Ghana: Research Overview, University of Cape Coast

CREATE conducted a longitudinal survey of 36 schools and 1,049 households in two deprived districts in Ghana in order to examine issues of access and exclusion. Over 2,500 children were tracked and their attendance and achievement monitored. The Community and Schools Study (ComSS) took place in Mfantesman and Savelugu-Nanton over four years. Alongside surveys and child tracking qualitative studies of the experiences of drop-outs and never-enrollers in the two districts were undertaken. The two districts chosen are typical of areas in the south and north of the country and allow for some comparisons. A number of complementary studies were conducted using secondary data, addressing issues of schooling, health and nutrition, costs and finance, national trends in exclusion and equity; and the character and development of private schooling. Data from national-level surveys (GLSS, CWIQ), administrative sources (EMIS), the ComSS study and CREATE qualitative studies are the principal sources of evidence employed in CREATE research.

Some Findings

Initial access to basic education in Ghana has expanded steadily since the 1980s though progress stalled for a period in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Recently the introduction of capitation and tuition free schooling has resulted in an accelerated growth in enrolments in Grade 1. However, as many as 10% of children remain excluded nationally. For them, the costs associated with schooling, poverty, livelihoods in farming, location in the north and in rural areas, and fosterage and migration are among the factors that inhibit access along with low perceived benefits and lack of relevance (Akaguri, 2010; Rolleston, 2009; Ananga, 2009; Rolleston et al., 2010; Rolleston, 2011).

Over the last decade enrolment rates have increased but higher levels of participation appear to have been accompanied by increased numbers of over age students and little reduction in drop out. Completion rates have remained largely unchanged. The introduction of the Capitation Grant did have an impact on enrolments but this effect was one-off. Higher enrolment amongst the most marginalised groups almost certainly requires more targeted interventions to address specific exclusion issues directly. Those who remain excluded include those for whom school remains difficult to access physically due to distance or disability, those for whom indirect costs such as food, materials and transportation are prohibitive especially at JHS and above, and those whose labour remains essential for family livelihoods.

In the north, less progress has been made in relation to rates of primary drop-out and completion than in the south. Progression to JHS also remains much lower in the north as a proportion of the age group. Drop-out is associated with poor attendance and performance, caregiver illiteracy, low income and high schooling costs, household composition and children’s work. It is associated with complex patterns of temporary periodic absence as well as permanent cessation of schooling (Ananga, 2011). Progression depends particularly strongly on household livelihoods and welfare beyond the basic phase, although the vast majority of those who reach primary completion do progress to JHS except in the north. In some parts of Ghana almost half of all children fail to make the transition to JHS and many more than half fail to complete JHS, the end of the basic education cycle.

An important finding of CREATE is the very high prevalence of over age children, who in many poor rural areas constitute the majority of children in school. Absence from school is high amongst children from low income households and achievement is relatively low which leads to age in grade slippage More than 40% of children in Grade 1 are eight years old or more in a national sample. In the ComSS most children are over age. Late enrolment which is compounded by repetition and overage progression is thus very prevalent in Ghana. It is closely associated with silent exclusion indicated by poor attendance and low achievement. One important explanation of over-age entry of Grade 1 is growth stunting due to poor nutrition which can lead to late entry because children are judged to be “too small” especially if chronological age is underestimated. A low Body Mass Index is associated with over age entry and progression, low achievement and drop out. The research emphasises the importance of early interventions to obviate stunting (Rolleston et al., 2010; Buxton, 2011). Fieldwork indicated that many children were not aware of their birthday and were uncertain of their age. School’s record keeping was often incomplete and birthdates were not collected for every child, making it difficult to monitor age in grade.

The ComSS fieldwork also identified very low levels of achievement in some rural schools with performance three or more grades below the norm for the grade. Attendance in some of the schools is below 70% on a daily basis indicating that much learning time is being lost. There were also instances were lateness and absence were followed by corporal punishment, providing a disincentive for some to attend in the future. Patterns for drop out were clearly varied with some patterns signifying likely drop out in the future. None of the schools had systems that recognised these patterns and intervened to resolve the various issues that were likely to lead to drop out.   

Some Policy Messages

  • The Capitation Grant has had an impact on initial enrolment but this effect may not be sustained. Introducing capitation grants can only result in the abolition of tuition fees once. If it is to encourage participation in the future the grant needs to represent a more significant proportion of unit cost per pupil so that it can be used to improve the quality and enhance the classroom environment and learning resources available (Akyeampong, 2011). Part of the capitation grant should be ring-fenced for learning improvement. It should also be tiered and linked to deprivation indices for districts so that the poorest school districts receive more.
  • Future education policy needs to target marginalised groups more purposefully and further flat rate subsidies to all household should be avoided in favour of directing subsidy to the poorest. The current flat rate subsidies benefit richer areas and households especially at JHS and SSS level and there is a case for fees to continue to be charged to children from richer households in these schools and the income used to improve quality.
  • There is a great need to increase investments into public basic schools in rural areas to improve their quality so as to give children from poor household’s access to a basic education that has real potential to improve their chances of accessing post-basic education. Over 70% of all university entrants come from less than 20% of secondary schools (Djangmah, 2011) and most are from private primary schools. This is both inequitable and inefficient.
  • It is important that the indicators for measuring progress in educational access include distributional measures of improved participation and progression across the basic school cycle to establish whether equity has been improving. This should be used as a core measure of progress, not aggregate enrolment rates. Key indicators include giving special attention to monitoring the transition from Grade 1 to 2, and monitoring the transition from Grades 6 to 7 and 9 to 10, and to age in grade and completion rates. Participation by children from different household quintiles should be included in the indicator system.
  • Investments into improving quality education in early primary schooling (and preschool) should be given priority. In public schools, more experienced and more effective teachers should be encouraged teach in the early grades and should be incentivised to achieve improved learning with high progression rates at the appropriate age through the primary school system.
  • Every local authority and school should develop a database which links registration of births with expected year of school enrolment for children within different catchment areas. This will require collaboration between district health and education authorities. At the beginning of each academic year, this data can be used to help identify who has enrolled, not enrolled, or moved out of the catchment area of the school. This should be piloted in areas which have a history of poor enrolments, and then rolled out nationally.
  • Birth registration should be linked to sensitisation campaigns to highlight the demerits of over-age enrolment especially in rural areas. The goal should be to eliminate over entry within the next three years and minimise repetition to below 5% of children, especially in grade1.
  • The introduction of conditional cash transfers linked to timely enrolment and progression should be considered in areas with high incidence of poverty, and where livelihoods are fragile.
  • Incentives should be developed to reward schools that meet efficiency and effectiveness criteria for progression, repetition, drop out and completion rates.
  • Introduce systems that can monitor attendance effectively for both pupils and teachers. A first step is to ensure that schools have enrolment and attendance records that can be held electronically at district level. Where there is mobile phone coverage data can be returned digitally. Circuit supervisors on regular visits to schools should monitor and update these records. Regular inspection of school attendance, achievement and promotion records will help to identify children at risk of dropping out, or who have dropped out, so that the necessary action can be taken at school level to reduce this risk.

The CREATE studies have shown that there are a number of factors outside the education system that have an impact on access. These include fosterage and livelihood patterns especially which involve seasonal migration and internal displacement. Some of the effects of these factors can be ameliorated with more effective and responsive educational administration. In the long term, investing in the development of deprived districts both in general and specifically educationally, should lead to improvements in the welfare of inhabitants and have a positive knock-on positive effect on household attitudes and participation in basic education. In some areas e.g. parts of the north with low population density and seasonality, novel methods of service delivery drawing on the effectiveness of School for Life may need consideration. Universal enrolment and completion of basic education depends on improvements at the margin and in the most disadvantaged areas without which it will not be achieved in 2015 or indeed and any time in the future.