IMPLICATION OF ‘LEAP’ ON THE EDUCATIONAL WELL-BEING OF ORPHANED AND VULNERABLE SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE HO MUNICIPALITY OF GHANA

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the contribution of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme to the educational well-being of orphaned and vulnerable school children (OVCs) from beneficiary households in the Ho Municipality of Ghana. The overarching research question that guided the study was ‘how has LEAP contributed to the educational well-being of beneficiary households?’ Five specific research questions were developed out of this question. The design adopted for the study was qualitative phenomenology. Simple random and Purposive sampling techniques were used to select ten (10) households with OVCs, Ten caregivers and eleven teachers for the study. Data was collected from the participants using the interview guide. The data was manually categorized to generate similarities and differences in opinions which were used to form the themes around which the discussions were based. The findings showed that in general, the grant helped to improve the educational wellbeing of the school children, especially by meeting the direct educational needs of the children. There was also a reported improvement in the households’ ability to meet the educational needs of the children during the grant period compared to the period before the grant. Some households reported stagnation and deterioration in their ability to meet the educational needs of the children during the grant period. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that Government of Ghana should rather operate scholarship schemes for these children or empower the caregivers economically to be able to take care of the educational needs of these children. The findings have far reaching implications for the improvement of the educational component of the LEAP programme.