IMPACT OF POVERTY AND EDUCATION IN RURAL COMMUNITIES.

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, despite 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.