Rural–Urban Disparity in Students’ Academic Performance in Visual Arts Education

Rural–urban disparity in economic and social development in Ghanahas led to disparities in educational resources and variations in students’ achievementin different parts of the country. Nonetheless, senior high schools (SHSs) in rural andurban schools follow the same curriculum, and their students write the same West AfricaSenior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE), which qualifies them to access highereducation in Ghana’s public universities. Urban SHSs are also recognized nationwide asgood schools where students make it to university. Moreover, performance patterns withregard to admission of SHS graduates into university also vary between rural and urbanschools; consequently, some parents do everything to get their children in urban SHSs,even consenting to placement in visual arts, a program deemed appropriate only foracademically weak students. This study therefore adopted the qualitative-quantitativeresearch approach with interview, observation, and questionnaire administration toinvestigate the critical factors that affect academic performance of SHS students,particularly those in visual arts as case study. Findings from six public SHSs inKumasi—two each in rural, peri-urban, and urban areas—revealed that urban schoolsperform better than rural and peri-urban schools because they attract and admit juniorhigh school graduates with excellent Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE)grades, have better infrastructure, more qualified teachers, prestigious names, andcharacter that motivate their students to do well. This suggests that bridging therural–urban gap in educational resources could promote quality teaching and learning,and thereby raise academic achievement for SHS students in Ghana