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Profile of authors

Dr Prospera Dzang-Tedam

Prospera is the Lead for Social Work Practice Quality at Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom. Prior to this she was Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Northampton for 10 years. She has published widely in the areas of cultural competence, witchcraft-labelling and child safeguarding. Prospera conceived of the initial concept which resulted in the development of the Sunflower Project in an all-girls secondary school. As the lead consultant, Prospera was involved in all aspects of the project until August 2016 when the pilot phase concluded.

Mrs. Elsie Gaisie-Ahiabu

Elsie holds an MPhil in Social Work from the University of Ghana, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in the area of Population Studies. She is the Programme Coordinator of the California State University - Office of International Programmes at the Ghana Centre. She is also the founder and director of a local non-governmental organization (LNGO)-DeSMAS. DeSMAS or Deprived Single Mothers Assistance Scheme afforded her the unique opportunity to apply the principles and skills of a social worker in assisting single mothers and their children in deprived communities.

She has also coordinated various programs and projects, offered consultancy services, taught at tertiary level and has been involved in research aimed at improving the well-being of women and children. As a result of her keen interest in the welfare of children, she quickly bought into the concept of the Sunflower project proposed by Dr. Prospera Dzang-Tedam in 2014. She was the Project Manager and was responsible for ensuring that up-to-date and concise reports were retained on all aspects of the project and that utmost confidentiality was maintained.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to our families and friends in the UK, Ghana and around the world for their inspiration, support and encouragement during the setting up and running of the project.

To the girls in the Project school, the Headmistress, and the staff who enabled the pilot project to succeed, we are eternally grateful for your role in making this book a reality.

The authors pledge their ongoing support for the project through the proceeds from this book.

Our Journey and Commitment

We have known each other for over 20 years, having first met at the University of Ghana, Legon where we both studied and achieved a BA (Hons) in Social Work. Our friendship developed and has been sustained over the years because of our similar interests around not only protecting children from harm, but also actively working to ensure children’s needs are understood. Despite living and working in different countries we have always been in regular contact and have both pursued careers in the area of social work.

As social workers, we believe in the need to support, advise and guide families to be better able to bring up their children in environments free from all forms of abuse and neglect. As academic researchers, we feel able to achieve this through disseminating our findings and sharing the experience gained from our pilot project.

Our book, ‘Child Protection in Boarding Schools in Ghana: Contemporary Issues, Challenges and Opportunities’ invites readers to carefully consider ways in which we currently work with children and young people in boarding schools and proffers new ways of working with them to ensure their best interests are met and maintained throughout the course of their studies.

This is not an attempt to blame or criticise any profession or any individuals, institutions, organisations or agencies. Instead, it represents an attempt to contribute to finding robust and lasting solutions to some of the socio-cultural challenges which may exist in Ghanaian boarding schools and are faced by secondary school-aged children on a regular basis. Our vision is to be a part of the solution by prompting dialogue among key stakeholders, policy and decision-makers.

Of significance to us are the findings of a number of reports which identify Ghana as lacking in robust child protection policies. For example, the fourth MDG progress report (2008 MDG Report) in September 2010 identified the need for improved child protection services across various sectors in Ghana. Additionally, the 2015 MDG Report acknowledged the slow pace of gender equity in access to secondary school with the update of female children still being problematic (MDG 2015).

What qualifies us to write a book on child protection in boarding schools?

Protecting children should be high on every Ghanaian citizen’s agenda, however, we recognise that more often than not, this responsibility is abrogated to professionals such as social workers, police, development officers, gender and child-rights advocates, teachers, nurses, doctors and others. Whilst we write this book from our positions as child protection and child welfare experts, we bring to bear our own childhood experiences of boarding school in Ghana. We have memories of the sorts of treatment and behaviours we approved of and the ones that left us in despair, fear and anxiety. There are also the experiences which left us traumatised and which we have avoided having to reflect on until now. For example,

One of the authors was in a boarding school which had its farms. Students were the ‘farm hands’ and produce from the farm was used by the school kitchen to feed students. The farm was many miles away from the school and often the journey there would occur on foot, and students would have to take their hoes, machetes and other relevant farming implements with them. On one such occasion, a number of students were being transported in the trailer of a tractor which unfortunately was involved in an accident. Some students sustained injuries and were taken to the local hospital. My vivid recollection of the doctor in charge repeatedly saying, ‘no injury, no medicine’ is one that will forever remain ingrained with me. The author is aware of one peer, who till this day continues to experience pain in her arm, requiring regular medical intervention Intervention to address the emotional and psychological trauma was absent.

Secondly, as parents of children who are currently in secondary schools, we explore with them their experiences of their schools and aim to understand whether these are similar or different to ours. Discussions with our own children reveal some of the less desirable situations as still present in their experiences today. Needless to say, there have been improvements in many areas of boarding school provision in Ghana, however, there are always opportunities to develop and improve on some processes to ensure that children experience a safe, nurturing and healthy boarding life. It is our hope that our children will have a better experience than we had nearly 30 years ago.

Our knowledge of child development, the need to ensure safety, consistency, warmth and appropriate boundaries for children in all circumstances and situations has further encouraged us to share our knowledge through this book.

Finally, the dearth of research and literature about child protection in Ghanaian boarding schools and the experiences of children in boarding schools in Ghana generally, reinforced our desire to contribute to knowledge in this area. The well-being of children who are educated in boarding provision across the country requires attention and significant reform.

We wish to acknowledge that there is a growing area of private and/ or international secondary schools, a few of which have boarding provision. Whilst they may already have child protection systems and processes in place and may not identify with the issues being addressed in this book, it remains crucial that a more balanced and equitable approach is taken by the relevant authorities to ensure good practice in child protection in boarding schools, regardless of whether these are public (government funded) schools or private schools.

In Ghana, according to Heyneman and Stern (2014), parents perceived private schools to be of higher quality than public/government-run schools. Parents cited an ongoing lack of commitment on the part of public school teachers, resulting in high levels of absenteeism as one of the main reasons for the preference of private schools. In addition, parents commented on overcrowded classrooms and poorer national examination results as discouraging them from considering public secondary schools for their children.

So, who is this book for?

This book has a multi-audience focus, in that it is recommended for a wide range of people and professionals – parents and carers, headteachers, teachers, tutors, policy makers, researchers and others interested in the well-being of children in temporary or permanent care outside the family environment.

This book is intended for anyone who is interested in understanding child protection in the Ghanaian context and more specifically within boarding school provision

We recognise the need for a resource that consolidates information which is relevant, contemporary and useful to the governing structures of boarding secondary schools in Ghana, with the hope that some of the ideas and concepts will generate debate and result in systemic changes.

The intention is to ensure that the messages contained in this book reach as many people as possible; consequently, it is written in a way that is accessible to a wide audience. From an academic perspective, this book is a product of a widely-researched and evaluated project, grounded in evidence through the use of secondary sources, references and citations. This makes it a useful resource for NGO’s, Government Departments, researchers and other people engaged in academic study who wish to cite this.

UNICEF, in conjunction with other NGOs undertook a pilot study when they recognised the need to develop a more African-specific conceptual framework for child protection systems work that includes non-formal systems, as well as to begin to build an evidence base on African experiences.

It is hoped that this book will go some way to ultimately provide national stakeholders with an even more critical view of their existing child protection systems in the context of boarding schools but also applicable more widely to other forms of ‘out of home’ care.

It must also be stated that this is not an attempt to generalise the presence or lack of child protection systems in all boarding schools in Ghana. On the contrary, it is attempting to expose opportunities to develop these systems where they may be lacking. It may also be that some of the private boarding schools have integrated child protection frameworks in their schools and so this book should enable and encourage them to share good practice with the government-resourced boarding schools.

This book therefore provides some of the evidence required to build upon existing policies, and also an opportunity to understand the nature of child protection systems related specifically to boarding schools, and also identify opportunities and challenges to strengthen existing systems.

Structure of the Book

The book is divided into six main parts and comprises fifteen chapters, addressing a wide range of issues and dilemmas while making recommendations and proposing strategies for consideration. Throughout the book, case studies from the project have been used to facilitate understanding of the ways in which students at the project school utilised the services of the social worker. Reflective questions are located at various points in the book, allowing readers to pause, evaluate their learning and perhaps use the questions as discussion points between them and their colleagues. There are also learning checks at the end of each chapter.

Part One introduces the reader to the authors and their rationale for the book. Acknowledgements and a foreword also form part of this opening section.

Part Two - Setting the context comprises of chapters 1 to 6 which introduce the reader to the methodology and key concepts around childhood and education.

Part Three - Understanding boarding schools examines the historical context of boarding schools in Ghana and initiates the discussion about gender, poverty and links to child abuse. These discussions make up chapters 7 and 8.

Part Four specifically outlines child protection considerations in boarding schools and provides the background of the Sunflower project, the challenges associated with the project and the achievements. The role of the school social worker is analysed and a discussion about relevant theoretical frameworks undertaken. This is done from chapter 9 to 13.

In Part Five, a number of contemporary issues facing children and young people in boarding schools are outlined alongside the challenges and benefits of social workers in schools. This is done in chapters 14 and 15.

Part Six comprises of concluding comments and a recommendation for the need for future research on a larger scale about the protection needs of children in various government institutions in Ghana.

In the appendices, a checklist for Heads of schools and institutions who wish to improve the well-being of children in their care is provided as well as a sample child protection referral form. The 16 principles of education by Governor Guggisburg is also included.