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Ghana Adult Education
A mass literacy campaign was started in 1951 as part of an
overall community development program. The primary aim was to teach
adults to read and write in their own languages as well as in
English. Efforts continued during the 1950s and the 1960s, and in
the 1970s an extensive literacy campaign was launched under the
direction of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare using mass
education teams. Literacy classes for adults were also conducted by
local units of the Peoples' Education Association, a voluntary
organization founded in 1949. This group, which included teachers,
graduates, students, and interested persons, had branches
throughout the country. Despite such organizational efforts, it was
estimated by the United Nations in 1970 that about 70 percent of
the nation's inhabitants above the age of fifteen (57 percent of
males and 82 percent of females) were illiterate. The 1970 figure
was a 5 percent improvement over an estimated 1960 adult literacy
rate of 25 percent.
Responding to the continued high level of illiteracy in the
country, the government established the Institute of Adult
Education in 1970 at the University of Ghana. The Institute was to
furnish resident tutorial staff drawn from universities, colleges,
and secondary schools to teach a wide range of classes in different
parts of the country. The Institute also organized an annual New
Year School attended by leading educators, government officials,
and numerous social welfare organizations. At such times, the
achievements of the Institute as well as the future direction of
adult education in Ghana were assessed.
During the 1989 New Year School held at the University of
Ghana, for example, the relationship between adult education and
economic development was emphasized in a speech read by Flight
Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, the head of state. Also in 1989,
reliable press reports held that the adult literacy rate in Ghana
was about 40 percent of the total population; of the 60 percent of
the population that was illiterate, 57 percent was female. Even
though the 1989 figure was an improvement over that of 1970, the
National Council on Women and Development still expressed concern
and described the low percentage of literate adult females as
alarming. The council attributed female illiteracy to high dropout
rates in the elementary schools and called on the government to
find ways to enforce compulsory education in the country
(see The Position of Women
, this ch.).
As part of an effort to improve the overall awareness of
women's education, various nursing and para-medical associations
organized drama troupes as a means of instructing illiterate as
well as rural women about the importance of nutrition, of child
care, of family planning, and of sending their children to school.
In the early 1990s, the impact of such activities on the nation's
literacy rate could not yet be assessed.
* * *
Information on the geography of Ghana appears in a variety of
sources. E.A. Boateng's A Geography of Ghan, published in
1966, is probably the most valuable. Basic archeological data is in
publications by Timothy F. Garrard, Kwaku Effah-Gyamfi, David
Kiyaga-Mulindwa, Merrick Posnansky, Peter L. Shinnie, and L.B.
Crossland. Kwamina Dickson's A Historical Geography of Ghan
and James Anquandah's Rediscovering Ghana's Pas are
recommended as good reconstructions of Ghana's past.
Ethnographic information on the peoples of Ghana may be found
in the works of Robert Sutherland Rattray, Kwabena J.H. Nketia,
Kwesi Yanka, Kofi Abrefa Busia, Minion Morrison, Margaret J. Field,
Jack Goody, and Marion Johnson. For more recent information, see
M.E. Kropp Dakubu's The Languages of Ghan.
Much of the recent literature on Ghana describes changes in
traditional society as it adjusts to the contemporary would. These
often focus on the position of chiefs in relation to the modern
state. Kofi Abrefa Busia's The Position of the Chief in the
Modern Political System of Ashant, A. Adu Boahen's Ghana:
Evolution and Change in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centurie,
and Kwame Arhin's Traditional Rule in Ghana: Past and Presen
are among the most impressive. Also significant is Peter K.
Sarpong's Ghana in Retrospect: Some Aspects of Ghanaian
Cultur. An extensive bibliography on the cultural environment
of the country can be found in E.Y. Amedekey's The Culture of
Ghana: A Bibliograph.
Population figures on Ghana and other statistical information
can be found in the Quarterly Digest of Statistic published
by the Government of Ghana, Statistical Service. The same office
also published the Preliminary Report on the 1984 Censu. For
complete bibliographical information on the country's census
figures, see Population of Ghana: An Annotated Bibliography,
1980-198, published by the Regional Institute for Population
Studies at the University of Ghana. Excellent sources on women and
on economic and social developments include the works of such
scholars as Claire Robertson, Christine Oppong, Mason Oppenheim,
and Gwendolyn Mikell. (For further information and complete
citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of November 1994
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