The eighth edition of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS 8) will be conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service, with a particular emphasis on learning poverty.
This comes after the 2021 Population and Housing Census, which found that 7.9 million Ghanaians, who are six years of age and older, are incapable of reading or writing any language with comprehension.
Data on the welfare and living circumstances of individuals and households in Ghana are provided by the Ghana Living Standards Survey, a nationally representative household survey.
Since 1987, Ghana has conducted the GLSS seven times, with a five-year gap between rounds and a 12-month field data collection period for each survey.
A child’s incapacity to read and comprehend simple text and do basic numeracy at their learning level is the subject of the eighth round of the survey, which will examine learning poverty.
GLSS 8, which will cover about 1,000 clusters and involve over 25,000 households nationwide, is scheduled to begin in July 2024.
The data collection phase will run from September 2024 to September 2025, followed by data analysis and report writing, with final results expected by July 2026.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the launch of the survey, Government Statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Annim shared the objectives of the survey.
“GLSS aide generally has a very broad focus because the data set that we use for rebasing our consumer price index, rebasing our gross domestic products and trying to get an understanding of various dimensions of living conditions, employment, health-related conditions amongst others. But for the eighth round of the GLSS aide, we are especially focusing on learning poverty on the fact that from the 2021 population housing census, we identified 7.9 million people who could not write or read in any language with understanding.”
Deputy Minister of Education Rev. John Ntim Fordjour expressed the ministry’s commitment to using the survey’s findings and recommendations to refine policies and improve educational outcomes.