Carrying of school-bags by primary school learners in Ghana: observation of parents

Abstract

Heightened demand and utilization of school-bags by primary school learners, has come with its attendant, the concern of parents’ perception of the increasing weight attached to the bags carried by these primary school learners in Ghana. There is still lack of evidence in Ghana that underlies guidelines for school bag weight limits, so this pioneering study was conducted on the weight of school bags in the field of primary education in Ghana to help guide policy making. The binary probit model was used for a self-administered questionnaire to gauge parents’ intent on whether they consider the weight of their primary children’s schoolbags weight as being heavy or not, using a research data realized from a cross‐sectional sample survey in the greater Kumasi area, Ghana. The estimated effect implies that a female parent, on average and ceteris paribus, is 36 percentage points more likely to consider the schoolbag weight of her primary school child as heavy than a male parent. There are several noteworthy strengths of this study such as recommending to the central government of Ghana, the promotion of e- Schoolbags among primary school learners, and ensuring that provisions are made for lockers in the classrooms to store books or bags after class sessions.