Post Beijing Conference has seen tremendous efforts by governments especially in developing count... more Post Beijing Conference has seen tremendous efforts by governments especially in developing countries such as Ghana to improve access to education at all levels and most critically to females. Over the last two decades, Ghana has put in place various interventions tailored to increasing female school enrolment and reducing the gender gap in education. Commendable results have been achieved. For instance, there is gender parity at the basic education and an increasing enrolment figures at the tertiary level. What has over the years been overlooked is how female students cope on campus as a result of combining academic work with other roles. The study is situated within this context, and using the seven roles framework and the bio-psychosocial model, it assesses the challenges pregnant-students face and how they cope at University of Cape Coast campus. A combination of accidental and snowball sampling techniques were employed to contact 62 respondents as well as conduct 12 in-depth interviews. More than 90 percent of the respondents were married. Common among the roles played include individual, occupational, and conjugal roles. These contributed to various challenges including psychological, socio-economic and academic-related challenges. Emotion-based coping strategies were mostly adopted to deal with the challenges. In the short term, the University must develop interventions to assist pregnant-students to cope effectively on campus, while in the long term, develop a policy to that effect.
Key words:, pregnant-students, coping, challenges, university of cape coast, academic activities
This paper examines the gendered implications of Africa's transport gap (the lack of cheap, regul... more This paper examines the gendered implications of Africa's transport gap (the lack of cheap, regular and reliable transport) for young people in rural Ghana, with particular reference to the linkages between restricted mobility, household work demands, access to education and livelihood potential. Our aim is to show how mobility constraints, especially as these interact with household labour demands, restrict young people's access to education and livelihood opportunities. Firstly, the paper considers the implications of the direct constraints on young people's mobility potential as they travel to school. Then it examines young people's (mostly unpaid) labour contributions, which are commonly crucial to family household production and reproduction, including those associated with the transport gap. This has especially important implications for girls, on whom the principal onus lies to help adult women carry the heavy burden of water, firewood, and agricultural products required for household use. Such work can impact significantly on their educational attendance and performance in school and thus has potential knock-on impacts for livelihoods. Distance from school, when coupled with a heavy workload at home will affect attendance, punctuality and performance at school: it may ultimately represent the tipping point resulting in a decision to withdraw from formal education. Moreover, the heavy burden of work and restricted mobility contributes to young people's negative attitudes to agriculture and rural life and encourages urban migration. Drawing on research from rural case study sites in two regions of Ghana, we discuss ethnographic material from recent interviews with children and young people, their parents, teachers and other key informants, supported by information from an associated survey with children ca. 9–18 years.
Post Beijing Conference has seen tremendous efforts by governments especially in developing count... more Post Beijing Conference has seen tremendous efforts by governments especially in developing countries such as Ghana to improve access to education at all levels and most critically to females. Over the last two decades, Ghana has put in place various interventions tailored to increasing female school enrolment and reducing the gender gap in education. Commendable results have been achieved. For instance, there is gender parity at the basic education and an increasing enrolment figures at the tertiary level. What has over the years been overlooked is how female students cope on campus as a result of combining academic work with other roles. The study is situated within this context, and using the seven roles framework and the bio-psychosocial model, it assesses the challenges pregnant-students face and how they cope at University of Cape Coast campus. A combination of accidental and snowball sampling techniques were employed to contact 62 respondents as well as conduct 12 in-depth interviews. More than 90 percent of the respondents were married. Common among the roles played include individual, occupational, and conjugal roles. These contributed to various challenges including psychological, socio-economic and academic-related challenges. Emotion-based coping strategies were mostly adopted to deal with the challenges. In the short term, the University must develop interventions to assist pregnant-students to cope effectively on campus, while in the long term, develop a policy to that effect.
Key words:, pregnant-students, coping, challenges, university of cape coast, academic activities
This paper examines the gendered implications of Africa's transport gap (the lack of cheap, regul... more This paper examines the gendered implications of Africa's transport gap (the lack of cheap, regular and reliable transport) for young people in rural Ghana, with particular reference to the linkages between restricted mobility, household work demands, access to education and livelihood potential. Our aim is to show how mobility constraints, especially as these interact with household labour demands, restrict young people's access to education and livelihood opportunities. Firstly, the paper considers the implications of the direct constraints on young people's mobility potential as they travel to school. Then it examines young people's (mostly unpaid) labour contributions, which are commonly crucial to family household production and reproduction, including those associated with the transport gap. This has especially important implications for girls, on whom the principal onus lies to help adult women carry the heavy burden of water, firewood, and agricultural products required for household use. Such work can impact significantly on their educational attendance and performance in school and thus has potential knock-on impacts for livelihoods. Distance from school, when coupled with a heavy workload at home will affect attendance, punctuality and performance at school: it may ultimately represent the tipping point resulting in a decision to withdraw from formal education. Moreover, the heavy burden of work and restricted mobility contributes to young people's negative attitudes to agriculture and rural life and encourages urban migration. Drawing on research from rural case study sites in two regions of Ghana, we discuss ethnographic material from recent interviews with children and young people, their parents, teachers and other key informants, supported by information from an associated survey with children ca. 9–18 years.
Uploads
Papers by Kobina Esia-Donkoh
Key words:, pregnant-students, coping, challenges, university of cape coast, academic activities
Key words:, pregnant-students, coping, challenges, university of cape coast, academic activities