This paper uses Demographic and Health Surveys from 20 sub-Saharan African countries to investigate the link between the birth of an “unwanted child” and the schooling decision of children (dropout). After controlling for household unobserved heterogeneity, we show that, the birth of a “wanted child” and the birth of an “unwanted child” affect different children’s schooling decisions taken by the household. The birth of a “wanted child” has no effect on the probability that a child drops out of school while the birth of an “unwanted child” significantly increases the probability to drop out of school. This result suggests that, the unexpected birth of a child strengthens household’s constraints and keeping all children at school becomes unaffordable.