International Journal of Educational Development xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
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Review
Communal Conflict Versus Education: Experiences of Stakeholders in Ghana’s Bawku Conflict ⁎
Obed Adonteng-Kissia, , Barbara Adonteng-Kissib, Mohammed Kamal Jibrilc, Samuel Kwesi Oseid a
Department of Social Inquiry, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce, La Trobe University, VIC 3086, Bundoora Campus, Australia School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University, QLD 4111, Nathan Campus, Australia c Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 29776, 2502 LT, The Hague, The Netherlands d Department of Environmental Planning, Brandenburg Technical University, Cottbus, Germany b
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Development Education Economic Communal conflict Violence Insurgence
Notwithstanding the 1992 Constitution of Ghana’s affirmation of the right of every child to free compulsory universal basic education, conflict obstructs basic educational access and outcome in Ghana’s Bawku. This paper examines the impact of communal conflict on basic educational access and outcomes in Bawku. The study employed a qualitative investigation using interviews of key informants on the nature of the Bawku Conflict in the data collection procedure. Evidence of stakeholders indicate that conflict and poverty operate in a simultaneous fashion to impede basic education access and outcome. Authors find evidence of a significant decline in average basic educational access and outcomes with estimated effect on both boys and girls which further suggests that the communal conflict has triggered substantial regional and generational inequalities between Bawku and other parts of the country. The evidence suggests that this finding may be somewhat due to family trade-offs between education on one hand and insurgence activities for boys and work for girls on the other hand.
1. Introduction This paper is positioned in a discussion of an on-going conflict between Kusasi and Mamprusi ethnic groups in Ghana’s Bawku community. The relevance of the Bawku communal conflict is that; it takes its source from the colonial days and a broad range of issues are molded to serve as a pretext for renewed conflicts over rights and prerogatives to suit the ethnic differences. This suggests that the Bawku communal conflict has evolved in diverse ways over time and across space. Conflicting historical claims to the traditional throne, ethnic struggles for political power; identity-based issues; economic disparity and inadequate economic opportunities are some of the wide range of issues in contention. Kendie and Akudugu (2010) explain that although, Ghana has an international reputation as the beacon of peace in West Africa, there are some pockets of insurgencies. Some of these pockets of insurgencies manifest itself into negative educational access and outcomes different from elsewhere in the country. In Ghana’s Bawku in the Northern Territories, there is evidence to show that students’ performance is relatively poor. A significant number of students in Bawku area have continually failed to qualify from the end of Junior High School (JHS) leaving examinations known
as the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) to the Senior High School (SHS) for the three consecutive years. Gyan et al. (2014) confirm that students performed worse in communities in the Northern Territories such as Bawku than other parts of the country running from 2009 to 2011. Further, Gyan et al. (2014) indicate that, out of the 132 students presented by St. Joseph JHS in 2010 to the BECE, 116 candidates representing 87.9% failed. In contrast, a significant number of schools in the rural urban part of southern Ghana had a performance rate of 100% and a minimum performance rate of 48% in the BECE in the same period of time (Gyan et al., 2014). Furthermore, Hashim (2007) observes that Bawku area has attracted limited investment in educational infrastructure as compared to other parts of Ghana. UNESCO (2000) explains that communities that have lost educational infrastructure as an outcome of conflict are less probable to meet the Dakar goal of primary education for all by 2015. Additionally, UNESCO (2004) estimates that half of the 104 million children not attending primary school live in conflict affected communities. To buttress this point, GSS (2003, p. 38) indicated that out of 17,034 children canvassed, children of Bawku region who did not attend school ranked highest with 64% in Ghana. Furthermore, Hashim (2007, p. 917) indicates that “only 62% of school-aged children were enrolled” in Bawku
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Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: dontosh@yahoo.co.uk (O. Adonteng-Kissi), babkissi@yahoo.com.au (B. Adonteng-Kissi), jibril.kamaldeen.mohammedkamal@gmail.com (M. Kamal Jibril), kwesam@yahoo.com (S.K. Osei). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2017.08.002 Received 1 June 2016; Received in revised form 31 March 2017; Accepted 5 August 2017 0738-0593/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Adonteng-Kissi, O., International Journal of Educational Development (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2017.08.002