Priscilla is 8 years old and lives in the Eastern region of Ghana. She lives at home with her parents and 4 siblings.
She started going to school when she was 3 years old. “I want to go to school to go far in life, so that I can become a nurse. That will make me very happy”.
But learning comes with frustrations too, as sending children to school puts financial pressure on the entire family forcing them to make difficult choices.
Pricilla is one of four children we will be following over the next three years to learn about their education journey; their challenges and hopes. We will hear about...
They are #borntolearn, like all children. Their stories demonstrate their commitment to learning and what we have to lose if we don’t invest in their education.
Every child is born to learn but no child can do so if they are hungry.
“Not all the children in this area go to school because some of their parents do not have money” says Priscilla.
"When we come to school, they do not give us food to eat. I eat before I come and after school I go home to eat", she adds.
Financial difficulties are a serious obstacle to learning. In Ghana, two-thirds of the cost of education is picked up by households, with only a third covered by the government.
Households account for almost US$4 of every US$10 spent on education in Africa
Priscilla’s mother is called Yaa. She looks after her 5 children, her home and also works at the farm.
Yaa didn’t go to school very long. She is hoping education will help her children get a better future than her own.
"With the little money I have, I give them money to buy something to eat in the morning" she says.
The good news is that more children are accessing education in Ghana every year, with faster improvement than in many of its neighbouring countries. The percentage of children completing primary school in the country increased from 57% in 2000 to 77% twenty years later.
I want my daughter to go to school and become someone big in society, a big status person.
Genevieve is Priscilla’s teacher. She enjoys teaching. “I have passion for it, and I find joy in teaching.” She says.
Genevieve has been teaching at Esiaw Basic Primary School for two years now. She teaches eight subjects and usually has around 40 students per class. She finds it challenging not to be able to always get the learning materials she needs to teach.
She worries that financial difficulties can prevent children from attending school. “I think there are some kids in this community who are not enrolled due to financial problems”, she adds.
The recent report Born To Learn recommends that new resources be injected into the system to help families get the best from their education. It recommends new funding mechanisms for basic education including (i) a dedicated basic education funding mechanism similar to the Ghana Education Trust; (ii) a results-based payment element to drive a focus on efficiency and outputs rather than inputs.
In Born To Learn , we recommend that:
- All children are provided with school meals, as they cannot learn if they are hungry.
- Governments and their development partners engage communities to expand and institutionalize school canteens.
