Parental & Learner Choice Study

DRAFT
Management Unit
By Parental and Learner Choice in Basic
Dr Leslie Casely-Hayford, Education across Ghana’s Three Northern
Dr. Adom Baisie Ghartey, and
Justice Agyei-Quartey Regions Ghana /
December 2017 Fifth Annual CBE Research Study
Contract ref: PO 6188

Crown Agents ref: 28928D
In partnership with:
Parental & Learner Choice in Basic Education across Ghana’s Northern Regions/
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations (iii)

List of Tables (iii)
List of Figures (iii)
Section Page
Executive Summary 5
1. Background and Methodology 11

1.1 Rationale for the research 11
1.2 Study Objectives and Research: 12
1.3 Scale and scope for the research 12
1.4 Methodology 13
2. Barriers to Access to Basic Education in Sub Saharan Africa and Ghana 14
3. Core Background Characteristics of Communities and Families across the Study

Districts 17
3.1 Background Characteristics of households 17
3.2 Religion, ethnicity and Gender Roles 18
3.3 Livelihood patterns and migration 18
3.4 Community Experiences with Education 19
4. Factors Restricting Full Participation of Children in Formal Basic Education 20

4.1 Poverty 21
4.2 Large family sizes 24
4.3 Demand and Pressure on Children’s Labour 25
4.4 Child Fosterage and Child Labour 27
4.5 Lack of parental care 28
4.6 Poor Quality Education 30
4.7 Inadequate understanding of the benefits of education 30
4.8 Long distance to nearest primary school 31
4.9 Conclusions 32
5. Different Perceptions and Experiences in relation to Primary and

Complementary Basic Education across key stakeholder groups 33
5.1 Differences between the two educational systems 33
5.2 Content of CBE 33
5.3 Different approaches to methodology and language of instruction 34
5.4 Pedagogic and disciplinary approaches 35
5.5 Experiences of parents in sending children to primary school and CBE 36
5.6 Experiences related to Schooling and CBE in the Northern region 38
5.7 CBE Learners’ perspectives of integration in the primary school 39
5.8 Conclusions: Learning outcomes—pedagogic approaches of the teacher 39
6. Key factors influencing parental and learner choice and preferences regarding
CBE 41
i
6.1 Quality of Complementary Basic Education 42

6.2 Child Friendly and Empathetic Nature of CBE and Learning Outcomes 44
6.3 The Flexible Nature of CBE 45
6.4 “Fee free” CBE 45
6.5 Distance to school and CBE class 46
6.6 Conclusions 51
7. Who is making the choices, and under what circumstances do they send
children to school or Complementary Basic Education? 51
7.1 Factors influencing the parental and learner choice 52
7.2 Parental and Learner Choice in the Upper West 53
7.3 Parental and Learner Choices in the Upper East Region 55
7.4 Parental and Learner Choices in the Northern Region 58
7.5 Conclusions 60
8. Strategies for enabling parents and learners participate and stay in primary
education 61
8.1 Support for families with more income-generating activities, and livelihood support particularly in food
insecure areas; 61
8.2 Enforcement of no school fees, usage of capitation and better social safety net targeting 62
8.3 Continuation of CBE 63
8.4 Community awareness creation and family planning 63
8.5 Improving the quality of basic education and primary education 64
8.6 Special support for teenage mothers who have not completed basic education 64
9. Key conclusions and lessons learned 65
10. References: 68
11. Annex 1: Core background characteristics of communities and families in Pusiga,

Upper East Region 70
12. Annex 2: Core background characteristics of communities and families in

Gusheigu District, Northern Region 73
13. Annex 3: Core background characteristics of communities and families in Jirapa,

Upper West Region 76
14. Annex 4: Research Team Members 81
15. Annex 5: Key influences and factors for parents and learners preference
towards complementary basic education in Gushegu District, Northern
region 83
Appendices Page
Appendices/ 86
Appendix A: Output 1 milestones/ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Appendix B: Output 2 milestones/ Error! Bookmark not defined.
ii
Appendix C: Risk Matrix/ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Appendix D: Management Unit Work-Plan/ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Appendix E: Personnel Input Schedule / Error! Bookmark not defined.
Appendix F: Procurement Cost – June 30, 2016/ Error! Bookmark not defined.
List of Abbreviations
List of Tables
Table 1: Progress towards Milestone 18 indicators Error! Bookmark not defined.

Table 9: Progress towards achievement of Output 1 milestones Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table 10: Progress towards achievement of Output 2 milestones Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table 11: Risk Matrix Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table 12: Management Unit work-plan for Q3 2016 Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table 13: Personnel Input Schedule 2013 and 2014. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table 14: Personnel Input Schedule 2015 and 2016 Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table 15: Personnel Input Schedule 2017 and 2018 Error! Bookmark not defined.
Table 16: Procurement Cost at June 30, 2016 Error! Bookmark not defined.
List of Figures
No table of figures entries found.
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iv
Executive Summary
The Learner and Parental Choice Study is designed to investigate the factors motivating parental and
learner choice in relation to basic education in deprived rural areas of northern Ghana. The study investigated the
reasons and circumstances behind parental and learner choice based on formal and complementary basic
1
education (CBE) options available in the study communities. The study also investigated the extent to which
parents and children preferred to participate in CBE classes compared to the primary education system. The study
explored the key factors which influence parents’ choice and preferences. It further examined the enabling factors
which assisted CBE graduates transition to the formal education system, as well as the strategies which support
them to stay once they are transitioned. The study was designed to deepen the understanding of policy makers
and civil society organisations concerning the pedagogic/methodological differences between CBE and formal
education related to the demand, supply and implementation of basic education in endemic poverty contexts
across Ghana’s three northern regions.
Study Objectives and Research
The main objective of the study was to investigate the factors related to parental and learner choice and
preference in relation to different types of basic education offered at the community level including:
formal primary education, private, religious and complementary education systems---(where these
options exist). Specifically, the study addressed the following research questions:
a. What are the factors which inhibit parents from choosing formal primary education and/or CBE?
b. What are the demand and supply factors which facilitate entry into CBE and formal primary
education systems across varied contexts?
c. What are the differences between parental and learner choices based on beliefs and values
influenced by gender, religion and socio-cultural traditions?
The qualitative research covered a total of 15 communities across the three northern regions, with five
communities in each of the three targeted districts. One district in each of the regions was selected
based on a variety of factors including differential contexts where comparisons could be made. These
differences included the following characteristics:
 Districts with a high incidence of child labour (e.g. Upper East/Pusiga District)
 Districts where there is relatively high access to formal primary schools (e.g. Upper West/Jirapa
District)
 Districts where there is a high incidence of OOSC and where primary schools are limited
(Northern/Gushegu District).
In-depth interviews were held with parents of the learners interviewed (from cycle 5) in order to
investigate their education preferences and the rationale behind their choices. The research involved in
1
The Complementary Basic Education Programme in Ghana has been a national programme supported through
the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service and 10 Non-Governmental Agencies. The key development
partners supporting the programme are DFID and USAID. The CBE programme is a flexible education programme
for children between 8-15 years of age which operate in the afternoon for 3 hours in order to provide children with
the opportunity to learn to read, write and numerate in their mother tongue. The CBE programme is designed to
assist children who have never attended school or dropped out of primary school transition back into primary
education often at P3 or P4 after completing the nine month CBE cycle which starts in Sept to July each year. The
CBE programme is targeted to communities and districts which have the highest incidence of out of school children
in Ghana.
5
depth interviews with at least 50 parents who had children in the CBE cycle 5 programmes in each of the
three study districts. There was a high proportion of female-headed households and widows in the
sample due to the fact that a high proportion of male parents had migrated out of communities. Male
and female CBE graduate learners were matched with the parents from cycle 5 with at least 10 in-depth
interviews of learners in each community. The interviews with chiefs, CBE Local Committee members
(LCs) and head teachers also took place in order to capture their views on parental and learner
preferences related to basic education.
Key supply and demand barriers to educational participation particularly at basic education level have
been well documented in studies by the World Bank (2016), the CBE Management Unit (2016) and
UNICEF (2015). The key supply barriers include a lack of basic infrastructure and access due to
unavailability of schools within a 3-5 km radius of the community. In approximately 15 to 20% of the
CBE target communities in the Northern and Upper East regions there was a lack of basic school
infrastructure to meet the demand for primary education. Other key demand side barriers included:
large family sizes ranging between 6 to 18 persons per household including at least 6 children per wife in
polygamous households. There were also very high dependency ratio’s and vulnerability profiles due to
the fact children constituted the majority of households and high levels of migration among the parents
and productive age groupings. This meant that grandparents, extended family members or other
guardians were often found to be the key care givers for children living in these harsh rural settings.
Findings from the households revealed that an elderly and aging adult population who were in charge of
the welfare and basic needs of the children were struggling to sustain the households in several
communities sampled.
Experiences of families and communities in relation to basic education varied across the three study
districts, with some districts having a high proportion of communities without schools (e.g. Gusheigu
District, Northern Region) compared to relatively better access to schooling in the Jirapa District in the
Upper West. Communities sampled were also showing increasing concern regarding the lack of teachers
in their schools and had started supporting their own “community volunteer” teachers by paying them a
small stipend on a monthly basis to teach. These communities had also started constructing their own
schools with local materials.
Unpredictable rainfall patterns and poor crop yields over the last 3 to 5 years had resulted in high levels
of food insecurity and household vulnerability across all the households interviewed but particularly
among female headed households. The study findings reveal that parents were unwilling to take
excessive risks in placing all their children in primary education due to their need for some children to
assist on the family farms and in the households. The findings from the three research districts across
the three regions (Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions) reveal protracted and inherent factors
including: large family sizes, outmoded socio-cultural practices, limited agricultural innovation, indirect
and direct costs of primary schooling and long distances to the nearest primary school. These factors
restricted many children from attending and completing primary school in the three northern regions of
the country. Other factors for non-enrolment or withdrawal included the fear that parents would not be
able to sustain children in primary school due to the fees being charged and other indirect costs despite
the government’s ‘fee’ free policy. Across all study districts primary schools were still charging termly
PTA dues and examination fees of approximately 15 GHC per term which was a major deterrent to
parents in the study communities. The indirect costs of feeding children at school and ensuring that
children had uniforms, shoes and learning materials was also a major deterrent to sending a child to
school. Interviews with parents suggest that these costs were slightly higher for girls as they progressed
through primary education due to their reproductive health needs.
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Across all three study districts, findings reveal that men were often making decisions regarding
educational participation and who would attend school within the family due to patriarchal patterns of
decision making and household governance. The decision to educate the girl or the boy was still being
influenced by traditional attitudes and socio-cultural practices concerning polygamy and early marriage -
--the tradition to ensure that the girl child was available to marry at an early age often below 15 and the
traditional practice of child fosterage were widespread practices. This was slightly shifting in some
households in the Upper East where a few girls had demonstrated that they take better care of their
parents in old age, but traditional practices were still entrenched particularly in the Northern Region
where child fosterage was in full force2. Findings also suggest that in more vulnerable households such
as female headed and “widowed” households where women were mainly in charge of providing the
basic needs of the households (food, clothing, health care etc)-- the decision to send a child to formal
school was much harder due to lack of support from family members and the psycho social stigma the
mother experienced.
Parents and other key stakeholders in the communities were beginning to draw a relationship between
the effectiveness of the teaching approaches in the formal and complementary systems of education
based on the learning outcomes of their children. Observations by parents and even teachers/head
teachers interviewed suggest that the learning outcomes of the CBE learners were “better” across most
subject areas once they transitioned to school compared to the other primary school children who had
not attended CBE. Parents spoke of these different performance outcomes of CBE learners due to more
adequate teaching learning materials, smaller class sizes, higher motivation in doing after school studies
and continuous access to their primers and books. Primary school teachers interviewed lamented on the
fact that most children in their classrooms had to share reading materials including text books because
there were not enough books provided by authorities. This was a major reason parents attributed to
why they did not see their children from primary school reading when they returned from school.
Several key stakeholders in the community including chief’s and elders acknowledged key differences
between the two educational systems (CBE and formal education). Interviews revealed that these
differences related to the approach of the facilitators in the classroom, requirements of the parents and
the language of instruction. Key stakeholder interviews with parents and CBE learners themselves
pointed out that the differences were that the local language was used in the CBE class as opposed to
the English language used in the primary school—even at lower primary levels. Parents and other key
stakeholders noted that the use of the local language enabled the children to acquire skills in speaking,
reading and writing the local language, and this in turn enabled them to learn the “English language
faster than their class mates when they transitioned into the primary school”. Other key observations
related to the two systems of education included differences in content, approaches and access to
teaching learning materials. One of the most important findings was that parents and key community
leaders observed that the CBE facilitators from their communities were more “committed to teaching
their children” than the teachers in the primary school due to their punctuality and attendance at CBE
class, and the home visits they conducted to check on children’s health, progress and attendance.
Another key difference observed by parents and the CBE graduate and integrated learners was that CBE
did not use harsh methods of corporal punishment or abusive language in teaching. Parents and
children were keenly aware of the fact that CBE classes used alternative disciplinary approaches and
attempted to create a child friendly learning environment with no physical/ verbal abuse in the classes.
2
Child fosterage usually related to the girl child where she is sent to the “auntie” or brothers sister at the age of 6
to 8.
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Key factors influencing parental and learner choice and preference towards complementary basic
education was its flexible, fully ‘fee free’ nature and quality delivery. The parents appreciated the fact
that CBE children could continue to assist them on the farm in the morning and then attend CBE classes
in the afternoon. They also observed higher learning outcomes among CBE learners who passed through
the programme based on observations of children’s reading and writing competencies and better
performance in the primary school system. Parents and learners themselves presented in-depth
evidence and understanding that the CBE programme was of high quality in teaching children to read,
write and numerate. This was based mainly on their observations that the CBE programme emphasised
phonic and syllabic approaches to literacy along with the high commitment levels of the facilitator to
class contact, feedback to children and empathetic teaching.
Parents were also influenced in their choice to select CBE classes for their children by the fact that the
programme was providing all the necessary teaching learning materials including notebooks, pens and
paper and that they would not have to provide any support to the child regarding uniforms, shoes and
books. This was a great relief to the parents interviewed and the children themselves since they knew
that the burden of providing these basic needs was often beyond the capacity of their families particular
in the off farming or “hunger season” when food security was a problem.
Findings from the Parental and Learner Choice study also suggest that the CBE class provides
opportunity for out-of-school children, especially those dropped out, to go back to school. For those
who have never attended school and are above class one, the CBE prepares them to enter the school
with the confidence to learn. The Complementary Basic Education is seen as a “second chance” or first
step in the child’s education, since parents were still not sure whether they would be able to afford the
primary schooling option due to their economic circumstances and the pressure on the household.
Parents of CBE learners also expressed great satisfaction with the fact that their children are being
taught in their mother tongue. This appeared to be very important to the parents and community
leaders as they were of the view that CBE programme was strengthening the child’s cultural identity,
respect for parental authority and other key community values.
The family’s decision concerning child participation across the two educational pathways (CBE or
Primary schooling) varied across the three regions depending on the presence or not of the family male
head. In most cases in the Northern Region and to some extent the Upper West and Upper East, the
decision to educate a child in CBE or primary school was based on the dominant male voice (if they are
present in the household) since they are the traditional heads of households. In these households,
women and children have very limited voice (Gusheigu District) and the father’s decision remains
binding even if the child is not the direct biological child of the head. Where mothers take the lead in
decision making related to the child's education in dependant on whether she is the head of household
due to migration, in some cases of widowhood or absence of the father; in these cases she must cater
for her children by herself with sometimes limited support from the extended family. Findings from the
Upper East and Upper West suggest that in some households, there was consultation between the
parents involved in the decision-making regarding child’s education but these were often in non
polygamous households.
The findings suggest that decision making in relation to basic education preferences and options is
influenced by communal and family factors such as family size, marriage relations, polygamy and child
birth order in the family. Children from polygamous families with many children face the challenge and
often limited opportunities to access basic education. In families where each wife has more than 5 or 6
children, the family is not able to provide for all the children to go to school. The man as the head of
8
household therefore either decides to select some children from each wife to attend school or leaves
the entire educational responsibility to the mothers. In either case, not all the children are able to go to
school due to the inability of the family to support the direct and indirect costs of schooling. Therefore,
some children are asked to attend school while the rest support the family livelihoods of crop faming
and animal rearing. These decision dynamics were also influenced by the birth order of the child in
family or where the child fell within the family make up. For instance, in the Upper West it was found
that if older children were already attending Junior or Senior High School-- younger children would not
be enrolled in primary education until the head of household felt that they could afford it. In the
Northern region, where the first boy child was to inherit from the father he was often denied formal
education due to the need to train him in traditional farming practices and ensure that he was able to
support the father on the farm.
The decision to educate the boy or girl child was also complex and based on the changing perceptions of
parents towards children’s long term future and their potential investment outcomes for sustaining the
family. In most cases in the Northern region the preference was still towards investing in boys’
education since he would remain under the control of the parents even after marriage and would inherit
from the father the majority of family land. In the Upper East, the preference was towards the boys’
educational investment but in some families these views were gradually changing in favour of girls’
education due parental experiences in seeing some girls achieve a “white collar job” such as nursing or
teaching.
There were several key strategies and recommendations which emerged from the research across the
three northern regions. Primarily the evidence suggests the urgent and large scale need to ensure that
the CBE programme is sustained and that government continues to support the nine month cycle in
most communities in the three northern regions. This was based on the fact that several communities
had high levels of food insecurity, vulnerability and poverty which would not enable them to send all
their children to primary school and that there were still large proportion of communities unable to
access due to lack of school infrastructure and trained teachers. Other key strategies for ensuring
more children would enter primary education and complete included the need to support more
agricultural innovation and off season income generating activities, improving the quality of basic
education and targeting girls and young mothers with CBE programming to break the poverty cycle.
The unequal burden on women due to the high incidence of polygamy, female headed and widowhood
required strategic interventions to ensure more focus on women’s empowerment through education
was urgently needed. More strategies to ensure women were engaged in all levels of decision-making,
with adequate provision made for the education of the girl child and likely teenage mothers. The
Parental and Child Choice Research found that it is important that certain traditional practices that are
preventing girls’ educational participation and completion are stopped which will require government
and non-governmental support. Child protection strategies which focus on eliminating: early marriage,
child fosterage and the exchange of marriage among families will assist girls participate and complete
basic education.
All the stakeholders acknowledged that the CBE programme, which builds on the children’s known
environment, uses effective teaching and learning aids/materials, provides uninterrupted/ individual
access to textbooks, and promotes child-centred learning and other participatory approaches—these
contributed to increasing children’s reading and learning outcomes in the CBE classes. The nine month
CBE experience also improved the child’s learning experience in the formal school system. Parents were
opting for CBE across the three northern regions due to a number of factors including the ‘fee free’
9
nature of CBE, the high quality of the programme delivery and educational fit with the family’s
needs/food security context and requirements for child labour in the household. Most importantly,
families and communities were discovering that CBE learners were more confident in entering the
formal education system and succeeding in education due to the literacy foundation skills they had
acquired in CBE. The government will need to take firm steps in sustaining the complementary basic
education programme in order to reach the most vulnerable populations in the north where food
security, outmoded socio cultural practices, large family sizes and lack of access to primary school
remain a major challenge for households, basic education participation and completion.
10
1. Background and Methodology

This study forms part of the Annual Research Papers which aim to build the evidence base and
strengthen knowledge generation under the Ghana Complementary Basic Education (CBE) programme.
Under output three, the CBE programme is expected to support investments that will strengthen the
evidence base in providing education to out-of-school children (OOSC); supporting their (re)integration
into mainstream primary schools; and ensuring lessons of experience are identified, communicated and
applied to enable all children to access a quality primary education. Under the knowledge-generation
and sharing component of the CBE programme, the Management Unit is expected to: “lead on
knowledge-sharing activities, communication and campaigning on OOSC, and disseminate results of the
implementation with the government of Ghana (specifically GES), development partners and all relevant
stakeholders through a knowledge-management and communications strategy.” The following section
outlines the rationale, objectives and methodology for the Cycle 5 Annual CBE Research Study on
“Parental and Learner Choice in Basic Education across Ghana’s Northern Regions” which was based on
recommendations from two DFID Annual reviews.
1.1 Rationale for the research

Over the last four years of CBE programme implementation, there has been anecdotal evidence that
some parents and children are opting for CBE over formal education due to the quality, relevance and
flexibility that the CBE programme offers. There is also some evidence from predominantly migrant and
minority language areas where CBE operates, that the programme is seen as sometimes more
responsive and inclusive by communities and parents. In communities where there is a high incidence
of child labour and where families are heavily reliant on their children for subsistence farming activities,
CBE is often seen as the only option for families who need their children to support their daily livelihood.
These varied contexts have influenced the need to pursue a more qualitative inquiry into the
motivational factors behind educational choices across CBE communities. The CBE Steering Committee
(SC) under the Ministry of Education (MoE) has expressed a desire for research which will investigate the
reasons behind the demand for CBE across different contexts and help to explain the preferences
parents and children have in relation to education. This research will therefore inform the GOG,
MOE/GES and development partners supporting CBE as it concludes the final year of operation with
donor support.
This Learner and Parental Choice Study is designed to investigate the factors motivating parental and
learner choice in relation to basic education in deprived rural areas. The study investigated whether or
not parents and/or children opt for CBE classes instead of formal schools and why. It also investigated
the extent to which parents and children preferred to participate in CBE classes compared to the formal
education system. The study explored the key factors which influenced parents’ choice and
preferences, investigating cases where parents opted for CBE classes and/or sometimes prevented their
wards’ entrance into formal schools. It further examined the enabling factors which assisted CBE
graduates transition to the formal education system, as well as the strategies which will support them
stay. Findings of the study will deepen the understanding of policy makers and civil society
organisations concerning the pedagogic/methodological differences between CBE and formal education
related to the demand, the timing of school classes, and attendance patterns. These lessons are
expected to inform primary education delivery especially in deprived rural contexts.
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1.2 Study Objectives and Research:

The main objective of the study was to investigate the factors related to parental and learner choice and
preference in relation to different types of basic education offered at the community level including:
formal primary education, private, religious and complementary education systems---(where these
options exist). Specifically, the study addressed the following research questions:
a. What are the factors which inhibit parents from choosing formal primary education and/or CBE?
i. Socio-Economic status of the family
ii. Religious beliefs
iii. Beliefs regarding girls’ and boys’ education
iv. Educational Provision
b. What are the demand and supply factors which facilitate entry into CBE and formal primary
education systems across varied contexts?
c. What are the differences between parental and learner choices based on beliefs and values
influenced by gender, religion and socio-cultural traditions?
1.3 Scale and scope for the research

The qualitative research covered a total of 15 communities across the three northern regions, with five
communities in each of the three targeted districts. One district in each of the regions was selected
based on a variety of factors including differential contexts where comparisons could be made. The
selection criteria included the following characteristics:
 Districts with a high incidence of child labour (e.g. Upper East/Pusiga District)
 Districts where there is relatively high access to formal primary schools (e.g. Upper West/Jirapa
District)
 Districts where there is a high incidence of OOSC and where primary schools are limited
(Northern/Gushegu District).
These contexts were varied in order to enable the research team to explore the issues of choice and
preference based on the views of parents and children who are faced with a variety of supply and
demand factors. Background characteristics of communities were also considered in order to better
understand the dynamics which could influence choice including:
 Incidence of OOSC within the district;
 The transition rates of children entering the formal education system from CBE cycles 3 and 4;
and
 The availability of primary schools within the district and access of children to these schools
within a 3-5 km radius of the community using cycle 3 data where possible.3
Districts were selected based on other key criteria including:

 The district has been involved in the CBE programme for at least 2 cycles.
 The district has implemented both Cycle 4 and cycle 5 programmes
3
This is cycle in which this data was last collected.
12
Based on the criteria and context-related factors listed above, the MU research team selected the
following districts: Pusiga (Upper East Region- UER), Jirapa (Upper West Region - UWR ) and Gusheigu
(Northern Region - NR) for the study.
Communities were selected on the following basis:
 60% of communities with a formal school in the community
 40% of communities where the formal school is beyond 3-5km from the community.
This meant that out of the five rural communities selected for study at least two did not have access to
primary schools within a three to five kms radius. The other three communities had access.
1.4 Methodology
The Parental and Learner Choice Study is primarily a qualitative study using in-depth interviews with
parents, CBE learners and focus groups across a variety of stakeholder groups. Interviews were held
with parents and children in the cycle 5 CBE programme in order to capture their views related to
factors leading to parental and learner choices. These interviews were followed by focus group
discussion with other community participants, including school management committee (SMC)/local
committees (LCs), chiefs and elders, integrated cycle 4 learners in the primary schools, and children in
upper primary who have never participated in the CBE programme. In-depth interviews were also held
with facilitators and head teachers. All interviews were conducted using gender sensitive approaches,
often with men and women separated during focus group interviews in order to facilitate participation
based on cultural norms.
The main approach to the study was to interview parents and their children who are participating as
learners in the cycle 5 CBE programme. This was to ensure that the researchers were able to capture
the most recent perspectives of parents and learners on the choices that they made in enrolling in the
CBE programme. It was also to probe the reasons behind their choices along with the educational
options these learners had before entering CBE classes. Boys and girls were interviewed separately with
at least 10 in-depth interviews being conducted in each community which included: 5 boys and 5 girls in
each community. The interviews with chiefs, CBE Local Committee members (LCs) and head teachers
took place separately in order to capture their views on parental and learner preferences for basic
education. The focus group interviews with CBE graduates from cycle 4 were focussed on exploring their
experiences in formal primary school compared to CBE classes and the reasons their parents chose to
send them to CBE.
In-depth interviews were held with parents of the learners interviewed (from cycle 5) in order to
investigate their education preferences and the rationale behind their choices. The research involved in
depth interviews with at least 50 parents who had children in the CBE cycle 5 programmes in each of the
study districts. Often more female parents were found for interviews compared to male parents. This
was due to the high proportion of female-headed households and widows along with the fact that a high
proportion of males had migrated out of communities. In Gushegu (NR) for instance, 22 (44%) fathers
and 28 (56%) mothers were interviewed. In Jirapa District (UWR), 30 (60%) parents interviewed were
female and 20 (40%) males; The same proportion was also found (60 females to 40 males) in the Pusiga
District, Upper East.
The research teams in each region included at least three staff members from the implementing
partners (IPs) operating in the selected districts in order to support the lead researchers in the field. The
13
IP staff that assisted in the field work were given a full orientation on the methodology and
instrumentation before the field work began.
2. Barriers to Access to Basic Education in Sub Saharan Africa and Ghana

This section provides the context in which the study is positioned, including the findings on key barriers
and bottlenecks preventing access to and participation in basic education across the three regions and
districts. Information concerning these deterrents can be found in previous studies on out of school
children including the World Bank’s (2015)4 study on OOSC Youth in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA); Out of
School Child Incidence Study in Ghana (2016)5 and UNICEF’s 2012 Study on Out of School Children
(OOSC). The following key issues of supply and demand were found to be key challenges for
governments attempting to address the OOSC problem in Sub Saharan Africa:
 Supply issues: communities having limited access to primary schools within a 3-5 kms radius,
poor quality of primary schooling due to lack of trained teachers, poor supervision and time on
task etc.
 Demand issues: poverty and direct and indirect cost of primary schooling, socio-cultural
practices including child fosterage and early marriage, growing incidence of teenage pregnancy,
unsustainable livelihood patterns among households, high demand for child labour at home and
on the farm; and special problems of children being trafficked or engaged in seasonal migration.
According to the World Bank’s (2015) report on Out of School Youth in Africa, the number of out-of-
school youth on the continent is estimated to be 89 million. This gives an indication of the tremendous
challenge governments’ face in the coming decade, given the high poverty, inequality, migration and
conflict challenges. The effect of the huge number of out-of–school youth will not only be felt by these
youth themselves, but in relation to the intergenerational and longitudinal poverty impact on the
society as a whole. The report stresses the need for governments to address the problem of out-of-
school children and youth requiring a cross-sectoral approach and engaging with a wide range of
stakeholders (World Bank 2015).
The report provides evidence that the educational status of parents is a key determinant of the
educational profile, participation and outcomes of the children. The report corroborates several studies
showing that there is a direct correlation between the educational status of parents and the level of
education attained by their children (World Bank 2015). This evidence on parental education has been
around for the last three decades –namely, that if a parent, particularly the mother, attains at least basic
education or beyond, there is a greater chance that her child will be educated and supported to stay and
complete his or her education compared to a parent who has had little or no education.
Another factor presented in the report is the issue of early marriage, which is having a negative effect on
the educational outcomes of girls across Africa including Ghana. There is growing evidence that this is a
key barrier to education for out of school youth. In Sub-Saharan Africa, girls are more likely than boys
not to be in school; the girls who get the opportunity to be in school most often do not progress to
4
World Bank (2015) Out of School Youth in Sub Saharan Africa: A policy perspective.
5
CBE Management Unit (2016) Updated Analysis of Out of School Children in Ghana with District Level Projections
(Crown Agents/Associates for Change, Accra, Ghana)
14
secondary school due to outmoded socio-cultural practices such as early marriage and child fosterage.
This limits their lifelong outcomes and ability to escape poverty (RECOUP, 2010). This is partly influenced
by family attitudes and expectations concerning girls’ education and its utility. Girls from poor
households are often required engage in assisting at the home, more likely to marry before the age of
15 and less likely to access and complete primary education than boys.
The World Bank Report (2015) also suggests that poor quality education is another key barrier to solving
the problem of out-of-school youth. The high number of poor-quality schools in rural communities
across SSA discourages parents from enrolling their children in school especially in secondary school. In
rural areas, where secondary schools are far away, parents do not send children, especially girls, to
school because they fear for their safety. Parents were also found to take their children out of primary
school with the view that they won’t be able to access to secondary education (World Bank 2015) due to
the direct and indirect costs.
These barriers and bottlenecks were similar to those found in Ghana’s Out of School Study by UNICEF in
2012. The Ghana Study by UNICEF on out-of-school children (2012) shows that Ghana is stilled faced
with a significant number of children aged 5-14 out-of-school. The study suggests that there has been a
reduction in the number of out-of-school children, particularly dropouts, in Ghana’s primary and lower
secondary school levels; however, the challenge of reentry and completion of children into primary
education remains a major challenge (UNICEF 2012).
The findings from the UNICEF’s OOSC study in Ghana (2012) also suggests that early marriage and child
fosterage are two of the key socio-cultural barriers to achieving universal basic education in Ghana,
especially among girls in the three northern regions. Also, parental ignorance of the importance of
education prevents many households from sending their children to school. In addition, the
stigmatization of children with special needs prevents parents from enrolling and supporting children in
school. Special needs children in primary school are unlikely to receive the necessary attention from
their teachers. The OOSC Ghana Study (UNICEF) found that schools were highly “unfriendly” towards
special needs children. Special needs children are not often accepted nor well integrated by teachers in
their schools which leads to dropout (UNICEF, 2012).
For children in general, the study revealed that lack of proper care at home and abuses including sexual
and gender-based violence were a key hindrance to proper nurturing and development of children
within the school context. All these factors were found to push the children away from schooling leading
to poor academic performance and their eventual drop out (UNICEF 2012).
The Ghana Out of School study (UNICEF 2012) also found that non-enrolment and poor school
attendance in Ghanaian primary schools was attributed to the direct and indirect costs associated with
primary education, including the payment of school “fees” and Parent Teacher Association (PTA) dues.
The introduction of the capitation grant has reduced the burden to some extent in terms of the payment
of school fees, but the capitation grant is still faced with challenges such as irregular disbursement and
grant inadequacy. There are also other direct and indirect costs incurred by parents such as the price of
transportation, exercise books, pencils, food, and sanitary materials for girls. These costs increase as
children progressed to higher levels of education (UNICEF 2012).
The Ghana out-of-school children study (2012) found that the poor quality education was one of the
greatest barriers, which was reinforced by inefficient educational resource allocation across the most
deprived regions. The study found that parents were losing hope in the quality of teaching and learning
outcomes from their primary schools, especially in the rural areas of the country, hence preventing
15
them from sending more children to school. The falling quality standards was attributed to high rates of
teacher absenteeism and lack of effective supervision on the part of authorities, particularly in deprived
areas of Ghana (UNICEF 2012).
Findings from the Ghana Living Standards Survey (2016) and data from the Complementary Basic
Education Management Unit also suggest a high rate of OOSC based on lack of school infrastructure and
primary school availability in the target communities. Figure 1 below provides an overview of the
incidence of OOSC and access to formal schools across the three study districts and other districts in the
northern regions
Figure 1: Incidence of OOSC and access to primary schools
Incidence of OOSC
12,000
11,130
10,000
8,000 7,694 7,214 7,139
6,000 6,044 6,115
4,000 4,411
2 2,782
2,000 19 72 8 0 5 30
4
- 61 53 111 70 19 54 77 34
Nanumba East Gushegu Kpandai Jirapa Nanumba Mion Pusiga
North Mamprusi South
Incidence Total CBE Communities No. Communities without school
The graph above shows that the Gushegu district in the Northern Region (NR), which has the highest
incidence of OOSC (11,130) across the sampled study districts, also has 72 (65%) out of 111 active CBE
communities with no access to formal schools within 3-5km radius.6 The lack of physical access is one
of the contributing factors to the high incidence of OOSC in the Gushegu District. OOSC in East
Mamprusi (7,214) and Mion (7,139) also in the Northern Region have at least 19 (36%) out of 53 and 30
(39%) of 77 of their CBE target communities without primary schools. This lack of physical access is
likely a significant factor causing the high incidence of OOSC in the northern region. In the Jirapa district
in the Upper West, by contrast, all 19 communities with CBE intervention have access to formal primary
schools within a 3 – 5km radius, but it still has OOSC (4,411), which could be attributed to other factors
(e.g. poverty and female headed dependency burden).
6
Please note that the red lines depicting the total number of CBE communities do not stand out due to the low
figures.
16
3. Core Background Characteristics of Communities and Families across the

Study Districts
This section provides an overview of the core demographic characteristics of the research districts,
communities and families which were selected for the study. The section describes the population
structure, average family size, predominant languages spoken in the communities, the livelihood
patterns, migration patterns, religion, access to primary school and other options for education within
the communities.
3.1 Background Characteristics of households

The data reveals that most parents, guardians and/or direct care givers interviewed were between the
ages of 25 and 70. The CBE learners, the integrated CBE learners and the formal school pupils who were
interviewed but never participated in the CBE programme were aged between 8 and 15 years of age.
Annex 1, 2 and 3 contains details of the demographic background of the families interviewed including
parents/guardians, the cycle five learners, integrated learners and non-CBE upper primary pupils.
The findings suggest that all the three districts had a high proportion of youth often ranging between 40
to 50% of the population (2010 Population and housing census). Children between 5 -9 years of age
also constituted the highest proportion of the household, ranging from 15% in Jirapa (UWR), to 17% in
the Gushegu District (NR), and to 14% in the Pusiga District (UER).
The average household sizes were also very large, ranging from 6.3 persons per household in the Jirapa
District to 18 in the Pusiga District. For instance, in the Pusiga District, the research team found that
average Muslim households had approximately 18 people with at least 6 children per wife and with
three wives per husband, compared to Christian households of six people and fewer men practicing
polygamy. Children often constituted the majority of the household, and, due to migration, several
households did not have any active adult population between 30 to 50 years of age. Characteristics of
some households revealed that an elderly and aging adult population who were in charge of the welfare
and basic needs of the children was visible in several communities. For instance, in the Pusiga District in
the Upper East Region, the research revealed that households were headed by grandparents or other
guardians of the children since their own biological parents had migrated south to work for indefinite
periods of time. Interviews suggested that very little remittances from the parents (who were living
often in the south of Ghana) to the grandparents or other care givers in order to support the education
and feeding of the children.
In the Gushegu District in the Northern Region, of the 22 men interviewed approx. 16 men (72.7%) had
more than one wife, with an average family size of eight. This indicates why parents are not able to
provide enough support for the children’s education. For instance, Nyorim and Dandabolin
communities had the highest number of female parents, with six and seven out of 10 women
participating in the study. Most parents interviewed across all three study districts, had little or no
education or experience of schooling themselves, which impacted on their confidence to support the
children in school.
Findings in the household also revealed that a very high proportion of girls were married before the age
of 14. This is in line with the Demographic Health Survey (DHS, 2016). For instance, in the Upper West
on average about 52% of the female population aged 12 years and older were married, based on
findings from the Ghana Population and Housing Census (GPHC 2010). By age 25-29 years, about 76.7%
17
females are married compared to 49.6% of males. At the age of 65 and above, widowed females
account for 51.9% of households while widowed males account for only 9.8%. Among the people
married, a very large proportion, 76.0%, have no education while about 21.9% of the never-married
have never been to school (2010 GPHC). Findings from the study reveal that the high proportion of
married and widowed women with no education was having a negative impact on the education of
children, particularly girls, and the value placed on their education.
3.2 Religion, ethnicity and Gender Roles

Across all three districts in the three regions there were different ethnic/language groups and variations
in the religious make-up of the population. For instance:
Upper West: The main ethnic group is the Dagaaba who speak Dagaari and represent about 99.5% of the
population. About 65.9% of the population is Christian; 18.8% is Traditionalist; and 10.4% is Muslim. The
population with no religious affiliation constitutes 4.8% (2010 Population and Housing Census).
Upper East Pusiga District:
The main ethnic groups in the Pusiga District were the Kusaal people with smaller groupings of ethnic
groups who had migrated from Burkina Faso. The predominant religion in the five sampled communities
visited in the Pusiga District was Islam even though there were Christians in all the communities. The
religion of the people had a direct influence on the family size, as was observed in all the communities.
The children interviewed across all five communities were mainly from polygamous families due to the
fact that Islam permits men to marry up to 4 wives. The majority of the men in the communities had
between 2 and 3 wives with an average of about 5-6 children per wife. The chief and elders of Yariga
had this to say in one FGD; “In this our community, we practice polygamy and that is the men have more
than one wife with so many children. Our main options for education in this community are CBE and
primary school”.
Gushegu Northern Region
The Gushegu district, Northern region, has two main ethnic groups: the Dagombas and the Konkombas.
The Dagombas, who speak Dagbani, constitute 62.2% of the population while the Konkombas, who
speak Likpakpaaln, constitute approximately34.7%. The other ethnic groups (Guan, Akan, Ewe, Maimbe
etc.) constitute about 3.1% of the population. The district is predominantly Islamic, traditionalist and
Christian with an estimated population of about 68.1%, 22.2% and 8% respectively (GSS 2010 Population
Census).
3.3 Livelihood patterns and migration

Crop farming and animal rearing were the main sources of livelihood across all three study districts, with
some variations. Families were finding farming a challenge due to the continuous decline in crop yields
over the years, erratic rainfall patterns and the high cost of labour. For these reasons, some families
(particularly men) had resorted to traveling to southern Ghana to offer their services as farm labour,
commonly known as “by day” (Field survey, 2017). Typical agricultural characteristics of the Jirapa
District (UW) and Gushegu districts (N), were that the streams dry up in the dry season leaving the
communities with no surface water catchment for domestic and agricultural purposes. Ground water
serves as the main source of water for boreholes and hand dug wells. The rainfall pattern was
increasingly irregular across all three districts, which made it difficult to predict the planting and
harvesting patterns for any cropping year. More and more communities were experiencing erratic
18
rainfall, leading to partial or total crop failures. Human activities such as bush burning, tree felling for
fuel wood and charcoal, improper farming practices and the excavation of vast areas for sand and gravel
contributed immensely to the destruction of the natural vegetation, as well as poor agricultural
production, higher temperature, and poor soil fertility. These observations have been confirmed in the
2010 Population and Housing Census along with the reports from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
Communities in the Upper East and some parts of the Upper West are beginning to engage in alternative
livelihoods such as dry season gardening where there was access to small dams and also traditional
crafts such as weaving. Children were also engaged in several income-generating activities for the
family, including trading across borders and in the nearby towns. The findings from field work in the
Upper East reveal the livelihood patterns in more detail:
The main occupation of the rural folks is farming, and they are engaged in mainly subsistence
farming. This was not different from what was observed in the 5 sampled communities in the
Pusiga District. They grow crops such as millet, maize and soya beans. In a few of the
communities, some of the people are engaged in dry season vegetable farming, mainly onions.
The average farm size owned by women is 2 acres. Christian families usually have the wife and
the husband cultivating on the same piece of land while polygamous families (mainly Muslim
families) tend to have each wife cultivating a separate piece of land from the head of household.
The farmers’ inability to afford fertilizer on their farmland coupled with poor agricultural
practices is weakening their ability to make a basic living from farming and sustain the family
(Field notes, Pusiga District Upper East).
Weaving of fabrics for traditional smocks is major source of livelihood for women in some of the
communities visited in Pusiga District (e.g. Lateega community). This is usually done by young
female adults. In the Tambiogu and Zuabuliga communities, the dry season farming of
vegetables is common among the families. But this tends to have an effect on their children’s
education because parents use the help of their children in the gardens. Also in the Tambiogu
community, the population is mainly elderly and ageing as a result of the youth migrating to the
south to work on cocoa farms. The care of their children is left in the hands of grandparents.
These “grandparents” or elderly caregivers are not able to actively till the land to produce
enough food to feed the family. Findings in this study suggest a correlation between farming
patterns and school attendance, as some children dropped out because they could not get food
to eat.
Similarly in Yariga, some children (boys) are encouraged to engage in trading (second hand
clothes) because the adults believe that not all children should be in school.. Some either
dropped out or became very irregular. Children who dare to remain in school, do it under the
support of their mothers or have to struggle to support themselves on their own because some
fathers do not see the need for education, especially for girls. Girls are sometimes compelled to
marry when they reach the adolescence. The fathers in particular call for the adolescent girls to
marry because it is seen as a ‘safety net’ practise to prevent the girls from engaging in early
sexual promiscuity, which can result in teenage pregnancy. (Field notes, Pusiga District Upper
East)
3.4 Community Experiences with Education

Experiences of formal and non-formal education varied across the three study districts, with some
districts having a high proportion of communities without schools (e.g. Gusheigu District, Northern
19
Region) compared to relatively better access to schooling in the Jirapa District in the Upper West.
Communities were also showing increasing concern regarding the lack of teachers in their schools and
had started supporting their own “community volunteer” teachers by paying them a small stipend on a
monthly basis to teach. These communities had also started constructing their own schools with local
materials.
Access to education in several communities in the Gusheigu district, Northern Region has been a serious
challenge over the last 20 years and is well documented (Associates for Change, Education for
Empowerment Evaluation, 2010). For instance, in 2015 approximately 20% of communities in the
district had no access to formal primary schools (CBE End of Cycle Report, 2015). According to the 2010
GPHC, less than 6% of the total population had either attended school in the past or were still in school.
The census also revealed that over 71% of the population had never been to school, with females less
likely to have attended school in the district in the past. According to the 2010 (GPHC), of the district
population aged 11 years and older, only 71.9% are literate in English and a Ghanaian language; 20.3%
are literate in English only; and 7.5% are literate in a Ghanaian language only.
Two out of the five communities in the Pusiga district (UER) do not have a formal primary school, and
children had to walk long distances to school. For instance, in Vorekoum, one of the two communities
without formal primary schools--pupils had to walk about 3 km to Dawari, which served as a receiving
community for primary education. Similarly, the children in the Tambiogu community have to walk
about 3 km to Nakondi or Sogodi, which are nearby communities with primary schools.
In some of the communities, findings suggest that adults feel a growing sense of urgency to provide
their children with access to primary education. In three of the five communities visited in the Pusiga
District (UE), community members had constructed their own schools and were paying their own
community-volunteer teachers to ensure lower primary education (KG to P2 or P3) was provided to the
very young children. These cases included-- Lateega, Zuabuliga and Vorekoum communities who
constructed their own structures to serve as classrooms for their children. Their effort was mainly led by
their chiefs, and the CBE facilitators, in the case of Zuabuliga, the chief took great efforts to mobilise the
population to contribute to paying the volunteer teachers approx. GHC 40.00 each every month. The
Lateega community had a formal primary school, but surprisingly, the parents did not trust that the
school could provide their wards with quality education so they had resorted to sending their children to
low cost private schools in Pusiga. The community members in some communities showed concern for
their children’s performance and the poor quality of education in formal public schools. The chief and
community opinion leaders in a focus group discussion had this to say: “When you choose a head
teacher who is not functional, work cannot go on”. The GES directors are killing the schools by posting
unserious head teachers to manage the schools”. This concern was echoed in several communities
across the Northern and Upper East Regions and was resulting in some communities losing faith with
public basic education.
4. Factors Restricting Full Participation of Children in Formal Basic Education7

This section presents the reasons why some families are unable to send all their children to primary
school across the study districts and the thinking or practices behind their decisions. Primary data
7
Reasons why some families are unable to send all their children to primary school across the
study districts and the choices they made…
20
collected is based on direct interviews with parents and children who attend CBE along with other key
community stakeholders involved in supporting education in the community.
Interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) across the stakeholder groups in all three study districts
revealed a number of factors that account for the inability of some families to send all their children to
primary school. Prominent among them are: poverty, large family sizes, demand for child’s labour at
home, fosterage/lack of parental care, inadequate understanding of the benefits of education, uncertain
returns to investment in child education, opportunity costs to educating the child including the inability
of the parents to use the services of the children on the farm and at home, as well long distances to
primary schools. The stakeholders shared their perspectives on these issues as discussed in the next
section.
4.1 Poverty
Poverty ranked as a key factor that each of the stakeholder groups identified as the reason some
families do not send all their children to school. Focus Group Discussions (FDGs) with chiefs, elders, and
parents revealed that families across the study districts were small-scale crop and animal farmers whose
livelihoods depended on yields from their farms. However, due to protracted poor crop yields over the
last few years, the families were unable to have adequate food to eat and sell in order to provide for the
families basic needs, including the education of the child. There was also growing recognition among
the populations in the three northern regions that predicting rainfall patterns had made dependence on
rain fall agriculture a very risky livelihood which was affecting the children and the families’ ability to
ensure educational access. These reasons corroborate those factors indicated in the 2010 Population
and Housing Census as influencing the livelihood patterns among the communities in the district.
Perspectives shared by the chiefs and elders across the three regions during the focus group discussions
suggest that poverty and food insecurity due to poor farming environments, limited know-how and
innovation were holding the population back from being able to support their children in primary school
even though it is “free”.
Upper East
Surprisingly, the population in the Pusiga District (UER) and the Northern region were unable to fully
participate in free basic education, which included access to free uniforms and school meals, due to very
large family sizes (over 8 children per wife and often 2-3 wives per family). Parental interviews also
indicated that they did not value education for all their children, particularly girls, since some parents
did not see any direct benefit to the family once the girl child was married off.
Our fathers prefer to send the boy child to school because if the girl gets pregnant she cannot
continue her education, but if the boy impregnates a girl, he can still continue with his education.
(FGD with boys who have integrated into primary school, Tambiogu community, Pusiga-Upper
East region)
I will choose the boy because the boy will inherit my property, but the girl will grow and marry
and may even live with her husband somewhere. But the boy will remain in the house. (A male
parent, Yariga community, Pusiga-Upper East Region)
21
This perception was changing, with some women stating that they valued girls’ education more than
boys’ since when the girl grows up she respects the family and takes care of the parents more than the
boy child but these were still emerging notions and not always found tested within the family.
I will choose the girl to go to school with the little money I have. This is because the girl will have
the heart to help me if she is employed than the boy. (A female parent, Zuabuliga community,
Pusiga-Upper East Region)
I will choose to take the girl to school, because the girl will look after me in the future. Girls love
their mothers more than boys do. ((A female parent, Tambiogu community, Pusiga-Upper East
Region)
Northern Region
Similar trends were found across the Northern region with lack of jobs in the communities and over
reliance on subsistence farming have contributed immensely to the extreme poverty levels. Poor rain
patterns and water challenges in the communities have resulted in low crop yield, hence the
communities are not able to have enough harvest/income to support their families’ basic needs,
including the education of their children.
My hopes are always on a good harvest, but unfortunately we have poor soil nutrients and poor
rain patterns, so I don’t have a good harvest to generate income for the family’. (Parent Nyorim,
Gusheigu District Northern Region)
Views expressed by community stakeholders in the five Northern communities revealed similar patterns
based on focus group discussions and the individual interviews with parents. In all three communities
where formal school parents were interviewed, they indicated that they could not send all their children
to school because they are not able to feed them both at home and in school. Parents mentioned that if
school feeding was available in all their schools, enrolling their children would not be a challenge. In
the Namongbani community, for instance, some parents shared the view that apart from food they
were not able to meet other basic needs of the children. “The issue of school uniform and sandals get
me worried every time that school enrolment is mentioned (Parent, Namongbani community).
Interviews with parents in the communities revealed that financial difficulties led to the drop out of
some children in school due to cost of school fees even though the public schools were not to charge
fees8. My son dropped out at primary two when I could not pay for the uniform and books for him but he
is now in CBE because all materials are given free (Parent interviewee, Yeshe).
The views of the chiefs/elders, SMC/LC and head teachers supported the views of parents related to
poverty and inability to pay fees as contributing to poor participation in primary education. The chiefs
believed that parents were not able to enrol all their children in school because of difficulties in raising
funds to pay for the child’s basic needs, particularly girls. According to one chief, in some cases, children
engage in labour to raise money sometimes to meet basic needs such paying for their own food, pens,
pencils and school fees and/or PTA dues. Parents, therefore, resort to enrolling only a few children in
household in school and use the rest on the farm to “support those in school”. This was corroborated
8
Interviews with parents suggest that the “fees” they are referring to are mainly PTA dues which were charged by
the schools and some examination fees on a termly basis. These would often be between 10-15 GHC per term per
child.
22
by the CBE children themselves who indicated that their parents did not enrol them in school because
they were used on the farm and in the market to support the family income. CBE learners interviewed
in all five communities also indicated that poverty is a key reason for their non-enrolment in primary
school. Learners interviewed across the communities indicated that a lot of children were not in school
because of challenges their families faced with poverty. “My grandfather complained of lack of funds to
get me enrolled in school (CBE Learner interviewee, Yeshe Community).
Upper West region
In the Upper West, poverty was also characterized by families not being able to pay for basic food and
needs of their children to attend school. For instance, in the five communities in the Jirapa District, FGDs
indicated that: “some parents cannot take care of their children to eat daily and at the same time put
them in school”; whilst in Focal Group Discussions (FGDs) with chiefs and elders in the Tizza Kompori
community (same district) they stated that: “economic hardships, including inability of some parents to
meet some commitments in school for some of their wards prevents them from sending them to school.”
The SMCs/LCs also ascribed the reasons restricting their wards access to primary school as “lack of funds
to pay fees for the children” (Yagha community), “financial difficulties leading to some children not
attending school” (Ul-Bakonoyiri) and “financial problems is also a cause for some not to attend school.”
(Yibile)
Parents also cited poverty as the main hindrance to ensuring primary school access to all their children.
A father in Yagha indicated, “our inability to send all our children to school is due to the many demands
on us. We have inadequate financial resources to provide for all the children’s needs. If I had the financial
power, all my children would go to school.” A mother in the Tizza Kompori also had this to say:
“Sometimes it is monetary issues. There are days that we do not have food to eat, and yet the children
come home from school and demand payment for one thing or the other, and when that happens, we
have no option but to ask them to stay at home.” Another mother in the Saabiyiri community, Jirapa
District said: “I don’t have enough income to take care of the children. I don’t have enough harvest for
sale so I have little income. We have economic hardships, we try to send them to school but as they
progress we get locked up financially, and they have to drop out of school.” A mother in Ul-Bakonoyiri,
also in the Jirapa District, indicated that “it is poverty- the demand for school fees, uniforms, books, etc.
that puts a lot of burden on the family.” A father and a mother in Yibile also indicated that: “Poverty
prevents us from providing for our children in school. Also, farming is not attractive now because the
harvest turns out to be low, so there is insufficient money to support our children in school.”
Most of the CBE learners during interviews across the five communities in the Jirapa District (UWR) cited
poverty as one of the main reasons for not attending primary school. In Tizza Kompori community, each
of the 10 learners in succession indicated that “there is no money to buy school uniforms and pay for
other requirements.” One CBE female learner in Saabiyiri community indicated that: “poverty on the
part of my parents, lack of uniforms, and other educational requirements in the primary school
prevented me from attending school”
Similar patterns were observed in the Northern and Upper East regions, where parents worried that
over time they would not be able to sustain their children in the formal education system due to low
crop yields and their inability to pay the school fees and other direct costs such as uniforms, shoes, and
sometimes “chop” money (for food) at the school during lunch break. Some parents interviewed with
out-of-school children also revealed that they had not enrolled their wards in the CBE programme based
on the fear that these children would be one day integrated into the formal system and they could not
financially sustain this over the long term. Women who were burdened with the responsibility of paying
23
for their children in school were particularly conscious of their inability to send all their children to
school and therefore selected carefully who they sent. Some women also complained that girls were
particularly demanding at the upper primary level when they needed new uniforms and shoes and
would refuse to attend school if these needs were not provided.
 Most parents like me are not able to provide the needs of the children to be in school. There are
days my children stay home because I am not able to pay the fees (PTA levies/exams fees). Years
that our crops fail to do well, feeding becomes a problem. For example this year, our crops failed
us, so some days we are not able to get enough meal for them to eat, and they may have to
remain home. (A female parent, Lateega community, Pusiga-Upper East Region)
 No money to pay school fees, PTA levies, exams fee. No uniform and sandals to wear! Food is
sometimes difficult to get!, If the basic needs are not provided, going to school will be difficult. (A
male CBE learner, Lateega community, Pusiga-Upper East Region)
 “My father says there is no money to pay my school fees. I don't have a school uniform and
sandals to wear to school. My father is a weaver, but he said he does not have money to pay fees
for my siblings and me, so I don't attend school. (Seidu Abdul Sabod, male CBE learner, Lateega,
Pusiga district, Upper East)
4.2 Large family sizes

Large family sizes, ranging between four and 12 children per family accounted for the inability of some
parents to send all their children to school. In cases where they are able to send some children to
school, choices had to be made regarding who to send--- the older or younger ones depending on the
resources available and the needs of the family on the farm. In the Upper East, interviews with Muslim
parents suggest that where families were above 21 children, (approx., 7 children per wife where men
had married three wives), Muslim men would select between 1 and 2 children for primary school from
each wife and then send1 to2 children to CBE, with the others having to stay at home.. In non-Muslim
homes, the selection of who attends school was based on who was most needed by the father on the
farm or the mother at the home. Often the second or third child was selected to attend school so that
the first male child was with the father.
In the Upper West, the interviews with parents suggest that if the older children, irrespective of their
sexes, had already started primary school and the resources became inadequate the younger children
were “sacrificed” and would not attend school since the investment had to be concentrated on the older
children who were completing at JHS and SHS levels. On the other hand, if the financial resources
improve at the time the younger children are ready to enter school, then the younger ones benefit from
primary education. Perspectives shared across the stakeholder groups in the communities attested to
this. The FGD with the SMCs and LC in Tizza Kompori and Ul-Bakonoyiri indicated that sometimes the
older children get the opportunity to attend school, but by the time it gets to the turn of the younger
ones the parents don’t have money, so the younger children stay at home. A mother in Yagha also said,
“I am unable to send all my children to school because of poverty. The two boys in the JHS and three girls
in SHS are putting so much pressure on the family budget, which forced me to have the other boy stay
out of school to help me take care of the older ones.”
The family size in the Gushegu District in the Northern Region, ranges from two to 16 children per
family. Families who have large family sizes are not often able to send all children to school. This
compels them to make a decision as to who should be sent to school. In most cases they either settle on
sending the older children to school or the younger ones but not the first born male child since he is the
24
one designated to support the father on the farm in order to help the rest of the family and enable the
education of the younger children. This is partly due to the fact that the eldest son will also inherit the
farm from his father. My children are many, and I cannot afford to send all of them to school because of
the fees. I have to let the others help me on the farm to cater for those in school (Parent interviewee,
Namongbani)
Findings from interviews in the Pusiga district, UE suggest that the religious background of a family/
community was affecting the relationship between men and women and contributing to the large family
size. In the Upper East, the community with the largest family size was the Yariga community which
was the most Muslim-dominated community. As was seen in the Yariga community in a focus group
discussion with the chief and community opinion leaders, the women did not feel comfortable speaking
in the presence of men but spoke freely when they were separated from the men. Women complained
of their lack of “voice” in decision-making in the family and community and spoke of how they took on
the full responsibility to provide for the basic needs of the children, which included education and health
care. In these communities women were “relegated to the background when it comes to decision
making”.
Another factor which contributes to the decision of who is selected to enter primary school is gender,.
with the preference often towards the boy child. Girls are discriminated against when it comes to
making a choice of educational enrolment, especially in families with limited financial resources. This
was particularly the case in the Gusheigu district in the Northern Region. Interviews with SMCs, parents
and CBE learners across the communities showed that some parents have less hope that the girls would
complete school since there had been cases of girls dropping out at the upper primary and JHS levels
due to pregnancy. Parents interviewed believe it is not prudent to invest the limited family funds in the
education of the girl since she is of higher risk for drop-out and also is not a long term asset of the family
due to marriage. This corroborates a view shared by some SMC and chiefs and elders during focus
group discussions.
Some parents prefer educating the male child with the limited funds to educating the girl
because some believe educating the girl is a waste since they mostly get pregnant at the
JHS and SHS levels (SMC FGD, Dandabolin)
Most CBE children are those whose parents could not take them to school because they
had lots of children and with two or three wives hence some are taken to formal school
whilst due to financial constraints, others are made to stay home but enrolled in CBE.
(Chiefs/elders, Namonbgani community Northern Region)
4.3 Demand and Pressure on Children’s Labour

Findings across all the three research districts and regions suggest that the indirect costs of schooling
including the high demand for child labour and the use of their children’s services at home and on the
farm prevents the parents from sending all their children to school. Findings from child interviews
across the target districts also suggest that children were keenly aware of the pressure their parents
were under to provide for the family needs and ensure food security. Several children reported not
wanting to be an additional burden on their parents and would not ask their parents for support to
attend school. Children attending school would often make sure that they would work on the farm
immediately after the end of the school day in order to assist in the family. The vast majority of parental
and child interviews suggest that given the current farming practices and high level of household food
insecurity, entry into primary school was restricted to only a few children in most families. Work and
25
labour activities for children often came with high risk and hazards. For instance, several children from
the Upper East and Northern regions would travel south during vacation to seek income for sustaining
their schooling. Often girls would be exposed to high risk behaviour and would sometimes become
pregnant due to rape or sexual abuse since they were sleeping in markets and on the streets.
The Upper East research also found that some children had to engage in cattle rearing and cross border
trading activities which would assist them to stay in school. The chief and elders in a FGD in Yariga
community, Pusiga District had this to say: “Some parents engage their children in household work and
also taking care of animals, which sometimes prevent the children from going to school”. Other children
were also taking care of themselves even though they were living with their parents and had to ensure
that they had enough money to feed themselves. This was confirmed by the chief and elders of
Zuabuliga community as they indicated that: “Some children during vacation will travel to Kumasi to
work for money and some end up staying there. And those who will manage to come home may come
back with pregnancy” In the Yariga community, some of the children take advantage of the community’s
proximity to the Togo border to engage in trading activities such as the sale of “second hand” clothes.
This was confirmed by the CBE facilitator who said: “Children at early stages are exposed to money.
Many of the children from 10 years upwards who are selling second hand clothes in Bawku, Bolga and
Pusiga are from this community, so because they are exposed to money at this level, they don’t see the
importance of education hence they rarely attend school.”
Chiefs and elders in the Upper West Region, shared perspectives across the stakeholder groups
regarding the need for child labour and its impact on school participation:
 “Parents engage the children, both boys and girls, in livelihood activities such as cooking,
fetching water(especially the girls), and farming activities. The girls also help the parents in
preparing shea butter and brewing pito for sale to raise income to support the family. In Ul-
Bakonoyiri, they indicated that the females assist in household chores, and the males assist in
farming activities. Some of the females also assist in collecting shea butter to raise funds for the
family, and the boys are hired to harvest groundnuts and rice to raise funds for the family (SMC,
Tizza Kompori, Jirapa District, UW).
 “Farm work is the main setback to primary school enrolment. It applies to both males and
females. Rearing of animals and farming activities as well as the children establishing their small
farms on their own to address their needs, especially during the Christmas season, keep them out
of school. Some gather stones for sale. Girls cook and sell rice on the market and other days.
When some children engage in these activities to make some small money, they stop schooling.
However, some also cater for their education through some of these economic activities they
engage in (SMC members, Saabiyiri community, Jirapa District).”
 “Some parents also engage their children in farming during the farming season. Also labour for
money on the part of the children, especially the boys, prevents children from attending school.
Some of the girls engage in pito brewing and selling, and some of the children, particularly the
boys, engage in charcoal burning to provide income for the family (Chiefs and elders, Yibiyile
community, Jirapa District).”
 “When some of the boys go to galamsey (illegal mining) and get some money, they influence
their colleagues who also follow them to those areas at the expense of their education. Peer
influence is the main cause of drop out in the community (Head teacher, Tizza Kompori, Jirapa
District).”
26
 “I did not attend primary school because I did not like school at all. I was a cattle boy as well as
taking care of sheep and supporting my father on the farm (A male learner, Yagha community,
Jirapa District).”
 “My parents are farmers in the village and they always asked me to take care of my siblings or
go to the farm to chase away birds during germination (A female CBE learner in Sabiyiri).”
 “Some of the things that may prevent us from participating and staying in school are school
uniforms, sanitary pads, sandals, school bags, exercise books, pens, farming activities, baby
sitting and sometimes our parents say girls’ education is not necessary (FGD with female
transitioned CBE learners, Tizza Kompori, Jirapa District.”
In the Upper West and to some degree the other two regions, boys were also being used on the farm
and to ‘follow cattle’ which prevented them from going to school. In the Gushegu District of the
Northern Region, child labour is in high demand due to the nature of farm work in the communities;
parents demand the use of children on the farm for planting and harvesting of crops and rearing
animals, mostly cattle, sheep, goats and guinea fowls. The socio-cultural practice of fosterage is also a
major reason why girl children are not enrolled nor complete their primary education. In addition to
farm work and child fosterage, children were also asked to carry out household chores, which affected
their schooling.
Chiefs and elders in Diyali community, Jirapa District shared the following:
The children are used on the farm at the expense of school. They do a lot of labour work on the
farm, pick shea-nuts, dawadawa, beans and do charcoal burning. This usually prevents them
from attending both formal school and CBE (Chiefs and Elders, Diyali)
Taking care of young children or “babysitting” is one of the activities that prevent children, especially
girls, from going to school. Findings suggest that the socio-cultural practice of sending young girls to
stay with their “aunties”9 and other relatives to take care of babies affects their education. In addition
to child care, girls are also responsible for several household responsibilities such as fetching water and
firewood in the early morning, and that affects their schooling. As indicated by the facilitator of the
Nyorim community, a CBE- transitioned learner10 got pregnant after a few months, so the parents asked
her to be a babysitter for a relative, and as a result she dropped out of school at JHS 2. Some children
mobilise themselves to work for community members in order “to make money” to enable them go to
school whenever school reopens, but some end up not returning to school. Interviews with children and
parents also reveal that the high poverty levels also compel parents to “give” their girls out for marriage
at very early ages often between 11 and 13 years. In some cases, “exchange” marriages are conducted
between families in which the male interested in a female will exchange with his sister who also gets
married to the brother in-law. This tradition is typically practiced among the Konkomba families in the
Northern Region.
4.4 Child Fosterage and Child Labour

The traditional socio-cultural practices of “fostering” whereby the girl is given to the fathers’ sister or
“auntie” is a well-documented practice which often prevents the girl’s primary education participation
9
This is often referred to fosterage.
10
Transitioned learners means that the CBE graduate entered the primary school system after completion of the
CBE programme cycle.
27
and completion (Rollsten, 2014; UNICEF, 2014). These fostered girls are often used as house help, farm
labourers or care givers to young children by the auntie; fostered girls also assistant in trading activities
and travel to other communities with the “auntie” when needed, which improves their income. A
father in Yeshe, Gushegu District attested to this as indicated below:
Traditional practice of female children staying with the ‘aunties’ prevented me from enrolling my
first two girls in school, which I will never do again if I get the opportunity again as a father
(Parent interviewee, Yeshe community, Gushegu, NR)
These ‘fostered’ girls often migrating to the towns and cities in the south as “kayayee” or market helpers
which carry heavy loads. Their exposure to street life and often the difficult work affects their health
including sexual reproductive health in most cases, and the money gained in undertaking this work can
prevent them from re-entering school on their return particularly if they fall pregnant. In Yeshe, the
head teacher stated :
The pressure on children by parents to work, and their inability to cater for these children push
them into “kayayei”11 in Kumasi and Accra. This activity is organised by some people of the area
who send money to the children to run to Kumasi or Accra to work as kayayees. One P5 girl left
for Kumasi during the vacation to do kayayei, only to return pregnant, and she has now dropped
out. (Head teacher, Yeshe, Gushegu districts)
“During the vacation, most of the formal school children form groups and work on peoples’ farm
as labourers to raise money, and eventually some do not return to school again because they
begin to feel they can make money without going to school.” (SMC/LC, Yeshe, Gushegu, NR)
Findings from the research also suggest that some parents encourage their children to work as labourers
to make money to cater for themselves at school. “When parents are hard up, they (parents) encourage
children to work for money to enable them go to school. (SMC/LC, Namonbgani). This was corroborated
by the parents and children interviewed in all five communities in Gusheigu District. In Yeshe
community, some parents indicated that farming activities prevent them from sending their children to
school since their support is needed to make the farm the main source of livelihood for the family. Other
factors that prevent them from school are the zeal on the part of the children to trade in the
communities. The children’s own interest in trading and tailoring work in the area does not encourage
schooling at all. (Mother interviewee, Namonbgani)
4.5 Lack of parental care

The Parental and Learner Choice Study revealed that a major factor preventing children from
participating in primary school education was the lack of parental care and support. Several children
interviewed were orphaned or living with non-biological care givers. Due to the large family sizes and
the inability of some parents to take care of their children, the children often stay with relatives, friends,
caregivers and extended family outside their own communities. In the process, the ‘foster parents’ often
fail to send these children to school and engage them in their farming and other business activities. This
was particularly the case for girls when they were sent to help their “aunties”. Findings also suggest that
widowed mothers who married the deceased husband’s brother were not treated well and were often
unable to support their children in the new relationship with educational support. These women were
11
Kayayei is the local Ghanaian term for head porters who carry market goods in the local markets for people who
need their support.
28
found to be abused verbally, and there was poor treatment by the brother regarding the widowed wife’s
children. As a result, some of the children became drop outs or truants. Also, some parents failed to live
up to their responsibilities of taking care of their children such as failing to send them to school. The
responses given during the interviews and FGDs provided insights on these issues.
In Yagha in the Jirapa District (UW), the chiefs and elders noted that “Some children don’t have anyone
to take care of them, so they travel to the south to labour for various trades during vacation in order to
take care of themselves and their siblings.” In the Saabiyri community it was indicated that “there is no
financial assistance for those children whose parents are no more.” Whilst in Yibile community, a parent:
said, “truancy and engagement in farming activities prevented the children from being in school.” A
parent in Tizza Kompori also lamented that “my husband is not supportive – he is always drinking and as
soon as he hears of the sound of xylophone (funerals or other celebrations) he vanishes from the house
only to come back and with force ask for his food with insults and beatings.” The children corroborated
these observations with a female CBE learner in Yagha stating that “I did not attend school because my
father passed on and my mother does not have the means to do so.” Another male learner indicated that
“my mother does not have money to send me to primary school, and my father is not caring for me. ”
Similarly, another male learner in Sibiyiri said “My father has passed away and my mother asked me to
stay at home and help her on the farm. There is no money to go to primary school.” A female learner also
reported, “I was sent to stay with a woman who never sent me to school and my parents could not
afford to send me to school. It is when I returned that my mother sent me to CBE.”
In the Upper East interviews with community members, revealed that a major source of parental and
child neglect occurred when the women were widowed and, due to socio-cultural practices, had to
marry the brother of the belated husband. Interviews with widows and children in the UE suggest that
the practice resulted in the children not being taken care of by the brother. In the Yariga community in
the Pusiga District, a widow who has 5 children recounted how she was struggling to take care of the
children, and as a result, her two children who were in JHS and SHS had to drop out of school because
she couldn’t finance their education. She made these remarks “I am therefore a single parent and a
head of my household. My two children who got to JHS and SHS levels of school had to stop because of
no funds to support them through. The girl, who completed JHS but could not continue, had to marry
against what I wished for. The boy is also out there struggling. The fact is that in this community the
burden of child- care is on women more. The men do not really care. But as a mother you can’t stand to
look while you children suffer, but in my case it is getting out hand”.
In the Northern Region, the research also revealed that some children, for reasons such as poor
parental care, traditional socio cultural practices as well as loss of parents and broken homes, end up
staying with either friends, on their own, or with other relatives. For instance, the field study in Northern
region revealed that in Gushegu district, girls are made to stay with their aunties because the tradition
demands that the girls do not belong to the mother but to the father, who then sends the girl to stay
with the auntie. During this period, the aunties do not enrol such children in school but end up using
them as babysitters, on the farm, trading and helping with other household chores and errands. There
are children who stay with their parents, but the parents do not show interest in sending them to
school. Some of the responses from the interviews provide insight into why children are denied
education by parents. In the Dandabolin community, a learner indicated that “Lack of knowledge on the
part of the community makes it difficult for them to enrol children in school”. In the Namongbani
community, a parent shared, “I have a sick husband at home and very we are poor. The only way for us
to survive is to get the children to help out”.
29
4.6 Poor Quality Education

Parents also attested to the poor quality of primary education as a key driver of their non enrolment of
children in school and/or their withdrawal. For instance, In the Yeshe community (Northern Region), a
parent shared his frustration and said, “I withdrew my children because teachers are not regular and
punctual to school. The earliest they come to school is around 10:00 am and they close by 12:00 noon. I
will prefer to send them to farm rather than to school where there is no teacher to teach”. The SMC in
Namongbani also had this to say: “Our school has only one teacher for kindergarten to Primary six which
makes it difficult for him to manage the school. Though as a community we have supported with a
volunteer teacher, a lot of the times the children sit in school without any teaching and learning taking
place”. This was corroborated by integrated CBE learners in Dandabolin primary school as “In CBE our
facilitator is always with us, but in the formal school the teachers do not come, so some of the children
also have stopped coming to school in the community.” The poor quality of education is further
explored in the next section in more detail.
4.7 Inadequate understanding of the benefits of education

The parental interviews and key stakeholder interviews in the Upper West revealed that most parents
were also uncertain about the benefits of education, about the returns to the investment they make and
the opportunity cost involved in educating the child, including the inability of the parents to use the
services of the children on the farm and at home. The stakeholder groups cited inadequate job
opportunities after schooling and the huge amount of money spent on children in school without any
visible benefits For example, the Chiefs and elders in Yagha in the Jirapa District noted that “Some
families believe the children will not get jobs after school so they prefer to start farming at an early age.
Some children also don’t see the immediate benefit of education, so they prefer to travel down south and
labour for money.”
Inadequate understanding by parents and community members of the benefit of education also
accounted for some children not being and staying in school. For instance, in the Jirapa District, Upper
West (Yibile community), the SMC indicated that “Some of the parents do not know the importance of
education because most parents in this community advise their children not to go to school. They say
that after school, people don’t get work to do and, therefore, farming is the best option.” A parent in
Saabiyiri also noted that “We had inadequate understanding of the benefits of education, but CBE has
helped us to know the importance of education.”
Similarly in the Pusiga District in the Upper East Region, some parents were still ignorant of the
importance of education, they prefer for their children to help them in domestic and farming activities
rather than enroll them in school. For instance, in the Vorekoum community, the CBE facilitator was of
the view that, “Some of the parents do not want to allow their children to come for the CBE class
because they do not see the need of learning the mother tongue in school. Parents don’t insist that the
learners go for the classes; this is because they see the house work as more important than the school.
The girls are engaged in household chores such as fetching water and washing dishes whilst the boys
take care of the animals”. The CBE facilitator’s view was echoed by a primary school head teacher in the
Yariga community. He stated, “The interest of families especially, the father, is for their children to take
care of their animals or take part in their trading activities. Because of this, the participation of children,
particularly boys, in formal school is very minimal”.
Lack of knowledge about education in the communities was particularly of concern with regard to girls’
education. Across the five communities in the Northern Region, interviews revealed that most parents
30
had very little understanding and knowledge regarding the need to enrol their children in school. The
SMC in Namongbani also indicated that most parents, “due to lack of role models have not been able to
appreciate what education can do to them and the community in general”. In Yeshe a father indicated
that “My daughter’s behaviour changed after she was enrolled in SHS at Gushegu and got pregnant
afterwards and dropped out”.
4.8 Long distance to nearest primary school

My children are used on the farm because they have no school to go to. The nearest school to
our community is well over 6 km with a dangerous stream to cross. Hence, I decided to let them
assist me on the farm after completing CBE. (Father Interviewee, Nyorim, Gushegu District,
Northern Region)
One of the key supply barriers to children’s primary school access was found across all three districts of
study but was particularly problematic in the Guishegu District (Northern Region) and Pusiga District
(Upper East). In the Pusiga District, interviews with chiefs and elders suggested that several
communities were beginning to construct their own schools as a result of CBE and its influence on the
communities’ understanding of the importance of education. For instance, two communities (Tambiogo
and Vorekuom)— had constructed their own lower primary schools from kindergarten to P3 in order to
enrol young children who could not walk the 3-5 kilometers to the nearest schools. The CBE facilitators
in these communities were instrumental in helping the communities to organize these schools, and in
one community case, were also working as volunteer teachers in the morning and then serving as
facilitators in the afternoon. The chief and elders of Tambiogu indicated that “The community initially
had to construct a mud structure and hired a volunteer to provide some education to our children
because there was the need for education for them. This is in addition to an Arabic school (Makaranta)
that existed to provide quoranic lessons to the children.”
Interviews with children including CBE integrant children who were now in school confirmed that they
would start to walk the long distances to school for a few months and then drop out if they were not
able to obtain a bicycle from their parents. Often children between the ages of 5 to 8 did not even
attempt the walk if their parents were not assisting them.
In the Northern Region, unavailability of schools in communities was one of the main factors that
prevented children from going to school. Interviews with parents, especially in the Nyorim and Diyali
communities showed that the long distances that children had to commute on a daily basis to and from
school was a major disincentive to both the parents and the children. An in-depth interview with a
father in Nyorim community, Gushegu District revealed the following: The distance from my community
to the nearest school and lack of money makes it difficult for me to enrol my children in school. The
nearest school is over 5 kilometers and the worst of it is the flooding during the three months raining
period. Both the elderly and children are at risk of attempting to cross the stream. In Diyali community,
the chiefs and elders in a FGD indicated that parents in the community are not willing and able to send
their children to the nearby school due to the distance and lack of money. “Most of the parents cannot
afford the nearest primary school because they have to buy bicycles for the children, but there is no
money to do that.”
Long distances to the nearest school was also a major factor revealed in interviews with parents who
were not sending their children to school in the Jirapa District, UWR. The Chiefs and elders in Saabiyiri,
(Jirapa District) noted that “Parents refuse to send the children to school because the distance is far.” In
Ul-Bakonoyiri, it was indicated that “It is mainly the distance which prevents parents from sending all
31
their children to school. In addition, a river flooding during the rainy season prevents the children from
crossing to school.”. In Ul-Bakonoyiri, a mother said, “Long distance and financial constraints prevented
me from sending my son to school. My son is not interested in school so if the distance is long he will not
go.” The children echoed the perspectives shared. In Saabiyiri community, a male learner indicated
during the interview that “long distance from home to the nearest school is my reason for not being in
school”, whilst in Ul-Bakonoyiri a female learner said that: “Because the primary school is very far from
the community, I did not go to school.”
4.9 Conclusions
Access to primary education in rural communities is still a major challenge despite over 20 years of free
compulsory universal basic education policies by the government. The findings from the three districts
across the three study regions reveal protracted and inherent factors including: large family sizes,
outmoded socio-cultural practices, limited agricultural innovation and distance to the nearest primary
school. These factors restrict many children from attending primary school in the three northern
regions of the country. These are similar to factors which have been revealed in several studies on out-
of-school children in Ghana, including: the Incidence Study on Out of School Children in Ghana (2016),
UNICEF’s Out of School Study in 2015, and Associates for Change’s (2008) Study on the School for Life
programme across similar districts in 2007/08. Similar patterns have been well-documented in several
girls’ education studies over the last ten years and reveal an alarming pattern of community adaptation
to poverty and resistance to socio-cultural change.
Surprisingly, despite the government’s policy of ensuring that kindergarten, primary and JHS education
is fee-free, teachers and to some degree, parents, are involved in still charging fees and dues, which was
a major deterrent to sending their wards to school. Most importantly, the indirect costs of feeding and
clothing children to attend school acted as a barrier, particularly when there was a large family size.
Girls are particularly affected in this cycle of non-participation since they are seen as a higher risk for the
family investment and also incur more cost as they progress to higher levels of education (e.g. P4 to
JHS3).
The factors also revealed that the women in most of the communities visited are the primary care-givers
to the children, and in at least one region (Upper East) are predominantly in charge of ensuring school
fees are paid for the children. This limits the number of children a woman will send to school; often
she takes into consideration the age of the child and gender. Factors such as widowhood, male death
and female headed households were also contributing to the high burden placed on women to provide
for their children.
Across all three regions men were also making decisions concerning who would attend school within the
family context. The decision to educate the girl or the boy was still being influenced by traditional
attitudes and socio-cultural practices concerning early marriage ---the tradition to ensure that the girl
child was available to marry off and child fosterage. This was slightly shifting where a few girls had
demonstrated that they take better care of their parents in old age, but traditional practices were still
apparent particularly in the Northern Region where child fosterage to the “auntie” or brothers sister was
in full force.
The next chapter focuses more on the preferences which parents have been showing in relation to CBE
education as an alternative and complementary form of education, especially for children who remained
out of school in their households.
32
5. Different Perceptions and Experiences in relation to Primary and

Complementary Basic Education across key stakeholder groups
This study investigated the different perceptions which parents and children had regarding their
experience in formal primary schooling compared to CBE; this helped the research team explore the
factors influencing parental decisions towards enrolling children in CBE and deepened the investigation
into the factors preventing enrolment in basic education. The views of the SMCs/LCs, parents, CBE
learners and integrated learners were elicited regarding their experiences with the primary school and
CBE systems in terms of the quality of educational delivery, methodology in the classrooms, relation to
other peers and learning outcomes. The perspectives shared by key stakeholders focused on language
acquisition, content, methodological approaches to teaching and learning, access to teaching and
learning materials (TLMs) and the overall holistic development of the child. These perspectives helped to
inform the parental decisions made in enrolling children in the CBE programme and basic education.
5.1 Differences between the two educational systems

All the stakeholders acknowledged during the interviews and FGDs that a key difference between the
two systems (CBE and formal education) relates to the approach of the facilitators/teachers in the
classroom and the language of instruction. Key stakeholder interviews with parents and learners
themselves pointed out that the key differences were that the local language was used in the CBE class
as opposed to the English language used in the primary school—even at lower primary levels. Parents
and other key stakeholders including chiefs and elders noted that the use of the local language enabled
the children to acquire proficiency in speaking, reading and writing the local language, and this in turn
enabled them to learn the “English language faster than their class mates when they transitioned into
the primary school”. They also noted that although the primary school pupils start with the English
language from the very onset, they struggle to acquire competency in speaking, reading and writing in
the English language. They attributed the competence of the CBE learners in the local language to the
approach, pupil access to TLMs, and facilitators’ commitment to teaching and learning in the CBE class.
However, all the stakeholder acknowledged that the two systems complement each other and rarely
could they say that they preferred one over the other.
For instance in the Upper East, the key stakeholders including parents, often said they preferred “both
systems” since they needed CBE to prepare the children for the formal education system. Children in
this region also said that they prefer CBE to learn to read and at the same time they “liked the formal
primary system since it allows them to go higher”. For instance, in the Lateega community, a parent said
he preferred both the CBE and formal school “I will not say one approach is better than the other. I will
go for both approaches to education since the CBE will help the children to catch up in the formal
primary school”. A CBE learner in Lateega community said “I like both the CBE and the primary school. I
will be able to learn English at the primary school and learn my mother tongue in the CBE class”. Another
CBE learner in Zuabuliga stated, “I will choose the CBE because when I finish the CBE, I will be able to go
to the primary school. The facilitators told us that when we finish the CBE we can join the primary
school.”
5.2 Content of CBE

“The stories in CBE are great… it makes learning fun” (Child from Gushegu, District Northern region)
33
In the primary school the syllabus/content and the methodological approaches are generic in nature and
not focused on the specific environment, culture and traditions of the community. However, in the CBE
class the content is context-relevant often bringing concrete examples from the community and focused
on the holistic development of the child in relation to language acquisition, culture and traditions, as
well as moral values: self-discipline, respect for elders, etc. The CBE primers and TLMs are developed to
respond to the socio-cultural environment of the learners thus facilitating learning, the child’s self-
confidence, and language identity. “CBE uses the children and the content related to their environment
to teach, and the children are made to share their experiences about what is taught, whilst in the
primary school the teachers mostly tell the children what they know. Those who pass through CBE are
more abreast with their culture than those who go straight to the primary school (Parental interviews,
Jirapa District, Upper West).
5.3 Different approaches to methodology and language of instruction

The phonic and syllabic methods, the learner-centred approach, and the context-specific TLMs used in
the CBE class were found to be very helpful in enabling the children to read and write the local language
and also apply their knowledge in other spheres of life. The smaller class size, (maximum of 25 in a class
as opposed to the over 50 children per class in the primary school) the full set of primers (which they are
given and which they take home), and no punishment regime in the CBE class made it possible for the
facilitator to provide individual attention to the learners in a caring manner. This parents and children
believed often led to the better performance among CBE learners in both literacy and numeracy. Some
of the stakeholders, particularly the head teachers and SMCs, held the view that the only one class and
one facilitator in the CBE class limited the children’s learning experience whereas, the many classes and
teachers in the primary school enabled the primary school children to learn to relate to diverse people
other than the persons they know from their community, thus building their confidence to relate with
different people. They also felt that the prescribed uniforms, insistence on neatness and formal
approach to conducting activities including the sanctions and rewards regime, inculcated in primary
school children a higher level of discipline
Interviews with the SMC in Yagha, Tizza Kompori and Saabiyiri communities in the Jirapa District (UW),
indicated that the methodologies used in the primary school compared to CBE are very different: CBE
uses the local language and gives practical examples to help the children understand things while in the
primary school, the English language is used and the teaching approach is directive and instructive.
Interviews with key stakeholders also revealed that “in the CBE class, the learners are asked to prepare
their own TLMs whilst in the primary school the teachers prepare the TLMs”. With CBE, the children wear
what they have available, but in the primary school, the children have to wear prescribed uniforms and
they appear neater in their uniforms and know personal hygiene better than those who go to CBE”. With
CBE there is always one teacher while in the primary school there are more teachers and more classes. It
has been observed that those who pass through CBE are able to learn faster and are more creative than
those who have only gone to primary school.
In the Northern Region, in terms of teaching methodology, parents preferred the CBE approach since it
was based on the use of the local language and that CBE was seen by parents to be more effective than
the use of English in the formal school. They were of the view that if a child is being taught in the local
language, he or she easily understands what the teacher is teaching because they are already familiar
with it. Interviews with parents and learners suggest that the facilitators at the CBE class teach with
patience and understand the different learner needs, which is not the case in the primary school. This is
attributed to the fact the class size in the primary school is much larger than that of the CBE, so teachers
34
do not have the time to attend to each pupil compared to learners in the CBE. Parents also observed
across the five Northern communities that the CBE learners are “more serious with their books” than
the children in the primary school because when the CBE learners return from class, they love to read
their books. This they said is because the facilitators have made learning interesting and fun for the
children.
All the stakeholders across the three study districts acknowledged that the local language is the main
language being used to teach in CBE class whilst English is used to teach in the primary school. The
experience of most parents and children suggest that the language of instruction—the first language---
was assisting the child to learn to read in a more efficient manner. The SMC in Ul-Bakonoyiri (Jirapa
UW) stated that “We realised that those who go to CBE move faster and better up the educational ladder
than those who go through the primary school.” Similarly, the SMC in Yibile indicated that with CBE,
lessons are taught in the Dagaare language and the children understand it better than the English, which
is used in the primary school. In the Northern region, in terms of teaching methodology, parents
preferred the CBE approach since the use of the local language in the CBE is seen by parents to be more
effective than the use of English in the formal school. They were of the view that if a child is being
taught in the local language, he or she easily understands what the teacher is teaching because they are
already familiar with the language of instruction (e.g. Dagaare).
5.4 Pedagogic and disciplinary approaches

There were vast differences in pedagogic and disciplinary approaches observed by parents and children
in both systems. Parents were keenly aware of these differences based on the feedback from their
children and also observations by the SMC’s or Local Committees at the schools and CBE classes. Most
communities across the three regions were struggling with the poor attendance of primary school
teachers and sometimes compared this with the high commitment levels and regular attendance of CBE
facilitators. Another key difference was in the manner that discipline was executed in the primary
school with a heavy reliance on the use of corporal punishment. This was in sharp contrast to the child-
friendly and alternative disciplinary approaches used by CBE facilitators to ensure class management.
Several children explained that one of the key reasons for their drop out at the primary school was the
verbal and physical abuse by the teachers when they were late or could not answer a question.
In the Jirapa District of the Upper West, the negative experiences of schooling included inadequate
teachers, absenteeism and teachers punishing the children without any reason. The latter deterred the
children from attending school. Parents, CBE learners and key informants reported that the CBE
facilitators were often regular, punctual, patient, and attentive to the children. The children were
observed playing with the facilitator, being allowed to ask questions, and able to read and write in a
short time. Parents also commented on the fact that the facilitator’s often checked on the learners
when they were absent from class, but this was rarely done by teachers in the formal school. A parent
in Yaga remarked that in the primary school, “You will never know your child has been absent because
the teacher does not discuss the child’s activities with parents/guardian. There is transformation of the
child. Children who are truant become well-behaved and very responsible. My daughters who passed
through CBE are performing well in the formal school. CBE helps to open and prepare their minds to learn
well. It motivates children to enrol into the formal school.” A parent in Tizza Kompori also remarked, “If I
am in my house and a stranger comes and speaks English, I will call my child to come and listen and
explain to me what the person is talking about since I have not gone to school. My kids who passed
through CBE are now in primary. They do extremely well. They get prizes during speech and prize-giving
day. So I think the CBE programme is also good. The Primary school helps in shaping and preparing the
35
children for higher education, but the teachers are sometimes absent from class and they use the
children to fetch stones. We face difficulties in the purchase of school materials and school fees.”
Interviews with CBE learners also reported in the importance of songs and play in the classroom. For
instance in Yagha community (UW), the learners stated that everything is provided in the CBE class and
they liked the Dagaare, and the method of teaching, especially the songs and how they create and draw
whatever they liked to assist in reading and writing. The Saabiyri learners indicated that the facilitator is
friendly and teaches well, with a lot of songs, focusing on vowels and consonants, and how to count
numbers. The Ul-Bakonoyiri learners also said they liked the method of teaching, including the
preparation of their own TLMs. Similarly, the Yibile learners noted that the facilitator is friendly, always
in class, does not insult or beat them and he speaks the language they understand. He uses pictures,
songs, storytelling and dance to teach.
The parents often reported across all three study regions that CBE children are well-behaved and the
other children in the primary school copy this good behaviour. The SMC in Gushegu, Northern region
expressed their appreciation of the approach in the CBE class as follows:
A parent stated that “the method of teaching is good. The last time I visited them in class I was
happy to see how practical it is, and all the children were very enthusiastic about it. It is a pre-
school kind of thing for especially children who have never been to school.”
Parents in the Upper West reported that “the facilitators at the CBE class teach with patience” and
understand the different learner needs which is not the case in the primary school.
“The children are performing well. They are learning our culture and are able to read certain
words in Dagaare and by the time the cycle ends they will be able to read and write in our own
language, and this will help the child to speak and write in English. Besides, the facilitator is
friendlier than the teacher in the formal school.
5.5 Experiences of parents in sending children to primary school and CBE

Parents recognized that CBE was a an effective means to prepare children for primary schooling since it
grounded children in reading and learning their first language before attempting the second language.
They observed that children who had entered CBE were able to easily learn the English language once in
the formal primary school system and this assisted them to perform across all their subject areas.
Parents in the Upper West had a more positive experience with primary schooling compared to the
experiences found in the Upper East and Northern regions. Parents in these other two regions were
still not happy with the quality of education and the performance of teachers in their primary schools.
For instance, parents in Saabiyri community (Jirapa, UW) noted that CBE has boosted the confidence of
the children in performing well in the primary school. The “tuition in the primary school is good and if
the children are serious, they can become responsible people in future”. A parent in Jirapa district
(UW)stated:
“My child is performing very well, Dagaare is his highest score. His mind has developed. The
teachers are regular and punctual, but a few are not, I understand. The teachers usually call for
PTA meetings where they discuss issues of child performance and how we can support them to
improve on their performance at school. I like primary school because it offers children an
opportunity to learn English and it contributes to the education process.”
36
In Yibile (Jirapa District) similar sentiments were expressed. They noted that the primary school is an
opportunity to educate the children and equip them with knowledge about the modern world. Some of
the teachers are regular and punctual, and the children’s performance in those classes is encouraging.
They do a lot of exercises, and they are marked by the teacher. A parent reported, “The children are
given the chance to learn English and in the afternoon my daughter comes home to support me whilst
her other sibling also go to the CBE class. I like the primary because of the English language they learn –
it is universal whilst Dagaare is limited to our communities. The children are taught good morals. The
primary school makes the child get a strong foundation in education. I like the discipline in the school.”
Interviews with children who have never participated in the CBE in Upper East (Pusiga District) show
that, from what they have observed, they like the CBE approach to learning. The children want some
components of the CBE to be included in the primary school. They particularly mentioned the learning of
vowels and consonants as well as teaching in the local language. Caning of pupils by teachers at the
primary school was an issue of concern to them. Most of the parents were not content with the
performance of their children in the formal education system and the quality of primary schooling. They
assessed the quality of teaching and learning based on the limited number of pupils who eventually pass
the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). However, the parents in communities such as
Zuabuliga and Lateega were not happy with the school attendance and poor commitment levels of
trained teachers because they are not often regular and punctual to school. For instance, the Lateega
community has 6 trained teachers and none of them live in the community. They either live in nearby
communities or in Pusiga, the district capital or Bawku (more than one hour from the community).
Parents preferred to enrol their children in low cost private schools in Pusiga because they have lost
confidence in the public primary school. But with the CBE facilitators, almost every parent interviewed
had a word of commendation for them. Parents rated highly the commitment levels of the CBE
facilitators and indicated that the facilitators visit them at home to find out reasons why children were
absent at class.
Parent and Child Quotations by the Parent or child

(name and
community)
Tambiagu Facilitators’ attention is always on children which enables them to do the right thing and
Community what is expected of them. Officials of CBE come from far and near to visit the children,
Parent view which the children always come to talk about it at home, and they are always happy. This
tells we the parents that they have the children at heart.
(female)
Tambiagu They teach vowels and consonants. The facilitator always visits the children whenever they
community are in class to find out what the problem is. The CBE distributes free books and pencils to
the learners, and there is no payment of fees in the CBE. The CBE teaching is very effective
Child view
and it enabled us to understand things better.
(male)
Tambiagu I have observed that, the CBE Facilitator makes the class very interesting for the children. So
when the children come home, you see that they take their books to read. I also went to see
Parent view
what goes on at the class and I realized that whenever the teacher asks a question the
(female) children are able to answer.
Tambiagu I will choose the CBE because they teach better than in the primary school. At the CBE class,
37
Parent and Child Quotations by the Parent or child

(name and
community)
Community there is something on the board for us to learn when the facilitator is not yet in class. But
with the primary school, when the teacher is not in class, they play around.
CBE Child view
(Pusiga District, Field Data, Nov. 2017)
5.6 Experiences related to Schooling and CBE in the Northern region

In Gushegu District, Northern Region, all the respondents pointed out that one of the factors that gives
a clear distinction between the two educational system approaches is the medium of instruction. All
respondents believe that the use of the local language, coupled with the availability of TLMs make
learning at the CBE centre easier and more effective compared to the formal school where English
language is used with little or no access to TLMs. Various views shared during the engagement with the
key stakeholders in Northern region are presented below.
Stakeholder Different perceptions between parents and children in relation to benefits of primary
group education compared to complementary basic education
Chief/Elders
 In spite of having a primary school, some parents want CBE because they believe that
Yeshe
those who go through CBE to formal school have the upper hand over the others,
Community
especially in mathematics and Dagbani
 CBE class size is manageable compared to large class sizes in formal schools
 The CBE methodology is more learner-centred, which is not strictly applied in the
Dandabolin
formal school. The CBE methodology could improve teaching at the primary school if
Community
introduced since they have trained teachers who can apply the methodology well
 Primary school has well-trained teachers as compared to the CBE class. However, the
Namongbani,
primary school performance has not been good due to attitudinal and resource
community
constraints faced by the teachers while the opposite is true in CBE
SMCs/LCs
 CBE learners grasp a concept faster because it is taught in Dagbani compared to the
Yeshe
primary school
Community
 Those who pass through CBE understand Dagbani better and tend to do better in JHS
and even in SHS than in formal school
 Some parents think there is no need for their children to learn the local languages as
Dandabolin
they use it in their everyday life, and they prefer that their children learn English to
Community
propel them in further learning.
 To acquire more knowledge at primary school that will enable them to be responsible
people in the community
 Primary school has been the mode of education long before the introduction of the
Namongbani
CBE. They couldn’t have withdrawn their wards from the formal system hence they
send their wards that are at home through the CBE system.
 All committee members were of the view that the CBE and formal school are needed in
Nyorim
the community. They would have divided the children because they don’t have money
38
to pay for all children to be in the formal schools.

 Those in CBE are more intelligent than those who go to primary directly.
Diyali
 CBE graduates even help the primary school students to do their homework.
(Views of Chiefs, Elders and SMC’s and Local Committee members across Study communities, Gushegu District
Northern region)
5.7 CBE Learners’ perspectives of integration in the primary school

Some of the CBE integrated learners from the Cycle 4 CBE who had dropped out of school before
entering CBE shared their experiences in going back to primary school in the community after
completing CBE. In the Jirapa District (UW), the children in Yagha and Saabiyiri communities indicated
their appreciation of the English language whilst in Ul-Bakonoyiri they indicated that they liked the
uniform and how they speak in English. One female learner said “I like primary school because they go to
school with nice uniform and they speak English.” In Yibile, a learner said, “In primary I was playing with
my friends and it made me happy. I like primary education because of the teaching of English.” The
integrated CBE learners in Yagha (UW) acknowledged that it was fun going to the primary school. They
reported that the teachers are punctual for class and they like the support from teachers and classmates
in learning to read and write in English. They have the opportunity to make friends from different classes
other than their own classes. They have sports equipment and engage in sporting activities. The
integrated CBE learners also acknowledged that a major challenge was the absence of text books e.g.
Dagaare, Citizenship, information, communication and technology (ICT), religious and moral education
(RME). In Tizza Kompori for instance, the girls indicated that they are now able to understand some
English and the teachers were very helpful. They said that the class mates respect them due to their
ability to pronounce words in Dagaare and English. Similarly, the boys said that there was discipline in
school; they were able to speak some English; and they could solve mathematics in class easily based on
their CBE experience. Both the boys and girls indicated that they were given equal chance during
physical education and they performed “better” academically than their classmates who did not attend
CBE.
The CBE integrants interviewed who were now mainstreamed into the primary schools, indicated that
they have developed “an interest in education and are taking their studies very seriously”. They are able
to read in the local language because they can “break words into syllables due to their knowledge of the
vowels and consonants”. Also, they said that the use of the local language as a medium of instruction
and the participatory approach to teaching in the CBE class makes “learning exciting”. These children
were of the opinion that CBE has provided them with an “escape route” to primary education.
5.8 Conclusions: Learning outcomes—pedagogic approaches of the teacher

Parents and other key stakeholders in the communities were beginning to draw a relationship between
the effectiveness of the teaching approaches in the formal and complementary systems of education
based on the learning outcomes of their children. Observations by parents and even teachers/head
teachers interviewed suggest that the learning outcomes of the CBE learners were “better” across most
subject areas compared to the primary school children (who have not attended CBE). They based the
differential performance on the CBE learners being given adequate teaching learning materials, smaller
class sizes, higher motivation in doing after school studies and continuous access to their books.
Teachers in primary schools interviewed lamented on the fact that most children in their classrooms had
to share reading materials including text books because there were not enough books provided by
39
authorities. This was a major reason parents gave in relation to why they did not see their children from
primary school reading when they returned from school.
40
6. Key factors influencing parental and learner choice and preferences

regarding CBE
“I think the world is growing and every child has to go to school, and once they miss out in going to the
primary school, this (CBE) will be the starting point for them to go to the primary school. The use of the
Dagaare language in teaching the children is good. The facilitator teaches well – he teaches them things
that make them behave maturely. There is no punishment. The children keep asking questions about
traditions when they come home. No fees have been paid yet, and the children have not been asked to
come for payment for anything. The facilitator is regular and punctual (CBE Parent in Jirapa District,
Upper West).”
A number of reasons were given by the stakeholder groups including parents, community elders, and
women’s groups for families opting to send their children to CBE and the choices they were making
regarding their children’s education. The majority of the views shared by the parents, learners and other
stakeholders’ groups focused on the fact that CBE was “fee free” and of “high quality”—being often
more effective in helping teach their children basic reading/literacy skills compared to the primary
school. Several other reasons were also cited including:
 they (parents) were not required to pay for text books or exercise books;
 children could remain to work on the farms and attend CBE in the afternoon;
 the quality of the programme including the high commitment levels of the facilitators and their
punctuality in classes, and smaller class sizes (maximum 25), etc.
 there was no required uniform; and children were supplied with free teaching and learning
materials including pens and note books;
 the flexible nature of the programme regarding the time for the classes
 the opportunity for children who are out of school to go school, and the opportunity to learn the
local language.
Parents and children also cited the benefits of CBE in building a strong foundation for the formal system
of education since CBE built literacy /and reading skills; they saw the programme as a key transition
towards preparing them for primary education. Several parents and children across the three study
districts said that they saw CBE as key to preparing their children for formal primary education since it
taught the child to read and write. The CBE integrated learners interviewed could provide detailed
reasons why they learned to read based on their experience in learning phonic and syllabic approaches
to reading, along with the participatory open nature of teaching as well as the caring nature of the
facilitators. A female CBE learner in Tambiogu, Upper East community remarked,
“What I like most about the CBE is the vowels and consonants they teach us. It is interesting to
pronounce. It enables me to read,” A female CBE learner in the Yariga community also expressed
her delight at how the CBE facilitator handles them in class “I like the way the facilitator takes
her time to explain things for us in class. And it enables us to understand what she teaches very
well.”
For instance, the SMCs Jirapa District (UW) indicated that in the formal school some of the teachers do
not understand the local language, so teaching the children becomes difficult, but with CBE they are
taught in the local language and, therefore, they have first-hand understanding of the language before
entering the formal school. The small class size in the CBE enables the teachers to have more time for
41
the children than in the formal school, where a class may have over 50 pupils. In addition, they
explained that “the methodology of teaching in CBE classes makes the children learn faster especially
since they learn the sounds through play, i.e. writing in the air, on the ground and before the black
board”. This method, the parents claim, helps their children to learn better compared with the formal
school method. Similar perspectives were shared in Tizza Kompori community, where parents
interviewed indicated that the children have the opportunity to learn in their own language as well as
understand their culture: “The content and methodology in CBE is what made some of us send our
children to the CBE programme. It is a good programme, it is improving the mental capacity of the
children.”
6.1 Quality of Complementary Basic Education

Parents across the three regions provided evidence that their children were better-prepared to enter
formal education when they were able to participate in CBE classes, learn in their mother tongue and
learn to read within the nine month cycle. Parents also mentioned that CBE did not use harsh language
or physical/abusive methods to discipline the children. Several parents also cited examples of how their
CBE learners were able to study at night and read compared to the learners from the formal education
system that had not acquired the love for reading nor had access to basic text books or teaching learning
materials. In addition, parents cited the visible commitment of the facilitator regarding attention to the
children, regularity and punctuality in class and the caring relationship with the children.
In a focus group discussion (FGD) with girls in primary school who had never attended CBE in the Yariga
community (Pusiga district, UE), they revealed, “Anytime we close from school, some of us always go to
stand by the window to see what they are doing in the CBE class. And we always observed that in the
CBE class, the facilitator has time for every learner as compared to the primary school. In our school,
anytime we have reading the teacher always groups us to share one book, but we realize the CBE class is
not like that because every child has his or her own text book to read. And because of that if they
integrate into the primary school, they perform even better than some of us. Our current class prefect is
a CBE integrate.”(Girls FDG in Yariga community).
The parents in Yagha, Jirapa District (Upper West) said they opted for CBE because the children are able
to read and learn about what they see in their community. They have teachers who are committed,
regular and punctual in classes, and the children are well taken care of, and they perform well. A mother
commented, “I opted for CBE because it provides everything – books, no need for uniforms. Also I do not
have the money to buy these things due to poverty. The girl who used to be worried that she has not
been to school now feels very happy that she is also attending school.” Other parents noted that most of
the children’s minds are not tuned to school, but the CBE makes it flexible for them to adapt to the
system and finally adjust to the formal school system. They give them certificate after completing CBE,
which motivates the learner to “learn hard”. A parent noted that “I know school is about acquiring
certificates so if at an early age you have a certificate, it is good. That is one thing I like about CBE. They
also take good care of the learners. They provide them with all the learning materials. The facilitator is
also good and up to the task – he is regular and punctual. CBE teachers and learners learn about our
culture which I like very much.”
In Jirapa, another parent commented, “I like the CBE programme because the facilitator is regular and
teaches our children our own language. My child for the few months has been able to read some few
words in their books. They teach them life skills in the CBE class. It is instilling discipline in our children.
The children are taught in Dagaare and are able to learn faster when they get to the primary school. CBE
42
makes my children learn about their own culture. Personally, I have completed SHS and cannot speak or
write Dagaare well. I wish I had the opportunity to go to CBE.” (Father of a CBE learner, Jirapa District).”
In the Upper East, interviews with parents suggest that they placed a high value on their children
learning their mother tongue particularly in communities with a high incidence of minority ethnic
groups. For instance, in Yariga in the Pusiga District where the main language is Kusaal, parents stated
that they were very happy that their children were learning the Kusaal language in the CBE programme
since this would help them better integrate in the community and carry on in the future12. In the
Tambiogu community, a female parent said, “What I like about CBE is the local language they teach the
children. It will help them when the children are integrated into the formal primary school. The vowels
they teach them can let them read in other languages”. Another parent in the Vorekoum community
stated, “If a child joins the CBE class before joining the primary school, the child will be able to pick up
faster, the child's understanding of the local language will help the child in the learning of the English.”
Chiefs, elders and parents in the Gushegu District, Northern Region cited a number of reasons for opting
to send their children to CBE and the choices they make regarding the children’s education, including
free learning materials, no payment of levies, no school uniform, use of the local language, ease of
learning to read and no harsh punishment in classes. For instance, of the 18 chiefs and elders in Yeshe
community, Northern region, 15 opted for CBE with reasons, and only three opted for formal school.
The children views shared in Yeshe community during the engagement with the parents and separately
with the CBE learners in cycle 5 reveal the following:
Table : Parental and Child views for opting to send their children to CBE
Stakeholder Parents’ reasons for opting to send their children Children’s reasons for opting for CBE
group to Complementary Basic Education
 Made the children responsible and the  Has made it possible for me to read.
Yeshe
community
regularity of the facilitator in class  I am able to read and write Dagbani well
 The child is able to read and speak proper  The facilitator is kind towards us. He
Dagbani does not beat us in class as done in
 The child has developed the habit of reading formal school
and also does not pay anything  Playing and singing as well as the stories
 CBE is free and makes parents save the little  No caning and free materials
money  I can have time in the morning to fetch
 In the morning children are engaged in chores firewood and other house chores
and farming activities and in the afternoon,  Facilitator makes the class exciting
they attend classes so no time for them to play  Story telling in the class is good
around. The facilitator’s style of teaching
makes learning easier for the child
 It allows smooth transition into the formal
school. The child comes home with books every
day which are provided by CBE
 Promotes the Dagbani language, and the time
of the classes allows the children to support
house chores
 Child writes and reads to my hearing anytime
12
The minority languages in this district were Yanga and Mose
43
Stakeholder Parents’ reasons for opting to send their children Children’s reasons for opting for CBE
group to Complementary Basic Education
he comes home
 Free provision of learning materials and the
ability of the child to read in a short period of
enrolment
 My child who used to roam in the street has
now ceased to do so because of CBE. He is now
occupied with school work, so he has no time to
roam as he used to.
(Parents and Children’s views from Gushegu District, Northern Region)
The study revealed that the opportunity to learn to speak, read and write the local language becomes an
attraction for choosing CBE. Family members are enthused when they see children read the bible at
church as well as help the family to read basic things such as prescriptions from the hospital, a letter, or
other written communication in support of the family. Also, the ability to read and write in the local
language has been seen to facilitate learning when the children transition into the primary school.
Moreover, all the stakeholders acknowledged during the interview and FGDs, that the CBE graduates
perform better than the formal school pupils when they transition, and this motivated the parents to
choose CBE.
6.2 Child Friendly and Empathetic Nature of CBE and Learning Outcomes
“CBE is profitable to me. The facilitator follows up on the children when they are absent. The formal
school doesn’t. On one occasion, one of my sons in the formal school stayed home because his hand was
swollen, and I reported it to the teachers, but none of them visited to check how the child was doing.
They didn’t care. (Parent in Jirapa District, Upper West)”
Across all three regions the study results suggest that parents liked the way the CBE facilitators showed
compassion and care for the children by visiting them when they were sick or absent from the class.
Parents and children including those non-CBE learners who were interviewed in the primary school
system also noted that the CBE learners were provided with all their teaching and learning materials,
and this allowed them to study at night or after the classes. Some of these same children also noted
that the CBE facilitators taught “better” and never used corporal punishment as a means to discipline
children. Combined comments from CBE learner in Tambiogu community included these statements: “I
will choose the CBE program over the primary school because they teach better than in the primary
school. At the CBE class, there is something on the board for us to learn when the facilitator is not yet in
class. But with the primary school, when the teacher is not in class, they play around. Some of the
children in the formal primary school always say that when the teacher is not around, there is no chalk in
the class for them to write with, so they always play around.” (CBE integrants in the formal school in
Tambiogu Community). A mother of a CBE learner in the Zuabuliga community, Pusiga District UE also
had this to say about the CBE: “The facilitator has time to teach the children to understand what she
teaches them. She has the same care for vulnerable children in the community. The free teaching and
learning materials provided for the children is a relief to me. I now hope to be prepared by the time she
will be going to primary school so that I can buy a uniform for her.”
44
6.3 The Flexible Nature of CBE

Parents and key stakeholders including chiefs and elders across the three study districts indicated that
they often preferred to send their children to CBE since the children could work in the morning and then
attend CBE in the afternoon. In Saabiyri community, Jirapa District Upper West, the parents in various
ways echoed what was shared in the other communities. A parent said, “I like the free tuition, books and
the flexibility with uniform, etc. I also like the way the facilitator relates to the children and follows up on
them at the house. The timing for CBE enables my child to help me at home and on the farm in the
morning and attend classes in the afternoon. The madam is always at class with them, and my child
sings a lot in the house.” A mother commented, “The child can help me in the morning and still go to CBE
in the afternoon. It will help him to develop his mind before going to the formal school. It also enables
the children to learn our language and culture. The world is changing, and if they don’t start education in
their language, a time will come when they want to do something in Dagaare and it will be a problem, so
I want him to learn Dagaare first.”
The parents in Ul-Bakonoyiri community, Jirapa, UW also noted there is also flexibility in the time they
attend CBE and there is no school uniform. A father explained, “I decided to send my child to CBE
because I had not gone to school before. It was because I took care of the family’s cattle. My child who is
attending the CBE programme is now the one who is taking care of the cattle, and with CBE he is able to
attend school and learn something in the evening. To add to that, the language of instruction is Dagaare,
and it will help my child to understand our culture better. Because my son missed the primary school at
the starting age, I see this is the only opportunity for my son to get back to the primary school.”
In Ul-Bakonoyiri, Jirapa District, the Local Community remarked, “We opted to send our children to CBE
because we want them to become better persons in the future. We don’t engage them too much in the
farm now. We help them to go to the CBE class.” In Yibile, they commented, “CBE engages the children
in the late afternoon. They also learn to read and write Dagaare which gives them build a solid
foundation for primary school. The need for education has been realised through CBE. (Local Committee
members in FGD)”
Interviews with CBE learners also revealed that because the CBE class takes place in the afternoon, it
does not really interfere with their domestic chores. The children reported that they are able to do their
chores in the morning and go for the CBE class in the afternoon. Some of the children, especially the
boys, help their parents on the farm during the farming season. As a result, their parents feel reluctant
to enrol them in the formal primary school. But with the CBE class, the children can go to the farm in the
morning and return for the class in the afternoon.
6.4 “Fee free” CBE

Most parents were very happy that they did not have any pressure to buy any items for the CBE
programme, including uniforms or shoes, PTA dues, or examination fees. Children also remarked that
the fee-free nature and the fact that all the necessary items were provided to them was one of the most
important factors in helping their parents decide to allow them to attend CBE. A father in the Jirapa
district remarked, “I opted for CBE because of free fees, books, etc. The facilitator teaches well. We don’t
buy anything. There is maturity in the child and it is a flexible system – no uniforms, and it is in the
afternoon so you can get the child to support you in the morning. The child is performing well, and I get
him to support me in the morning. The child will be literate. The facilitator is regular and punctual. The
facilitator takes good care of the children. My niece is behaving maturely after starting CBE. Everything is
free.”
45
The perspectives of the children corroborated that of the parents. The children in the Yagah community
(Jirapa District) indicated that they liked CBE because it is free, it is purely in their local language, and the
children express themselves more freely in school than in the formal school.
6.5 Distance to school and CBE class

“I opted for CBE because of the distance to the primary school, and at the same time there is no money
to retain her in school. She could not walk the distance every day, five times within the week. Now she is
grown and after the CBE she can walk to primary school to continue. Mother In Gushegu District,
Northern Region”
Absence of a school in the community or long distances to the nearest school is considered in choosing
between CBE and primary school. For communities without schools CBE becomes the obvious choice
while long distances and the associated risks for a child having to walk to school makes the families opt
for CBE until the child is old enough to walk the long distance and manage the associated risks.
In Saabiyri community, in Jirapa District in the Upper West, the LC noted that since the primary school in
the nearby community is far, they find it difficult walking the long distance to school in the morning, and
so most of them don’t go to school. They also indicated that there is no option apart from CBE. In
addition, they became interested in joining CBE because CBE is free, and they had seen their
predecessors’ transition into the formal school. In Saabiyri, the Local Committee (LC) stated, “Initially
we didn’t know the importance of education, but with the introduction of CBE we have seen the
importance, and now we allow our children to go to school. CBE also engages the children and,
therefore, they do not have the time to loiter about. It has made the children responsible. CBE is the only
option available to us since the formal school is very far from here, and the children at that age cannot
walk to the school.”
Factors influencing parents in the Upper West
All parents prefer their children passing through the CBE before going to primary school because they
perform better. Both boys and girls are given opportunity to attend CBE. (SMC in Yagha Community
Upper West)
In the Jirapa District of the Upper West Region, parents as well as other key stakeholders spoke highly of
the CBE and saw it as an effective approach in building a strong foundation in literacy and numeracy.
Parents had observed that the usage of the local language appeared to make “learning easier for the
child” especially when they transition to the formal school system. Another influence to enrol children in
CBE related to the quality of teaching. Parents were of the view that children who attend the CBE classes
have better learning outcomes than their colleagues in the formal school. This is because of the
commitment levels of the facilitators and their regular attendance at classes. Perspectives on factors
influencing parents’/learners’ preference for CBE in the Upper West are presented below:
Stakeholder Perspectives on factors influencing parental and learner preference for CBE
group
SMCs/LCs Views of the School management committees

 CBE ensures equal opportunity for all – whether from poor homes or not.
Yagha
 With the formal school, only those who are lucky to have the opportunity to start school
46
Stakeholder Perspectives on factors influencing parental and learner preference for CBE
group
when the parents have the means are able to do so.
 Parents think the CBE is better for all the children in the community because the CBE
helps the children to understand the educational system better, and learning becomes
easier.
 In CBE the children learn a lot in Dagaare and about their environment.
Tizza
Kompori  Both CBE and primary are good because the two complement each other
 Both are good, but I prefer CBE because most parents don’t understand English, so I can
speak Dagaare to my children to make communication effective.
 Both are good, but I prefer CBE because it is creative and children can make a living out
of it.
 CBE because there is improvement in their speech and they are able to learn fast
Saabiyri
community  With CBE the children are able to help in the mornings before going to school.
 CBE because it engages the children whilst the parents are out to work in the late hours
of the day.
 CBE because they can learn their local language and their culture
 With CBE there is no cost associated with it.
 With CBE my children can transition to higher class in the primary school.
 CBE because the children get to learn Dagaare and the culture in details before they
Ul-
continue with primary school.
Bakonoyiri
community  CBE because the children even teach some of us the parents things in Dagaare we even
don’t know.
 I prefer CBE because the class is in the community, and I am able to monitor my children.
 CBE because the children get to learn Dagaare and their culture
 Primary school and CBE are both good since teaching and learning goes on in both types
Yibile
of schools
community
 CBE is good because the child will get to know the basics of Dagaare and his/her culture
and still have the chance to go the primary school.
 CBE is good because the child goes through the system knowing the language and
culture of the people before proceeding to primary school.
(Jirapa District, Upper West Field Data, 2017
Factors influencing Parental Preferences in the Northern region
This section looks at the different views shared by the various respondents concerning the options and
circumstances in which they prefer to support access to the CBE programme. The findings revealed that
families with large sizes mostly send their children to CBE instead of the formal school, though in most
cases there are formal schools in the communities, even with low enrolment as observed in Dandabolin
and Yeshe communities in the Gushegu District (NR).
Factors considered by both parents and learners across the five communities were very similar, and
indeed the same in most cases. These included the fact that: materials are provided free; and there are
no fees , and there are no requirements for uniforms. It allows access to formal school, CBE is flexible,
and uses good teaching methods. Indeed, while the parents were stressing more on the fact that there
is no cost to CBE, the children felt it reduces their work load on the farm and supports their use of the
mother tongue. Various views shared during the engagement with the respondents are enumerated in
the table below.
47
Stakeholder group Key influences and factors for parents and learners preference towards
complementary basic education compared to primary education across stakeholders
Chief/Elders
 CBE because it is less expensive, and parents are able to engage the children to
Yeshe Community
assist them on their farm
 The CBE ensures smooth transition of children into the formal school system.
 The CBE has enrolled a lot of children into the primary school, especially girls.
Dandabolin
Community  The learners can also read and identify their parent’s names on ID cards.
 There is a possible change in the CBE learner’s personal hygiene
 Parents are motivated by the fact that their children are attending school without
Namongbani
paying any levies.
Community
 They all agreed that the absence of the formal school teachers and the fact that the
CBE children are able to read faster in less than a year led them to prefer CBE. They
compared CBE students to formal school children who are not able to read. .
 Long distances to accessing formal school makes parents prefer to enrol children in
Nyorim Community
CBE
 CBE intervention enables their own children to teach their younger ones in the
community.
 The fear of the chief and elders is that, if the program ends, then the school system
will collapse again.
 Use of the learner-centred approach in CBE makes children pick up concepts faster
Diyali Community
and this encourages parents to opt for CBE instead of formal school.
SMCs/LCs
 CBE doesn’t require ‘chop money’ because children eat at home before they go for
Yeshe Community
classes
 The CBE is mostly attended by the indigenous children
 Parents with more children divide them and place some in CBE and others in formal
school.
 The children who attend the CBE are indigenes. We send our children to CBE
Dandabolin
because they are placed in upper primary after graduation. After transition, the CBE
Community
learners do better than their colleagues in the area of numeracy and literacy.
 The learners understand the local language, which helps them to learn English at
primary school.
 Some parents cannot afford to provide the needs of the children in school.
 CBE therefore becomes helpful as it does not require any payment of expenses.
 When the children learn in the mother tongue, they become smart.
Namongban
Community  They don’t spend money on books for CBE students, so they use the money to
support their children in the formal school.
(Field work, Northern Region, Nov. 2017)
The parental and learner views regarding their preference towards CBE are detailed out in Annex 5 of
the study report.
Factors influencing Parental Preferences in the Pusiga District, Upper East
The majority of the parents indicated that they prefer the CBE to the primary school even though both
approaches to education are good. Their choice of CBE has to do with cost as well as the CBE
48
methodology. They have large family sizes and cannot enrol all the children in the formal primary
school, so the CBE has taken that burden off them. They do not have to worry about school fees and the
buying of school uniforms since these are not needed in the CBE. Some parents also prefer the CBE
because it provides the opportunity for the children to still help them with their farming activities in the
morning and still go to school in the afternoon. An observation that was made that if a woman is the
head of household as a result of the absence of the husband, then she will prefer to send the girl to the
CBE so that the girl can still have time to help the mother. Also this is because it is much more costly to
educate the girl child compared to the boy child. The girls usually have more needs to be taken care of
compared to the boys.
Other factors, among others, influencing the choice of CBE over formal primary school include the
friendly approach to teaching children and the commitment levels of facilitators , the use of teaching
and learning materials to facilitate learning, and the teaching of cultural and traditional dances. The
facilitators, being native to the communities, helped create a good relationship with parents, which is
not the case with the teachers of the formal primary school. Parents believed that it is risky to invest in
girl’s education because of the uncertainty in the outcome. They were of the view that the girl “can
easily get pregnant and her education will be stopped”. They believed the boy child should be given the
opportunity for education since the “girls will marry and leave the house, but the boys will remain in the
house” (Parental interviewer in Pusiga District, UE).
Children’s choice of CBE largely has to do with the content of the CBE programme and the methodology
of teaching. The majority of the CBE learners, as well as children who have never been to CBE,
mentioned the teaching of vowels and consonants as well as the learning of the local language as key to
their ability to read and their preference for the CBE. The facilitator’s use of participatory teaching
approaches helps them to understand the lessons and arouses their interest in learning. Some of the
learners stated that they do not like the formal primary school because their friends in the primary
schools have told them “their teachers do not teach them well and are fond of caning them”.
Parent and Child Preference of Parents and Children regarding CBE and reasons why based on
interviews in the Pusiga District, Upper East Region
Lateega Community
I will take the girl child to the CBE because the facilitation there is strong so it can
Parent view
motivate and encourage the girl to take education seriously.
(female)
Lateega Parent view I prefer the CBE approach, Because with this approach children can demonstrate what
they learn than in primary school. This means the CBE is doing well through the
(female)
facilitators.
Tambiogu Parent view
I will prefer the CBE because the timing of class enables the children, especially the
(female)
girls, to help with house hold work before coming for class.
Lateega Parent view I will choose the CBE because my children at the CBE are serious with their learning. I
see that the girls always learn at night. With the formal school, I am not sure if it will
(female)
continue to be free or at a particular time they will start paying money. If I had to
choose between a boy and a girl to go to school i will allow both to go because
education is good for both girls and boys.
Zuabuliga Parent View The father decides for the male children, and the mother decides for the female
49
Parent and Child Preference of Parents and Children regarding CBE and reasons why based on
interviews in the Pusiga District, Upper East Region
(female) children.
Verokoum Community My daughter was not interested in the primary school because I could not pay the fees
Parental view and to feed her, but she likes to attend the CBE class. I am hoping she will complete
and continue to the primary school.
(female)
Focal groups with CBE Girls and boys in Pusiga District UE ( integrated into primary school from cycle 4)
Focal Groups Discussions Preference of Children regarding CBE and reasons why based on interviews in
the Pusiga District, Upper East Region
Lateega Community Girls We prefer the CBE because the learning is effective. You read and go to the
focal group with integrants board to write all the time. The vowels sounds make it possible to learn how to
pronounce words and to read well. The use of the writing books enables us to
write well. I will be happy if the formal school teachers can emulate the way they
teach in CBE.
Zuabuliga Community The facilitators in the CBE have patience when they are teaching you, but with
formal system the teachers do not have patience .
Girls focal group with
integrants
Zuabuliga Community We will prefer the CBE because there is exceptional teaching as compared to the
primary school where teachers don’t come all the time or come 2-3 times in a
Boys focal group with
week. We would choose the CBE because sometimes on Fridays, the SMC
integrants
members come around to teach us cultural dance, which enable us know much
about our culture
Tambiogu We will choose the CBE over the primary school because when you finish the CBE
you can join the formal primary school, but you cannot join the CBE when you
finish the formal primary school. Also the CBE is free, and our parents do not have
integrants
to worry about the school fees. Our parents are poor so they cannot afford formal
primary school
Tambiogu The CBE is good in its teaching approach because the mother tongue make us
understand the lesson well. We are able to demonstrate what we learn at home.
Girls focal group with
when we close. They should be added to primary methods of teaching especially
integrants
the use of the drums and soccer ball.
Verekoum Community We will choose the CBE because of the vowels and consonants they teach at the
CBE. It helps you when you join the primary school.
integrants
(Field work, Pusiga District, Upper East, 2017)
50
6.6 Conclusions
The CBE class provides opportunity for out-of-school children, especially those dropped out, to go back to
school. For those who have never attended school and are above class one, the CBE prepares them to
enter the school with confidence to learn (Female Parent of CBE learner, Zuabuliga, Upper East).
The Complementary Basic Education is seen as an important complementary educational pathway by
parents and community members in the sampled communities across the three regions. CBE is also
seen as a ‘complementary’ system since the parents had every intension to continue the child’s
education in primary education after the nine month cycle. In several cases it was an alternative or
“second chance” or first step in the child’s education, since parents were still not sure whether they
would be able to afford the primary schooling option due to their economic circumstances and the
pressure on the household. One of the key reasons why parents in the communities wanted their
children to join the CBE classes is because it was perceived to be of high quality, flexible, the class
timing enabled the child to work in the morning and was “fee free”. Parents and learners themselves
presented evidence that the programme was of high quality in teaching children to read, write and
numerate mainly due to the emphasis on phonic and syllabic approaches to literacy along with the high
commitment levels of the facilitator.
Parents and key stakeholders reported that in most cases the children entering CBE would not have
been given the opportunity to enter primary schooling if CBE was not operating in their community.
Parents of CBE learners expressed great satisfaction with the fact that their children are being taught in
their mother tongue. This appeared to be very important to the parents as they were of the view that
CBE programme was strengthening the child’s cultural identity.
7. Who is making the choices, and under what circumstances do they send
children to school or Complementary Basic Education?
This section is focused on exploring how choices were being made within the family setting across the
three districts/regions of study. It explores the circumstances these choices were being made in relation
to the child’s sex and position within the family based on the views of different stakeholder groups.
The interviews from the three regions revealed that parents both men and women were making choices
in relation to CBE and primary school education for their children depending on the structure of the
family. For instance in some communities in Pusiga District, mostly mothers---widows and female
headed households were making the decision; while in other districts such as Gushegu the fathers were
mainly making the decision sometimes in consultation with the wives. In some cases the children
themselves, or other primary care-givers responsible for the child--including relatives (aunties and
uncles) and foster parents, made the choice in sending the children to primary school or CBE.
Interviews with parents and children revealed that these choices were often made initially by the
mother since she was primarily responsible for taking care of the child although she would have to seek
permission or consult with the father. This was particularly the case in families where the father had
migrated to the south, or in strong Muslim dominated communities where the father had married
several women and allocated the responsibility of education to each woman. If a wife was given this
opportunity, then the final decision rested with her to send the child to and ensure the maintenance of
the child at school. In other communities, the boy child was under the decision-making power of the
man, and the female child was under the decision-making of the woman. This was particularly the case
when a child was sent to primary school.
51
In the northern region, where a strong patriarchal family system is still in place, the choice to send the
child to CBE or primary school was made by the father; the father in Gushegu District was still the visible
and active head of household due to less migration compared to the other two regions (UE and UW
regions). Based on tradition, the father was also the overall authority of the household and main
decision-maker although he might consult with his wives on the final decision particularly when it came
to the girl child since she had some responsibility in the household under the mother’s supervision. If a
child showed interest in attending school, the father would make this decision based on his financial
circumstances, his source of livelihood, the need for the child in relation to farming or cattle rearing and
other factors related to the family livelihood survival.
Decisions to send child to CBE were mainly being made based on the financial “strength” and livelihood
conditions--- when the family could not afford to send children to primary school and they had been left
at home/out of school for a long time in order to care for the animals or work on the farm. There were
also other circumstances where young girls had given birth in the cities and returned home, and the
parents of the girl had refused to assist in educating her because they were not happy that she had
become pregnant bringing an additional burden to the extended family. Several instances were found in
the Upper East where young mothers were using CBE as the only alternative to enrolling their children in
some form of education.
Choices to enrol in CBE were influenced by the encouragement and consultation with the CBE facilitator
who went around the community to discuss with families the need to send their out- of school children
to CBE. The second main influence was from other children who had attended CBE in which the
parents, particularly mothers and children themselves could see the benefits of participating in CBE.
This visible benefit included the child’s ability to read and the increased focus the CBE child placed on
studying at night and then enrolling in the formal system after the nine month programme. The second
influence could only be found in communities where the CBE programme had been operating for at
least one or two cycles.
Findings across the Upper East, Upper West and to a lesser extent in the Northern regions also suggest
that the choice to attend CBE was also being made by the children themselves since it was free and did
not interfere with the normal working responsibilities of the child. In cases where the child was very
keen on attending CBE, the decision to attend would require the endorsement of the parents or primary
care-givers, particularly the mother.
7.1 Factors influencing the parental and learner choice

The considerations of whether to enrol the child in primary school or CBE class were based on the
financial circumstances of the parents and their ability to sustain the child in the educational pathway.
Mothers, particularly single mothers and widows, were keenly aware of the long-term nature of primary
education and the financial responsibilities this would demand. CBE provided them with an option which
was shorter-term and less risky in terms of their ability to cope with payments with one caveat. Some
parents interviewed also were aware that children joining CBE were going to transition to the main
stream and they feared that they would not be able to pay for primary schooling therefore restricted
their access even to CBE.
The decision to enrol a child in an educational pathway such as CBE was also based on the desire to
liberate the family from poverty resulting from over-reliance on small-scale farming and animal rearing.
Parents realised that their livelihood from farming was not dependable, and that their children needed
education to assist them escape poverty. They also recognised that CBE provided them with an
52
approach which would assist children learn and ‘respect’ their language, culture and traditions, which
are was particularly important in CBE. They noticed certain attitudinal and behaviour changes among
their children who attended CBE such as respect for elders and more willingness to assist them on their
farms.
Parents and primary caregivers also based their decisions on messages shared during CBE animation and
sensitization, peer influence in the case of the children, support from the facilitator to enrol the child, as
well as the observations made regarding teaching and learning outcomes in the school and at CBE
classes. In some cases, the parents perceived that CBE and primary education as complementary to one
another and saw the CBE as a mechanism for building a strong foundation for better learning
performance of the child in the primary school system. Also most parents and relatives chose CBE for
children who had passed the age for lower primary in order to enable them to continue midstream in
primary school since it might have been difficult to convince the children to start from primary one class
or KG at an age of 10 to 15 and risk mockery by their peers in the lower primary classrooms.
7.2 Parental and Learner Choice in the Upper West

Findings across key stakeholder groups in the Jirapa District (Upper West) suggest that both fathers and
mothers often decide on who can attend CBE, but in families where the father has migrated, it is the
mother who decides. Interviews with SMCs suggest that there is a preference towards sending the boy
child to CBE and or Primary schooling since in the long term parents believe that the girl child “might
lose interest and she is given away for marriage”. Another key tension is between the older (12 to 16)
and younger children (8 to 11) who are vying for family resources in education. The older children are
often given the preference to enrol in school due to the pressure to send them, and this affects the
younger children’s opportunity to enter formal school. In these cases, CBE offers a very important
alternative route for the younger children in the family.
Key influences which determine the decision to enrol a child in CBE are that it is free and will not place
any financial burden on the family. Also, the child can attend during hours which do not demand his
time on the farm. In addition, the parents see the potential in CBE leading to primary education in the
long run. Perspectives shared during the interviews and focus groups discussions in the Jirapa District
Upper West are summarized in the table below.
Stakeholder’s views on who makes the decision and the circumstances choices are made
Views from Who makes Circumstances under which choice is made regarding primary schooling or CBE
Stakeholder the choice
Groups
 All children in a family are given equal opportunity, especially if they are children of parents
SMCs/LCs & Father and
who can afford to pay school fees, buy uniforms and cater for the needs of the children
others mother
while in primary school.
 At the beginning, it is both boys and girls, but as the girls grow up, some lose interest in
education and sometimes some of the parents give them away for marriage;
 Both boys and girls in the family go to the primary school. They are all given equal
opportunity to go to primary school.
 Children who show interest in going to school are also supported and given the opportunity
to go to school.
 Sometimes some parents get to know the importance of education late so the younger
children benefit;
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Groups
 Sometimes the older children get the opportunity to attend school, but by the time it gets
Mother
to the turn of the younger ones, the parents don’t have enough money, so the younger
ones stay at home.
 Both boys and girls in the family go to the primary school. They are all given equal
opportunity to go to primary school.
 They are proud to see other children read in church, so they want their children to be able
to read the Bible in church, too.
 Peer influence
Children
 Seeing other children read in church
 Observing the CBE class and developing interest
 Both parents decided to send me to CBE
Learner Father and
views mother  Our parents sent us to CBE because they wanted us to learn our language and this will give
us another opportunity to attend the formal school since this was what they were told
during animation for the CBE programme.
 Because I don’t have the means to educate all of them at the primary school.
Mother
 In order to prepare her mind towards formal education. It is also to educates her to become
a responsible adult to take care of me and to enable her learn our language and culture.
 My father decided to send me to the CBE because of animals. I was the one who was taking
Father
care of the animals, but because of CBE, when the other children close from the primary
and come they take over caring for the animals, and I go to learn.
 I enrolled myself. I did not know about it, and I don’t know whether my mother knew about
Children
it.
 Because I have seen some of my friends go through CBE to formal school. They advised me
that CBE is good because they learn in Dagaare
 I personally enrolled myself because I went to there and saw it was interesting, so I joined.
 My friends attended CBE in the previous cycle, and I was informed it is good, so I decided to
join.
 I came to CBE because it is an alternative to the primary I never attended
 Because we were told if we went to the school, we would start from P1, which we did not
like. But if we passed through CBE, we would not start from P1, and that is why we went to
CBE
 We want our children to go to school to become prominent in the future to support the
Parents Father and
family.
mother
 We engage in petty trading (selling pito and shea butter) to support the men in taking care
of the children in school.
 We sometimes hire labour to free the children to go to school.
 We want them to learn certain basic things like the Dagaare language before going to the
formal school.
 We sent the child to CBE because she was idle and we wanted to engage her. We tried to
send her to school, but each time she refused. She saw how the CBE class was organised
and she expressed interest.
 My husband and I decided because we want them to learn the Dagaare language well. We
believe it is part of the process of education.
 I want my kids to become a nurse and responsible adults in the future to be able to take
Mother
care of me when I am old.
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Groups
 We do our best to provide for our children through our farming activities and petty trading,
i.e. pito brewing and shea Butter selling.
 Now we know education is important, so we don’t allow our children to be on the farm for
so long, we give them ample time to learn and go to school.
 Because learning is done in their own language and it will give me some time to organise
myself before she goes to the primary school.
 Someone came to adopt her, so when I went to bring her home, she had passed the age of
starting primary school and therefore CBE came in very handy. The person who adopted her
had promised to send her to school but failed to do so. That is why I went for her, and CBE is
helping to bridge the gap.
 The child is 10 years old. Because I am not stable, I am always having to move around for
opportunities to make some money to take care of the family. I need to travel to places to
do my business of brewing pito and hawking, and I travel with her. In the dry season there
is no farm work and no food, so I need to travel. But now I will not travel again because I
have seen that it has affected her education.
 Because I want him to learn our language and culture first because he was born in the south
 I want his mind to develop before I send him to the formal school. I also want him to learn
our language and culture.
 Mother decided. I know there is value attached to CBE and I know I will receive the reward
in future. I sent my children to CBE because of this.
 Because of distance to the primary school. She could not walk the distance everyday-- 5
Father
times within the week. Now she is grown, and after the CBE she can walk to primary school
to continue.
 I migrated with her as farm labourer, and there was no school in the village, so when I
returned and heard of CBE, I made her join CBE. My daughter is 11 years old.
 I have chosen to let my child attend the CBE class because he has already missed out going
to the primary school, and this serves as the best opportunity for my child to go back to
school. It is also because of the Dagaare language used in teaching the children
 My father did not educate me, which I regret a lot, so I don’t want my children to regret one
day. That is why I decided to send them to CBE
7.3 Parental and Learner Choices in the Upper East Region

“My Mother decided to send me to the CBE class. But it was because I wanted to go to school.
Because she could not afford the primary school, I told her I will join the CBE”. (Female CBE
learner, Lateega community, UER)
“I decided that he should go for the CBE class because he dropped out from p3 and didn’t want
to go back to the primary school. My son was sacked from school because of school fees, which I
could not afford to pay in time, and by the time I had the money, he refused to go back to
school”. (Mother of a CBE learner, Tambiogu community, UE)
55
Findings from the Pusiga District (Upper East) reveal that the decision of whether a child should go to
formal primary school or the CBE is made by the parent and only a few cases by the child; it is usually
based on the financial ability of the parent. In a polygamous family in which the number of children in a
family could be up to 12 children, the man has to select which children from each wife will go to primary
school, and a few others will likely join CBE. Those who join the CBE are mostly the children who can
help the father on the farm.
Findings from interviews in the Upper East with parents suggest that there are a considerable number of
single mothers in the communities as a result of either the husband’s death or the migration of their
husbands to the southern part of Ghana to work in cocoa farms. This has left the responsibility of the
child- rearing and parenting in the hands of the women. Owing to the fact that these women are poor,
they make the choice to send the children to the CBE.
The children, especially those who have never been to primary school in some instances, decided
themselves to join the CBE, but with the consent of their parent. Some children also stated that their
parents told them they don’t have money to take them to the primary school so that in the near future
when “they get money”, then they will join the formal primary school. These children are faced with
uncertainty as to whether they will be joining the primary school after they complete the CBE cycle and
are ready to be integrated into formal school.
Interviews with CBE facilitators and head teachers also point to the fact the family size has an influence
on the decision of whether a child will go to primary school or the CBE. CBE facilitators were of the view
that most of the children who attend the CBE class are from large polygamous families and the parents
cannot cater for their educational needs. In the Yariga community for instance, the head teacher
believes that parents in the community are doing well economically because the community members
are engaged in various trading within and across the Ghana-Togo border, so they are capable of taking
all their children to the formal school. But the interest of families, especially the fathers, is for their
children to take care of their animals or take part in their trading activities. Because of this, the
participation of children particularly boys in formal basic education is very poor. Interviews with
teachers at the school confirmed this.
Parent and Child Who makes Whose deciding and under what circumstance
(name and the choice
community)
Lateega Community Father It is their father who decided to send some of the children to the CBE
Parent view class, and his decision is based on finance.
(female)
Lateega Child view Auntie My auntie decided I should join the CBE. She says it will help me to
acquire knowledge and go to primary school.
(male)
Lateega community Female child It is the children who decided that, they wanted to go to school, but I told
Parent view them I did not have money to take them to school. We heard later that
there was CBE, so the children decided to attend CBE
(female)
Lateega Child view Mother My Mother decided to send me to the CBE class. But it was because I
wanted to go to school. Because she could not afford the primary school, I
56
Parent and Child Who makes Whose deciding and under what circumstance
(name and the choice
community)
(female) told her I will join the CBE.
Lateega Community Male He (my son) decided to go because he was in the house doing nothing. But
Parent view Learner I agreed for him to attend since it will help him. If I had been to school as
(male) well as the father-- life would have been better than it is today.
Lateega Community Male learner I decided to join the CBE by myself because I know in the CBE class I will
Child view get books to learn.
(male)
Tambiogu Community Mother I decided that he should go for the CBE class because he dropped out from
Parent view p3 and didn’t want to go back to the primary school. My son was sacked
from school because of school fees I could not afford to pay in time, and
(female)
by the time I had the money he refused to go back to school.
Tambiogu Child view Mother My mother decided that I should join because after dropping out from the
primary school, I was doing nothing at home except helping her
(male)
sometimes in her farm.
Verekoum Child view Female child I decided to join the CBE. I told my father that I was interested and he
(female) with father allowed me to join
Yariga Child view Female child It was my decision to join the CBE class. My friends told me that they are
(female) learning how to write in "Kusaal" so I got interested.
Yariga Child view Father Why my father decided to send me to the CBE was that he wanted me to
(female) join and learn Kusaal language.
Zuabuliga Community Mother My Mother decided to send me to the CBE class and said after the CBE I
Child view will join the formal primary school. I used to see other children attend the
CBE, but I did not know what it was.
(Views of parents and children from Pusiga District, Upper East)
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7.4 Parental and Learner Choices in the Northern Region

Interviews with parents, children and elders revealed in the northern region that decisions regarding
enrolment in school are determined by parents, especially fathers with mothers in some cases, siblings,
grandparents and uncles making the decision. There were a few cases in the Yeshe and Dandabolin
communities where the facilitators assisted the family in making the decision. Decisions to enrol
children in school were mostly based on the number of children in the family and the financial ability or
“strength” of the family. Where the children are many, the parents, particularly the fathers, decide to
enrol either one or two children depending on how many they can predict to support with the available
farm produce and the demand for using the other children on the farm to support the family.
Due to the family situation, there are cases where the parents have to decide between the male or the
female child during school enrolment drives. In most of these cases, the male child is considered more
important for attending primary schooling or CBE because of the perception parents maintain regarding
girls’ education. The long term vision for girls in the family is that they will eventually be married “off”,
and in the case of northern girls, this often happens between the ages of 13 to 16 years of age –the
same time as CBE enrolment. Girls are still seen to be the ‘property’ of the man who marries her, and
the family still does not believe that she will directly benefit them in the long run since she will be under
the authority of the man and his family.
Though CBE is free they still would enrol a few and use the other children on the farm since, according
to parents interviewed, “if all the children are enrolled, their farming activities will be affected and the
family cannot survive”. The parents believe that those enrolled in CBE can still support them on the
farm before the classes start in the afternoon. Some make the decision because they believe with CBE
being taught in the mother tongue, children will be able to grasp the concept well and this helps them to
learn better particularly if they are enrolled into primary education after the CBE cycle. Various views
shared during the engagement with the chief and elders, SMC’s/ LCs, Parents and learners are presented
in the table below.
Stakeholder Who makes Circumstances under which choice is made

Group the choice
 Decisions as to sending children to school are made in the community by the
Chiefs/Elders Father and
fathers. Fathers usually exempt their first male children to assist them on the
mother
farm
 Depending also on the number of sisters and number of female children, the
father reserves them for helping his sister, which affect the child’s chances of
going to school.
 Though parents would have wished to enrol both sexes in school, traditional
SMCs/LCs & Father and
practices and beliefs in the community makes parents give the first option to
others mother
boys rather than girls when they have the opportunity to enrol children in
school.
 Aunties who live with their nieces deny them attending school and mostly use
them on the farm and trade.
 The little girls get the opportunity to attend school, but as they grow, issues of
Mother
pregnancy set in, especially from grade 5 to JHS, which makes some parents
give the option to only boys
 Both boys and girls in the family go to the primary school. They are all given
equal opportunity to go to primary school.
 Seeing females dressed in nurses’ uniform motivates some parents to send
58
their children to school

 Facilitator’s influence over the parents helps us enrol in CBE
Children
 Observing children play football during school and CBE hours motivates us to
send our children
 Whenever people from the community visit with cars
 Both parents decided to send the children to CBE
Learner views Father and
mother  Both father and mother decided to get us enrolled because they want us to be
educated to the SHS level so we can read and write and take care of our
younger siblings when we complete school
 No cost involved
 Mother lost the husband so decided that the eldest son needs to farm to
Mother
support the family but could not enrol all of us in school.
 Husband is sick and now carrying all the burden so could enrol one in CBE
hoping that he will get support to get the other two who are girls into school.
 Knowing that the child will transition into formal school, I have started saving
to buy the school uniform and the basic needs when he integrates into the
formal school.
 I decided to enrol my daughter in CBE ever since I set my eyes on a nurse at
Father
the Gushegu hospital. Her outfit motivated me to enrol my only girl who was
just at home.
 The facilitator enrolled the child but in consultation with the grandfather
Children
whom he stays with
 Some of the children I play with got enrolled and invited me to join
 I enrolled in CBE because I was told the teaching is done in Dagbani, so I was
not afraid.
 The facilitator told me in CBE they do not punish children and also will make
everything free for me. I told my brother, who said I could join
 The nature of the CBE programme makes room for the guardian to get the
Guardian
boy’s support on the farm during the day, especially planting and harvesting
period
 No fees in CBE
 Though the cost of education is getting higher, I will do my best to get the
child integrated into the formal school.
 The child is able to take the animals to graze before classes in the afternoon.
Parents Father and
mother  We will do our best to support them in school till they complete
 We sometimes hire labour to free the children to go to school.
 We will send her to the uncle in Gushegu to continue school when she
completes CBE
 I enrolled my child in CBE because there is no school in the community. I hope
Mother
to send her to stay with her brother in Yendi after CBE in order to have easy
access to formal school.
 I am proud my child is being taught in the Likpakpaaln language. He reads in
church and makes me proud of him.
 The elder brother decided and fully supported the idea since none of the
children have ever been enrolled. I never knew I was causing harm to the
children until I was briefed in detail of the benefit of education when the
Action Aid people arrived in the community.
 There is no school in the community, so I prevented her from walking long
Father
distance but got her enrolled when CBE was introduced in the community.
59
 I did not get the benefit of education, so I have enrolled all my four children in
school. One in CBE and three in formal school.
7.5 Conclusions
The family’s decision concerning child participation across the two educational pathways (CBE or
Primary schooling) varied across the three regions depending on the presence or not of the family male
head. In most cases of the northern region and to some extent the Upper West and Upper East, the
decision for educating a child in CBE or primary school is based on the dominant male voice (if they are
present in the household) since they are the traditional heads of households. In these households,
women and children have very limited voice (Gusheigu District) and the father’s decision remains
binding even if the child is not the direct biological child of the head.
Where mothers take the lead, decisions in educating a child are based on whether she is the head of
household due to migration or in cases of widowhood; in these cases she must cater for her children by
herself. Findings from the Upper East suggest that in some households, there was some consultation
and equity involved in the decision-making between men and women regarding child’s education but
these were often non polygamous households.
These decisions, however, are influenced by factors at the community and family level. Children from
polygamous families with many children face the challenge and often limited opportunities to access
education. In families where each wife has more than 5 children, the family is not able to provide for all
the children to go to school. The man as the head of household therefore either decides to select some
children from each wife to attend school or leaves the entire educational responsibility to the mothers.
In either case, not all the children are able to go to school due to the inability of the family to support
the direct and indirect costs of schooling. Therefore, some children are asked to attend school while the
rest support the family livelihoods of crop faming and animal rearing.
The decision to educate the boy or girl child was also complex and based on the changing perceptions of
parents towards children’s long term future. In most cases in the Northern region the preference was
still towards investing in boys’ education since he would remain under the control of the parents even
after marriage. In the Upper East, the preference was towards the boys’ educational investment but in
some families these views were gradually changing in favour of girls’ education due parental
experiences in seeing the potential that girls’ education might have on the long term outcomes for the
family if she achieved a “white collar job” such as nursing or teaching.
60
8. Strategies for enabling parents and learners participate and stay in primary
education
Given the findings from the research study, there were three major deterrents for all children being
enrolled in primary school which were long standing documented problems across the 3 northern
regions---poverty/food insecurity of the households, large family sizes and negative socio-cultural
practices particularly in relation to girls’ education (e.g. fosterage and early marriage). These demand
factors limited the enrolment of all children at school going age from participating in primary education,
and also made it clear that programmes like CBE were essential for children who would not normally
access primary education.
Across the three northern regions, parents, children and community leaders were asked to talk about
the key enabling and supporting strategies which would help their children enter and stay in school.
These questions were particularly focussed on when children completed CBE and were ready to
transition to primary schooling. In terms of increasing the access for children to primary school, this
varied slightly across the three regions with the main considerations being improved livelihood and food
security strategies for most families. In the Northern region, the strategies also focussed on increasing
the school infrastructure where children were still not able to access primary school (20% of Gushegu).
Some communities had begun constructing their own community schools in the Upper East and were
paying for their own community volunteer teachers. Strategies also suggest that a complex web of
reliance on child labour and large family size based on traditional farming needs; these barriers to basic
education need to be addressed in order to reverse intergenerational poverty and the increasing
occurrence of child neglect, and child migration (Associates for Change, 2017).13
8.1 Support for families with more income-generating activities, and livelihood support
particularly in food insecure areas;
“What can assist me to send the children to school is if I get support to improve on my farming practices
.I need knowledge on good agricultural practices to enable me get a better yield since it is my main
source of income. I also need financial assistance because I need to employ more labour on my farm
(Female Parent in Lateega, Pusiga District, Upper East).
As a father, if I get some additional economic livelihood, it will help to cater for the children to be in
school. School now is money. If the feeding in the school is also sustained it will also help so that if the
family provides food for the children in the morning, the school will support them in the afternoon. (Male
Parent Pusiga district, Upper East).
I will need a loan to start a business like rearing animals so that by the time the child will reach school
going age, I will sell some of the animals to pay for the educational expenses. Female Parent, Tambiago
Community, Pusiga District)
13
Associates for Change (2017) Child Rights and Protection Stories of Change Study in Northern Ghana,
Commissioned by UNICEF Ghana.
61
“We are farmers and we rear animals, we will therefore be grateful if we are offered some form of small
training in modern farming and rearing of animals so that we do well. This will increase our income level
and this will facilitate our sending our children to primary school. (Parent in Jirapa District, Upper West”
One key to improving the income and ability of families to support their children in school was the need
to improve agriculture-based livelihoods and income-generating activities for both men and women.
The diversification of livelihoods away from purely agriculture and subsistence farming was key to
assisting some families cope with food insecurity during the “hunger season” and reducing the risk of
child drop out from schooling. This was particularly important for the most vulnerable groups such as
female-headed households and widows who were mainly responsible for providing the basic needs of
the children including education. In fact, income-generating activities and more improved farming
innovation would also be important to the demands for child labour in the households and on the farm.
Given the poor soil fertility across the three districts and the evidence of soil erosion and un predictable
rainfall patterns, interviews with parents suggest that there is growing risk of unsustainable livelihoods
on the land. Parents and community members interviewed were keenly aware of the need for more
technical support needed for them to improve farming and to sustain their families on dwindling plot
sizes.
Better farming practices and alternative livelihoods such as dry season gardening, local crafts such as
weaving and animal husbandry, which is less labour intensive, were essential for households not only
from the perspective of sustainable livelihood, but also from the perspective of child protection.
Children are used to support the basic livelihoods of the family and need to have new and improved
methods to assure their participation and completion of at least primary education.
8.2 Enforcement of no school fees, usage of capitation and better social safety net
targeting
“If government can make everything in primary school free as is done in CBE, I will send all my
children to school.” (Parent in Pusiga District, Upper East)
“Free provision of school materials and removal of school levies will enable parents to invest in
farming activities and improve conditions (Parent in the Gushegu District, Northern Region);.”
Another key strategy which parents and community members raised in FGD’s was the need to consider
the full enforcement across the SMCs and PTAs, that no PTA or SMC dues can prevent a child from
attending school. There was clearly a lack of enforcement of these principles across two of the three
districts studied (Northern and Upper East). Teachers and heads were also charging examination fees
on a regular and termly basis.
Despite the injection of capitation grants, schools in the three regions were woefully under resourced
with not enough books and exercise books to promote learning. Heads of schools were not found using
their capitation to support the needy children, including CBE integrants. Capitation grants were designed
to ensure reduced drop out among vulnerable children, particularly when it came to the provision of
basic school uniforms. This was unfortunate since children who were CBE integrants were visibly not
fully accepted by their peers due to the uniforms not being available.
62
The government needs to also target the school feeding programme in areas where there is endemic
food insecurity such as the Upper East and Northern region. Families spoke of their inability to send
“chop money” as a key deterrent to sending their children to primary school. Better provision of school
uniforms and other social safety net programmes such as LEAP could also assist children in the future to
access and remain in primary school.
8.3 Continuation of CBE

“Sustaining the CBE programme in the community will help parents who cannot afford formal
school to enrol children in CBE (Parent in Northern region)
All the communities interviewed over the three regions spoke of the need to continue the CBE
programme due to the remaining out-of-school children, endemic poverty levels and inability of the
households to send all their children school --particularly those between 8 to 15 years of age. Some
communities in the Northern and Upper East regions had started their own community schools, but
these were targeted at younger children between 5-8 years (i.e. 5 to 8 years ). The evidence from the
study suggests the need to ensure that the CBE programme is sustained and continues the nine month
cycle in most communities in the north, particularly where there is no access to primary schooling and
where there is high levels of food insecurity.
Consultations were held with communities regarding their ability to sustain the CBE programme once
the DFID and USAID completed their financing. Communities were willing to support the small stipend
or “soap money” of the facilitators but would still need to have the teaching learning materials and
supervision provided by the GES or Implementing partners along with the training of facilitators in order
to sustain the programme.
8.4 Community awareness creation and family planning

The CBE study field work revealed that much more work is needed to assist households understand the
importance of family planning and small family sizes. Community focal group interviews suggested that
the District Assembly, District Education and CSOs should increase community awareness regarding the
benefit of education and the need to provide the basic educational needs of the children.
Family planning was not mentioned in any of the interviews as a key strategy for assisting the families
ensure better quality of life and enabling them to cope with extreme poverty levels. Women and men
did not acknowledge in any of the interviews, that restricting the number of children in a family could
improve their ability to send their children to school and ensure food security. They were still using
traditional farming patterns which required high levels of labour on the farm, and therefore, they did
not believe that reducing family size would be an effective strategy.
The Parental and Learner Choice Research suggests that this shift in fully appreciating the need for
education will only be accomplished when families no longer rely on children for their subsistence
farming and livelihoods which demand labour; this child labour demand will be reduced and possibly
eliminated if and when new innovations and farming techniques are introduced. More community
awareness is needed to improve child protection measures and educate the communities on the need
to stop early marriage and fosterage practices, which often prevent girls from participating and
completing their basic education. More community awareness is also needed on the importance of
63
educating children in general. This was particularly the case for the Upper East and Northern regions
where outmoded practices were preventing children from their right to education.
8.5 Improving the quality of basic education and primary education

“Restore the confidence of parents in the formal school. Most respondents interviewed have lost
confidence in the formal school system…” (Community members, Gushegu District Northern Region)
“The transfer of teachers should also be reduced a little so that teachers get used to the children and
teach them well. The school badly needs furniture for the children to sit and learn. Male parent, Pusiga
District, Upper East)
One of the most important interventions which is needed by the government and called for across all
the communities and stakeholder groups interviewed (including teachers) was the need to Increase
supervision of schools to ensure compliance on the part of teachers in ensuring quality education. The
improved quality will include the GES providing basic educational needs such as the supply of adequate
textbooks, better monitoring of school capitation grants and implementing measures to enforce regular
and punctual teacher attendance at school.
8.6 Special support for teenage mothers who have not completed basic education
“My mother should be given some help so that she can grow more vegetables and get money to take me
to school. (CBE learner Pusiga District)
Several young women who were teenage mothers due to their migration to the “big cities” and who
were exposed to risky environments should be assisted to send their children to school. Often they are
still dependant on their own families and parents to take care of them, and these “grandparents” are
often unwilling or unable to provide for the educational needs of the young girls children. The re-entry
policies by GES are also assisting these girls re-enrol in school where they dropped out, but more is
needed. Women interviewed suggested that “We need to consider enrolling teenage mothers in CBE
and their children and mothers who find it difficult to survive”. LEAP should also be targeted to these
teenage mothers on the condition that they ensure for the education of their children through CBE and
primary education.
64
9. Key conclusions and lessons learned

The findings from the Parental and Learner Choice study suggest that the key factors which inhibit
parents from choosing formal primary education and/ or Complementary Basic Education (CBE) relate
mainly to the economic and social status of the family along with the indirect and direct costs of
educating a child. The economic factors which are considered include: the requirements the family have
in carrying out their subsistence farming, animal rearing or off farm activities and whether these
activities require the support of their children and youth. The study suggests that due to the poor crop
production on the farm, the increasing unpredictability in rain fed agriculture, subsistence nature of
farming and the increasing pressure on child labour in relation to family survival, some children in the
three northern regions will not participate in and others will not complete basic education.
Large family sizes in the midst of high levels of food insecurity was the greatest context factor which
pervaded the study sites across the Northern and Upper East regions14. This problem results in a large
out-of-school population, vulnerable households, forcing selection of children in education which partly
accounts for the inability of families to enrol all their children in school.
Another major deterrent to primary education participation in the study sites was the indirect and direct
costs to parents in sending their children to school. Despite the governments “fee free” policy towards
basic education, parents were still being pressured to provide PTA dues and other fees for examinations.
Parents also expressed the fear that they could not sustain children in primary education due to the cost
of school uniforms, shoes, and basic feeding while the child attended school. The CBE programme
provides the best alternative for these parents and families since it enables the children and pre youth
to continue to support their families on the farm and off farm activities at the same time they receive
basic literacy and numeracy instruction in the afternoon classes. CBE was also seen as fully “free”
educational pathway and less of a burden to subsistence farming families especially to the most
vulnerable including: ‘grandparents’, female headed households and widows who were unsure of their
ability to sustain children in primary school due to the costs.
The social and religious background and beliefs of parents were also major factors in the selection of
which child would participate in formal education. Still traditional notions of preference towards boys
education which was more valued over girls due to the family inheritance, marriage practices and their
parents future notions that the girl child was the ‘possession’ of the husband and his family. Secondly,
traditional practices of early marriage and child fosterage were also found to restrict the full
participation of girls across the three northern regions studied. Boys were also restricted from full
participation in schooling due to their heavy responsibilities in the family farming and cattle rearing
responsibilities. Migration patterns of girls and boys to the southern Ghana were shifting some of these
practices due to the child’s own initiative to take care of themselves in an attempt to keep themselves in
school through informal labour activities.
The main differences in decision making found across the three regions was based on the household
make up due to the strong patriarchal control of the households found in the northern region where the
father/household head was still the main “provider” and decision maker in the family. The Upper East
and Upper West were seeing changes in household decision making patterns and make up due to shifts
in parental responsibility to other care givers brought about by the high level of migration of parents
14
Large family sizes – high number of children per family ranging from 4 to 12 and higher -- is a major challenge
across all three study districts and regions.
65
(particularly the fathers) and the ultimate responsibility of child rearing and education decision making
being placed on the women, extended family members and in some cases “grandparents”.
A host of supply and quality factors related to the provision of primary and CBE education were also
influencing the decisions regarding the child’s participation in education. Parents were beginning to see
CBE as a vital foundation step towards their child’s ability to learn to read and write which would assist
them in their first few years of primary education. The study found strong evidence that parents and
the children themselves recognised that the methods being used in CBE particular the phonic and
syllabic approaches to mother tongue literacy were yielding results in assisting children learn to read
during the CBE cycle and later succeed in primary school. This was an important outcome for parents
and children along with the emphasis of CBE on mother tongue literacy. Children who had not had the
opportunity to enter CBE also noticed that they did not have the basic skills that their CBE counterparts
had once they transitioned into primary education. These differences were revealed in interviews with
parents and children in most of the communities visited and influencing their decision to enrol
particularly the younger children in CBE before they transitioned to primary education if they could
afford the costs. Communities were more keenly aware of the need to start community schools at least
for lower primary classes (KG to P3) in areas where they did not have access to primary schools.
Absence of primary schools in some communities was a key factor contributing to the inability of
families to enrol their children in school. Though government has a policy of children not traveling more
than 3km to access lower primary school, some districts still had large numbers of communities without
schools within 3 to 5km radius. The research suggests that CBE should continue to be financed by
government as a key priority in these districts and be used as a basis for creating community schools in
order to ensure all children access to basic education. Intensive advocacy for the continuation of the CBE
programme in these districts and communities along with the establishment of wing or annex schools to
facilitate the transition of the learners into the formal school system needs to be continued.
The ultimate selection of which child would enrol in CBE or formal education –girl or boy—older or
younger---from which wife ---were all taken into account in the decision making process. The marital
practice of polygamy emerged as a factor which is taken into account when selecting which child will
attend school and depends on the number of wives and children in the family. There were also cases of
traditional households clearly not being able to sustain all children in school and opting for one child per
wife. In several cases, the choice of which child to select was very easy since there were only a few out
of school children in the household. Evidence was also found that a growing number of girls who are
teenage mothers due to their exposure in living/working on streets in Ghana’s southern cities, need to
access CBE education in future in order to break the poverty cycle. Currently these teenage mothers are
beyond the age requirement of CBE but are often between 16 to 18 years of age. Interviews suggest that
the CBE programme needs to be tailored to this growing population in order that the girls can
reintegrate into their communities, schools and/or eventually learn a trade or profession.
Poverty and inability of families to afford primary education will continue to be a challenge if the
livelihood opportunities which focus on agriculture innovation, farming and animal rearing are not
improved. For food security purposes, the government’s school feeding programme, women in
agriculture, planting for food and jobs programmes can target such communities where cereals
production has been dwindling and extreme poverty is high. With these interventions, it is likely that
66
the poverty level will be reduced, the quality of education will improve15 and educational participation
of children will increase.
The unequal burden on women, the high incidence of female headed and widowed households requires
strategic interventions to ensure more education and empowerment of women at all levels of decision-
making, with stronger resourcing being made for the protection and education of the girl child. The
intergenerational poverty cycle will only be addressed where girls are protected, enabled to complete
their basic and senior high school education. Other interventions will require the reduction of migration
to urban contexts, increasing parental income generation, increasing reproductive health education and
reducing teenage pregnancy so that young women can complete basic education. This will have a
ripple effect on their own ability to educate their children in future.
The Parental and Child Choice Research also found that it is important that certain traditional practices
that are preventing the progress of girls’ education are stopped. This includes early marriage, child
fosterage and the exchange of marriage among families. Fosterage—parenting non-biological children--
emerged as contributing factor to the high incidence of out-of-school children which has been well
documented in previous research. Strengthening government policies on protection of the poor and
vulnerable children along with educating the population about outmoded /negative socio-cultural
practices needs to be addressed with urgency.
The vast majority of district officials, community leaders, parents and children acknowledged the
methodology adopted in the CBE programme, which builds on the children’s known environment, uses
effective teaching and learning materials, provides uninterrupted individual access to
primers/textbooks, and promotes child-centred participatory approaches—all these helped in increasing
the learners reading and learning outcomes in the CBE classes which also improved their outcomes in
the formal school system. Options for adopting some of these methodologies in primary schools in
Ghana need to be explored by the GES in order to enhance teaching and learning outcomes. Finally the
government will need to take firm steps in sustaining the complementary basic education programme in
order to reach out of school children, particularly across the three northern regions where food
insecurity remains a major challenge for household survival and educational participation.
.
15
Trained teachers will return to unstable food insecure areas of the north.
67
10. References:
Associates for Change (2017) Stories of Most Signification Change in Child Protection across Ghana’s
Northern Regions, UNICEF, Accra Ghana.
Associates for Change (2013). The Quality of Education in Northern Ghana: Assessing learning efficiency
and effectiveness across Ghana’s three northern regions (VSO/Comic Relief Commissioned Study) see
www.associatesforchange.org
Associates for Change (2011). Inclusive Education in Ghana: A Look at Policy and Practice in Northern
Ghana, (www.associatesforchange.org).
Associates for Change (2003). Reaching Underserved Populations with Basic Education in Deprived Areas
of Ghana: Emerging Good Practices, CARE: Atlanta. www.associatesforchange.org).
Casely-Hayford, L. Salifu, E. and M. Arnot (2009) “The Education Outcomes Gap in Ghana:
young people’s insights into schooling, social dislocation and poverty” Paper presented
at the UK International Education Conference, University of Oxford, September 11-13, 2009.
Casely-Hayford, L. & Hartwell, A. (2010). Reaching Underserved Populations with Complementary

Education: lessons from Ghana’s state and non-state sector. Journal for Development in Practice
(June 2010).
Casely-Hayford, L. and Ghartey, A. (2008) “The Leap to Literacy and Life Change in Northern
Ghana: the Impact Assessment of School for Life”. (see www.associatesforchange.org).
CBE Management Unit (2016) Updated Analysis of Out of School Children in Ghana with
District Level Projections (Crown Agents/Associates for Change, Accra, Ghana)
Farrell, J.P and Hartwell, A (2008) Planning for successful alternative schooling: a possible
route to Education for All, Paris, UNESCO IIEP.
Ministry of Education (2013) Complementary Basic Education Policy Framework (Ministry of

Education, Accra, Ghana)
UNICEF (2012) Global School Initiative on Out of School Children: Ghana Country Study. (available on:
www.associatesforchange.org).
World Bank (2015) Out of School Youth In Sub Saharan Africa: A policy perspective. (Washington: World
Bank)
68
69
11. Annex 1: Core background characteristics of communities and families in Pusiga, Upper East Region
Communities/Families
Lateega Zuabuliga Tambiogu Yariga Vorekoum
CBE
CBE
CBE
CBE
CBE
5
5
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Background
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Pupils
Pupils
Pupils
Pupils
Pupils
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Non
Non
Non
Non
Non
Sex 9 9 10 10 7 7 10 10 8 8
Male 4 6 0 4 2 4 1 3 2 2
Female 5 3 10 6 5 3 9 7 6 6
Yrs in c’ty
Up to 15 yrs 1 9 1 10 7 10 - 8
16 – 25 yrs 1 - - 1 - -
26–35 yrs 1 - 2 1 3 2 -
36 – 45 yrs 5 - 3 2 1 3 -
46 – 55 yrs - - 1 2 3 1 -
56+ yrs 2 - 2 1 3 2 -
Religion
Christian 0 0 2 2 1 1 0 0 2 2
Islam 9 0 8 8 6 6 10 10 6 6
70
Lateega Zuabuliga Tambiogu Yariga Vorekoum
CBE
CBE
CBE
CBE
CBE
5
5
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Background Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Pupils
Pupils
Pupils
Pupils
Pupils
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Non
Non
Non
Non
Non
Traditional 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Language
spoken
Kusaal 9 9 10 10 7 7 10 10 8 8
Other - - - - - - 0 0 0 0
Main
livelihood
Farming (crop 4 4 10 10 7 7 10 10 8 8
& animal
rearing)
Farming & 4 4 - - 0 0 0 0 0 0
fabric
weeving
Farming & 1 1 - - 0 0 0 0 0 0
farm labour
# of parents 6 6 7 7 5 5 4 4 5 5
with children
in primary
# of parents 6 6 8 8 1 1 2 2 4 4
with children
71
in
in CBE
Tertiary
One
Two
Four
Three
in JHS/SHS
Background
Univ./
# of parents
# of children
with children
0
0
2
7
0
Parent/
Lateega
Guardian
0
0
2
7
0
Cycle 5
Learners
Integrated
Learners
Source: Field survey (2017)

Non CBE
Upper Prim
Pupils
0
2
4
4
1 Parent/
Guardian
0
2
4
4
1
Cycle 5
Learners
Integrated
Zuabuliga
Learners
Non CBE
Upper Prim
Pupils
Parent/
0
0
2
5
0
Guardian
72
Cycle 5
Learners
0
0
2
5
0
Integrated
Tambiogu
Learners
Non CBE
Upper Prim
Pupils
0
0
5
5
0
Parent/
Guardian
0
0
5
5
0
Cycle 5
Learners
Yariga
Integrated
Learners
Non CBE
Upper Prim
Pupils
Parent/
Guardian
0
0
2
6
0
Cycle 5
Learners
0
0
2
6
0
Integrated
Vorekoum
Learners
Non CBE
Upper Prim
Pupils
12. Annex 2: Core background characteristics of communities and families in Gusheigu District, Northern
Region
Yeshe Namengbani Nyorim Dandabolin Diyali
Prim Pupils
Prim Pupils
Prim Pupils
Prim Pupils
Prim Pupils
5
Non CBE
Non CBE
Non CBE
Non CBE
Non CBE
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Background
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Upper
Upper
Upper
Upper
Upper
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Sex 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 7 8 10 10 10 10 9 10 10
Male 5 5 5 4 3 5 5 2 5 5 6 5 5 6 5 5
Female 5 5 5 6 7 5 4 5 3 5 4 5 5 3 5 5
Yrs in c’ty
Up to 15 yrs 10 10 10 10 9 7 8 10 10
16 – 25 yrs
26–35 yrs 4 4 5
36 – 45 yrs 2 7 2
46 – 55 yrs 2 4 1 7
56+ yrs 2 2 3 2 1
Religion
73
Yeshe Namengbani Nyorim Dandabolin Diyali
Prim Pupils
Prim Pupils
Prim Pupils
Prim Pupils
Prim Pupils
5
Non CBE
Non CBE
Non CBE
Non CBE
Non CBE
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Background
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Upper
Upper
Upper
Upper
Upper
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Christian 1 1 0 0 3 2 0 1 1 3 2 3
Islam 8 9 10 10 6 8 9 7 7 7 6 6
Traditional 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 1
Language
spoken
Dagbani 10 10 10 10 8 10
Likpakpaaln 10 10 9 7 10 10 10 10
Main
livelihood
Farming 2 4 3 1 5 3 4 4 7 7 3 3 7 6
(crop &
animal
rearing)
Farming & 1 4 2 1
pito
brewing
Farming & 8 6 7 9 4 3 6 3 1 1 5 6 3 4
74
#
CBE
with
with
with
Univ./
Tertiary
primary
One
Two
JHS/SHS
farm labour
Background
children in
children in
children in
children in
# of parents
# of parents
# of parents
of
3
7
0
4
7
Parent/
4
6
0
1
4
Guardian
Cycle 5
Learners
Yeshe
Integrated
Learners
Non CBE
Upper
Prim Pupils
4
6
0
2
10 Parent/
Guardian
4
6
10
Cycle 5
Learners
Integrated
Namengbani
Learners
Non CBE
Upper
Prim Pupils
1
4
0
2
2
Parent/
3
4
0
4
0
Guardian
75
Cycle 5
Learners
Integrated
Nyorim
Learners
Non CBE
Upper
Prim Pupils
1
8
0
0
5
Parent/
Guardian
1
8
0
1
4
Cycle 5
Learners
Integrated
Dandabolin
Learners
Non CBE
Upper
Prim Pupils
1
8
0
1
10
Parent/
Guardian
1
8
0
3
10
Cycle 5
Learners
Diyali
Integrated
Learners
Non CBE
Upper
Prim Pupils
Sex
Four
Three
Background
Background
Parent/ Parent/
Guardian Guardian
Cycle 5 Cycle 5
Learners Learners
Yagha
Yeshe
Integrated Integrated
Learners Learners

Non CBE Non CBE
Upper Prim Upper
Pupils Prim Pupils
Parent/ Parent/
Guardian Guardian
Cycle 5 Cycle 5
Learners Learners
Tizza Kompori
Learners
Namengbani
Learners
Non CBE Non CBE

Upper Prim Upper
Pupils Prim Pupils
2
Parent/ Parent/
3
Guardian Guardian
76
Cycle 5 Cycle 5
Learners Learners
Nyorim
Saabiyiri
Learners Learners
Non CBE Non CBE

Upper Prim Upper

Pupils Prim Pupils
1
Parent/ Parent/
Guardian Guardian
1
Cycle 5 Cycle 5
Learners Learners
Dandabolin
Ul-Bakonoyiri
Learners Learners
Non CBE Non CBE
Upper Prim Upper
Pupils Prim Pupils
1
Parent/ Parent/
Guardian Guardian
1
13. Annex 3: Core background characteristics of communities and families in Jirapa, Upper West Region
Cycle 5 Cycle 5
Learners Learners
Yibile
Diyali
Learners Learners
Non CBE Non CBE

Upper Prim Upper
Pupils Prim Pupils
Yagha Tizza Kompori Saabiyiri Ul-Bakonoyiri Yibile
CBE
CBE
CBE
CBE
CBE
5
5
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Pupils
Pupils
Pupils
Pupils
Pupils
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Non
Non
Non
Non
Non
Male 3 5 3 6 5 5 4 6 1 5 - - 5 5 - - 6 5 5 7
Female 7 5 6 4 5 5 6 7 9 5 - - 5 5 - - 4 5 5 5
Yrs in c’ty
Up to 15 yrs - 10 9 - - 10 10 - 10 - - - 10 - - - 10 10 -
16 – 25 yrs - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3 - - -
26–35 yrs 4 - - - 2 - - - - - - - 1 - - -
36 – 45 yrs 9 - - - 4 - - - 4 - - - 7 - - - 2 - - -
46 – 55 yrs - - - - 2 - - - 2 - - - 2 - - - 2 - - -
56+ yrs 1 - - - - - - - 2 - - - 1 - - - 2 - - -
Religion
Christian 10 10 - - 10 10 - - 8 10 - - 8 8 - - 9 9 - -
Islam - - - - - - - - 2 2 - - 2 2 - - 1 1 - -
Traditional - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Language
77
Yagha Tizza Kompori Saabiyiri Ul-Bakonoyiri Yibile
CBE
CBE
CBE
CBE
CBE
5
5
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Upper Prim
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Integrated
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Guardian
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Learners
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Parent/
Pupils
Pupils
Pupils
Pupils
Pupils
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Cycle
Non
Non
Non
Non
Non
spoken
Dagaare 10 10 10 10 - - 10 10 10 10 10 10
Other - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Main
livelihood
Farming (crop 5 5 - - 7 7 - - 8 8 - - 8 8 - - 9 9 - -
& animal
rearing)
Farming & 5 5 - - 2 2 - - 2 2 - - 2 2 - - 1 1 - -
pito brewing
Farming & - - - - 1 1 - - - - - - - -
farm labour
# of parents 10 10 - - 9 9 - - 7 7 - - 6 6 - - 6 6 - -
with children
in primary
# of parents 7 7 - - 6 6 - - 4 4 - - 4 4 - - 3 3 - -
with children
in JHS/SHS
# of parents 0 0 - - 0 0 - - 2 2 - - 1 1 - - 3 3 - -
with children
78
in
in CBE
Tertiary
One
Two
Four
Three
Background
Univ./
# of children
-
-
2
8
Parent/
-
-
Guardian
2
8
Cycle 5
Learners
-
-
-
-
Yagha
Integrated
Learners
-
-
-
-

Non CBE
Upper Prim
Pupils
-
-
3
7
Parent/
Guardian
-
-
3
7
Cycle 5
Learners
-
-
-
-
Integrated
Tizza Kompori
Learners
-
-
-
-
Non CBE
Upper Prim
Pupils
-
-
2
9
Parent/
-
-
2
9
Guardian
79
Cycle 5
Learners
-
-
-
-
Integrated
Saabiyiri
Learners
-
-
-
-
Non CBE
Upper Prim
Pupils
1
1
4
4
Parent/
Guardian
1
1
4
4
Cycle 5
Learners
-
-
-
-
Integrated
Ul-Bakonoyiri
Learners
-
-
-
-
Non CBE
Upper Prim
Pupils
-
-
2
8
Parent/
Guardian
-
-
2
8
Cycle 5
Learners
-
-
-
-
Yibile
Integrated
Learners
-
-
-
-
Non CBE
Upper Prim
Pupils
80
14. Annex 4: Research Team Members
Research team (Upper East Region)
Name Location of Residence Contact number
Dr. Leslie Casely –Hayford (Lead Accra 0244255170

Researcher
Mohammed Awal Iddrisu Accra 0245769714
Richard Amoah Bolgatanga 0202227602
Mary Ndego Bawku 0205792623/0240436969
Aguri Azumah Pusiga 0243192626
Emmanuel Awine Pusiga 0245544293
Research team Upper West
Dr. Adom Baisie Ghartey Accra 0208167043
Augustina Awuye-Kpobi Accra 0249571936
Samuel Lanidune Wa 0208860656
Vivian Kuupenen Jirapa 0200744858
Jonathan Tuota Jirapa 0541085882
Joseph Napene Jirapa 0507206199
Research team Northern region
Justice Agyei-Quartey Accra 0207576229
Patience Quaye Accra 0243669250
Nakoja Samuel Nkrabea Gushegu 0208266633
81
Tierongwe Pogsaa Florence Gushegu 0266814096
Mohammed Ali Gushegu 0546942836
Abdulai Alhassan Gushegu 0248273803
82
15. Annex 5: Key influences and factors for parents and learners preference towards
complementary basic education in Gushegu District, Northern region
Parents Key influences and factors for parents and learners preference towards
complementary basic education compared to primary education across
stakeholders
Yeshe  Made the children responsible and the regularity of the facilitator in class
 The child is able to read and speak proper Dagbani
 The child has developed the habit of reading and also does not pay anything
 CBE is free and makes parents save a little money
 In the morning children are engaged in chores and farming activities and in
the afternoon, they attend classes so there is no time for them to play
around. The facilitator’s style of teaching makes learning easier for the child
 It allows smooth transition into the formal school. The child comes home
with books which are provided by CBE every day.
 Promotes the Dagbani , and the time of the classes allow the children to help
with house chores.
 Child writes and read to my hearing anytime he comes home.
 Free provision of learning materials and the ability of the child to read in a
short period of enrolment
Dandabolin  Children enrolled can read and write and are okay with teacher’s
attendance. The child in CBE is very good. She teaches some of the learners
after classes.
 The stubborn child has changed since enrolled in school. The child now
accepts going on errands for her, which she hardly would do when wasn’t
attending school.
 Children have changed in behaviour, especially in greetings. They now read
well even after school. The children liked coming to formal school, but the
continuous absence of the teachers affected children’s attendance, whilst
volunteers came into support.
 The school is opening up their community to the outside world.
 The teaching is also helpful to the children and parents.
Nyorim  The CBE improves learning especially for those who have never experienced
schooling.
 Want children to understand basic principles in learning since there has not
been any school experience before.
 Children in CBE pick up concepts faster than those in the formal school.
Diyali  CBE is the only option for our children because we don’t have a formal
school.
 Some of the children cannot walk to the nearest school.
Cycle 5 learners
Yeshe  There is no punishment in CBE, and class is in Dagbani.

 CBE use of Dagbani makes learning easier.
 Parents are not able to use me on the farm all day.
83
Parents Key influences and factors for parents and learners preference towards
complementary basic education compared to primary education across
stakeholders
 There is no caning, and materials are free.
 Can read and write Dagbani.
 A lot of stories and games make learning exciting.
 It allows children to do house chores in the morning and attend classes in
the afternoon
Dandabolin  CBE is preferable because of the use of Likpakpaaln

 They all like CBE because it will help them transition into a class that will
make them seniors to those with whom they should have started primary
one because they are integrated into primary 3 or 4.
Namongbani  The introduction of sounds makes pronunciations easy for learning.
 The introduction of alphabets and free learning materials
 The alphabet drills will help him read better.
 Books provided by the facilitator
 No punishment and free materials. No insistence on uniforms
Nyorim  Reading of Dagbani in class makes it interesting.
 CBE is valuable because there is no formal school in the community
Diyali  Children enrolled can read and write and are okay with the teacher’s
attendance. The child in CBE is very good. She teaches some of the learners
after classes.
 The stubborn child has changed since being enrolled in school. The child now
accepts to go on errands for her which she hardly would do when wasn’t
attending school.
 Children have changed in behaviour especially in greetings. They now read
well even after school. The children liked coming to school but the
continuous absence of the teachers affected children’s attendance whilst
volunteers came into support
Integrated formal
school learners
Yeshe  Parents want us to read Dagbani very well

 Parents felt that since there is no payment, we could enrol and later proceed
to formal school
Dandabolin  CBE learners report every day, and the teacher is always available.
Namongbani  CBE because they are provided with books, but it is not the same in formal
school where parents are supposed to buy books. They have only two
teachers in formal school, and that creates teacher-access problems, but in
CBE teachers are always available.
 Got enrolled when it was first introduced. She doesn’t know why the father
enrolled her in CBE, but she is excited.
84
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85
Appendices/
86
Complementary Basic Education Programme/
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List of Abbreviations (iii)

1. Background and Methodology 11

2. Barriers to Access to Basic Education in Sub Saharan Africa and Ghana 14

3. Core Background Characteristics of Communities and Families across the Study

4. Factors Restricting Full Participation of Children in Formal Basic Education 20

5. Different Perceptions and Experiences in relation to Primary and

6.1 Quality of Complementary Basic Education 42

9. Key conclusions and lessons learned 65

11. Annex 1: Core background characteristics of communities and families in Pusiga,

12. Annex 2: Core background characteristics of communities and families in

13. Annex 3: Core background characteristics of communities and families in Jirapa,

14. Annex 4: Research Team Members 81

Appendix A: Output 1 milestones/ Error! Bookmark not defined.

Appendix B: Output 2 milestones/ Error! Bookmark not defined.

Appendix C: Risk Matrix/ Error! Bookmark not defined.

Appendix D: Management Unit Work-Plan/ Error! Bookmark not defined.

Appendix E: Personnel Input Schedule / Error! Bookmark not defined.

Table 1: Progress towards Milestone 18 indicators Error! Bookmark not defined.

No table of figures entries found.

management of third party quality assurance and inspection services related to

service as follows: Air Import – Clearance UK airport; Exports – Airport of

1. Background and Methodology

1.1 Rationale for the research

1.2 Study Objectives and Research:

1.3 Scale and scope for the research

Districts were selected based on other key criteria including:

2. Barriers to Access to Basic Education in Sub Saharan Africa and Ghana

Incidence Total CBE Communities No. Communities without school

3. Core Background Characteristics of Communities and Families across the

3.1 Background Characteristics of households

3.2 Religion, ethnicity and Gender Roles

3.3 Livelihood patterns and migration

3.4 Community Experiences with Education

4. Factors Restricting Full Participation of Children in Formal Basic Education7

4.2 Large family sizes

4.3 Demand and Pressure on Children’s Labour

4.4 Child Fosterage and Child Labour

4.5 Lack of parental care

4.6 Poor Quality Education

4.7 Inadequate understanding of the benefits of education

4.8 Long distance to nearest primary school

5. Different Perceptions and Experiences in relation to Primary and

5.1 Differences between the two educational systems

5.2 Content of CBE

5.3 Different approaches to methodology and language of instruction

5.4 Pedagogic and disciplinary approaches

5.5 Experiences of parents in sending children to primary school and CBE

Parent and Child Quotations by the Parent or child

Parent and Child Quotations by the Parent or child

(Pusiga District, Field Data, Nov. 2017)

5.6 Experiences related to Schooling and CBE in the Northern region

to pay for all children to be in the formal schools.

5.7 CBE Learners’ perspectives of integration in the primary school

5.8 Conclusions: Learning outcomes—pedagogic approaches of the teacher

6. Key factors influencing parental and learner choice and preferences

6.1 Quality of Complementary Basic Education

6.3 The Flexible Nature of CBE

6.4 “Fee free” CBE

6.5 Distance to school and CBE class

SMCs/LCs Views of the School management committees

(Field work, Pusiga District, Upper East, 2017)