Teachers and Access to Schooling in Ghana

This paper provides insights about the specific impact teachers’ actions and attitudes can have on access to schooling. The paper reports how teachers’ irregular attendance, lateness and absenteeism as well as misuse of instructional hours and indiscriminate use of corporal punishment contribute to pupils’ irregular attendance and dropping out. It also reports how poor supervision by head teachers contribute to irregular teacher attendance, punctuality and absenteeism, and how these in turn impacted negatively on pupils’ access to schooling. The study also identifies gaps in research around teacher contribution to children dropping out of school and suggests how further research could address some of these.