Child migration and academic performance: The case of basic education in Ghana

Abstract

The nexus between migration and academic performance is complex and difficult to extricate. Not only are there several factors affecting academic performance, but also many of these factors are confounding, making it difficult to identify and isolate in order to address. Furthermore, the discourse appears silent on the nexus between child migration and education in general and academic performance in particular. This study seeks to fill this gap by comparing the performances of 250 migrant and 240 non-migrant school children randomly selected and their examination marks obtained in ten basic schools in the Upper East region of Ghana. Using the Independent Sample T-Test to analyse the data, it emerged that although performance was generally low in the schools, non-migrant children performed relatively better than their migrant counterparts. This implies that, migrant children are more likely to underachieve and possibly unable to progress to higher levels of education since performance is a proximate determinant to academic progress in Ghana. Therefore, school authorities, parents and other stakeholders in education need to give more attention to migrant children in their schools to address the effects and improve learning outcomes.

Keywords: child migration, school attendance, academic performance, children