Public and Private Schooling in Ghana: A Census and Comparative Study
The low-cost private education sector is serving low-income families in developing countries. There, however, are doubts that such education, especially that provided by unregistered schools, is of poor quality.
The authors conducted a census and survey of schools in the district of Ga in Ghanato explore the nature and extent of private education. They compared a range of inputs, such as teacher activity, availability of desks, chairs, libraries, toilets and drinking water in government, unregistered and registered private schools. Differences between registered and unregistered private schools included age, fee levels, teacher salaries and class size. Study findings indicate that private schools should improve their quality and introduce state or donor-funded voucher systems for poor students for the private sector to meet the ‘education for all’ targets.