Female participation in secondary education:A case study of Brekum District in the Brong Ahafo Region

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate female participation in secondary education in the Berekum District. Purposive and random sampling techniques were used to select a total of 136 respondents involved in the study. The instruments used were questionnaire and documentation. The results from the data collected indicated one critical fact. It was found that parents would opt to educate their boy children even though they considered that there were numerous benefits in relation to the education of the girl child. At the end of the research, four phenomenal reasons accounting for the incidence of basic school dropouts among girls in the Berekum District were unearthed. The first among them was that, a sizeable number of the girls enrolled in the basic schools got pregnant along the line. This was followed by the issue of financial constraint on the part of parents/guardians, for which reason they could not educate the girls as much as they did for the boys. The third reason was that quite a number of the girls performed poorly academically. Unfortunate incidence of protracted ill-health was found to be another reason which prevented girls from pursuing secondary education. Among the recommendations made were the need for the government to intensify its sensitization programme aimed at getting more girls to enter higher institutions so as to be self-dependent. Again individual schools should endeavour to offer motivational packages to girls who perform well in schools by offering them educational materials to serve as a booster. Also special classes, especially in Mathematics and Science should be organized for girls in the second cycle to help them attain a higher grade in the subjects. The need for further research on participation of girls in secondary school has also been stated.