THE EFFECTS OF SOCIO-CULTURAL PRACTICES AND CONTEXTUAL FACTORS ON THE ENROLMENT AND RETENTION OF GIRLS IN BASIC SCHOOLS IN THE JIRAPA DISTRICT OF THE UPPER WEST REGION OF GHANA

Abstract

The United Nations Convention guarantees fundamental human right for all children. In Ghana, this right is guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution with the introduction of the Free Compulsory Basic Education for all children of school going age, irrespective of religion, gender, ethnicity and geographical location. However, basic education, to some extent, is still far from being a reality for all children, particularly, those in the rural settings and specially, the girls. The study employed the mixed (qualitative and quantitative) approach to the collection and analysis of data. The study revealed that socio-cultural values serve as the major obstacles to girls' access and participation in basic formal education in the study area. The socio- cultural values, beliefs and practices perpetuate formal educational imbalances in terms of gender. Boys are preferred to girls in terms of formal education in the study area. However, this work argues that formal education for girls would enhance their life chances, their welfare, improve their human resource ability, and thus empower the girl-child. There are a number of NGOs that were contributing in diverse ways to enable the girl-child have access to basic education. The NGOs efforts are complementing the efforts of the government in promoting girls' access to basic education. However, the efforts of the government and the NGOs are not yielding the desired results due to inherited socio-cultural practices that do not favour the girl-child formal education. These include early marriage, housemaid, household chores, female genital mutilation and funerals rites and other economic related activities. It was revealed that girls are discriminated when it comes to funding children's formal education. In view of this, the following recommendations towards the improvement of the girl-child education in the study area are forwarded. Scholarship schemes for the girl-child, separate facilities for girls in school, educating parents, re-packaging of educational policies, enforcement of laws on outmoded socio-cultural practices (early marriages, betrothal, female genital mutilation, elopement and the use of charms in marriage), abolition of school fees and other related costs such as printing fees and expansion and improvement of the School Feeding Programmes.