Some female school children.
Story/Photos: Geoffrey Buta.
Female children currently attending
school in rural communities are far more likely not learning the critical
skills, such as reading, writing and math. While this gender, income and learning
gaps exist in most rural communities especially in Northern Ghana.
Considering the significance of rural
poverty across the country, it should come as no surprise that rural
schoolchildren are the most disadvantaged from a socioeconomic perspective when
it comes to access to a quality education.
A research shows that, most school
going age children in rural communities drop out from school to find greener
pasture in the Southern part of the country.
Photographs taken during a visit to
Gbandu a village in East Mamprusi district and Dakpemyili in the East Gonja
District all in the Northern Region reveal the significant challenging’s school
children in this rural communities encounter.
The schools lack infrastructures,
computer lab, library, and portable drinking water and toilet facilities.
Most of the challenging’s in the rural
schools generally have less qualified teachers and not enough teachers for the
number of children enrolled in school.
The reasons for these low numbers in
rural communities are many and very much linked to poverty and other
inequalities and socioeconomic conditions.
Teachers generally prefer urban to
rural schools because urban areas offer greater opportunities and higher
incomes. There is also a better quality of life in urban areas, with better access
to good infrastructure, healthcare and general public goods.
Northern Ghana is characterized by
poor or nonexistent infrastructure and little or no provisions for other
critical social services especially in the rural communities.
This in turn negatively impacts the
quality of education for rural-area children since even getting to school is a
more difficult challenge and illness of a pupil or a family member may force
the pupil to drop out of school entirely.
Students in this sector are further
disadvantaged by the fact that their parents are generally uneducated.
Speaking to Mr. Alhassan Abdulai
Iddi, the Executive Director of Net Organization for Youth Empowerment
and Development (NOYED) Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organization said, d
espite the effort of NGO’s to assist in addressing this
worrying situation of rural education crisis,
the government through the assemblies must implement policies that will reduce
poverty in rural areas.
Such policies must address better
educational facilities, health, sanitation conditions, and modernizing the
agricultural sector for parents to grow more to take care of their wards as
this is their only source of income, he said.
According to Mr. Iddi, the long-term
consequences of continued poverty and socioeconomic inequalities in rural areas
should not be underestimated.
He said, the conditions will only
continue to exacerbate the education and learning gaps between rural and urban
school children if appropriate steps are not taken to address the situation.
Poor quality education in rural
areas will only continue to perpetuate long-term poverty in the region, he added.
Is the country on course of
achieving Millennium Development Goals on Universal Primary Education?
some children riding donkey in Chereponi district in the Northern Region.
some school children carrying fire food to school.
