Abstract
This study applies life table functions and survival analysis to determine school life expectancy in Ghanaian private and public Basic Schools from grade 1 to grade 9 (JHS 3). The Kaplan Meier statistics such as Log Rank (Mantel-Cox), Breslow (Generalized Wilcoxon), and Tarone-Ware tests consistently showed a statistically significant difference between the male and female school dropout rate for private school pupils but showed statistically insignificant difference between male and female pupils’ dropout rate in public school pupils. The school life expectancy of grade 1 pupil in private and public schools were respectively found to be approximately 7 years for female and 8years for male; clearly showing that a grade one pupil in a private or public school who is a female has lower school life expectancy than the male counterparts. The survival curves for both private and public school cohorts showed that male pupils generally performed better than female counterparts. The survival curves and life table methods all established that peak dropout among male and female pupils generally occurred between grades 6 and 8 inclusive. It was also evident that average school life expectancy decreases with increasing age (i. e. with increasing grade levels). The study recommended further research to explore the effect of adolescent stage on the girl child education.
Highlights
Life table techniques have been extensively employed in the measurement of mortality, survivorship and life expectancy of populations in many disciplines
Life Tables are constructed based on a number of assumptions which includes that: migration is not allowed in the cohort, people die at each age according to a fixed schedule, radix is set at 1000, mortalities are evenly distributed at each age excluding the first 3 years of life
The survival curves for both private and public school cohorts showed that male pupils generally performed better than female counterparts
Summary
Life table techniques have been extensively employed in the measurement of mortality, survivorship and life expectancy of populations in many disciplines. Complete (conventional) life table is fit for single aged data where mortality experience is considered annually throughout the life span. It is often carried out on large data for the calculation of rates, in the absence of which there will be systematic and random fluctuations. This paper seeks to measure the longevity length of life to be lived by boys and girls from grade one through to JHS 3 of their Basic School life. When these dynamics are known, will help institute interventions for any deficiency and facilitate the making of projections for proper planning purposes
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