Education is gradually collapsing in the Yoggu community. So prevalent is the phenomenon of children dropping out of school in the Yoggu community in the Tolon district, where pupils end their education at the basic level with most of them, preferring to go for kayaye or do other menial jobs.
The issue is not pervasive among the female gender only, but among boys as many of them resort to making quick money than to acquire formal education.
After dropping out, the first step for many of them is to travel to Kumasi or Accra to engage in kayaye and not many of them are motivated to learn a trade like sewing, weaving, and carpentry and among others.
Another causal factor of school dropouts is teenage pregnancy which appears to be an issue for the community. Following the rising number of school dropouts in the Yoggu area, a community journalist, Zainab Ziblim engaged some of the dropouts to find out their reasons for opting out of school.
One of them, Latifa Baba, said she couldn’t cope with academic work hence her decision to leave school “my level of understanding in class was very low whenever my teachers were teaching.” Another, also said “my parents do not pay enough attention to my schooling”
For Yakubu Adamu COVID-19 was enough excuse for her to leave the classroom.
“I drop out because of COVID-19 long break and when I returned from kayayo, I didn’t want to go back to school for fear of being repeated!”
All these can be attributed to ignorance and lack of exposure, since Yoggu is a deprived community and many of the children in school are not exposed to so many things including the importance of education and how this could prepare them for the future.
Of course, there aren’t many role models around the community for them to serve as a guide; however, what most parents and community members worry about is the fear of the phenomenon getting worse thereby deepening their poverty situation.
They are therefore appealing to the Ghana Education Service within the Tolon district to sensitize the communities on the relevance of education and also taking steps to improve teaching and learning in order to retain more pupils in the classroom.
Zainab Ziblim, Community Journalist, Tolon
