Introduction

This study uses panel data from school districts and a new panel data frontier estimator to investigate the effects of family inputs on technical efficiency in the production of secondary education in Ghana. It does this by estimating a translog stochastic frontier production function for education, calculating technical inefficiencies from the production function and using family inputs as correlates of the calculated technical inefficiency. It measures educational output as the proportion of students in a district passing the West African Examination Council's (WAEC) certification examination and estimates technical inefficiencies for two levels of education — Junior and Senior Secondary Schools — focusing on total technical inefficiency without decomposing it into its various components.

Education has always been important in Ghanaian life. Ghana was one of the first African countries to introduce free and universal primary education in 1960. This was followed by a rapid expansion of secondary and tertiary institutions under the Ghana Education Trust system, a process which continues today. For example, in 2001, there were about 3.5 million students enrolled in public Primary Schools, Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) and Senior Secondary Schools (SSS) in Ghana, a country with a population of about 20 million people (see Republic of Ghana, 2002). This indicates a high demand for education by Ghanaians. In addition, the government spends an enormous amount of resources to provide education. Indeed, the largest share of the central government budget is spent on the provision of education.