Free Secondary Education and Youth Transitions in Ghana

Removing secondary-school fees can influence not only enrolment, but also young people’s subsequent education and labour-market pathways. This paper examines differences in education enrolment level, participation in paid work, or inactivity around the introduction of Ghana’s Free Senior High School (SHS) policy. Using four waves of the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey, we compare the states recorded at consecutive interviews for young people aged 12–17 at baseline, distinguishing cohorts by their expected exposure to the reform. The clearest differences occur among respondents initially enrolled below SHS. Compared with cohorts with no expected exposure, fully exposed cohorts have a 15.0 percentage-point higher adjusted probability of being in SHS at follow-up and a 10.6 percentage-point lower probability of remaining observed enrolled below SHS level. Differences in paid work are close to zero, while patterns among respondents initially in SHS or inactivity vary across destinations. By examining multiple follow-up states in a countrywide household panel, the analysis complements evidence from geographically concentrated experimental studies of secondary-school subsidies with evidence on young people’s pathways around the introduction of Ghana’s nationwide Free SHS policy. The findings suggest that expanded access to SHS was associated with meaningful changes in young people’s subsequent educational pathways, rather than corresponding shifts into or out of paid work. The observational design, however, does not allow these differences to be attributed causally to the policy.