Ghana’s Broken Education System
Why children in rural villages have so little hope
Unequal access to quality education between the rural areas and urban cities in Ghana has left children in rural villages feeling powerless and with little hope.
Just a few of the challenges these children face are long walks to school, (often 2 hours or more), school fees their family cannot afford, class sizes of 60 or more, teachers who don’t show up to work, and no access to basic school materials.
Even though Ghana’s constitution states equal access to education, it is not reality. With all the disadvantages that rural students face, they still must sit for the same exams with the urban student who is already miles ahead.
At the end of Junior Secondary School, (9th grade), ALL students in Ghana must sit for the Basic Education Certificate which covers English Language, Ghanaian Language and Culture, Social Studies, Science, Math, Basic Design and Technology and Religious and Moral Education.
Students who pass this exam can then proceed to High School, although their choice of schools is determined by the score they receive. Those students who do not pass this exam have no options and are finished with their schooling at the age of 15.
At this point, choices for these young people are not good and lead to a continuation of the poverty they already live in, and sometimes worse, they move to a city to find work and find themselves living in unsafe and sometimes dangerous situations. For young girls this often results in unwanted pregnancies, which just adds to the misery in which they already find themselves.
The only hope for these youngsters growing up in rural areas is to have access to the kind of education that will teach them the skills needed to be successful on these exams, and to give them encouragement and direction to help them achieve their goals.
This is what we have to offer our students at SAS. We believe that education is the key to changing the course of their lives.
