When school overlaps with farming: Measuring reduced educational advancement and simulating solutions in Africa

The annual school and agricultural calendars exercise near-universal influence on life in the developing world, yet until recently there was little research on the interaction between the two. In the United States, it’s a widely held belief that the typical school calendar developed around the already existing farming calendar. While some debate this (Fischel (2006) argues it had more to do with summer migration), the economic intuition is sound: Schedule school when low farm labor demand decreases the opportunity cost of school, and break in the summer when high farm labor demand increases the opportunity cost of school. This arrangement should lead to higher school participation in farming communities where children are expected to help on the household farm.