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Children's lives in an era of school closures: Exploring the implications of COVID-19 for child labour in Ghana
How distance to school and study hours after school influence students' performance in mathematics and English: A comparative analysis
Educational Experiences of Care Leavers from Residential Care in Ghana
Educational Experiences of Care Leavers from Residential Care in Ghana
by Frimpong-Manso K.
Keep ReadingChild marriage and education in the context of a global pandemic: Exploring the gendered implications of COVID-inspired school closures in Ghana
Children's lives in an era of school closures: Exploring the implications of COVID-19 for child labour in Ghana
by Abdul-Rahim Mohammed
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Subsequently, governments worldwide implemented strict regimes of lockdowns and school closures to contain the transmission of the virus. Ghana's government on 15 March 2020 also announced a lockdown and closure of schools, lasting up till January 2021. Against this backdrop, the paper examined the implications of school closures on child labour in Ghana. Qualitative data for the study were collected between October 2020 to February 2021 in a small rural community in northern Ghana. Findings from 16 semi-structured interviews with schoolchildren aged 8–13 years show how school closures have meant that children from contexts of poverty: (a) are driven into child labour as they are either forced to accompany their parents to work on farms or sell foodstuff by the roadside; and thus, ultimately (b) engage in no learning during the lockdown period. © 2022 National Children's Bureau and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
How distance to school and study hours after school influence students' performance in mathematics and English: A comparative analysis
by Baliyan, S.P.
Mathematics and English are essential subjects of the education system globally, as they provide skills for everyday human life. Mathematics and English are core subjects in the senior secondary education program in Botswana. The performance of students in Botswana in mathematics and English over the years has been poor. Most students travel long distances to school and have to return home every day. The distance to school and the hours after school for studying may contribute to the poor performance of students in these subjects. This quantitative study determined the influence of the distance to school and after school study hours on the performance of senior secondary students in mathematics and English in Botswana. Data were collected through a survey of a random sample of 168 students learning mathematics and English in senior secondary schools in Botswana. Findings of analyses of variance indicated that study hours after school and the distance to school have a significant influence on the performance of students in mathematics, whereas no influence was determined on student performance in English. Further, Post Hoc analysis determined that the long travelling distance and low number of hours of after school study had a sizeable adverse influence on student performance in mathematics. To improve student performance in mathematics, it was recommended that stakeholders should ensure that students stay closer to school and had better, more reliable transport. The former can be achieved by increasing the amount of hostel accommodation in schools. © 2020 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group
Educational Experiences of Care Leavers from Residential Care in Ghana
by Frimpong-Manso K.
The study aims to explore the experiences of Ghanaian care leavers to discern the factors that promote and impede their educational attainment. Data was collected from 23 care leavers using semi-structured interviews. The interviews were then analyzed using the framework method. The findings suggest that the personal motivation of the care leavers and encouragement from significant adults and peers facilitated their academic success. However, the participants identified stigma, lack of academic support, and the inability to participate in decisions as barriers to their education. Recommendations include training residential care staff to enable them to facilitate the participation of young people in decisions about their education, encouraging and supporting young people in care to aspire for higher education, and developing plans to guide their educational progress. © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Child marriage and education in the context of a global pandemic: Exploring the gendered implications of COVID-inspired school closures in Ghana
by Abdul-Rahim Mohammed
This article aims to cast light on the negative but silent effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on girls' education and welfare in Ghana. Since the pandemic emerged in 2019, unprecedented changes have occurred in ordinary people's health, education and social life. As a response to the pandemic, governments globally implemented social distancing regimes, lockdowns and school closures to curtail the spread of the virus. While this approach did help in curtailing the spread of the pandemic, implementing lockdowns and school closures in Ghana had unintended consequences: they amplified gendered inequalities in access to education. Drawing on one-on-one semi-structured interviews with (i) 10 teachers and one head teacher, 13 parents of child brides, and 11 child brides (aged 15–19), and (ii) Focus group discussions (FGDs) with 15 community leaders in a rural Ghanaian setting (Mion), this article provides empirical evidence to show how the pandemic has disrupted the lives and education of 11 girls. In particular, school closures and rising poverty due to the pandemic led to increased child marriage. These 11 schoolgirls were seen as a burden by their parents, and, consequently, married off to older men as an adverse coping strategy. Furthermore, some of the girls themselves requested to be married, due to rising household chores occasioned by the school closures. Finally, the school closures also offered the community the justification to reactivate deeply held notions about the value of a girl's education as a basis for marrying them off. © 2023 Association of Child Protection Professionals and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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