Environmental Chores and Children’s Schooling in Cameroon: Is There a Difference Between the North and the Rest of the Country?

This paper examines the effects of participation in environmental resource collection on children’s schooling. Using data from the second Survey on Employment and the Informal Sector on 4764 children in Cameroon carried out in 2010, the probit model with instrumental variables (IV probit) and the two-stage conditional maximum likelihood (2SCML) model show that environmental resource collection and its intensity reduce the likelihood of child schooling. This negative impact is more important in the North than in the South of the country. The study recommends the political intervention based on the provision of public equipment such as water and fuel for cooking especially in the Northern part of the country. The fight against poverty can also enable households to be connected to water and have access to fuels such as gas, thereby reducing children’s working hours and improving their education.