In
honour of International Day of Education tomorrow, we will look further at the educational component of the Human Capital Index discussed earlier.
The graph above compares differences between the expected years of schooling and
learning-adjusted years of schooling.
Expected years of schooling is how many years a child is expected to spend in school by the time they turn 18 years. It can include pre-primary, primary and secondary. Most children in this region would be expected to complete primary education which would be 6 – 7 years. For about half of the countries, children would be expected to complete lower secondary which would be 9 – 10 years.
The learning-adjusted years of schooling simply uses test scores as way to assess how much students have learned. In an ideal world, a student who has spent 6 years in school would have 6 years of knowledge, however that is not the case in the real world where challenges such as lack of trained teachers, limited learning materials, poor infrastructure etc. contribute to children learning less than they should. The learning-adjusted years of schooling looks at how many years of schooling are actually spent learning based on how much students know.
We see that the learning-adjusted years of schooling are less than the expected years of schooling for all countries meaning that students have less knowledge/skills than would be expected based on their years of schooling.
The difference ranges between 2 and 4 years except Ghana which has a gap of 6 years. That means that in Ghana, students spend almost 12 years in school but their performance on standardized tests is equivalent to 6 years of schooling. That also means that for about half of the time that Ghanaian students spend in school, they are not being engaged in activities to build knowledge and skills.
This is cause for concern as Ghana, like many sub-Saharan African countries have implemented free basic education policies to increase educational participation however it would seem such policies have had success improving quantity but not quality which is one of the targets of SDG4 (inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all).
Expected years of schooling is how many years a child is expected to spend in school by the time they turn 18 years. It can include pre-primary, primary and secondary. Most children in this region would be expected to complete primary education which would be 6 – 7 years. For about half of the countries, children would be expected to complete lower secondary which would be 9 – 10 years.
The learning-adjusted years of schooling simply uses test scores as way to assess how much students have learned. In an ideal world, a student who has spent 6 years in school would have 6 years of knowledge, however that is not the case in the real world where challenges such as lack of trained teachers, limited learning materials, poor infrastructure etc. contribute to children learning less than they should. The learning-adjusted years of schooling looks at how many years of schooling are actually spent learning based on how much students know.
We see that the learning-adjusted years of schooling are less than the expected years of schooling for all countries meaning that students have less knowledge/skills than would be expected based on their years of schooling.
The difference ranges between 2 and 4 years except Ghana which has a gap of 6 years. That means that in Ghana, students spend almost 12 years in school but their performance on standardized tests is equivalent to 6 years of schooling. That also means that for about half of the time that Ghanaian students spend in school, they are not being engaged in activities to build knowledge and skills.
This is cause for concern as Ghana, like many sub-Saharan African countries have implemented free basic education policies to increase educational participation however it would seem such policies have had success improving quantity but not quality which is one of the targets of SDG4 (inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all).