Supporting access to education for girls in Ghana

Related pages: Ghana country profile | MDG 2: Education | MDG 3: Gender

Image courtesy of Oxfam/Stephanie Bunce

In Ghana's poor and rural Northern Region, just over one in three girls attend primary school. This is a far cry from the statistics for the rest of the country, which show that the same number of boys as girls now attend primary school, at 74% for both sexes (source: UNICEF).

Although primary education is free, many families in the Northern Region simply can't afford to send their daughters to school - after the third year of primary school, most schools make uniform compulsory and may ask parents for money to improve their facilities.

By this time, many parents may also feel that their daughters are old enough to help them in the house or earn income to support the family, before they reach puberty and are married.

Getting more girls into schools

In 2000, DFID began a five year funding programme to support CAMFED International in its work to help support rural girls in schools in Ghana. Working with the Ghanaian non-governmental organisation RAINS, which is based in the Northern Region, CAMFED provided financial assistance to girls who had completed the first three years of primary education.

This funding helped girls over the next six years of their education, and covered their basic needs such as uniform, fees and stationery.

CAMFED and RAINS also helped set up community surgeries and grassroots committees, where chiefs, leaders, teachers, parents and children could explore the reasons why girls were not at school and support girls attending school.

Teachers in the 113 participating schools were trained as counsellors to see to the girls' welfare, while parents were shown how their attitudes can hold back girls' academic performance. For example, girls are often expected to carry out household chores after school, which leaves them too tired to complete their homework, while boys are allowed to go out and play.

Thanks to this work, 3,000 girls in the Northern Region have been able to attend school - without this support they would not have had the opportunity.

• CAMFED international
• Education, education, education: Oxfam and PRONET's work in Ghana
• Early lessons from the schooling improvement fund in Ghana
• UK welcomes Ghana's debt relief (July, 2004)

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Key facts

• DFID provided £151,730 in funding to CAMFED from 2001-2005.
• The UK is the largest bilateral donor to Ghana, and is providing £50 million over five years to help the Ghanaian government achieve its education targets.
• CAMFED International is a group of non-governmental agencies in Africa, the USA and UK dedicated to extending girls' access to education in poor rural communities of Africa.

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