The Talensi District in the Upper East Region is grappling with a troubling trend: a surge in school dropouts as students abandon classrooms for the allure of quick cash in the booming gold mining industry.
District Director of Education, Christiana Azure Ayinzoya, has expressed deep concern over the growing disinterest in formal education, particularly among young boys and girls who have opted for small-scale mining activities. Speaking to journalists, Madam Ayinzoya said her attempts to persuade school-age children to return to the classroom have been met with sarcastic retorts and hard truths about the realities on the ground.
“Some of the boys mockingly ask me what a teacher owns that they don’t already have,” she recounted. “They say they can buy better motorbikes than their teachers after just one trip into the mining pit.”
The district, which discovered gold deposits in 1995, has witnessed a sharp rise in youth engaging in illegal or small-scale mining, lured by the promise of quick riches. But the trend, according to education authorities, is having a devastating impact on education outcomes. For the past five years, Talensi has failed to exceed a 50% pass rate in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), with a dismal 26% in 2022/2023, and only slightly improving to 44.1% in the 2023/2024 academic year.
In addition to the male youth dropping out to mine, many teenage girls have been drawn into relationships with young miners who shower them with flashy gifts such as mobile phones and money. Several girls have ended up pregnant and subsequently dropped out of school.
Madam Ayinzoya said while she tries to counsel the youth by reminding them that the gold will eventually run out, unlike education which lasts a lifetime, her advice often falls on deaf ears.
“I tell them the gold is non-renewable, but knowledge is lasting. You can always upgrade your skills, and nobody can take that from you,” she said.
She further called for a more structured and collaborative approach to address the dropout crisis, proposing increased support from civil society organizations and NGOs to create incentives for children to stay in school.
“If we can get NGOs to organize engaging activities and provide support services to these children, we might be able to keep them in school,” she suggested. “Right now, the appeal of the mining pits is simply stronger than the pull of the classroom.”
The Education Director warned that if the current trend continues, the long-term socio-economic development of Talensi could be severely compromised as the district risks raising a generation that prioritizes short-term financial gain over sustainable personal and community growth.
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