Child work and schooling among basic school pupils in Upper Manya Krobo District

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the effects of child work and schooling on their human capital development for nation building among basic school pupils in the Upper Manya Krobo District. The convergent parallel mixed method design was used for the study. The population comprised of basic school pupils in the Upper Manya Krobo District for the 2020/2021 academic year. Systematic random sampling was used to select 200 respondents for the quantitative data while purposive sampling was used to select 10 participants for the study. An open-ended questionnaire and an unstructured interview guide were used as the main data collection instruments. The criteria posited by Lincoln and Guba (1985) were used to ascertain the trustworthiness of the interview guide whilst the open-ended questionnaire after piloting yielded a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.83. The quantitative data was analyzed using frequency and percentages while the qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The findings of the study revealed that household poverty, poor health condition of parents and single parenting were the main factors pushing pupils to engage in child work. Also, the findings of the study indicated that the nature of work and the long hours of engagements resulted in pupils’ tiredness and absenteeism which had a direct impact on their academic performance. It is recommended that parents should find alternative coping and adaptation strategies to enable their wards stay in school. Moreover, the government through the District Chief Executive must ensure effective implementation of the livelihood programme to afford parents the opportunity to cater for their wards physical, academic and health needs.