Northern Ghana is noted for its high illiteracy rate. The illiteracy rates are about 95% for women and approximately 70% for men whilst the national averages are 64.2% and 38.2%.

Although statistics on formal education available at the district level do not yet present a clear view of the actual situation, it is estimated that literacy among the 50 years and above is virtually non-existent, while that of the younger generation (below 30 years) is not above 15%.

The low level of literacy is more rampant among women. The education of girls is at its lowest ebb. The few that even go to school end up not performing well because of the following factors:

• Girls are seen as investment for their parents and easily withdrawn from school into marriage or commercial sex.
• Boys in the mixed schools easily over shadow the girls.
• The boys easily sexually abuse girls in mixed boarding schools.
• Domestic work at home prevent most of the girls in school from attending extra classes and carrying out their home work given by teachers.
• Long distances (as some children walk 5-10 km to school) discourage most girls from going to school.
• Quality senior secondary schools too are far away from the Diocese (nearest one is 130 km).
• Quality secondary schools are often far from the student’s village, and well beyond the financial means of an average family.

It is sad to say that not many girls have gone on to University education from either of the two existing senior secondary schools in the area covered by the Diocese. Because of the lack of quality education available, the girls are often exploited and cannot make any head way in the acquisition of their (women) strategic gender needs.

Here is the link to the main TFS-Africa.org website.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 4:17 pm and is filed under TFS-A Summary - Who / What / Why. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.