Pattern Two Attendance and Temporary Dropout Cases

In terms of children whose education in the study area manifested pattern two attendance, it was noted that similar to temporary dropout children whose attendance falls below 40%, their teachers considered them to be incapable of learning enough to proceed to the next grade.

School attendance pattern two is illustrative of cases of temporary dropout. Children in this category stop attending school after a brief period, but the school usually holds their records in anticipation that they will return. Such children are within the official age of graduation so they see returning to school as a possibility, although if they do return, they are forced to repeat their last grade. The cases of 3 children, Ninkyi (15 years), Owureduwa (10 years) and Ampong (15 years), who stopped attending school temporarily as variously

sporadic, event and long-term dropouts, make the point that they had experienced temporary dropout conditions and returned to school later.

Sporadic Dropout: The Case of Ninkyi

Ninkyi’s attendance pattern is a typical example of a sporadic dropout child, going to school for half a term before stopping. His initial record of low attendance became evident in the third term of Basic 3, before dwindling drastically to 25 days. Then, from Basic 3 to Basic 5, he did not spend more than 30 days per term in school.

In the first term of Basic 5, he stopped attending school entirely when his father took him to the capital city, Accra, where they worked as masons. In the second term, when he once more ‘dropped in’, he was still unable to improve his attendance record, until dropping out again in Basic 6 for two whole academic years while repeating. This time, he went to Half Assini with his friends to

‘hustle’. Although at the time of the study Ninkyi had returned to school, his attendance remained irregular.

Figure 6:2 Ninkyi’s Attendance Prior to becoming a Sporadic Dropout

The story behind Ninkyi’s attendance is narrated in box 1. There were many other children in the study area whose stories and their school attendance may be similar to Ninkyi’s as manifested in pattern two (see patterns of attendance in chapter 5).

Box 1: Ninkyi’s Narrative

Ninkyi’s case also suggests that his low attendance was the result of a combination of the situation at home and circumstances at school. His parents’ inability to provide him with breakfast or other education needs coupled with issues at school, such as the absence of teachers and discipline among others, resulted in his intermittent attendance in favour of engaging in child labour to meet his economic survival need.

Event Dropout: The Case of Owureduwa

The case of a 10 year-old girl, Owureduwa, is another example of temporary dropout that typifies event dropout. This type of dropout falls within school attendance pattern two. Owureduwa went to school regularly until the second term of Basic 3, when her attendance dropped significantly. In the third term of Basic 3, she dropped out of school, although she returned the following academic year to repeat her last grade she dropped out again in the third term.

You see, my mother is often complaining that we don’t have any money...so sometimes I don’t eat breakfast before going to school. I skip school sometimes so that I can weave baskets and sell them for some money to buy food and my schooling needs. My father took me to Accra to go and work with him. That was when I did not go to school in the first term of Basic five. There were times when teachers were absent from school, so I left school to find some work to do. Because I don’t go to school regularly, whenever I do go, my mates call me names. Sometimes, I beat them but the teachers punish me by caning me... As for the teachers, they just love using the cane, they cane you at the least mistake you make. When they asked me to repeat, I decided I was not going to school again because I didn’t like how the teachers treated us. These teachers themselves don’t go to school sometimes, but when we are late for school or don’t report early when school re-opens, they cane you, ask you to go and weed, or bring stones and sand to school. They have always done these things to us...but you see, you can’t go to school when you are hungry or don’t have school uniform.

Figure 6:3 Owureduwa’s Attendance Prior to Becoming Event Dropout

Source: field data from school records

From available staff records, I gathered that around the time Owureduwa ceased attending Basic 3 there was no regular teacher for her Basic. She stopped going to school because she lost both parents at about the same time. She was then left alone to take care of both herself and her grandmother. In September 2008, Owureduwa dropped back in when one of her relatives offered to look after her, and she started repeating Basic 3 for the third time. Commenting on her performance after dropping back in, Owureduwa’s teacher told me, “She is brilliant but she is finding it difficult to adjust... With time, she

will pick up.” In response to my question about what the school was doing to ensure that she caught up, the teacher continued, “You see, these children are

so many and because irregular attendance is common in this village because of poverty, there is not much we can do as teachers... Sometimes we try to slow down a little when teaching but you can’t do that all the time... When they are irregular, we try to discourage them by using punishment.” Owureduwa’s story is related in box 2 below.

Box 2: Owureduwa’s Narrative

Long-term Dropout: The Case of Ampong

Ampong’s case typifies both long-term dropout and the situation of those children whose attendance does not exceed ten days each school term before stopping entirely. According to his attendance record, in the first term of Basic 3, he only attended school for 8 days. However, he returned for the second term when he participated by attending 46 days but in the third term, he spent 36 days in school. Having achieved the minimum attendance required, he was promoted to the next level. However, during the second term of Basic 4, his attendance dropped again to only 20 days; and in the third term, he was only in school for 10 days; he had virtually dropped out.

I have been working to make money to buy a new school uniform...so I attend school irregularly... You see, my father and mother are dead so there is nobody to take care of me. I have to work hard to raise money to buy food for myself and my grandmother. I stopped school when my uniform was worn out. After my parents died, I didn’t go to school regularly again because I had to work and sometimes look after my grandmother whenever she was sick. I travelled to Half Assini to work like other children in this village do. Sometimes, I went to school without food and I felt so hungry that I had to run away from school to sell for people so that they would give me food to eat. Now, one of my uncles has offered to take care of us, so I am back in school. I hope to finish school and become somebody in the future.

Figure 6:4 Ampong’s Attendance Prior to Becoming Long-term Dropout

Source: field data from school records

When Ampong returned to school, he began to repeat his last grade but dropped out whilst doing so. He then stayed out of school for three consecutive years while his classmates progressed far beyond him. Interestingly, he returned to school at the beginning of the 2008/09 academic year but by then, he was significantly overage for his grade. His story is related in box 3.

Box 3: Ampong’s Narrative

When I was in Basic three, I lost my mother... I am the eldest child, so I helped my father take care of my brothers and sisters. Later on, my father travelled to attend to some family problems and he stayed away for almost three months. I had to take care of my brothers and sisters, so I resorted to going fishing and hustling at the beach... Sometimes, I caught crabs, which I sold to raise money to feed myself and my three brothers and sisters. That was when I started attending school irregularly. Whenever I was late for school, the teacher caned me for being late; so, any time I was late, I didn’t go to school at all. I found some work to do for money instead. I also repeated because the teachers said I was not serious about my attendance, but you see, it was not my fault that I didn’t go to school. Whenever there was no food in the house, I had to find a way out by getting some food for us. When I was repeating Basic four, I travelled to Half Assini during the vacation to fish; but I did not return when school reopened, and I stayed there longer working for money. But when I returned to school, the teachers insisted on punishing me, so I stopped going to school.

I noticed two points in respect of Ampong’s story: first, the death of his mother; and second, his father’s absence, which together put the onus for looking after his brothers and sisters. Combining this new responsibility for childcare with his schooling disrupted his attendance. Ampong’s case began as event dropout, which subsequently became long-term dropout when he stayed 3 years out of school and his classmates overtook him academically. Considering the progression in dropout, children such as Ampong may be described as reaching the peak of temporary dropout, a phase from which it is all too easy to deteriorate into the permanent dropout category.

From the three above cases, all of which illustrate pattern two attendance and temporary dropout, it appears that when the demand for child labour in communities where seasonal economic activity is intense and clash with school times (see 7.3), children’s school attendance decreases and some drop out during such periods (see 5.4.1). Moreover, attendance pattern two is very common in children who are significantly overage for their grade and came from backgrounds where parent could either not support them or are not there.

The cases of Ninkyi, Owureduwa and Ampong, who dropped out of Basic 4, 3 and 4 respectively, show that they stopped attending school as children overage for their grades. Indeed, Ninkyi should have been in Basic 6; Owureduwa, Basic 5; and Ampong should have been in his final year of JHS at the time of the study.

From my interviews with children, teachers and parents, I found that pattern two cases as shown in chapter 5 reveal a progressive trend (decline in attendance toward the third term) owing to the influence of the seasonality of economic activities. One head teacher explained: “We have a problem in this village

concerning the way children attend school... They come in the first term but by the third term, some of them only spend two days in school...this sometimes continues for weeks. Although some of these children come back after staying away for a few days...others end up as dropouts and never return... Even when children drop out and return, very few of them are able to complete school

because they drop out again.” This portrayal illustrates how dropout cases increases as children approach the third term of a given academic year.

The end of the third term marks the date when basic school children sit graduation examinations, after which they proceed from their present grade to the next. Generally, the authorities at the two schools in which I collected data did not consider those children who had missed lessons and examinations during the third term to be eligible for graduation to the next level. According to one teacher, “If a child does not attend for more than half a term32, it means that he or she did not participate fully in the continuous assessment that is part of the third term exam either; so we don’t graduate such children to the next level.”

Considering the pattern of decreased attendance in the study area, a seasonal pattern of dropout emerges which suggest that during the harvest season school children engage in economic activities for money.

With the influence of seasonality on children’s attendance occurring in the third term, the practice of using only full participation during the third term in particular for determining graduation placed pupils who had only missed the first or second term at an advantage over those who missed the third term. Although pupils wrote examinations at the end of each term, only the results of the third term examination were often used together with a good attendance record to graduate children to the next level. Interviews with teachers revealed that they considered the third term to be more important than the first two because it was the culmination of the academic year. Thus, in the third term, children got the chance to demonstrate the knowledge they had acquired throughout the whole academic year.

Although it may appear strange, emphasising completion of the third term as the basis for graduation to the next level was considered by teachers to be an effective means of ensuring that children remained in school until the end of the

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School terms in Ghana run between 60 and 72 days. First term starts from September to Mid- December, Second term from Mid-January to Mid-April, and Third term – Early-May to Mid- August.

academic year. I found this practice – which resulted in the frequent grade repetition of a certain category of children – to be somewhat irrational because instead of encouraging regular attendance, it demoralises those children already at risk because of irregular attendance to become dropouts. The next section discusses some cases of children who have stopped attending school altogether.