Fertility and education: the case of Ghana

The study attempts to find the relationship between education and fertility in Ghana, as Ghana wants to reduce its fertility rates from 4.0 to 3.0 replacement levels which will help to move the country into middle income status. A country that has a stable population growth is able to plan and allocate resources to its populace more effectively. High fertility rates have consequences for food security, social & economic opportunities and overall economic wellbeing of the population. The study sets outs to investigate the linkages or factors that help in reducing fertility rates, education is one major factor that has been found be to be inversely related to fertility. Does this relationship exist in Ghana? Has education in any way contributed to the recent fertility declines in Ghana? And by how much did education contribute. Finally, are there other factors that have contributed to the recent fertility decline in Ghana? To answer the questions, the study takes advantage of an educational reform program in 1987/88 that saw mass construction of schools, training of teachers and provision of study materials to estimate the impact of education on fertility. Using difference-in-difference approach and 2SLS, the study finds that the National Education Reform program lead to reductions in early births..