School for Life in Ghana: promoting literate opportunities for rural youth

Abstract

Sociocultural and socio-economic conditions (e.g. subsistence family farming needs) as well as the absence of nearby public schools result in Ghanaian youth, primarily from rural areas, not receiving formal schooling. Because of this, children may never learn to read and write. One solution is a complementary education programme (CEP) that provides basic literacy skills at the end of each workday. School for Life, a Ghanaian CEP, promises basic literacy, increases the confidence of children to enrol in school as late starters and potentially impacts the cultural and linguistic identity of Ghanaians by developing literacy in local languages as well as contributing to the maintenance of linguistic diversity. The purpose of this study is to identify the value of a CEP for key stakeholders including School for Life learners, para-educators, leaders, CEP administrators and collaborators and to demonstrate how shared local values reflect and constitute the programme's identity in two villages.

Keywords:

• complementary education programme
• Ghanaian education
• language maintenance
• mother-tongue education