The Guardian – Susanna Rustin
““I think school is more important for girls than boys,” says Cecilia Abanga with a laugh at her own boldness. “When a girl marries she has to manage a whole lot – being a mother, getting clothes and shopping, cooking, paying school fees.” Cecilia, 18, is the third of seven (soon to be eight) children born to extremely poor subsistence farmers in Bansi, a remote corner of north-eastern Ghana. She doesn’t plan to marry for 10 years, would like to build her own house in a nearby town and says her best marks are in science. She has yet to master the English taught in all Ghanaian schools so talks to me in her first language, Kusaal, through an interpreter. Cecilia believes she has a right to education, compulsory in Ghana for two years of nursery plus six of primary or basic school. Theoretically this runs from age four to 12 but, in fact, as many children are late starting and years are repeated when tests are failed, the age range is huge. Three years each of junior and senior high schools completes a Ghanaian schooling.”(more)