Poverty and development : role of education in poverty reduction in the Ada East District of Ghana

Education is widely recognized as a key factor in the poverty reduction and development discourse.This thesis examines the role of education in reducing poverty in the Ada East District of Ghana. This area was chosen for the study because it is one of the sixteen (16) districts in Greater Accra region, carved from former Dangme East district in 2012 by Legislative Instrument (L.I) 2029 with the main objective of enhancing rural growth and development through education. A mixed method of research was used for the study and data was collected from 85 randomly selected households from 5 towns (Ada Foah, Kasseh, Big Ada, Kpodokope and Anyakope) in the Ada East District. The study adopted two theoretical frameworks; Human Capital Theory by Becker (1962) & Schultz (1961) and the Capability Approach by Amartya Sen (2000) to establish the links between education, poverty and development. The study found out that 91.8 percent of indigenes of the Ada East District value education and conceive it as essential to the process of development and poverty reduction. Again, the study found out that the government has put in place several policies geared towards poverty reduction. Such policies included free education for all Ghanaians from basic to high school level aimed at increasing school enrolment rates and Business Advisory Centers (BAC) established in the districts to reduce poverty, improve living conditions and increase the income of women and vulnerable groups through self and wage employment. The study further found out that although indigenes are impressed of the improvements in the school enrolment rate in the district, they emphasized that it should not just be about the quantity, but the quality of education should be prioritized to achieve the desired goal of reducing poverty and enhancing development