The Effect of Poverty, Household Structure and Child Work on School Enrolment

Abstract

This study examines the effect of poverty, household structure and child work on child schooling in Ghana across gender and age dimensions using data from the GLSS 4 and 5. We find that there exist variations in the effect of the various explanatory variables on child schooling across gender and age dimensions. Parental education, especially that of the father is important in influencing child schooling. The effect of father’s education on child schooling is higher for boys than for girls and for children in the 15~19 age group than those at lower age groups. However, mother’s education had the greatest influence on girls’ schooling than boys and on children at lower age groups than those in the 15~19 age group. The effect of poverty on child schooling was higher for boys than for girls and for younger children than for older children. Child work significantly reduces enrolment probabilities with the effect being higher for girls than for boys and higher for older children than younger children. The study concludes that, household human and physical capital endowments are important considerations in child schooling decisions. Thus, policies to ensure meaningful access to all must be inherently pro-poor.

Keywords: Poverty, Education, Gender, Age, Ghana