Summary
Key findings
- Having energy at home (electricity and modern cooking fuels) is linked to reading scores about 0.10 SD higher; the link with numeracy is weak and not statistically robust across specifications.
- The link is strongest among higher-performing pupils: in reading it rises from 0.09 SD at the 25th percentile to 0.14 SD at the 75th, and for numeracy it appears only at the top of the distribution.
- In rural areas, mothers' homework support combined with home energy goes with better numeracy among initially low-performing pupils; fathers' support goes with modest additional reading gains.
- The study recommends piloting energy access together with parental-support programmes before any national scale-up.
Methodology & context
- Uses nationally representative 2019 PASEC data for Cameroon (4,723 Grade 6 pupils in 272 schools); the main estimates cover 1,338 public-school pupils with complete data, and results are similar when missing values are imputed (1,882 pupils).
- Energy access is an index combining household electricity and modern cooking fuels; the paper uses OLS, multivariate and quantile regressions, plus interactions with mothers' and fathers' homework help. The data are observational, so the results are associations, not causal effects.
- In 2019, 46.3% of Cameroonian pupils were below minimum proficiency in reading and 66% in numeracy, with rural pupils furthest behind; Cameroon is expanding rural electricity through its Rural Electrification Master Plan.
Summary drafted with AI from the AFEP working paper and policy brief, and checked against them. See the full study for details.
Abstract
This paper uses data from the PASEC2019 survey to examine the relationship between access to energy at home and the learning outcomes of primary school pupils in Cameroon. Unlike most existing studies, which focus on electricity as a single dimension of energy access, this paper considers multiple dimensions of energy access. It uses ordinary least squares (OLS), multivariate, and quantile regressions to analyze both the average and distributional associations. The results reveal a strong and robust association between energy access and reading performance. However, the association with mathematics is weaker and more heterogeneous across specifications and along the performance distribution. Further distributional analysis shows that energy access benefits higher-performing students more, suggesting that it may reinforce existing learning inequalities. To better understand these patterns, the paper examines the moderating role of parental homework assistance. The findings indicate that energy access and parental support act as complementary inputs in the home learning process. In rural areas, maternal support strengthens the association between energy access and numeracy, while paternal support strengthens the association with reading and overall learning. Most importantly, maternal support combined with improved energy access produces better numeracy outcomes among initially low-performing students, contributing to a reduction in performance gaps. In contrast, paternal support combined with improved energy access is accompanied by modest additional gains in reading for supported pupils. These findings emphasize that the educational benefits of energy access depend not only on infrastructure itself, but also on the household environment through which these benefits are realized.