Literacy, numeracy skills and free basic education in Ghana

Literacy and numeracy unarguably are at the heart of human and economic development and, as a result, have received widespread attention in recent decades. Yet, there are still issues related to the effective strategies of creating such basic skills. In this paper, I show how a free compulsory universal basic education (FCUBE) policy in Ghana helped improve skills attainment. I employ a difference-in-differences strategy to assess the long-term causal impact of FCUBE using the Ghana Living Standard Survey 2012-2017. Overall, I find that FCUBE increased literacy and numeracy by 4.6 and 3.0 p.p respectively, but had a larger effect for urban and less disadvantaged students, thereby exacerbating inequality in skills attainment. Additionally, my results show that only the lower secondary education, and not primary education, was sufficient to guarantee skills attainment.