Modeling the Determinants of Farmers' Decision on Exclusive Schooling and Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector of Ghana

Abstract

The use of children on cocoa farms in West Africa has received extensive attention over the last few decades due to media coverage in the international press and growing pressure from international organizations such as the International Labor Organization. Based on 2007 cocoa sector survey, the paper used a logistic regression model to determine the factors that significantly affect the decision to let a child attend school exclusively or do some work on the cocoa farm. To enable them develop, children who are in the schoolgoing age are expected to devote their full time to education (and some recreation) and not engage in any type of work. The factors that were found to positively and significantly influence farmer`s decision to let the child attend school exclusively in cocoa communities of Ghana were: main source of drinking water being borehole, sex of a child, age of a child, and household heads living in the Ashanti cocoa region. The results of the study also showed that sex of household head and household head staying in the Western South cocoa region, had negative and significant effect on the household`s decision to let the child attend school exclusively. Some of the children who undertook farm work got involved in hazardous work such as the use of cutlass which often harmed them and could further put them away from school; if they were enrolled. Children should not be made to compromise their education in any way by assisting with farm work which should be undertaken by adult household members and hired labor.