Child Protection in Boarding Schools in Ghana: Contemporary Issues, Challenges and Opportunities

By Prospera Dzang-Tedam

This invaluable book brings together a much-needed analysis of the challenges and benefits of providing social work services in Ghanaian boarding schools. It examines contemporary issues affecting children and young people in boarding schools and outlines principles and strategies for addressing these issues in a holistic manner. The book concludes with suggestions about how boarding school leaders, policy makers and educationalists might develop child protection processes in schools or strengthen existing protocols.

Dr Prospera Dzang-Tedam was born in Nandom in the Upper West Region of Ghana. She has a keen interest in international social work and is currently the Academic Lead for Social Work practice quality at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom following a 10-year role as Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Northampton. As a child protection expert, Prospera has published in the areas of diversity in childhood, witchcraft and faith based abuse and cultural competence. She is an advisor to the Home Office in relation to safeguarding children in the Returns process. Prospera also has research interests in enhancing the experiences black and minority ethnic students in Higher Education in the UK. She is married with two sons.

Elsie Gaisie-Ahiabu was born in Ghana (West Africa). Her career over the last two decades has involved; the founding of a local nongovernmental organization – DeSMAS, that seeks to address the challenges of marginalized deprived women. She has also worked in the formal sector coordinating various programs and projects, consultancy services, teaching at tertiary level and undertaking research. She is currently the Programme Coordinator of California State University in its Ghana center. She holds an MPhil in social work and is currently a third-year doctoral candidate at the Regional Institute for Population Studies at the University of Ghana. Her area of concentration is women, children and sexuality. She is married with two children and is living with her family in Accra, the capital city of Ghana.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kirwin Maclean Associates Ltd
• Release date: Jul 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781912130719

Book preview

PART TWO:

Setting the Context

Chapter 1Introduction

Education is essential for everyone and it is the level of education that helps people earn respect, recognition and expand their world view. However, the general standard of education between men and women the world over is still a major challenge that needs to be addressed. There are disparities between boys’ and girls’ educational attainment at all levels, with girls reported to have lower enrolment, poorer retention and achievement rates than boys, especially as they progress to senior high schools and tertiary levels in many developing countries (MDG Report 2015). The importance of promoting female education for achieving sustainable development is now widely recognised and it is imperative that this is embraced by all.

According to the 2010 Population and Housing Census, females constitute more than fifty one percent of the entire Ghanaian population, therefore education should be a prerequisite for them to be able to significantly contribute to the development aspirations of Ghana. However, in their efforts to move higher to attain their ambitions they are faced with a wide range of challenges such as psychological, emotional, financial and social needs. These numerous challenges make them vulnerable, requiring additional levels of support, guidance and advice to motivate young girls achieve their potential (Unterhalter, 2013).

It has been the case that senior secondary education in Ghana is largely delivered through boarding provision for young people aged from about 15-18 years (although in many cases children can be younger or older). Boarding schools in Ghana come in a variety of forms and can be single gender or mixed genders; secular or faith-based; government or private; large, medium or small. They can also be in rural, urban or peri-urban (on the outskirts of an urban area) sites, requiring significant travel for many children and young people. This diversity makes it difficult to achieve any standardised or systematic approach to protecting and safeguarding children and young people in these situations. For example, a faith-based secondary school may include religious programmes in their curricula and extra-curricular timetable. They may also have different ways of disciplining children and of engaging with their families.

According to Ajayi (2013), there are approximately 700 secondary schools in Ghana, however not all offer boarding provision.

As a response to some of the above challenges, the authors came together to design and implement a project in a Girls Senior High School (a government-assisted school) following approval from the Ministry of Education and cooperation from the school management in 2014. The Sunflower Project was aimed at enhancing the attainment of girls through the provision of social work services in schools. This was the first of its kind in Ghana and yielded benefits for the girls in the project school. The project offered the services of an onsite qualified social worker who provided various forms of support to the girls such as: signposting, advice and guidance within the school. Areas of intervention included: online safety, protective behaviour work, negotiating financial support, home-school liaison, anti-bullying strategies and groupwork.

These areas of intervention and others will be discussed in depth later in the book. We will outline the development of the project from inception to implementation and examine the strengths of the project and challenges faced during the pilot phase. The aim will be to share cultural and other factors which were considered in the development of this project and to highlight key areas where culturally-relevant approaches to social work intervention were used. An examination of child protection and welfare from a Ghanaian perspective will be highlighted and good practice shared.

The authors argue in this book that social work has a place in secondary schools more generally and in boarding secondary schools in particular. To emphasise this point, we subscribe to the following definition of child protection recently used by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection. It states