Concept Note: Validation of Non-state Education Advocacy Statements

Context

While there has been much criticism of the role non-state schools play in driving inequality within education systems, what IDPF has seen from over 13 years of supporting education in Ghana is the opposite. For instance, low fee private schools have complemented the government’s effort to educate all children. Indeed, while Low Fee Private Schools (LFPS) rarely serve the poorest quintile, they are  serving the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quintiles,  thereby actively bridging the gap between the richest and poorest quintiles. Also, LFPS are reducing pressure on public education systems – a critical need in low- and middle-income countries. As a private Foundation with extensive experience serving these schools, We believe  a collaborative body of evidence supporting this statement is an important tool for shifting negative perceptions of this LFPS sector, to improve coordination and effective universal regulation inclusive of these schools. Inequality persists both within state and non-state education systems but, when managed appropriately, LFPS can be a vital asset to combat inequality rather than contribute to it.

Objective

For IDPF to work with stakeholders to collaboratively build a body of evidence – broaden the geographical proof points – to demonstrate how LFPS’s bridge the gap between rich and poor. This statement of evidence would be developed into a single collaborative report citing evidence across different regions, for use by stakeholders as a key advocacy tool. 

IDPF has looked at Ghana evidence to support the statement – see below – and now calls to action other stakeholders to share their insights and evidence from other countries. 

IDP Foundation’s Statement of Evidence

Ghana’s Wealth Quintiles

According to the Ghana Living Standards Survey (2019), mean annual per capita income by quintile ranges from GHS 1,320 in the lowest quintile (first) to GHS 24,748 in the highest (fifth), with a 43.9% variation in income share between lowest (4.7%) and highest (48.6%) quintiles (GLSS9, 2019). For quintiles 3 and 4, per capita income is GHS 5,792 and GHS 9,433, respectively, equating to GHS 24,905 and GHS 32,072 at the household level (Table 10.22). Based on this data, the daily income of persons in household quintiles 1 and 2 remains below the current global poverty line of $2.15 at $0.59 and $2.03, respectively (appendix 1). 

Ghana’s Education Expenditure by Quintile

Ghana’s mean annual per capita cash expenditure across all education levels is GHS 578 (table 10.9), slightly less than the mean amount spent on primary education – GHS 676 – which significantly varies between schools in rural and urban localities, from GHS 121 in rural Savanah to GHS 1,867 in Accra (table 3.4b).  

At the quintile level there are significant variances in household spending on education between the highest (GHS 1,450, 14.2%) and lowest (GHS 96, 10.7%) quintiles, with households in Q5 spending 15 times as much per capita on education compared to Q1 households. However, per capita education expenditure for quintiles 3 and 4 sit around the average (GHS 578) at GHS 362 and GHS 591, respectively (Table 10.9), or GHS 1,557 (6.25% of household income) and GHS 2,009 (6.27% of household income) at the household level. 

Based on 2010 survey data from Ghana, the average education expenditure per child as a percent of income for households attending private and public schools, respectively, was 17.5% and 9.2% for quintile 2, 12% and 6% for quintile 3, 7% and 4% for quintile 4 (CREATE, 2010). When combined, these percentages reflect average education expenditures of 13.4% (Q2), 9% (Q3) and 5.5% (Q4), supporting the above finding that average education expenditure for households in quintile 3 and 4 sits around 6.25-6.27%. Although costs incurred from LFPS compared to public schools are a higher proportion of household income, especially for lower-income households, a lack of accountability and effort by public schools – as perceived by households – has been found to induce demand for these private schools (CREATE, 2010).  

Measurement Framework for Defining Low-Fee Schools

Tooley & Longfield (2016) recommend using education consumption and income data from national household surveys to identify LFPS. Instead of prescribing an assumed threshold of school fee affordability, actual education consumption patterns of different socio-economic groups are assumed to represent typical school choices as follows: 

• Quintile 1 and Quintile 2: mostly public schooling, some LFPS utilization 

• Quintile 3 and Quintile 4: mostly LFPS utilization and some mid-fee private school utilization 

• Quintile 5: mostly high-fee private schools, some mid-fee private school utilization 

This recommendation has informed IDP Foundation, Inc. (IDPF) in identifying where low-fee private schools may be categorized among a range of school fees in Ghana – using a School Fee Index. The Index is calculated by per capita education expenses as a % of per capita household income. This percentage is then referenced as a proportion of average annual household income by quintile, to identify a distributive School Fee Index for the various income quintiles.  

This Index assumes the average price of fees charged by schools is likely higher than reported per capita and there is inconsistency in household education spending among and between families’ children (for example due to fee bargaining and discounts (10-15% based on data from CREATE, 2010).     

Here, the average of Q3 and Q4 represent the upper bounds of the range of low-fee schools, which based on Ghana’s most recent household data is GHS 1,892 ($322) annually (appendix 2). Based on this upper threshold, 97.7% of schools with IDPF’s program (or 95% from 2019-present data) are low-fee & affordable to households within quintiles 3 and 4. Moreover, 89% and 73% of schools within IDPF’s program offer tuition below the Q2 (GHS 1,318) and Q1 (GHS 566) thresholds, respectively, confirming the role LFPS play in providing poorer populations with education access.    

Research on low-fee schools from a sample of 242 schools in Accra also validates this research. Findings show that total average annual school costs (tuition, uniform, and lunch fees) for pre-primary, primary, and junior high LFPS fall below the low-fee school range at GHS 982, GHS 1,038, and GHS 1,235, respectively (Härmä 2018, p.35).  

In comparison, Opportunity International’s (OI) framework for defining low-fee schools allocates a higher percent (4%) of household budget to education expenditure, of which 70% is allocated to school tuition. However, OI’s framework only includes household income from the third quintile. As a result, although IDPF’s low-fee threshold (GHS 1,892/$332 per household) sits slightly above OI’s $281 calculation for household income available for school fees (based on GLSS7 income data), it remains below the total expenditure on education ($402) OI considers affordable to lower-income families in Ghana, further confirming the validity of IDPF’s School Fee Index.