A logistic regression model is estimated to assess the role of household,
community and regional factors in determining household demand for schooling
in Ethiopia. Similarly a canonical Discriminant function, which separates those
with the demand and those without, is computed. The strategy first to study
primary and secondary school demand separately and then to study the overall
school demand.
Results of the study showed that location of residence, number of school age
persons, education of the head, expenditure (a proxy for income), and mother’s
education in years of schooling to be important determinants of household
demand for schooling. A separate primary and secondary schooling demand
analysis also consistently confirmed the above results, except that returns to
education was found positively associated with secondary school demand, while
distance to school was negatively associated with both primary and secondary
school demand. In general, the results of the study demonstrate the usefulness of
applying these techniques to the analysis of inter correlated variables. The
techniques proved to be effective to the extent, 75% in Discriminant and 85% in
logistic regression, of correctly assigning the cases to their correct groups.