Community Perception on Girl-Child Education in the Sagnarigu-Dungu Community, Tamale, Ghana
Baba Alhassan1, Achanso Sulemana Adams2, Abraham Sumani3
1Faculty of Sustainable Development Studies, Department of Sustainable Studies. University of Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. P. O Box 1350, Tamale, Ghana
2Faculty of Sustainable Development Studies, Department of Development Management and Policy Studies. University of Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. P. O Box 1350, Tamale, Ghana
3Faculty of Sustainable Development Studies, Department of Development Management and Policy Studies. University of Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. P. O Box 1350, Tamale, Ghana
Abstract: – Formal education plays an important role in developing empowered human capital and therefore requires parental and community collaboration, which can certainly affect learners’ educational success regardless of family wealth, education, and social status. Despite the vital role girl-child education play in overall national development, limited literature exists in this respect as many academic kinds of literature on education tended to favor boys over girls. The study adopted a case study approach, a blend of quantitative and qualitative research design. The study investigated community perception towards girls’ education and constraints inhibiting the education of girls in the Dungu community, a suburb of Sagnarigu Municipality in Tamale, Northern Region, Ghana. The data collection tools included researchers’ observation, in-depth interviews, and group discussions among others, with the means of both an interview guide and a questionnaire with open and closed-ended questions.
The data have been analyzed using a thematic approach and descriptive tools including; diagrams and frequency distribution tables to address the study questions to guide the study. The outcome/results show no evidence of organized practices militating girl-child education in the Dungu community. However, findings show parents and community generally have poor attitudes or perceptions towards girl child education, sheer socio-cultural cultural beliefs, and practices such as boys as a tool for family wealth, women as property of men after marriage, tradition, and norms allowing males to inherit family wealth at the expense of women. Additionally, respondents interviewed felt that most parents and guardians are incapable resource-wise and cannot afford to send both sexes to school and thus prefer the boy over the girl child. Also, most of the girls themselves have been unwilling to either go to school or stay in school even if they were sent. Therefore, it is suggested that an intensive public education is necessary to mitigate negative outdated practices cultural, traditional, and social notions and perceptions regarding the social status of women, especially girls, since cultural and traditional practices greatly contribute to the constraints of girls’ education in the Sagnarigu-Dungu area. Again, Microfinance services and local self-savings strategies such as the Village Savings and Loan Scheme (VSLA) popularly known as “Adakabili” are a few of the vital services that can boost the financial status of parents and community members to educate the girl-child.
Keywords: Girls, Education, Culture, Perception, Community, Parents