Claudia Hudson
African History
12/8/15
Disparity in education between rural and urban Ghana: Is socioeconomic status the culprit?
Education, the means of instilling moral values, norms and means of knowledge probably started with humans from the beginning of existence. Formal education started in Ghana in the early 1800s from Cape Coast in the central region and later spread to other coastal areas in the tropics and finally reached the Northern Territories after about 100 years. Education is a fundamental human right that belongs to every person. At an early age I was taught that there is no shelf life on a good education. While I did not understand this concept then, as I grew older it became clearer that a person’s education is closely
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Over the past decade tertiary education in Ghana has witnessed tremendous growth in various frontages. It has seen increased access and participation, relative expansion of academic facilities, a growing private sector, and most importantly and a transformative policy environment. Despite these overwhelming developments, there remain inequalities in the higher education system in Ghana: access has not been broadened to include all social groups. Available data suggest unequal participation among women, minorities, individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and spatial-based disparities. Using enrollment data from universities, policy document from the Ministry of Education, and the National Council for Tertiary Education in Ghana, and academic research reports, the authors provide descriptive and critical analyses of the structures of inequalities and disparities in higher education in Ghana. The authors argue that in spite of the massive developments over the years, there exist accessibility and participation gap with respect to students’ socioeconomic status, gender, regions of origin, and the type and location of secondary schools attended …show more content…
The Ghana living standard survey used data from the 2000 Ghana Statistical service to show the depth and severity of poverty into two broad groups-rural and urban. It then begs the question, is a child’s educational level dependent upon the socioeconomic status of the parent? According to Bhasin and Obeng there are more disparities in the households with primary and junior secondary level of education than the secondary and tertiary level. The disparities in the incidence of poverty are more noticeable among the households with secondary and tertiary educated heads than the households with primary and junior secondary educated head. Additionally, the disparities in the severity of poverty are more noticeable among the households with primary and junior secondary educated heads than the households with secondary and tertiary educated heads. The primary educated heads of households employed in the private sector have the highest mean income. The non-working primary educated heads of households have the lowest mean income and the primary educated public sector employees followed by agricultural farmers obtained the maximum income
2 May 2014. Breidlid, Anders. " Culture, Indigenous Knowledge Systems And Sustainable Development: A Critical View Of Education In An African Context. " International Journal Of Educational Development 29.2 (2009): 140-148.
The inequality in Australian education can be attributed to a history of low expectations and discrimination placed on Indigenous people by the government and society. Aboriginal children were denied the right to education until the 1970s due to the discrimitory views of the government and society. The Indigenous population were the sub-standard race of humanity with little to no chance of succeeding in life and these attitudes affected the educational choices offered to them (Ray & Poonwassie, 1992). As the superior race, the Anglo-Celtic Australians, considered themselves both intellectually and socio-culturally more advanced than their inferior Aboriginal neighbours (Foley, 2013). As a consequence of these racially and culturally motivated preconceptions, children of Aboriginal descent were considered unskilled outside of their own and were deemed incapable of excelling in ‘civilised’ white society (Foley, 2013). As a result, the Australian Government, in an effort to civilise and nurture politeness within the Aboriginal people, constructed “structured” (p 139) education training institutions in 1814. However, these problems only provided sufficient schooling for menial work: Aboriginal male children were prepared for agricultural employment, while girls were trained for domesticated services (Foley, 2013). Thus, as a direct consequence of low expectation for life success, Aboriginal children were offered minimal schooling ‘consistent with the perception about the limitations inherent in their race and their expected station in life at the lowest rung of white society’ (Beresford & Partington, 2003, p43). According to Foley (2013) this combination of low expectations and poor academic grounding meant that Indigenous children we...
Over the past few decades, factors such as globalization, de-regulation, credentialism, and technological progress have brought momentous transformations to the economies of the world. Wealth imbalance between countries has contracted, while income inequality within countries has expanded. The demand for highly skilled workers has increased, and so have the salaries for the most successful individuals in society. Less educated people, however, have fared relatively worse. This is quickly attracting the attention of governments of many countries, including Canada.
Education is in itself a concept, which has changed over the millennia, can mean different things and has had differing purposes according to time and culture. Education may take place anywhere, is not constrained by bricks and mortar, delivery mechanisms or legislative requirements. Carr (2003. p19) even states, “education does not necessarily involve teaching”. Education, by one definition, is the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life (education, n.d.).
Everyday students attend school, but not every single student attends the same type of school nor do they receive the same type of education. This thought may be very concerning to some, but for others, this is all too much a reality. For example, some may ask how is it possible that students in public schools that are located within the same state somehow receive a different education; the answer is simple. The concept of quality is a factor that can hinder or facilitate anything, especially ones education. The difference between a public school education in a particular town compared to another is its demographic. Some students are fortunate enough to be afforded the opportunity to attend school systems that perform well, while others do not have the privilege to do the same. Something as simple as a couple of miles can be the difference, the difference that makes some feel entitled to certain things such as higher education while others can only hope to appreciate a secondary or trade school education. Therefore, education is not a right rather a privilege, and the level of quality is contingent upon the environment wherein the learning takes place. The immense importance of environment is self-evident in examples
Poverty. Imagine living on less than 2 dollars a day, having little to no education, being sick with diseases like cholera and HIV/AIDS, or having poor living conditions (Berrebi, D). Well, about 17,663,800 Kenyans live this nightmare according to a 2012 CIA study. Kenya, ranked the 39th poorest country in the world on a report by Global Finance Magazine, and countries like the U.S. along with organizations like The Borgen Project, and The Hunger Project are providing aid to help with reducing the number of people in poverty. The international aid to Kenya has reduced the number of people under that $2 threshold, but there have been negative impacts on the economy and financial corruption gets in the way of effective aid.
This can be understood when we take into account the corruption that happens in Lower economically developed countries. In LEDCS education is a sector which needs more focus an article which focuses on this issue describes the education in LEDC as shocking as ‘Out of 128 million school-aged children, 17 million will never attend school’ And ‘37 million African children will learn so little while in they are in school that they will not be much better off than those kids who never attend school.’ From the shocking figures we can see that education in Africa needs major adjustments in order to achieve successful
POSC 100 Paper #1 Joshua Han j0shh4nxd@gmail.com. Over the past few years, a number of occurrences have displayed the growing economic and political inequality of the United States. The currently dissipated Occupy Movement did draw the general public’s attention to the ridiculous strides made by the rich, whose incomes have skyrocketed within the past four decades. Those pertaining to the middle-income and poor have sadly had their incomes stagnate.
Income inequality continues to increase in today’s world, especially in the United States. Income inequality means the unequal distribution between individuals’ assets, wealth, or income. In the Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes, a liberal journalist, states the inequality gap between the rich and the poor are increasing widening, and there need to have things done - tax the rich, provide better education - in order to shortening the inequality gap. America is a meritocratic country, which means that everybody has equal opportunity to be successful regardless of their class privileges or wealth. However, equality of opportunity does not equal equality of outcomes. People are having more opportunities to find a better job, but their incomes are a lot less compared to the top ten percent rich people. In this way, the poor people will never climb up the ladder to high status and become millionaires. Therefore, the government needs to increase all the tax rates on rich people in order to reduce income inequality.
In Nigeria, not everyone has the opportunity to quality education. Throughout life I have had several disruptions on my educational path. I attended school until my father’s business went bankrupt, combined with the local terror in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Afterwards, Family and I began a series of migrations in search of a better life, In the process, we migrated to several different countries with different education
There are many different factors that affect education. One such factor is, socioeconomic status. Children who attend school in a wealthier community receive a better education than those students in poor communities. In poor communities, student’s education is not only affected by a lack of resources, but also from teaching methods and philosophies. Urban and poor schools’ students do not receive as equal of an education as their more affluent and suburban counterparts do.
Education is generally seen as a formal process of instruction, based on a theory of teaching, to impart formal knowledge to one or more students (Cogburn, n.d.). Henceforth, individuals seek to acquire some form of schooling from pre-school through secondary school while others may go on to tertiary to better him or her in some way. A definition of education according to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is that education is “a process of teaching, training and learning, especially in schools or colleges, to improve knowledge and develop skills.” Where education in the common parlance has become a process of adding layers of one’s store of knowledge, the true aim of education is to call forth that which is essential to the individual (White, 2006). Furthermore, and according to Coombs and Ahmed 1974, education is a continuing process, spanning the years from earliest infancy through adulthood and necessarily involving a great variety of methods and sources. Education also involves inculcating in students distinct bits of knowledge; therefore education is an additive process (White, 2006). It adds to an individual as well as it adds to a country through the individuals who are and would have been or are being educated. According to a study conducted by Olaniyan and Okemakinde 2008, education creates improved citizens and helps to upgrade the general standard of living in a society. Furthermore, education plays a key role in the ability of a developing country to absorb modern technology and to develop the capacity for self-sustaining growth and development (Todaro and Smith, 2012).
As I started out researching for the paper, I realized that most importantly, data would need to be collected comparing the educational opportunities and achievement of the rural youth and those of urban youth. For instance, high school grades and SAT scores could be compared, as well as college applications and attendance. Beyond this, the actual school systems of rural and urban areas would be compared - the differences in funding, ideology, resources, etc., would grant insight into the students’ experiences and goals there.
Discussions of Nigeria gender equality in recent times have focused on steps taken towards putting women in their proper prospects. In the past, each gender had clearly defined roles and the issue of gender conflict never arose. The extent of gender inequality had been hidden for so long that its seriousness in the present time of Nigeria is now attracting international attention. The 2012 Gender in Nigeria Report recently shows that gender inequality not only exists in the country, but at highly worrying levels. There is a lack of gender balance in the economy, education, politics, health, access to justice and almost all areas of human development.
It is true of Africa that women constitute a treasure that remains largely hidden. (Moleketi 10) African women grow 90% of all African produce, and contribute about 70% of Africa’s agricultural labor every year. (Salmon 16) Both the labor and food that are provided by African women go towards the increase in Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (Moleketi 10) Although African women are feeding the majority of Africa’s inhabitants, the constricting ropes of gender inequality are still holding them back from being appreciated and living up to their full potential. Outstandingly, women such as President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, of Liberia, have gladly accepted the challenge of breaking free of these ropes. The history of women’s rights in Africa, the glass ceiling, and the modern aspects of women’s rights, all play prominent roles in the overall condition of women’s rights in Africa. Until the day arrives that these discriminatory injustices are corrected, individuals in African nations will continue to struggle.