Impact of Government Financial Aid on High School Enrollment

Using the generalized linear model to check the impact of Government financial aid on Senior high school Enrollment in the Wa Municipality, Upper West Region of Ghana.

Abstract

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Purpose

The study aims to examine whether government financial aid is achieving its main priority of increasing enrollment in Public Senior High Schools in the Wa Municipality, Upper West Region of Ghana. Successive governments both military and civilian regimes have been financing Senior high school education in Ghana with the aim of increasing access, improving the quality of S.H.S education since the nation attained her independence on 6 March, 1957.

Design/Methodology/Approach/Analysis

The study adopted the quantitative methodology to collect and analyze secondary data from 5 Public Senior High Schools in the Wa Municipality. Enrollment figures were collected through the Ghana Education Management Information System (EMIS) prepared every year by the Ministry of Education (MOE), to be specific enrollment figures collected from 5 public Senior High Schools in the Wa Municipality, Upper West Region of Ghana for a period of 11 years. Government Public schools were targeted in this study because they are the beneficiaries of financial aid from the government in the forms of progressive free SHS and the free SHS policies respectively. We used the generalized linear model to test whether there is a significant impact on student enrollment in the years of financial aid and in the years of no financial aid.

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Findings

The study reveals that financial aid (Progressive free and free SHS policy) has a significant impact in increasing the enrollment among girls but We could not find a statistically significant increase in boy’s enrollment in Public Senior High Schools in the Wa Municipality of Ghana. In short, girls benefited more from government financial aid in terms of enrollment than boys.

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Originality/Value

The results of the study have enabled us to come to the understanding that government financial aid to S.H.S education in any form has a significant impact on increasing enrollment.

Introduction

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Background

Governments around the world see education as the most significant avenue in improving their economic growth, equity, and development. According to Topel, (1999), and Human capital plays a paramount role in the economic growth of nations around the world. This human capital can be nurtured and developed by equipping the people with the requisite skills and knowledge to ensure the labor market success in these countries. Education is paramount for Africa’s development by serving as a key factor in preparing the required human resources needed to fill high level scientific, technical, professional and managerial jobs in both public and private sectors.

In Ghana, it is noted that investing in Senior high education carries a huge benefit to the individual, society and also boast the economic development of the country.

This, therefore, goes in line with “The new global education goal, SDG 4, which covers an ambitious range of targets, including the guarantee to ‘ensure that all children regardless of their gender complete free, equal access and quality basic and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning feedback’ and to ‘ensure gender parities in education and  equal access to all educational levels and vocational training for the vulnerable, including peoples with disabilities, indigenous persons and young children in peril situations’ by 2030” UNESCO, (2016).

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Uyttersprot, (2008) says that, secondary education plays a very central role in the achievement of the MDGs on education and which goes with that of Lewin, (2008) indicates why the achievement of the education-related MDGs requires increasing secondary enrollment. He argues that qualified secondary-school graduates are needed to supply primary schools with teachers; without which, children would not be attracted to the primary schools. Lewin (2008) further explains that sustained demand for primary schooling will be a failure if it is realized that there are not enough secondary schools to absorb graduates who complete primary schools, thus making it difficult to achieve universal primary education. To give it a different wording, the achievement of universal primary education also depends on how accessible secondary education is.

Oluoch, (2006), similarly earlier came to a conclusion that completion of primary education is likely to be high when secondary education is accessible. Secondary education is key in equipping individuals with special required knowledge and skills to enable them to fit well in society. This, therefore, makes the attainment of the SDG 4 particularly significant for developing countries like Ghana.

In ensuring sustainable economic growth of Ghana, successive governments in the past and present have put policies in place such as the free universal compulsory basic education for all which was the 1992 constitutional provision, the progressive free senior high education policy implemented on September, 2015, and the newly implemented free education policy implemented on September, 2017. According to Adu-Gyamfi et al, (2016), Since Ghana gained her independence dated March 6, 1957, from British Colonial rule, education has been prioritized in the governance of successive governments and has constantly experienced changes to get a better fit model for the country and the expectations of the citizenry.

Ghana’s education is mainly financed from the country internally generated funds, international organizations such as world bank and other governments. Public sources of funding constitute, the Ghana Education Trust fund, District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), Ministry of education, youth and sports, Student Loan Scheme, and the Scholarship Secretariat.4.2% of Ghana’s GNP goes into financing public education in the country MOESS, (2005).

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In seeing to the economic growth and development of the country through increasing access to quality senior high education and to eliminate the financial barriers and improve access to S.H.S education, a total amount of GH¢44.3 million were released by the government of Ghana to subsidize the cost of Senior High Education for the first and second terms of the 2014/2015 academic year (MOF), medium term expenditure framework, (2016).

The previous government of Ghana launched the progressive free Senior High School education policy in September, 2015 and a sum of GH¢ 12,178,544.00 were released to the Ministry of Education for the first term of 2015/2016 academic year to cover the expenses of examination, entertainment, library, SRC, sports, culture, science development and mathematics quiz, ICT, co-curricular fees for 320, 488 day students in public Senior High Schools in the country to improve the both access and quality education for all.

The current government of Ghana’s policy on Senior High School education is to provide free education at the Senior High School level for all eligible students with day students promised a meal at school. This is to remove the burden of parents paying for their children fees in order to improve the economic growth of each family and the country at large. It is also to increase enrollment and to reduce the dropout rate. The free education policy was launched in September 2017 and an estimated cost of $100 million (GH¢400 million), MOE, (2017).

Considering the number of funds put into Ghana’s Senior High School education by successive governments to achieve the SDG 4, is therefore incumbent to examine the impact of government financial aid to SHS enrollment in the Wa Municipality as a case study.

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The paper continues with a review of the extant literature relating to the topic under study, followed by the methodology adopted to carry out the data collection and analysis, the findings and discussions of the data gathered and ends with conclusions and recommendations

Existing Literature

Several studies have examined the importance of financial aid in improving access to education. Most of the studies are geared analyzing the impact of financial aid on increasing enrollment. Dynarski et al (2013) state that reducing the cost of college education which is similar to Ghana educational policy for S. HS education either through grants, aid or other tuition subsidies can improve college and completion. Singell et al, (2006) argue vehemently in their study that financial aid has a positive impact on college participation and success.

Nielsen et al, (2010) and Dearden et al, (2014) indicate that a $1000 increase in grants given to students resulted in a 1.35 percentage point increase in higher education participation for Denmark students.

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Furthermore, Solis, (2011) used national data and applies a regression discontinuity design to analyze the effects of financial aid on enrollment, persistence and graduation patterns of students in Chile. He finds out that making loans accessible to students has a formidable positive causal effect on enrollment and that access to loans closes the enrollment gaps for the lowest income students. Solis’ finding is supported later on by (Rolando et al (2012).

Meneses and Blanco, (2010) use national data of Fall 2006 of10th graders to assess the impacts of financial aid on higher education enrollment in Chilean institutions and find that it increases the probability of attendance at a 4-year institution by 30 %. In similar pursuit Boatman and Long (2016) also indicated that financial aid can be an influencing factor in aiding students to enroll in college. This is supported by the study of the Chilean Ministry of High Education (2012) found that nationally, students in Chile who benefited from grants and loans are more likely to persist in their education. Similarly, Taryn and Claudia M, (2012) also supported the argument that availability of combinations of grants and loans aid increase enrollment and increased the likelihood of staying in school in Chile.

Bettinger, (2004) and Cameron S, (2004) highlight that, financial aid makes it less expensive for students to enroll and stay in education, thus while it may reduce the risk of dropout, it may also increase the time-to-completion and in standard human capital models, educational attainment is a one-shot decision where financial aid, all else being equal will lower the cost of education and increase in educational attainment.

Also, according to Melguizo et al, (2011), student loans offer a cost-effective alternative to increase enrollment and decrease dropout rates of students from low-income households in Columbia. This conclusion corresponds to that of Chen and Desjardins, (2008) that, after controlling other factors, loans and work-study aid are significantly associated with increasing enrollment and mitigating the rate of school dropout.

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Hossler, (2000) and Singell, (2004) also demonstrates that financial aid has a significant effect on increasing student enrollment, as well as improving student retention. Typically, in Rwanda in 2009, an abolition of school fees increased student enrollment by 25% in one year, UNESCO, (2013).

Curs, (2008) argues that financial aid has significant positive effects on students’ enrollment. Dill and Soo, (2005) also state that tuition discounts for example, for academic merit can be given to students in the admission process in order to attract exceptional students.
Also, according to Perna, (2009), financial aid is a critical lever for increasing post-secondary education achievement in the United States, and perhaps the most important and useful tool in the kit of policymakers for increasing college accessibility and choice among Hispanics, blacks, low-income students, and other groups underrepresented in higher education. Perna (2009) further explained that every year, federal and state governments, colleges, universities, foundations, and other organizations invest substantial resources in programs designed to remove financial barriers to college enrollment in order to get students from all backgrounds to get enrolled in college. In 2007/2008 alone, an amount more than $162.5 billion was poured into higher education aid programs to take away student expenses. But, even with this investment, rates of college enrollment continue to increase with family income and are lower for Blacks and Hispanics than for Whites.

The arguments put up above point to the fact that historically financial aid and other related subsidies provided by central government and other agencies is key to the securing an appreciable enrollment rate in not only developing countries such as Ghana but also developed countries like the U.S.A.

In the year 2008, the Kenyan government introduced free day secondary education (FDSE), like the progressively free secondary education prior to the free Senior High School education policy that starts in September 2017. The FDSE was very much an outgrowth vision 2030, a blueprint for developing Kenya into manufacturing middle income country by 2030. Under this act, the Kenyan Ministry of Education was given a task to increase reading and writing ability and transition rate from the basic to the secondary level of education. Funds amounting to10,265 Kenyan Shillings (about US$105/student/school/year) was provided to cover tuition fees and other education expenses extremely reducing the burden on parents. This has led to an increase of 50% in secondary school enrollment for the past years. Ohba, (2011). Similarly, Asankha and Takashi, (2011) stated that the Universal Secondary School Policy in Uganda in the year 2007 had led to increasing enrollment of student’s especially girls in public secondary schools than boys.

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Scott-Clayton, (2011) looks at using discontinuities around the GPA cutoff, she estimates that the provision of free tuition significantly increases post-secondary attainment. Dynarski, (2008) prior shows evidence that state merit aid programs increase college attainment. And earlier Dynarski, (2000) states that Georgia’s Hope Scholarship program has had a surprisingly large effect on the college attendance rate of middle- and high-income youth. Using some nearby states as a control group, she finds that Georgia’s program has likely led to an increased in college attendance rate of pupils between the ages of 18 to 19-year-old by 7 to 8 percentage points.

In addition to the studies that have examined the effect of financial aid on enrollment, Reyes, (2008) and Pascarella et al, (2004) looked at different types of families and concluded that financial aid has a significant impact on enrollment. In a similar pursuit earlier, Pacey, (1982) applied regression analysis from a representative sample of female athletes attending two NAIA schools in different divisions to determine the significance of grant dollars in increasing enrollment rates. Among other results, she concluded that grant dollars increase athletic opportunities for females in college athletic programs. Bearing in mind that financial aid is an important factor in determining women rate of participation in intercollegiate sports further authenticate the aid-related conclusions mentioned previously, such as the positive impact of Scholarships, receipt of grants, and loans on enrollment at first choice institutions.

In light of the above literature, this paper examines the extent to government financial aid impact on enrollment of Senior High education in the Wa Municipality of Ghana. The paper, therefore, proceeds with the methodology adopted in carrying out data collection and Analysis.

Research Instrument

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The study adopted the quantitative methodology to collect and analyze secondary data from 5 Public Senior High Schools in the Wa Municipality. Enrollment figures were collected through the Ghana Education Management Information System (EMIS) prepared every year by the Ministry of Education (MOE), to be specific enrollment figures collected from 5 public Senior High Schools in the Wa Municipality of Ghana for a period of 11 years. Government Public schools were targeted in this study because they are the beneficiaries of government financial aid in the forms of progressive free SHS and the free SHS policies respectively.

Data Analysis/Findings/Discussions

The Statistically Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyze the impact of the government financial aid in the form of the progressive free and the Free SHS policies to student’s enrollment of 5 public Senior High Schools in the Wa Municipality for the period of 11 years starting from 2008 to 2018. Table 1 illustrates the average yearly enrollment by gender for the period of 11 years.

The Levene’s test of equal variance Table 3 and Box’s test of equal covariance matrices Table 2. indicate the test of the null hypothesis that there are equal variance and covariance against the alternative of no equal variance and covariance. In which we failed to reject the null hypothesis against the alternative since the significant value is greater than alpha value as a result, confirming constant property of variance and covariance matrice of multivariate analysis of variance. This condition led to our choice of the generalized linear model as the statically tool for this study.

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                                      Table 3 Levene’s Test of Equality of Error Variances^a

Table 2 indicates the results of the following hypothesis viz;

HO

: There is no significant difference in student’s enrollment in Gender across various years

H1

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: There is no significant difference in student’s enrollment in Gender across various years.

As indicated in table 4, there is no significant difference enrollment among boys across the years which has its significant value (P = 0.098) greater the alpha value of 0.05. As a result, we fail to reject the null hypothesis (Boys) hence we can conclusively infer and report that the enrollment of students with regards to boys is not significantly different across all the academic years in the public senior high schools in the Wa Municipality despite the inception of progressive free SHS and Free SHS policy within the periods under study. This is confirmed in Table 6 as the average enrollment amongst boys is not markedly different across various years. Table 6 further reveals that 2015/2016 and also 2016/2017 academic year records the highest enrollment which fall within the progressive free SHS period though not statistically significant across various years under consideration.

However, there is a highly significant difference of student enrollment among Girls across the years which has its significant value (

p=0.009) less than the alpha value of 0.05. in this regard we fail to accept the null hypothesis and hence there exist a significant difference of student’s enrollment among Girls. This goes in line with what Asankha and Takashi, (2011) arrived at after conducting a research on the Universal Secondary School Policy in Uganda in the year 2007 and found that the policy led to increase in enrollment of student’s especially girls in public secondary schools than boys. And also Pacey who concluded that grant dollars increase athletic opportunities for females and hence increasing their participation in colleges.

Having realized that there is a significant difference of Student-Girls enrollment in across various years, we move on to ascertain how each year is contributing to the difference in the enrollment of Students-Girls into SHS. This is achieved by conducting a Post Hoc test using Tukey HSD by considering the following hypothesis viz:

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Table 7 indicates the pairwise comparison and results subsequently summarize in Table 8. Table 7 tells us that the significant difference occurs among girl’s enrollment between 2009 and 2016 (p-value= 0.04). This can be seen in Table 6 that high enrollment among student-girls occurs in the 2016 year contributes to Girls enrollment.