Early Childhood Development (ECD) in Ghana: Assessing the Status and Determinants of the Literacy–Numeracy, Physical, Social–Emotional, and Learning Domains

Despite initiatives by key actors in the last two decades, Early Childhood Development in Ghana, measured by physical, cognitive, linguistic, and social–emotional development of children up to 8 years of age, remains poor. This study aimed to assess Ghana’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) status and determinants by analyzing the Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2017/18 data. Among the 3801 Ghanaian children (35–59 months; 1880 males), 42.7% were developmentally on track in literacy–numeracy, 93.6% in physical, 68.2% in social–emotional, 82.3% in learning, and about 67% in at least 3 of the 4 domains. Multiple logistic regression analyses suggest a positive association between ECD and female sex of children, their age, mothers' attendance in any ECD programs, mothers' educational qualification, and household wealth. On the other hand, evidence of a negative association was observed between ECD and child disability, stunting status of children, maternal disability, the number of days children were left alone for more than an hour, and residence in a rural area. The level of maternal education may be implicated in ECD policies as it affected several ECD domains.