The Member of Parliament for Ketu North, Eric Edem Agbana, has raised concerns over the inequalities faced by children born in rural communities, warning that their place of birth often determines the quality of opportunities available to them.
Contributing to a statement on World Population Day in Parliament on Wednesday July 15, 2026, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) legislator said Ghana cannot achieve meaningful development without addressing the structural barriers that prevent children in rural areas from accessing quality education.
Mr. Agbana, who is a member of the Parliamentary Caucus on Population and Development, argued that while Ghana’s youthful population presents an opportunity for growth, it can only become a demographic dividend if the country invests adequately in human capital development.
He said access to quality education remains one of the biggest challenges confronting young people in deprived communities, leaving many rural children at a disadvantage from an early age.
“Today, a child born in a rural area in Ghana is more likely not to progress to tertiary,” he said.
According to him, the poor performance of some rural schools in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) highlights the deep inequalities within the education system.
“At the basic level, most of the schools that we have, the public schools in the rural areas, when they write their B.E.C.E., there are districts that the schools are scoring zero,” Mr. Agbana noted.
He stressed that being born in a rural community should not determine a child’s future prospects, calling for a more equitable distribution of educational resources across the country.
“When you are born in a rural area in this country, automatically you are at a disadvantaged place,” he said.
The Ketu North MP called on government to ensure that children in rural communities receive the same quality of educational opportunities as students attending well-resourced schools in urban centres such as Accra and Kumasi.
“We must ensure that this investment is spread out in such a way that a child born in Bebekope will have the same opportunity as a student attending any of the big schools here in Accra or Kumasi,” he added.
Mr. Agbana further argued that addressing these inequalities is critical to unlocking Ghana’s demographic potential, stressing that a growing young population can only benefit the country when young people are equipped with the right skills, education, and opportunities.
He also called for increased investment in technical, vocational, and digital skills training to provide more young people, particularly those who may not transition to tertiary education, with pathways to employment and economic independence.
CREDIT: MAVIS FANTEVI