Educational Aspirations, Choices and Success

6.6.2 Educational Aspirations, Choices and Success

As Table 9b indicates, 17 of the participants indicated that the financial position of their families had an influence. Eight reported that it positively influenced their educational aspirations, choices and success while the majority thought that the financial situation has done some harm to their education. All those who reported their family as rich and a few from the average category belonged to the former group while the very poor, poor and a few from the average group identified with the latter.

71 A staple dish made from ground corn eaten in most parts of Ghana and other African countries.

163

Table 9b: Financial Status of Family versus Participants’ Education

Influence Participants

Positive 8 (SP3, SP7, SP11, SP13, SP14 , SP4, SP15, SP17) Negative 9 (SP16, SP5, SP1, SP8, SP10, SP18 GP1, SP2, GP2)

Neutral 2 (SP6, SP9)

Source: Interview transcripts.

Participants reporting a positive influence of the financial status of their families on their own educational aspirations, choices and success share some common characteristics;

they attended the elite schools, and are currently enrolled in the most competitive programmes in their respective universities. As the comments of SP15 below suggest and that of SP13 (from the same SHS) elsewhere confirm, these students believe the secondary school they attended gave them more than academic knowledge; what SP13 calls “holistic education” which according to her, gives them a “good foundation” and it is in such schools they meet other students of their ilk:

It actually helped a lot because you attend good school and then you get influenced a lot by friends who are also from good families. So it actually has a lot of positive impact. And then being in a family recognised, proud, it’s good; because me and my siblings together because we are from these schools, we are able to co-operate and everything and it gives you a very good insight into so many things. (SP15, female, Nursing)

Yes, it did…in my secondary school we had to pay; our fees as compared to most schools at secondary level; we were paying quite a large amount. I think it helped; although we are not rich, we are average but it helped to finance my education. Even at this level most things we need it’s really expensive; even just surviving alone. (SP7, female, Business Administration)

It did, it did. Because if they were a poor family, after SHS, I probably wouldn’t be here;

maybe to find something to do or maybe waiting to get money before I come, but as time goes on you lose interest in school…but if there is enough resources to get you to the school, you can make it, you can go because my big sister had a friend, she had medical school then, but her Dad said he wasn’t going to pay her fees so she didn’t come to the university. Although she had the grades, she was good, she wanted to, but no one is going to pay so after sometime you lose interest in it and after sometime you find something else to do with your life. (SP11, female, Engineering)

Another participant ranking the family’s financial status as rich, confirms this situation as a virtuous cycle for the rich and a vicious one for the poor;

…it looks like the people who are well-to-do will always choose the good schools and then leave the bad schools for the [poor]… because looking at the rich schools it’s the students who leave and come back to help the school get good facilities and other things.

But if it’s just like the poor people are always going to the poor schools, they are always going to be poor unless they are always going to rely on the government for funds and everything. (SP17, female, Law)

164 This is one of the points where Lucas’ (2009) EMI thesis becomes significant for this study. As noted earlier, the EMI, in part argues that universalising a particular transition (in this case the upper secondary), will not necessarily lead to a reduction in inequality because

“advantaged actors will discover or elaborate qualitative differences within the universalized transition and secure access to better quality. And, if better quality confers advantage, then qualitative differences will effectively maintain inequality” (p.500). The views of other scholars like (Berg, 2010; Greenstone et al., 2003; Sewell, 1970; McKnight, 2015) on this phenomenon as discussed in the literature review also hold true. With the quantitative differences at the upper secondary school level in Ghana diminishing, parents are increasingly concerned about quality and about schools that will assure their children admissions to the most competitive programmes of study in the universities where the battle is fought and won by those with the best of grades from the upper secondary matriculation exams⁷². Again, the findings from this study, to a significant extent confirms postulate three of the EMI which contests that “if qualitative differences are common the socioeconomically advantaged will obtain qualitative advantage” (Lucas, 2009: 484). SP4’s comments below give some force to the argument:

Yes, it did, because even though they try to give us the best of education that their might could. We as kids we saw that they saw other schools that we thought would have been nice to be there too, but due to the exorbitant school fees were not able to attend such schools. So to an extent, the economic status of your parents affects your educational aspirations. (SP4, male, Engineering)

On the contrary, SP1 and SP18 relate how the financial status of their families negatively impacted their educational aspirations, with the latter making reference to how the situation made the brother settle for a low-tier tertiary education although he was qualified to pursue a degree programme, and the struggles he himself has had for the same reason. SP8 is reconsidering a change in his university major for financial reasons:

Yes, I think it does or it did. Because for instance, I had always wanted to be a lawyer and I told you applied to two universities, I chose Economics at UCC and then Law here but I didn’t get it because of the grade limitation. Let’s say if my Dad had money, he could have afforded the fee-paying thing [option] and I would have been able to do the Law, but because there is no money I just have to take what the university gave me, and then maybe in future I will still do what I want to do. (SP1, female, Sociology & Social Work) For that one sure. Let me use my brother for instance; before he entered the [teacher]

training college he had to choose that aspect because during that time they were getting some allowances so he could get that one to support his education. He could have pursued a degree but due to the financial status, he had to drop and look at other things, other places. So in fact, it affects our education and sometimes it may be getting closer to examination and you haven’t paid your fees so it will create certain mental and other stuff; a whole lot! Time for studies, the book may be before you but you don’t have even the concentration to focus. So sure it affects us, it affects me for instance. (SP18, male, Mechanical Engineering)

72 See the comments of GOP2 under the ‘Influence of Previous Educational Background’ for example.

165 It has affected me because now that my Dad is not around [deceased]; at first he has been doing everything but now; I wanted, I had wanted to major in Economics but because of this financial problem and the fact that I will not be getting food and things that will keep me going, I will not get them regularly, so I decided to minor in the Economics then major in the Information Studies, because in the long-run it will not help me. I will end up putting myself under unnecessary pressure, so it has affected my aspirations. (SP8, male, Economics & Information Studies)

Well, sometimes when things go wrong, it really turns towards the negative side, it really affects you as a student. Average [income] can go up or low so if it tilts towards the negative direction, it really affects you as student; seriously it affects you. Your focus is kind of shifted, because you are disturbed, worried. What else, ‘where am I going to get this from, will I be able to get this?’ So it causes some distractions. So then, seriously, personally, it has affected me negatively because sometimes I’m really supposed to focus and do what I’ doing but then you get the pressures from here from there and then it’s actually draws you back, you know. So academically, I wouldn’t say it has really helped…

(SP5, female, Biochemistry)

The stories of SP1, SP18, SP8 and SP5 reflect the view of Berg (2010) to the effect that students from poor backgrounds tend to have adjustment issues in the university, and that the lack of affluence also tend to exert an influence on their self-image and career ambitions even at an early age. The case of GP2 gives further impetus and credence to the argument of Berg (2010):

At times, for instance when I was at the JHS, it got to registration time when I had to register, go and write the BECE and there was no money. So I think even the time for the registration even passed; one week later then I went to pay. So at times when I’m in the house when I’m sitting and my mind gets to those things I become so confused because my aim is to go ahead, move further in education so if my parents are lacking something to pay my fees or do the registration, I become so sad. (GP2, male, Economics Graduate) For GP1 in particular, the financial status of the parents cost her a dream well-endowed school. Although she duly qualified, the parents had to manage her expectations by enrolling her in less-endowed SHS in their hometown:

Yes, for example my SHS I never chose [the less-endowed school attended]. I never chose [the school], but it happened that they [parents] didn’t have money so they told me to come [go] like that. So I came to [the school] not from a free or a willing heart, yes;

because of some situation that made me opt for [the school]. (GP1, female, Publishing Studies Graduate)

This is how she felt about the decision of the parents and the eventual choice of the school she never liked:

Oh I cried aah! It was one friend, she went to Mfantsiman [her dream school]; she and her sister, they told me that I shouldn’t worry about it, they believe I can still make it there [the less-endowed school]. So they encouraged me and then I started but I never liked the school; seriously, I never liked the school and the students in the school. (ibid)

166 It was only SP6 and SP9 who argued that the financial status of their families has had no impact on their educational aspirations, choices and success although SP9 would later make reference to an instance where money issues impacted his success in the upper secondary school-leaving exams:

It hasn’t; because, I actually don’t look at those sides when I’m doing something. I said I like competition so at school it was just competition. If you had ‘A’ in this one, you will drop and I will get the ‘A’ and I will tell you know, I’m still getting that ‘A’, continuing. So in that way, that was how I was able to do something, not because of any other factor.

(SP6, male, Economics & Mathematics)