An Empirical Analysis of Ashanti Region Annual Household Education Expenditure Using the Ghana Living Standards Survey Round Six Data

Abstract

Using data from the 2013 Ghana Living Standards Survey Round Six (GLSS VI), this paper analyses regional variables affecting regional household spending on education using the Tobit model. The results showed that households in the Ashanti region increased their education spending on all the four types of the education categories namely; basic education, secondary education, post-secondary education, tertiary education with the basic education expenditure accounting for 53% of households' education spending. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study on the Ashanti region of Ghana to analyse the determinants of private education spending using data from the 2013 Ghana Living Standards Survey. This paper was unable to identify several other important factors that determine household spending on education in the Ashanti region because the GLSS VI data were not configured to examine these variables. 53% of Ashanti's private household spending on education goes only to basic education, which is worrying because it undermines the Education for All initiative being promoted by UNESCO.