The plight of orphansa and abandoned children (OAC) is an increasing global problem that is particularly per- vasive in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa [1]. Improving the educational attainment of the 153 million orphans and other vulnerable children worldwide is a key goal for development policymakers and practi- tioners. International declarations such as the Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All Movement indicate that the educational attainment of vulnerable children has become a global priority. Most recently, the 2011 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS targeted increases in school attendance of orphans as an import- ant and measureable indicator of progress [2].
To understand which policies can improve educational attainment for OAC, decision makers must first under- stand the determinants of and barriers to these outcomes. However, there are mixed results regarding which factors, including orphanhood itself, are significantly associated with educational attainment. Previous research shows that the loss of a parent can lead to a series of developmental disadvantages resulting in poor education [3-7], such as lags in grade for age and school attendance relative to non-orphans [3,7,8]. In contrast, other studies find little negative impact of parental death on child education [9-11] and instead find that alternative factors such as wealth, age, or the child’s relationship to the head of household are better predictors of education outcomes [12]. Importantly, many of these studies are restricted to single country analyses, rendering results arguably context specific.