The Effects of Education and Fosterage on Child Labour: Evidence from Ghana

Abstract

The study examines the effect of education and fosterage on child labour with specific emphasis on fishing and mining communities. The study sample was on children between the ages of 5 – 17 years in Ghana using the 2012/2013 Ghana Living Standard Survey. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, we estimate a bivariate probit model while controlling for multicolloneirity and endogeneity in the data set. The results of the study suggests that quality of school and hours children spent in school per week has a significant negative relationship with child labour in Ghana. In examining fosterage, the results suggest that fosterage is not significant to explain child labour in Ghana. The study also investigates how hours children spent in school and fosterage can have effect on child labour in the fishing and mining communities. The result from the study suggests that in the fishing communities fosterage has the tedency to increase child labour in Ghana. In the case of hours spent by children in school per week, the outcome suggest that increasing the time children spend in schools by one hour would decrease child labour in the mining communities. Finally, variables such as age, gender, household size, head of household, educational status, location and child’s wage are significant to explain child labour, whiles household poverty, mother and father’s presence are insignificant to explain child labour.