Reconstruction or Social Control? Primary Education Provision in Rwanda

• In Event: Political Mobilization and State Formation in Postcolonial Societies

Abstract

Did the Rwandan government use primary education to promote social control in contested areas after the 1994 civil war and genocide? I investigate this question using data on war crimes prosecutions and educational attainment before and after the civil war. War crimes prosecutions data is a useful way to indicate the areas that the Rwandan government perceived as contested or threatening to their stability, as there are well-documented concerns around the politicization of the courts’ proceedings and undue influence of the executive branch over trial outcomes. Thus, sectors with a high number of war crimes prosecutions likely indicate the degree to which the government viewed the area as a threat. As such, I leverage a difference-in-differences identification strategy to estimate the impact of residing in a high-war crimes prosecution area of the country on years of schooling. I find that, on average, individuals residing in high-prosecution areas attained 0.31 more years of schooling than those residing in low-prosecution areas. I complement this quantitative analysis with a qualitative exploration of politicians’ statements regarding the function and expansion of primary education after the civil war. These results suggest that the Rwandan government expanded primary education more in contested areas to firmly establish the new government’s foothold and maintain social control post-civil war. Additionally, this article provides empirical support for the state-building theory of education expansion and suggests its relevance for explaining present-day educational expansion in contexts beyond the theory’s origins that are often cast as achievements of the international development and aid sectors.

Author

• Katy Norris, University College London