children, schools also implicitly provide childcare in addition to their educational mission. Having children in school frees up time for parents to work or enjoy some leisure during the day without having to monitor their children. 

But sending children to school can also have a cost for some households: the child cannot contribute to household production activities, such as working on the family farm or caring for young siblings (see e.g., Rosenzweig & Evenson 1977). Households in Kenya and other LMICs are more likely than households in high-income countries to be working in informal family farm or non-farm enterprise work, and children often contribute to these activities. For example, around 30% of Kenyan children aged 6-14 are estimated to work on their household farm, often alongside attending school (Moyi 2011). If children’s availability to contribute to household production changes, this can affect parents’ labor supply decisions.

School closures reduced parents’ labor supply

Many studies from high-income countries find that COVID-19 school closures reduced labor supply among mothers with school-aged children, with increased childcare burdens identified as the main mechanism (see e.g., Zamarro & Prados 2021). Using panel survey data from households across Kenya, we find evidence that adults with school-aged children reduced their weekly work hours and increased their childcare time after schools closed. But our study focuses on what happened when schools began to reopen.

In Kenya, schools closed for all children in March 2020, but the timing of reopenings varied by grade. Students in grades 4, 8, and 12 returned to school on October 12, 2020 while all other students returned on January 4, 2021. We compare changes in outcomes after the initial partial reopening for households with a child in grade 4, 8, or 12 against households with a child in an adjacent grade. These households have very similar characteristics and trends in parents’ work hours while schools were closed. 

Adults in households where at least one child returned to school worked 4.3 hours (27%) more per week, on average, after schools partially reopened. Most of this increase came from hours working on family farms. But we find no evidence that this increase is a result of reduced childcare responsibilities after a child returns to school. Reported hours spent on childcare did not change, likely because most households had other children still at home. Households where we would expect a greater decrease in childcare needs after a child returned to school---those with only one child or where the returning child is younger---did not increase work hours by more. Why then did adult work hours increase?

Making up for reduced child home production

When the eligible children—mostly ages 10, 14, and 18—returned to school, they had less time available to contribute to household production. In households where children worked on family farms while schools were closed, those eligible to return to school after the partial reopening worked 3.2 hours (31%) less per week than children in adjacent grades. Households with larger declines in child farm work hours also had larger increases in adult farm work hours, indicating a substitution from child to adult labor.

Another possibility would have been for households to hire in labor to make up for reduced child labor. Indeed, we find that wealthier households with children eligible to return to school are twice as likely to hire any farm labor after the partial reopening than comparison households. Adults in these households did not increase their farm work hours. The average increases in adult work hours are driven entirely by less wealthy households which may not have been able to afford to hire additional farm labor.

Implications for school policy

These results are consistent with child agricultural labor being an important input for many households in low-income countries, with implications for decisions about whether and when to send children to school. While we study impacts of school closure policies, the results may be relevant for other policies affecting school availability in similar settings, such as mandatory secondary schooling, reduced school costs, or changes in school calendars.

Further research could examine how the timing of school breaks relative to the agricultural calendar affect adults’ labor supply, the use of hired farm labor, agricultural productivity, as well as human capital development and longer-term effects for children in agricultural communities.

Article reference

Biscaye, P.E., Egger, D., & Pape, U.J. (2025). Adolescent Schooling and Adult Labor Supply: Evidence from COVID-19 School Closures and Reopenings in Kenya. World Bank Economic Review, lhaf021, doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhaf021. Published 13 August 2025.

Bibliographical references

• Zamarro, G. & Prados, M.J. 2021. “Gender differences in couples’ division of childcare, work and mental health during COVID-19.” Review of Economics of the Household 19 (1): 11–40.
• Moyi, P. 2011. “Child labor and school attendance in Kenya.” Educational Research and Reviews 6 (1): 26-35.
• Rosenzweig, M.R. & Evenson, R. 1977. “Fertility, schooling, and the economic contribution of children of rural India: An econometric analysis.” Econometrica 45 (5): 1065-1079