TY  - JOUR
T1  - Is There an Early Gender Gap in School Readiness Among 3-4-year-old Children? Evidence from Ghana
AU  - Bago, Jean-louis
AU  - Ouédraogo, Moussa
AU  - Ouoba, Marie Madeleine
PY  - 2025
DA  - February
DO  - 10.26650/JEPR1329603
JF  - İktisat Politikası Araştırmaları Dergisi
JO  - JEPR
PB  - Istanbul University
WT  - DergiPark
SN  - 2148-3876
SP  - 28
EP  - 44
VL  - 12
IS  - 1
LA  - en
AB  - Gender inequalities in education persist in developing countries, but comprehensive policies to address them are often lacking. Using microlevel data from Ghana’s Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), we investigated the presence of an early gender gap in school readiness among 3-4-year-old children. First, we built two multidimensional indexes of school readiness that account for children’s ability to read, count, recognise numbers, interact with peers and others, follow rules and be independent for their health outcomes and physical skills. Second, we estimated the gender gap while controlling for factors affecting school readiness using regional fixed effects. We found no evidence of a gender difference in children’s school readiness. This result is robust to several specifications and sensitivity tests. In contrast, the results showed that a mother’s education, a father’s involvement and the fact of living in an urban area are positively associated with school readiness for both boys and girls. Based on these findings, we argue that the educational gender gap in Ghana most likely reflects the unequal access to schooling opportunities between boys and girls. Hence, policy makers should target the barriers in school access for both boys and girls to achieve educational gender equity.JEL Classification : J13 , J16 , I21
KW  - gender gap
KW  - school readiness
KW  - Ghana
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UR  - https://doi.org/10.26650/JEPR1329603
L1  - https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/3273508
ER  -