Determinants of School Attainment and Schooling Achievement in Ghana

Abstract

This study focuses on the parental decision making in relation to investment in the education or schooling of the child. The study distinguished between school-attainment and schooling achievement as separate schooling outcomes of the educational production function. The Study used data from a initially used for an investigation into the impact of excess fertility on the schooling of children in Ghana and data on BECE results of the children obtained from the West African Examinations Council. The results of the study show that school attainment and schooling achievement can be explained adequately by the child’s own characteristics, the household characteristics and the community characteristics. Household characteristics are strongest in explaining school attainment while they are weaker in explaining schooling achievement. On the other hand, the community dummies used to proxy the community environmental effects turned out to be strongest for the most urban of the four communities and weakest for the most rural of the communities. Educational policies must always consider both attainment and achievement as very important and necessary components of education production. Policies aimed at improving school attainment should have components, which aim at schooling achievement.