‘PREPARE’ to Succeed: Study on Experiences of COVID-19 School and ECE center Closures on Provision of Education in Ghana

• In Event: PREPARing to Meet Long Term Challenges: Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Education in Africa

Proposal

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on Ghana’s education system and workforce. School and Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) center closures caused by the virus led to heightened concerns about children’s education and female workforce participation, particularly for women who typically care for children below the age of six years. Many school-based surveys have been undertaken on the school closures in Ghana, but there are crucial data gaps about the perspectives of households regarding children’s education amidst the pandemic and female labour force participation.

To have a better appreciation of the situation in Ghana and ensure that the government and other stakeholders can marshal an effective response to deal with the consequences of the school closures, there is a need for more empirical data. Household surveys have helped to understand households/guardians’ views on why children might have not re-enrolled post-pandemic school closures and how perceived learning loss is being addressed at home to complement the efforts at the school level, in addition to how the pandemic has impacted female workforce participation in Ghana.

Using data from just over 3,700 households, this study employed a longitudinal approach involving three phases of data collection and analysis as well as a concurrent mixed-methods design. The three phases offer the opportunity to describe the situation over time and identify the changes that have occurred in relation to students’ re-enrolment, school safety measures against the spread of covid-19, household measures to deal with potential learning loss for their wards, female workforce participation occasioned by ECED centers closure, and challenges faced by ECED center operators.

The preliminary findings of the study show that re-enrolment of students post- COVID-19 school closures has remained comparable to regular school vacation periods in Ghana even though grade repetition appears higher in the midst of a national wholesale promotion policy. Household perceptions about school safety measures against the spread of COVID-19 are more skeptical than what was observed in schools. For example, only 40% of parents are completely confident schools ask students to wear a mask, but enumerators confirmed that in 75% of schools, children were in fact wearing a mask.

Over 85% of households perceived that potential learning loss occurred among their wards. Meanwhile, the economically disadvantaged households were less likely to implement effective interventions to address the perceived learning loss at the household level. A majority of women with children aged below six years were not able to effectively participate in the workforce due to a lack of access to ECED centers in their area.

The major concluding thought from the preliminary findings is that it is also imperative to consider government and development partners’ targeted support for economically disadvantaged students to recover learning loss. Additionally, private ECED center operators should receive aid in recalibrating their operations given the significant role the centers play in enhancing female workforce participation, serving as both employment avenues and childcare provision.

Authors

• Might Kojo Abreh, IEPA, UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST, GHANA

• Francis Ansah, University of Cape Coast