Maternal employment and children's education: a case-study of urban Ghana

Abstract

Since the Educational for All campaign and the Millennium Declaration, significant progress has been made in increasing school enrolment in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite this achievement, there is concern rapid expansion has put pressure on school systems at the cost of quality. Focusing on the West African country of Ghana, whereas the proportion of children age 6-17 years having ever attended school rose by 10% between 1991 and 2006, basic school completion has remained constant at approximately 50%. Consequently, research needs to take a wider definition of educational access and extend focus beyond initial engagement and consider appropriate progression. This paper employs multilevel level models to examine the association between basic school completion and secondary school attendance of adolescents with maternal employment in urban Ghana. Data comes from a sample of the 2010 Ghanaian Population and Housing Census. Although studies of education frequently incorporate maternal characteristics, such as educational levels, their labour force participation is a relatively neglected consideration. Mothers in the study were classified as not working, an employee in the formal sector, an employee in the informal sector, self-employed (without employees) in the non-agricultural sector, self employed (with employees) in the non-agricultural sector, family worker or other (mainly self-employed in the agricultural sector). Results suggest the greater educational progress of adolescents with mothers engaged in formal employment or self-employment (with employees) in the non-agricultural sector compared to those with mothers not working.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record