Educational Level and Financial Status of the Family

Under this indicator of the education–family income interconnection, participants reported the point (level) in their educational path at which the financial status of their families (as reported by the participants) was felt the most. Table 9c confirms the majority of participants reporting the HE level as the point where the financial status of the family is most sensed. The result indicates that the HE level traverses all the income groups reported earlier by the participants. The level is home to the rich, average, poor and very poor participants. This is unsurprising having regard to the cost of HE relative to the other educational levels.

Table 9c: Participants’ Educational Level Most Impacted by Financial Status of Family Educational Level Participants

JHS -

SHS 4 (SP1, SP4, SP8, SP9)

HE 13 (SP3, SP7, SP10, SP11, SP13, SP14, SP4, SP15, SP16, SP17, SP18, GP1, GP2)

SHS & HE SP5

All levels SP2

Source: Interview transcripts.

The comments of SP2, a visually impaired participant who ranked the financial status of the family as a very poor and also reported that he has battled with financial challenges throughout his educational life suggest the persistence of persistent deprivation:

I felt it ever since I went to school; ever since I started basic school, up until now I'm still feeling it. Because the lady who decided to cater for me at a point in time, she could come to school, just come and take a shot of me and then she will leave. She wouldn't give me anything. So I have, like, I have felt this economic situation from childhood until now.

(SP2, male, Political Science)

As someone coming from a single-parent home and brought up by the mother whose occupation he indicates us a peasant farmer, SP2 signals the chequered path to financing

167 his education to buttress the point that he has felt the negative impact of the family’s financial status since childhood:

The lady [benefactress] decided to take it upon herself to support me up until I completed JSS [basic education]. So when I completed, she also said she was exhausted so she couldn't continue. Therefore, my Mum had to try her possible best to support me not forgetting that my Dad had neglected me since childhood; not me alone but me and my other sister from childhood…So when I got to SS [upper secondary] too, by the grace of God, some of my teachers saw the kind of potentials within me and decided to also support me. So up until now it's one of my madams who is supporting and one other gentleman who also saw me in school and decided to also offer his support. (ibid)

SP5 who also reported an average family income and described early on that the financial status of her family is currently negatively impacting her studies gave this reason for the choice of both the upper secondary and HE levels as those she has had financial stress.

Both parents are self-employed in the informal sector of the economy:

I really felt it in the secondary school and currently it's still there, but then I have not gone through the entire stage so I can't really say it. But then, secondary school and then my stay in the university. (SP5, female, Biochemistry)

The case of SP16 reasonably illustrates how parents’ changing life situations and circumstances can either exert a positive or negative influence on the financing of the education of the child. A student from say an average income home can suddenly fall into the low income category in the event of death (as the instance of SP8), unemployment etc. of one of the parents or both. In the situation of SP16, the decision of the mother to resign her job and pursue further studies is taking a serious toll on the family’s finances, and by extension, his own studies:

In JHS, I didn't have problem with my fees; my Dad could pay everything, full payment before school resumes. I got to SHS too the same thing, but it's now in the university whereby I'm feeling some financial stress because even my fees, I have not done full payment of my fees. So I'm just going for it to be endorsed so that I can go on with my registration…because at first my Mum was working so more money, but now she is also schooling so the rate has come down, that's it! So it's not easy, although, but it's OK.

(SP16, male, Political Studies)

SP9 who had earlier argued that the financial status of the family did not in any way impact his educational choices, aspirations and success now recalls an experience at the SHS, which in his view, negatively affected the grade he made in Mathematics at the upper secondary school-leaving exam;

…I had to stay outdoors while others are writing exams because of fees; it gives an emotional kind of stress. Although, I didn't allow that to affect me, I just had to put up my best to make sure I come out with good results, but at the end of the day, it still had an impact on my results because with some subjects like Mathematics which I know I could get an ‘A’ so easily, I couldn't finish up with my answers during the theory paper and I could answer all 10 questions, but I did seven questions out of 10; and that is the

168 reason for scoring B2 instead of A1 in Mathematics at the SHS level. (SP9, male, Agriculture)

Like SP2, SP1 has mobility impairment. She recounts her frequent absenteeism while in upper secondary school, and how she had to feign sickness on some occasions, when in fact, the actual cause was that there was no money to take taxis to school on a daily basis as her condition demands:

OK when I was in the SHS. Yes, I couldn't go to boarding house because there was no money, and I had to be taking taxi to school in-and-out. It was something though.

Sometimes I couldn't go school, most of the time I go to school, like maybe three times in a week and give an excuse that I was sick. So I was always sick, sick, sick but the actual problem was that there was no money for me to go school. (SP1, female, Sociology &

Social Work)

SP15 and SP13 who are both pursuing their degree programmes as fee-paying students however, believe that it is at the university level that the financial status of their families is positively impacting their education, having regard to the high cost of pursuing the programme as a fee-paying option:

If it's financial then it's the university, because of the fee-paying (SP15, female, Nursing).

Of course, I'm doing fee-paying and it’s the most I'm paying now, so its now, but then my Dad doesn't let you worry about that (SP13, female, Medicine).

Now in the second year of the programme, SP13 is paying academic fees amounting to GHC 7,488.00 (US$ 1,957) for the 2014/2015 academic year excluding other fees such as that for accommodation⁷³. Her counterparts pursuing the same programme on the government subsidised slots as ‘regular’ students pay just 12.7% (GHC 952.73) of that amount as academic fees⁷⁴. That notwithstanding, SP13 tells me money is one of the things she does not worry about;

“…I don't worry about money. It is the least of my priorities”.

Her experience is directly opposite that of other students like SP2, SP5, SP10, and SP16 who are very much worried about financing their education. SP7, SP11 and SP3 are among other students who maintain that it is at the university level that they are feeling the positive impact of the financial status of their families:

At the university level…Yeah, my fees, and then my residential fees. Because where I live the fees are quite high but my parents are still able to afford (SP7, female, Business Administration).

The university, because when the list came out for admission, we had to pay for hostel and fees. There was a deadline, you see, and if no one has [money]; there are people who

73 http://knust.edu.gh/admissions/fees/undergraduate-ghanaian-fee-paying-continuing-students April 20, 2015

74 http://knust.edu.gh/admissions/fees/ug-fees-continuing

169 didn't come because they couldn't afford it so they had to drop out even though they had qualified. (SP11, female, Engineering)

I think university. One, you need a laptop; if my parents did not have enough money they wouldn't have gotten me a laptop, and most of the time our lecturers give us soft copies - our handouts are soft copies and all of that. So, when you come to school sometimes you have to buy handouts, make photocopies and all these things. Let's say I'm going to write my long essay, I would have to travel to the Volta Region where most of my research will be done from, collecting data, and that will need financial support so if my parents are not that sound it will be a bother. (SP3, female, History)