Policy Brief No. 18. Perspectives on types of schools from Ghana and Pakistan: revisiting the relationship between intergenerational poverty and education

Abstract

Education is a key pathway to ensure that youth break out of the inter-generational cycle of poverty. The role played by parental perceptions in decisions regarding school choice has important consequences for the educational outcomes of youth in poor communities. Qualitative data collected on the Public Private Partnerships and educational outcomes for the Poor (P3EOP) indicates that there is a divergence between parental and youth generations regarding the impact of school type on educational outcomes in both Ghana and Pakistan. While parents focus more on the economic opportunities that are becoming available with the greater availability of new private providers, youth are more cynical about any positive benefits that accrue from increased educational provision. Youth perceptions accord greater importance to the difficulties encountered in their schooling experience than to school type. The major concerns of youth are that the parental generation are not fully informed about the nature of educational provision, in both private and public schools in the local community, and that the violence and neglect in these schools is not adequately addressed by parents, teachers or the community