The Girls Gap Year Program - A Year ON not OFF

The gap year project seeks to intervene on behalf of poor girls in Ghana affected by delays in their education and provide them a secure and viable option that will put them back on track to academic completion.

In 2013, the national government of Ghana enacted policy that changed the number of years for secondary school from 3 years to 4 years. This decision has had, and will continue to have, serious implications for students in Ghana, especially poor females.

Poor females in Ghana are affected by a lack of investment in their education as compared to their male counterparts, which means they have to work in order to save before starting college. In addition, girls suffer from lower exam scores making admission into the next level of education more difficult. Accordingly, with the re-emergence of 3-year education, a typical female must wait anywhere between 1-2 years before entering the next stage of her education. During this wait, girls often to veer off course in irreparable ways. 

Yet, there exist no real alternatives for the girls affected by them. The gap year project seeks to intervene and provide them a secure and viable option that will put them back on track to academic completion.  

The gap year project allows girls to propose, plan and implement their own projects with respected local organizations while receiving intensive test prep needed to gain admission to the next level. This project seeks to produce the following changes for participating girls: 1) To raise the test scores of girls in Ghana so that they are more competitive candidates for SS and college, thus promoting academic excellence 2) To provide them with job skills and leadership training exposure that will give them skills their male counterparts tend to have already 3) To reduce the likeliness of girls who end up pregnant, in relationships or discontinuing their education by providing a viable alternative income and activity 4) To provide students with first hand exposure to mentored project planning, thereby facilitating extended networks. 

During the forced gap year, girls get discouraged from applying to college and are often fall victim to early marriage and pregnancy. Their families, many of which are already uncertain about the value of education, lose sight of the end goal as the girl student may begin to contribute to the family full time as a petty traders or as wives. In short, when students are forced to take a gap year, girls suffer. The Gap Year Program seeks to resolve this by providing girls with test prep, employment and professional mentor-ship during that year. 

Research on African girls found that 1 in 10 miss 5 to 6 days of school a month for a plethora of gender based responsibilities (UNESCO 2012). These are the same responsibilities that make them vulnerable to never return to school once they are forced to take a gap year. Of the 12 girls I followed in Ghana, only one enrolled in college immediately following graduation. Once we provided scholarships and programming, 8 enrolled the following year. With support, we can investigate this further and do more. 

The impact will be more girls going to college between 0 to 2 years after they complete high school with skills and professional connections. It will be implement using school facilities during the summer break, our partners will also be secondary schools. Our target group are poor girls from attending schools in urban centers and striving to be the first in their families to graduate college. 

pre and post test - higher college entry exam scores

compare to national average - higher number of girls attending college

pre and post surveys - higher confidence and more skills in project planning and building a professional network

It is innovative because it is developing an intervention for a national problem. It seeks to ultimately result in a national service program at the secondary level that engages technology to match students to civic organizations for a year. 

Students are involved in determining the kinds of opportunities they want to engage in and they use the gap year to design their own projects with the super vision of an organization. In this way, their ideas are front and center. 

We are partnering with schools in underserved areas, and will utilize their facilities to keep cost low during the summer months for the training component. The project component will be hosted through our partner sites. The program will engage applicants in the early years, but aims to open it up to all students who did not benefit from college admission and/or could benefit from saving money before entering college in the future.  

We hope to become incorporated into the country's national service scheme. Until then, we will continue to seek donations and grants, as well as partner with the private and civic sector. We hope through these collaborations we can garner in-kind donations such as space, mentors, volunteers, in addition to contributions toward work stipends for test prep teachers and student workers. 

Government buy into the newer technology necessary to ensure that the national service scheme for gap year students in secondary school can be extended across the nation. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cgUvqc-GKc

https://www.herstorythefilm.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oltpqb6D9TM

I hope to become a sound- problem solver for concerns that affect the most vulnerable populations in underserved communities. I want to be a part of a community for which I can learn and grow from, so that I can develop solutions that are people-centered. While many people have good intentions, I have no doubt that solve can ensure that those intentions translate to positive outcomes for societies that need it the most. 

Civitas Ghana

Akua Kuenyehia Foundation

Chicago Scholars

Bridge2Rwanda

The West African Secondary School

Rutgers University-Newark

We do not have people working in the gap year space, specifically, but perhaps: Bridge2Rwanda