Okyere Charles Yaw, Otchere Frank, Darko Joseph Kujo, Osei Christian Kwaku
Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, P. O. Box LG68, Legon-Accra, Ghana.
Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), College of Humanities, University of Ghana, P. O. Box LG 74, Legon-Accra, Ghana.
Heliyon. 2024 Feb 15;10(4):e26238. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e26238. eCollection 2024 Feb 29.
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 outcomes such as learning practices, school attendance, class participation and academic performance. 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 education outcomes in developing countries.
本研究通过提供关于加纳南部非正规家庭的性别层面、决定因素和应对措施的证据，分析了新冠疫情对儿童教育成果的影响。我们依据2022年1月进行的一项面对面访谈（即疫情开始约两年后），该访谈涉及加纳大阿克拉地区10个大都会、市和区议会（MMDA）的中小学761名学生。我们记录了儿童教育成果受到的若干干扰，如学习习惯、上学出勤率、课堂参与度和学业成绩。结果还显示，非正规家庭因新冠疫情为每个孩子承担的教育支出为305加纳塞地（49美元）。此外，我们评估了应对措施对学业成绩产生负面影响以及与新冠疫情相关的教育支出的相关因素。我们的普通最小二乘法（OLS）结果表明，参加在线课程、学生年龄、电视机拥有情况和居住地区与新冠疫情相关的教育支出之间存在密切关联。Logit模型结果显示，自我报告的新冠疫情对学业成绩的负面影响受学生性别和年龄、到市场的距离以及居住地点的影响。有趣的是，我们还发现新冠疫情对儿童教育成果的预测因素存在相当大的性别差异。我们得出结论，新冠疫情及相关应对措施对儿童教育成果产生了负面影响，并且非正规家庭在试图应对加纳南部相关教育挑战时承担了相当大的成本。这些发现对制定和实施教育政策及项目具有启示意义，以应对新冠疫情对发展中国家儿童教育成果的长期影响。
