How does school travel time impact children’s learning outcomes in a developing country?

Abstract

Nearly 88% of children in sub-Saharan Africa will not be able to read by the time they complete primary school. We explore this phenomenon by using household data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey to examine the link between school travel time and children’s learning outcomes. Using district variations in school density to resolve endogeneity associated with children’s travel time to school and their learning outcomes, we find that more than 90% of children travel on foot to school and this negatively affects their ability to read and write in English or French as well as their ability to read and write in their native languages. We further show that boys, children in rural areas and those who travel more than the 75th percentile travel time (30 minutes) have poorer learning outcomes. Our findings highlight number of class hours missed and poor health as the main channels through which school travel time affects learning outcomes. Policy initiatives to improve children’s learning should consider reducing the costs associated with their school travel time. Considering that governments have limited resources with competing needs, policies aimed at reducing travel time should generally target children who commute more than 30 minutes to school and those in rural locations.