Challenges facing the girl-child’s education and their coping strategies in the Ada East District, Ghana

Abstract

The study aimed at examining the challenges facing the girl-child’s education and their coping strategies in the Ada East District. The convergent mixed method design was employed for this study. The population for the study comprised the Junior High pupils of schools in the Ada East District in Ghana. The population also comprised parents of the pupils, their teachers and District Education Officer. The stratified sampling technique was used to sample pupils in the basic schools in the Ada East District as the stratification variable. The parents and teachers were selected using a simple random sampling method. The District Education Officer was purposively sampled because the officer was in charge of the girl-child education in the district. The instruments used for data gathering were questionnaire and interview guide. The findings of the study revealed that the main challenges girls face in education in the Ada East District include teenage pregnancy, lack of financial support due to poverty and physiological changes. The study revealed that the government has instituted several intervention programmes, such as free education, to reduce the gender inequality gap. The study further revealed that there is no significant difference in the challenges facing the girl-child’s education on the basis of age. It was concluded that Guidance and Counselling coordinators should strengthen counselling services in the schools. The study also recommends that there should be a social intervention by the Government of Ghana and Non-Governmental Organisations to provide sanitary pads for girls, especially those in the rural areas of Ghana on monthly basis.