Can Girls Attend and Complete School in Ghana; Measuring Parents Educational Status as a Factor of Confidence and Belief in Girls Education

Abstract

Available statistics indicates that girls are disproportionately at a disadvantage in the acquisition of formal education in Ghana. Attempts to balance this have over the years focused mainly on dealing with socio-economic and cultural factors without recourse to other visible yet covert factors that affect parents’ attitude towards formal education. This study examines whether parents educational status has any influence, effect and impact on their belief and confidence about whether girls can attend, excel and complete school in Ghana. A mixed method approach was adopted for the study. There were significant differences in the response variables. Parents who had never attended school before had a very high belief bias about the ability of girls to attend, excel and complete school than parents who had ever attended school before. About 26.5 percent of parents did not have confidence and belief girls can attend, excel and complete school in Ghana as against 73.5 percent of patients who shared a different opinion. In this study, we are convinced that even though stakeholders are continuously working to remove the barriers in girls’ acquisition, completion and transition in school, focus must generally be directed to the parental factors. The study concludes that if any concrete results can be achieved in the fight to create gender parity then the factors that influence parents’ perception about girls education must be critical addressed.