COVID-19 and child education outcomes in Southern Ghana
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Date
2024
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Heliyon
Abstract
This study analyses the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on child education outcomes by
providing evidence on the gendered dimension, determinants and coping measures of informal
households in Southern Ghana. We rely on a face-to-face interview undertaken in January 2022
(i.e., approximately 2 years after the beginning of the pandemic) involving 761 students across
basic and secondary schools from 10 metropolitan, municipality and district assemblies (MMDAs)
in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. We document several disruptions to child education out comes such as learning practices, school attendance, class participation and academic perfor mance. The results also showed that per child education expenditure incurred due to the COVID 19 pandemic by the informal households was GHS305 (US$ 49). Additionally, we assess the
correlates of the negative effects on academic performance and COVID-19 related education
expenditure as a result of coping measures. Our results from Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) show
strong association between participation in online classes, age of students, ownership of television
and district of residence on COVID-19 related education expenditure. Results from Logit models
show that self-reported negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic on academic performance are
affected by gender and age of student, distance to market and location of residence. Interestingly,
we also found considerable gendered heterogeneity for the predictors of the COVID-19 pandemic
on child education outcomes. We conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated
countermeasures had negative effects on child education outcomes, and that informal households
incurred considerable costs in attempting to address the associated education challenges in
Southern Ghana. The findings have implications on the design and implementation of educational
policies and programs to address the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on child ed ucation outcomes in developing countries.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
COVID-19, Education, Academic performance, Gender