Disparities of Education and Poverty Among Households in Ghana

Ghana has adopted a poverty reduction strategy that emphasizes on an increased focus on poverty reduction in the design and implementation of its policies. The study uses the Ghana Living Standard Survey 4 data for the year 1998-99. It disaggregates the sample into five categories of households, namely agricultural farmers, public sector employees, private sector employees, non-farm self-employed, and non-working. The study identifies the level of education of these households according to four stages of education, i.e., primary, junior secondary, secondary, and tertiary. The study shows that negative relationship between the level of education and poverty is valid only in the case of incidence of poverty of agricultural farmers. There are more disparities in the households with primary and junior secondary level of education than the secondary and tertiary level. The disparities in the incidence of poverty are more noticeable among the households with secondary and tertiary educated heads than the households with primary and junior secondary educated heads. The disparities in the depth of poverty are more noticeable among the households with primary and secondary educated heads than the households with junior secondary and tertiary educated heads. The disparities in the severity of poverty are more noticeable among the households with primary and junior secondary educated heads than the households with secondary and tertiary educated heads. There exist significant differences in the incidence, depth, and severity of poverty across various categories of household heads and their level of education.