PARENTAL DIVORCE AND CHILDREN'S ACADEMIC OUTCOMES: A REVIEW OF EVIDENCE FROM BASIC EDUCATION SETTINGS IN RWANDA

Parental divorce has emerged as one of the most consequential social disruptions affecting children's academic trajectories worldwide, with its toll increasingly visible in sub-Saharan African societies undergoing rapid social transformation. This review synthesizes empirical evidence on the effects of parental divorce on children's academic outcomes in basic education settings, with particular emphasis on the Rwandan context. Drawing on secondary data from Rwanda's Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey, judicial performance reports (Rwanda Judiciary), national education statistics, child protection assessments, UNICEF Rwanda's education situation analysis, UNESCO Institute for Statistics and Global Education Monitoring Report data, household welfare data, MIGEPROF policy frameworks, and peer-reviewed empirical studies from global and African literature, this review maps the pathways through which family dissolution undermines educational engagement, academic achievement, psychosocial wellbeing, and school retention among learners at the primary and lower-secondary levels. Judicial data document a precipitous rise in divorce cases from 21 filings in 2016 to 8,941 granted divorces in 2019, and a sustained plateau of approximately 2,674–3,322 annual cases between 2020 and 2025, with Kigali accounting for a disproportionate share of urban family dissolutions. Against this backdrop, the review identifies four core mechanisms economic deprivation, emotional and psychological destabilization, erosion of parental educational involvement, and residential instability that converge to widen the achievement gap between children from divorced and intact families. The review further examines moderating factors, including child age at parental separation, custody arrangements, co-parenting quality, school-based psychosocial support, and community resilience programmes. Evidence-based recommendations are advanced for educators, school administrators, policymakers, and NGO practitioners to design inclusive, trauma-responsive interventions targeting the academic needs of children from dissolved families.