Using Household Survey Data to Measure Educational Performance: The Case of Ghana

This paper shows how household data collected for the Ghana Living Standards Survey can be used to calculate national trends in educational performance (enrolment, completion rates and literacy). The resulting enrolment figures are shown to be more reliable than the rather different picture given by offcial statistics. In addition, a short English test conducted alongside the household survey in 1988 and repeated in 2003 gives a direct measure of changes in literacy.