Girls’ Scholarships provide hope for girls wanting to attend high school and encourages them to complete junior high school.
Rural families in Ghana often cannot afford the cost of high school and they rarely will put preference on sending their girl children. In partnership with the Roberts Family Foundation Empower Playgrounds is addressing this issue by providing a girls scholarship for 3 girls to attend high school at Ada Secondary Technical School.
In partnership with the Roberts Family Foundation, the scholarship covers the 3 years of student high school fees to Ada Secondary Technical School in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The scholarship also covers uniform, room & board, books, travel to and from their home on vacation. It also includes a mentorship from a local female university student who oversees their progress and encourages them in their academic endeavors. The scholarship was awarded to 3 female students based on the completion of the scholarship application, Basic Education Certification Exam (BECE) scores, GPA, teacher recommendation, and most importantly, student need.
LET’S CLARIFY: HOW THIS HELPS
According to the Ghana Living Standards Survey enrollment and attendance rates are up to 86 percent in Ghana through Junior High School even for girls. However, only 9.7 percent of female girls aged 15 and older have completed Junior High School. One of the contributing factors, is that without the hope of attending high school these girls do not take the BECE, which is the achievement exam for Junior High School and required for High School admissions. When given a choice between their boy and girl children, parents in rural areas are more likely to to pay to send their boys to high school over their girl children. Providing girls scholarships gives these girls hope that they may be able to attend high school and encourages them to study hard to do well on the BECE exam and at least achieve completion of Junior High School.
Read more about our current Girls Scholarship recipients on our blog.