University of Education,Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh
UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA
NEWSPAPERS REPORTAGE ON THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION IN
GHANA: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF GHANAIAN TIMES AND DAILY
GUIDE
FIANKO - OKYERE DAVID
2016 University of Education,Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh
UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL STUDIES EDUCATION
NEWSPAPERS REPORTAGE ON THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION IN
GHANA: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF GHANAIAN TIMES AND DAILY
GUIDE
FIANKO - OKYERE DAVID
(8140230002)
A THESIS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL STUDIES EDUCATION,
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF
GRADUATE STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA IN
PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF
MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY (M.PHIL) DEGREE IN HUMAN RIGHTS
OCTOBER, 2016 University of Education,Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh
DECLARATION
Student’s Declaration
I, DAVID FIANKO-OKYERE declare that this thesis, with the exception of quotations and references contained in published works which have all been identified and duly acknowledged, is entirely my own original work, and it has not been submitted, either in part or whole, for another degree elsewhere.
SIGNATURE : ………………………………………………
DATE : ………………………………………………..
Supervisor’s Declaration
I hereby declare that the preparation and presentation of this work was supervised in accordance with the guidelines for supervision of thesis as laid down by the
University Of Education, Winneba.
NAME OF SUPERVISOR: DR. GEORGE HIKAH BENSON
SIGNATURE : ………………………………………………..
DATE : ………………………………………………..
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DEDICATION
I dedicate this work to the Lord Almighty for the knowledge He has given me and His protection over me. To my wife and spiritual mother, Gertrude Agbesi of Saint Paul
Lutheran School, Tema and my children, Jacqueline, Lois & Jude. Also to my parents who continue to encourage and support my education- financially and morally.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Gerorge Hikah Benson of the Department of
Social Studies, University of Education, and Winneba for his support, inspiration, and guidance he offered me throughout the entire process of working on this project. He challenged me to search for important materials that helped me a lot. Without his readiness in discussing my research with me at every stage, this thesis would not have been completed.
I am extremely grateful to my other human rights lecturers, Dr. Kumi Ansa Koi, Dr.
Harrison Kwame Golo, Dr. Jim Weiler, and Mr. Alexender A.K.D. Frempong of the
Social Studies Department, for their tutorials during course work discussions. The support of late Ms Edna of the Social Studies Department during my first year MPhil studies is much appreciated. I would also like to thank my course mates who shared ideas with me during term paper presentations and thesis proposal defence. I thank the librarians at the Graduate School Library, of the University of Education, Winneba. I also thank Richard Attenka of the Ghanaian Chronicle for his support and help during data collection.
I am also grateful to the Director of Public Affairs, Ghana Police Service,
Superintendent Cephas Arthur and my colleague members of staff who assisted me during this course and project. Finally, I thank my family, especially my wife and spiritual mother, Auntie Gertrude of Saint Pauls Lutherans School, Tema, for her constant support, love and reassurances. Gertrude I say I am grateful.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENT PAGE
DECLARATION ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
LIST OF TABLES ix
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS x
ABSTRACT xi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background to the Work 1
1.2 The Statement of the Problem 10
1.3 The Theoretical Frame Work 12
1.4 Purpose of the Study 14
1.5 Objective of the Study 14
1.6 The Research Questions 14
1.7 Significance of the Study 15
1.8 Definition of Terms 15
1.9 Delimitation of the Study 16
1.10 The Organization of the Study 18
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 19
2.0 Introduction 19
2.1 The Concept of Human Rights 19
2.2 The State of Human Rights in Ghana 22
2.3 The Right to Education 23
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2.4 The Right to Education in Ghana 34
2.5 The Media and Human Rights in Ghana 39
2.6 Newspapers and their Role in the Ghanaian Society 48
2.7 Newspaper Headlines 52
2.8 Conclusions 52
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 54
3.0 Introduction 54
3.1 Research Design 54
3.2 Population of the Study 56
3.3 Sample Size 57
3.4 Sampling Technique 57
3.5 Instruments for Data Collection 58
3.6 Source of Data Collections 59
3.7 Methods of Data Analysis 60
3.8 Validity 62
3.9 Reliability 63
3.10 Ethical Considerations and Access 63
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS 66
4.0 Introduction 66
4.1 The Aim of the Study 67
4.2 How Data was collected 67
4.3 Presentation of Data on Daily Guide and Ghanaian Times Newspapers 68
4.4. Data collected on Daily Guide and Ghanaians Times in the year 2015
representing: 69
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4.5 Data collected on Daily Guide and Ghanaians Times in the year 2014
representing: 71
4.6 Data collected on Daily Guide and The Ghanaian Times in the year 2013
representing: 75
4.8. Data collected on Daily Guide and The Ghanaians Times in the year 2012
representing: 80
4.9 Identified headlines with the right to education themes 83
4.10 Conclusions 84
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS 85
5.0 Introduction 85
5.1. Brief Analysis on the Newspaper Contents from 2012-2015 86
5.2 RQ1: How frequent do Ghanaian Times and Daily Guide newspapers
report on the right to education? 87
5. 3 RQ2. Themes on the Right to Education in the Headlines of the
Newspapers 91
5.4 Positions of the Right to Education Headlines in the Newspapers 91
5.5 Editorial Headlines with the right to education themes in the
Newspapers 95
5.6. Conclusion 97
CHAPTER SIX: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND,
RECOMMENDATIONS 99
6.0 Introduction 99
6.1 Summary of Key Findings 99
6.2 Conclusion 104
6.3 Recommendations 110
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6.4 Limitations of the Study 112
6.5 Suggestions for Further Studies 113
BIBLIOGRAPHY 115
APPENDICES 126
APPENDIX A 126
APPENDIX B 127
APPENDIX C 128
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LIST OF TABLES
TABLE PAGE
4.4a: Daily Guide: 2015 69
4.4b: Ghanaian Times: 2015 70
4.5a: Daily Guide: 2014 71
4.5b: The Ghanaian Times: 2014 73
4.6a Ghanaian Times: 2013 76
4.6b Daily Guide: 2013 79
4.7a: Daily Guide: 2012 81
4.7b: The Ghanaian Times: 2012 82
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ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
CHRAJ : Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice
HRC : Human Rights Commission
UN : United Nations
UDHR : Universal Declaration of Human Rights
ICCPR : International Convention on Civil and Political Rights
ICESCR : International Covenant on Economic and Cultural Rights
ECOSOC : Economic and Social Council
UCHR : United Nations Commission on Human Rights
CADE : Convention Against Discrimination in Education.
ICESCR : International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
CRC : Convention on the Rights of the Child
RTE : Right to Education
MOE : Ministry of Education and Sports
UNICEF : United Nations Children‟s Fund
ACHPR : African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights
ICCPR : International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights
UNESCO : United Nations Education, Scientific & Cultural Organization
NCA : National Communication Authority
NMC : National Media Commission
GJA : Ghana Journalists Association
CEDAW : Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
ACPc : African Caribbean and Pacific Countries
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ABSTRACT
Globally, education has been recognised as a human right since the adoption of the
Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948. It has since been affirmed in numerous global human rights treaties, instruments, and documents including the
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Conventions against
Discrimination in Education, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (UNESCO & UNICEF, 2007). The Topic- Newspaper
Reportage on The Right to Education in Ghana: A Content Analysis of Ghanaian
Times and Daily Guide, sought to investigate how the print media in particular the above mentioned newspapers reported on the right to education. This was aimed at finding out the right to education themes they used in their headlines to promote the subject matter amongst Ghanaians from January, 2012 to September, 2015. The study made use of the qualitative research method and the data came from an in-depth and systematic content analysis of the Ghanaian Times and Daily Guide newspapers while the Agenda Setting and Social Responsibility Theories of the Media were employed for the analysis. The findings of the study revealed that even though the two newspapers reported on education, the human right aspect of education in the headlines was less in both newspapers. These were corroborated in the content analysis undertaken by the researcher on the two newspapers. The study therefore recommends that newspapers should use the right to education themes in their educational headlines to promote the subject matter as human rights amongst
Ghanaian. The study will open the door for future researchers to delve more into issues on the right to education promotion by the media including radio and television to expand the frontiers of academic literature on the subject matter.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
When the world came out in 1948 with a universal document on human rights for the world that people have by virtue of being humans, the right to education was given recognition in article 26 of the (UDHR) “Everyone has the right to education”. The right to education is a universal entitlement to education. This was recognized in the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Articles 13 and 14 as a human right that includes the right to free compulsory primary education for all with an obligation to develop secondary education accessible to all by the progressive introduction of free secondary education as well as an obligation to develop equitable access to higher education, ideally by the progressive introduction of free higher education (UN, 2007). In order to claim this right in the covenant which Ghana has signed and ratified, every Ghanaian needs to know what this right is and how they are being addressed, how decisions are made and by whom, and what mechanisms, if any exist to seek redress in case of violations.
Though the print media in Ghana just like any other form of media have the role to educate and inform the public, they do not appear to include the right to education themes in their headlines, which serve as major attraction to readers thereby failing to promote the subject matter among Ghanaians. The study is to analyze the contents of the Ghanaian newspapers to determine how their headlines promote education as a human right in Ghana.
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This chapter considers the background to the study, the statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, objectives of the study, research questions, and significance of the study, the theoretical frame work, and the delimitations. The rest are the limitation of the study and the organisation of the study.
Education is often understood as a means of overcoming handicaps, achieving greater equality, and acquiring wealth and status for all (Sargent etal, 1994). Education is also often perceived as a place where children can develop according to their unique needs and potentials, with the purpose of developing every individual to their full potential.
Education is a crucial element in the socialization process of every society. It leads to gaining knowledge, abilities, and skills; it also forms one‟s moral and ethical norms, and thus shapes one‟s attitudes and behaviors towards others. It is also the main tool of social mobility and integration, particularly in our multicultural societies.
Therefore, when access to education is no longer equal for all members of the society, problems start to occur (Alessandra, 2006).
International Human Rights Internship Programme (2000) asserts and maintains that lack of education is among the greatest scourges afflicting humanity at the end of the
20th Century which has left hundreds of million people disadvantaged, vulnerable and impoverished”. Each year, lack of education claims millions of citizens by destroying human potential on a vast scale, therefore failure to act on it carries a high price for the world.
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According to Levin (2001):
Education inherently addresses public interests by preparing the young to assume adult roles, promotes civic responsibilities, embrace a common set of economic and political values, and share a common language. Likewise, it serves private interests in promoting individual development, understanding, and productivity that contributes to the wellbeing of the society
In the introduction of Thematic Report (2006) Alessandra confirms that education is both a human right in itself and a means for realizing and promoting other human rights. In a broader sense education is the entire process of social life which individuals and social groups learn to develop consciously within, and for the benefit of the national and international communities, and the whole of their personal capacities, attitudes, aptitudes and knowledge (Alessandra, 2006). The term education is used in international instruments to refer to formal institutional instruction. For example, in the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education of 1960, education refers to all types and levels of education and includes access to education, the standard and quality of education, and the conditions under which it is given.
In Bourke‟s Article “in your opinion, what should the purpose of education be?
(2011) he saw education as a prominent cultural institution used to perpetuate the prevailing values of a society. He extends the augment by saying that we are living through an age in which education is becoming an increasingly important determinant of the living standards, therefore countries and individuals without access to the skills and knowledge provided through education fall behind. Since education is necessary for the fulfilment of any other civil, political, economic or social rights meant to fulfil development of human personality and to the strengthening of respects for human rights and fundamental freedoms, it‟s necessary that all states must ensure that the right to education is respected and promoted amongst its citizens.
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Little (2006) in dealing with education from a developing country perspective insists that the starting point of the right to education comes with the positive obligation by states to realize free and compulsory primary education for all. States should not only make education compulsory, but must also offer a genuine right to all children by making primary education free of charge though this is a big challenge for countries experiencing resource constraints affecting the qualitative side of this particular human right. This is because it is not enough to get children to school, but the quality of the teaching, the language of instruction and what happens in the classroom are as important elements as enrolment rates which states must fulfill.
When it comes to Ghana and education, Agyeman (2012) maintains that “It is not for nothing that educational matters continue to engage the attention of national governments and other stakeholders in their quest to move their nations forward” He asserted that this stems from the positive impact the educated individual makes to the society as it forms an important part of a person‟s life that enables individuals to gain the needed skills to face life situations and also meet work demands. It is against this backdrop that Ghanaians expect the government as a matter of necessity remove all forms of barriers to quality education in order to ensure that this fundamental human right of Ghanaian child is fully enjoyed. From the above statement it would not be out of place if this researcher finds out why newspapers are not promoting these rights among Ghanaians.
The recognition of education as a human right is derived from the indispensability of its preservation and enhancement of the inherent dignity of the human person (Morka,
2011). It is not a surprise therefore that when the world sat down in 1948 in consideration of a universal document for human rights for the world that people
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have just by the virtue of being human the right to education was given recognition in the document‟s article 26 of the (UDHR, 1948) that “ Everyone has the right to education” It is also necessary to acknowledge that the universal entitlements to the right to education have also been recognized in the (ICESCR) emphasising the right to free, compulsory primary education for all (Megan, 2012). In fact the Right to education has gained considerable attention in recent times and has been popularly articulated in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries (Pascal and Sayfonh,
2010).
Regionally, Article 20 of the African Charter on Human and People‟s Rights Article states that “States parties shall in accordance with their means and national conditions take all appropriate measures to assist parents and other persons responsible for the child and in case of need provide material assistance and support programmes particularly with regard to education. The Article 2 of the First Protocol to the
ACHPR states “education is recognized as a human right which is understood to be the establishment of an entitlement to education.
Constitutions of several countries include provisions on the right to education. For example, article 56 of El Salvador‟s Constitution guarantees the right to education, and mandates the provision of basic and special education freely to citizens. The
South African Constitution safeguards its citizens‟ right to basic formal education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make progressively available and accessible (Morka, 2011). In Ghana, the 1992 constitution recognises education as a human right in articles 25 and 38. In article 25 section (1) it state that;
“All persons shall have the right to equal educational opportunities and facilities and with a view to achieving the full realization of that right- (a) basic education shall be free, compulsory an
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available to all; (b) Secondary education in its different forms, including technical and vocational education, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular, by the progressive introduction of free education; (c) High education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular, by the progressive introduction of free education;(d) Functional literacy shall be encouraged or intensified as far as possible.(e) The development of a system of schools with adequate facilities at all levels shall be actively pursued. (2) Every person shall have the right, at his own expense, to establish and maintain a private school or schools at all levels and of such categories and in accordance with such conditions as may be provided by law.”
The article 38 section (1) of the constitution capture the right to education with the following words “the state shall provide educational facilities at all levels and in all the regions of Ghana, and shall, to the greatest extent feasible, make those facilities available to all citizens” (The Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, 1992). It is at this point that the researcher suggests that the newspapers have a responsibility of setting the agenda on the subject matter by using right themes to promote it amongst
Ghanaians.
Promoting the Right to Education among Ghanaians is central to ensuring that the country adheres to international human rights obligation which stipulate that state parties must respect, promote and fulfil article 26 of the UDHR and all other instruments and treaties Ghana has signed.
Globally the United Nations urges state parties to take steps to ensure the right to education is respected, protected, fulfilled and promoted. For citizens to become aware of education as a human right and appreciate that it is not by chance or affordability to be educated, the media is one mechanism that could best be used to project the right to education enshrined in international and local documents including
Ghana‟s 1992 constitution.
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On the other hand the media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience of the population.
It is the sum of the public mass distributors of news and entertainment across media such as newspapers, television, radio, broadcasting, which may require union membership in some large markets such as Newspaper Guild and text publishers(McQuail, 2000).
Generally, the media play a major role in the protection and promotion of human rights in the world by making people aware of the need to promote certain values which are of eternal value to mankind (Este, 2008). The media can make people aware of their rights, expose its violations and focus attention on people and areas in need of the protection of human rights and pursue their case till they achieve them
(IFJ, 1999). The mass media have enabled large sections of Ghana‟s population to voice out their feelings especially through letters to editors and interactive radio programmes in local languages. It allows citizens to contribute to discussions on issues that affect the society. Throughout Africa, the mass media has played a useful role either to ensure the practice of democracy or to safeguard it against abuse.
McQuail, (2000) lists some of the functions of the media as follows: ensuring good governance and government accountability through the provision of adequate and accessible information, by providing and facilitating the flow of information, educates through the provision of news and information; provide entertainment; bring societies, social institutions and cultures closer to each other through news coverage and the provision of information; perform watchdog roles over governments, their agencies and institutions as well as over society and its institutions; and usually set the agenda for debate and discussion on issues of importance. Specifically, newspapers and broadcast media have become a very important source of political education,
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conscientisation mobilization, and advocacy. They educate citizens on democratic principles, their constitutional rights, and provide them with access to different views.
Ansah (1988) as cited by Sandbrook (1996) observes that the privately-owned media play important roles in democratic life. They inform citizens on matters of public policy by presenting and debating alternatives. Where parties remain weak to fulfil this policy role, newspapers, radio and television may fill the gap in forging a more informed electorate. The media may also help empower their readers and listeners by making them aware of their civil and political rights, and why and how these rights should be exercised. This literature makes it clear that the newspaper has a responsibility to set the agenda to make both government and citizens aware that a rights-based approach to education policy and programming places a particular focus on assessing the capacity of both rights holders to claim their rights which governments and public authorities must fulfill those obligations. The process should involve plans and activities to increase the capacity of individuals to support the implementation of education priorities.
For instance if teachers are persistently absent or fail to teach, parents and the community need to know that right to education they and their children have to demand the resolution of such problems. The media therefore need to inform them about the opportunities for access to policymakers. These they can refer to newspapers if they report properly on the right to education so they may also get support in analyzing how their rights are being denied and how to argue their case for change. Efforts also need to be made to build opportunities for children to claim their rights. Empowering rights holders to claim their rights requires a range of strategies, including information, advocacy, capacity-building, parent networking, peer support and technical assistance which newspaper media can effectively provide the citizenry
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in their headlines. It‟s worthy to note that the public will become informed and educated so as to be empowered to claim their right to education if the newspapers set the agenda to create awareness on it among Ghanaians just as they do on other issues
(Fosu, 2011).
However, the media whose role in society it is to educate and inform the public and is capable to influence people with relevant information has not done much to create awareness on the right to education in Ghana (Dinah, 2009). In search of a role for the
African media in the democratic process Paul A.V. Ansah (1988) maintains that it is generally agreed that in addition to the traditional functions of the press of informing, educating and entertaining, the media of developing countries have the additional responsibility of promoting development. It can therefore be said that this additional responsibility of the media to promote development must include human rights and for that matter the right to education in newspapers through presentation of right themes on education. The fact that the media is one effective mechanism for promotion and protection of human rights reinforces the indispensable role of newspapers in the promotion of human rights. Unfortunately the media in a new and restored democracy do not always live up to the ideal as they are hobbled by stringent laws, monopolistic ownership, and sometimes the threat of brute force (Open Society
Media, 2002).
Aful (2004) acknowledges that, the newspaper cannot be relegated to the back ground due to its special place in dissemination of information. Since the role of newspapers includes education and information the industry must accept and play the huge role society has placed on them to inform and educate the public on issues such as the right to education. In Ghana, majority of the public rely on the newspapers as their
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source of authentic information. Whichever way, the world cannot afford to tolerate the poverty, injustice, and waste associated with the mass violation of the right to education by overlooking on the spirit and cardinal essence of the right to education (Circa, 2005).
This research focuses on analyzing headlines contents of the Ghanaian Times and
Daily Guide newspapers on the right to education to see how it promotes the subject matter in Ghana. It hopes to identify how newspapers included right to education themes in their headlines to create awareness and promotes education as human right.
It is also to add to the existing scanty literature regarding the promotion of human rights by newspaper.
1.2 The Statement of the Problem
The place of the mass media in the promotion of human rights in any given society cannot be overemphasised (Asemeh, 2013). According to Human Rights Internship
Program (2010), one mechanism for the promotion and protection of human rights is media of which newspapers are paramount in the dissemination of information.
International Federation on Journalism (2009) confirms that Newspaper headlines are imperative in creating awareness on issues. However, issues of education that are carried in Ghanaian newspapers do not appear to include the right to education themes in the headlines, which serve as major attraction to readers thereby failing to promote the subject matter in Ghana.
In a feature article of Sunday, 15 November 2009 published by the Catalyst newspaper; a columnist Agyeman Katakiye Kwame Poku expressed his opinion on why Ghana needs to change its approach to education. In that article he said that there is the need for a radical overhaul, re-analysis and re-appraisal of the current
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education system as there are many flaws in the current education system in Ghana.
To him the key problems identified were; the education system being too European orientated as the current education system teaches Ghanaians as a whole to become consumers rather than producers and creates a dependency culture results in many of its products wanting to leave Ghana for the western world. In that same article the writer said the current education system tends to concentrate more on theory as opposed to practical application. The current system of education does not equip the
Ghanaian with the core skills that are imperative in the global context. It could be deduced from the point that though he identifies some problems he did not see anything wrong with the education not being approached from the right based. He also did not attribute it to the newspaper‟s media inability to promote the subject matter through their reportage.
Moore (2006) emphasised that one way to reach the broadest possible audience is through the utilization of the national media. In that work he further explained that the news media in particular have an invaluable role to play in human rights education by drawing attention to human rights issues and by exposing abuses when they occur.
He targeted the media and the promotion of human rights in general without recourse to specificity on newspapers and right to education. It is therefore appropriate for this work to look at how newspapers use their headlines to promote the right to education in Ghana. It is obvious that Agyeman (2012) above only meant to expose the flaws in the current educations system without bordering himself to find out whether education was being pursed from the right- based and that newspapers could use their headlines which are the most potent tool of a print media to create awareness on the right to education.
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It must be noted that all the previous studies cited here have looked at the media in general and their role in the promotion of human rights and not specifically on the right to education and newspapers. This study is content analyses of the two newspapers, Ghanaian Times and Daily Guide, aimed at filling the gap of determining how newspapers could use their headlines to promote the right to education in Ghana.
The purpose of the study is to analyse Ghanaian newspaper media to determine how they empower people with knowledge on the right to education issues in order to promote the subject matter. Since the media plays a central role in fostering development education one of the sectors of the Ghanaian economy whose promotion is backed by international laws need to be looked at.
Therefore, it is important to investigate how the print media addresses education issues in Ghana. Such an investigation will show how the Ghanaian media are contributing to the efforts by various stakeholders to ensure the right to education for all persons in Ghana.
1.3 The Theoretical Frame Work
The study is anchored on two theories; social responsibility theory and agenda setting theory of the media.
1.3.1 Agenda Setting Theory of the Media
The agenda setting theory demonstrates that the media have the ability to influence what topics and issues should be considered salient (Snider, 1967; McCombs and
Shaw, 1972; McCombs, 1997; Boyle, 2001). The main proposition of agenda-setting theory is that the media can establish the main issues that will be the subject of discussions by ranking and ordering them (McQuail, 2005). This means that if
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newspapers features right to education headlines the public who read them will become aware of the subject matter.
In choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff and broadcasters play an important part in shaping stories that appears in the media”. The theory says that readers learn not only about a given issue, but how much importance they attach to the issues from the amount of information in a news story. Wimmer and Dominick
(2000) also have theorised that, agenda setting by the media proposes that the kind of things people discuss, think, and worry about is powerfully shaped and directed by what the media choose to publicise. It can be ascertained that this theory is therefore relevant to the study because the research focuses on finding out the amount of information the right to education themes in the headlines of Ghanaian newspapers for the purpose of creating awareness on the subject matter. It is clear that per this theory the way and the manner newspapers use their headlines to present the right to educations would determine the level of understanding and awareness amongst the citizens.
1.3.2 Social Responsibility Theory of the Media
The second theory of this research is the Social Responsibility Theory of the media.
This was put forward by Mcquail (1987). He outlined the principles of the theory that the media should accept and fulfil certain obligations to the society to meet professional standards of information, truth, accuracy, objectivity and balance. It offers that in accepting and applying these obligations media should be self-regulating within the framework of law and the media should avoid whatever might lead to crime, violence or civil disorders or give offence to minority groups that the media as a whole should be pluralist and reflect the diversities of their society. This theory is
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directly relevant to the study because it reinforces the role of the newspapers to educate the public on issues such as the right to education as a matter of responsibility. Thus, the newspapers should be able to use their reportage to promote right to education among Ghanaians as a matter of responsibility to avert crime, violence or disorders which may result from lack if education. The theory is also relevant to this research because it urges newspapers to also use the freedom and the independence giving them per the 1992 Constitution of Ghana to promote the right to education among Ghanaians.
1.4 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to analyze the content of the Ghanaian newspapers to determine how their headlines promote the right to education in Ghana.
1.5 Objective of the Study
i. to determine the frequency with which the headlines on the right to education
appear in the Ghanaian newspapers.
ii. to identify the right to education themes in the headlines of Ghanaian
newspapers.
iii. to ascertain whether Ghanaian newspapers positioned headlines on the right
to education at the strategic spots in their editions.
iv. to find out how often editorial headlines on education are featured in the
newspapers.
1.6 The Research Questions
i. how frequent do headlines on the right to education appear in the Ghanaian
Times and Daily Guide newspapers?
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ii. which themes run through the education headlines in the Ghanaian Times and
Daily Guide newspapers?
iii. which positions in the Ghanaian Times and Daily Guide newspapers are the
rights to education headline placed in in their edition?; and
iv. how often are the editorials of Ghanaian Times and Daily Guide newspapers
featured the right to education?
1.7 Significance of the Study
(i) To make a reference document available to print journalist on how to
report accurately and frequently on the right to education.
(ii) To add knowledge to the scanty existing literature on the subject matter.
(iii) To guide newspapers to play their role in promoting the right to education
in Ghana by using the right to education themes in their captions of their
education.
(iv) To help society gain knowledge on the right to education.
(v) To help newspaper place the right to education headlines in the prominent
pages and columns in its editions to attract readers‟ attention.
1.8 Definition of Terms
THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION: a universal entitlement to education as human rights recognised in UDHR Article 26 (UNCEF, UNESCO, 2007).
AGENDA SETTING: A theory of the media that shows the media ability to influence what topics and issues that should be considered salient or important by audiences (McCombs and Shaw, 1972).
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY: A theory of the media that expects the media to accept and fulfil certain obligations to the society bearing in mind of
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professional standards of information, truth, accuracy, objectivity and balance(MacQquail,1987).
NEWSPAPER: A form of media that disseminate printed matter usually on a low cost paper (Hasty, 2005).
1.9 Delimitation of the Study
There have been human rights violations and accompanied abuses in Ghana after independence and there are still prevailing ones today. However, the scope of this study was rather to promote those that had to do with citizen‟s right to education as enshrined in international human rights provisions and further guaranteed by the constitution of Ghana. This was to allow the researcher concentrate more on the topic under study - contents analysis of the Ghanaian newspapers to see how their headlines promote the right to education in Ghana.
According to Bureau of Democracy country report on human rights in Ghana (2013),
Ghana is a country with a population of approximately twenty four million people
Comprising 51 per cent female and 49 per cent male., the country is located on the
West Coast of Africa along the Gulf of Guinea with La Cote d‟Ivoire on the West, the
Republic of Togo on the East and, Burkina Faso on the North.The country attained independence from the United Kingdom in the year 1957 and has since then experienced a number of military interventions only returning to democratic rule in
1992.
The constitution of the republic recognises that the protection and preservation of fundamental human rights and freedoms is necessary for the unity and stability of its people. The basic guarantees for human rights are entrenched in chapter five of the
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constitution, setting out the fundamental human rights and freedoms of all persons in
Ghana. The constitution also provides that the fundamental human rights and freedoms shall be respected and upheld by the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary and all other organs of Government and its agencies. Every person in Ghana whatever his race, place of origin, political opinion, colour, religion, creed or gender shall be entitled to the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the individual as contained in Chapter five but subject to the respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest. Also, the constitution ensures that there is freedom of the media under article 162 of the Constitution and provides for the establishment of an independent media commission whose role includes promoting and ensuring the freedom and independence of the media for mass communication or information.
This study is restricted to contents of the two newspapers specifically on their headlines of feature, news, and editorials. These choices were made because Ghanaian
Times and Daily Guide newspapers are considered to have reliable, accurate and wide reaching information in all parts of Ghana. The Ghanaian Times and the Daily Guide were chosen for this research because these papers represent state and the private owned newspapers and have coverage of a wide range of news items. Moreover, they are among the most read newspapers in the country (Afful, 2005).
The Ghanaian Times formerly known as the Guinean Press is a government-owned
Daily newspaper established in 1957 and published in Accra, Ghana. It has a circulation of 80,000 copies and is published six times per week. On the other hand
The Daily Guide newspaper is a private-owned newspaper published in Accra, Ghana.
The newspaper is published six times per week and is regarded as the most circulated
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independent paper in Ghana with a circulation of about 22,000 copies a day
(Kuehnhenrich, 2012).
The study covers four years from 2012 to 2015 because these years saw a lot of discourse about the right to education in Ghana by political campaigns on free compulsory education and access to quality education.
1.11 The Organization of the Study
The study comprises Six Chapters; Chapter one deals with background to the study, the problem, purpose of study and research questions. Others are the significance of the study, limitations, delimitations and organisation of the study, and the definition of terms. The Chapter Two focuses on the review of related literature while Chapter
Three tackles the methodology of the study, the research design, the population sample and sampling procedures, data collection instruments and data collection procedures and finally data analysis. Chapter Four is the presentation of results/ findings while Chapter Five bothers on the discussion of the findings as presented.
Finally, the summary of findings, conclusions, recommendations and suggestions for future research form the concluding Chapter Six of the study.
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CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
It is obvious that making theoretical assumptions is a necessary starting point for a good research direction. Also Assumptions do not materialise out of nothing, therefore the need for a literature review to give direction to the study. This chapter contains the following literature that is relevant to this research; newspapers reportage on the right to education; a content analysis of Ghanaian Times and Daily Guide.
The review is on the following sub areas; The concept of human rights followed by state of human rights in Ghana, the right to education, media and human rights in
Ghana. The rest are; the Ghanaian media landscape and the promotion of human rights in Ghana, the agenda setting and the social responsibility theory of the media and the role of the newspapers in the promotion of the right to education in Ghana, over view of newspaper headlines and the promotion of the right to education in
Ghana.
2.1 The Concept of Human Rights
According to Human Rights Review (2003) human rights are norms that help to protect all people everywhere from severe political, legal, and, social abuses. In
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giving examples of human rights, the document mentioned the right to freedom of religion, fair trial, the right not to be tortured, and the right to engage in political activity. However, the article failed to mention the right to education in its example of human rights. This suggests that to Human Right Review the right to education is not a major human rights issue or do not consider it as human rights at all. This supports the research problem that newspapers do not include the right to education in their reportages because the print media do not think human rights issues make economic sense. On the other hand if that was not so then newspapers should have informed the public about the subject matter in their headlines.
Peichowiak (1999) as cited in the introduction of Quayson (2012) points out that, the modern concept of human rights is rooted in the experiences of „legal lawlessness‟ when crimes were committed with the authorization of the law, and when some human beings were denied their status as such. An answer to these experiences was the emergence of the international human rights law. This literature also sees legal aspect of human rights not the right to education.
According to International Federation of Journalism (2005):
Human rights have become increasingly prominent in recent years as governments and political leaders refer to international human rights standards more frequently, both in formal definitions of policy and in public speeches. Public awareness has similarly evolved. Human rights are understood to be near the heart of many international news issues, from Afghanistan to Palestine, Colombia to Sierra Leone. They are increasingly linked to discussions of international debt and trade, education and health. Therefore coverage of human rights in the media is likely to continue to grow hence it is appropriate increasingly so to expect journalists and broadcasters to report on them accurately.
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Bryant (2004,p.10), corroborates the above and argues that “human rights are freedoms, immunities and benefits that, according to modern values, all human beings should be able to claim as a matter of rights in the society in which they live”.
This work however, creates problem for the definition of human rights as to whether they are rights to be claimed or rights we have by virtue of human beings. With this literature it will be difficult for one to say that the right to education could be claimed unconditionally or with condition such as ability of parents or government who are the duty bearer. If the above is correct then the ambiguity will make it difficult for newspapers to report on the right to education because there will be problems with the data they would work with. Cranston (1976) puts human rights as something of which no one may be deprived of, without great affront to justice. There are certain deeds, which should never be done, certain freedoms, which should never be invaded; some things which are supremely sacred. These include human rights to education which newspapers could help promote in Ghana.
From the foregoing discussions, human rights can be seen as all those rights that every citizen of a state ought to have without any deprivation. They are those inalienable rights of every individual, whether old or young, poor or rich, male or female which are not given to human beings as gifts. Therefore since education is a right which states are obliged to promote and protect, newspapers has role in ensuring that Ghanaian citizens are fully aware.
This explains why Arinze (2008) argues that human rights are not gifts from men to women or other men that are open to withdrawal or cancellation at the whims and caprices of the giver. He continued that those human rights are not subject to withdrawal or to be held at the pleasure of anybody or granted when it pleases the
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giver. Also in the abstract of Quayson (2012) it is obvious that human rights today have received an important credence in democracies all over the world. In relations to the above literatures if the newspapers in Ghana should abide by the social responsibility theory which proposes that media outlets should educate and inform the public on social developmental issues then the right to education which is fundamental human rights that has assumed important credence in democracies should form part of their agenda for its promotion.
2.2 The State of Human Rights in Ghana
The 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana remains the foundation for all laws in
Ghana. Human rights and freedoms are enshrined in Chapter Five of the constitution and closely follow the rights and freedoms protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (Journalists for Human Rights, 2003).
Bosman (2005):
States further that “the constitution required the creation of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), formally established in 1993 by an Act of Parliament (Act 456) and charged with the responsibility of promoting human rights by investigating cases of human rights abuses and corruption in the country.
Furthermore, Ghana has signed and ratified 11 out of 13 United Nations treaties and optional protocols on human rights including: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ;The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; The Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; The International Convention on
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the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their families and The Convention on the Rights of the Child”
Country reports on the state of human rights in Ghana 2012 and 2013 captured human rights issues from forcibly evictions from homes to violence against people suspected of same-sex relationships. The report added that there were no executions to death penalty but failed to touch on the right to education though there were several children of school currently.
The Constitution Review Commission of Ghana (2010) recommended abolition of the death penalty, and direct enforcement of decisions by the Commission on Human
Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) yet none of the above literature did cover the right to education or talk about education as human rights. The media and for that matter the newspapers can justify the absence of the right to education in their contents because they had nothing to write in promoting that very right. This particular right to education has not been seriously promoted by the state which has the obligation to ensure it is promoted among Ghanaians.
2.3 The Right to Education
World Education Report (2000) puts forward that the right to education as one of the most important rights proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because education is considered as not only a right in itself but also a means of promoting peace and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms generally.Therefore the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 article 26 is the first UN document that recognises education as human right. It captures the right to education in the following words:
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1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
According to the World Education Report (2000) the right to education is one of the most important rights proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, because education is considered by the Declaration not only as a right in itself but also a means of promoting peace and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms generally”
Peculiar to Ghana, King and Ozler (1998), assert that over the years, several strategies have been proposed towards effective educational management that in the last 15 years, decentralization has become the exemplary of efficient educational governance thus leading to its wholesale adoption by many developing nations However, defined as the devolution of responsibilities and decision-making authority to sub-national levels Ayee (1996) is of the view that decentralization of education in Ghana has quite often excluded grassroots participation.
It is evident that all the above literature has not tackled education as human rights or from the right based approach though Ghana has since independent made significant strides in its educational system. Clearly all the above literature has not tackled the
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subject matter of education as a human right thus has failed to present education from the right based approach to Ghanaians. It is therefore not a surprise that Newspapers in Ghana have not used their headlines with the right to education theme in promoting educations as human rights hence rendering most Ghanaians not being aware of the subject matter as a human rights enshrined in the human rights instruments.
At this point some history of the right to education will give better understanding of how education was recognised as a human right and not gift. The history of the right to education according to the Encarta Dictionary has it that:
In Europe, before the Enlightenment of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, education was the responsibility of parents and the church. With the French and American Revolution education was established also as a public function. It was thought that the state, by assuming a more active role in the sphere of education, could help to make education available and accessible to all. Education had thus far been primarily available to the upper social classes and public education was perceived as a means of realising the egalitarian ideal underlining both revolutions. Surprisingly, neither the American Declaration of Independence (1776) nor the French Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) protected the right to education as the liberal concepts of human rights in the nineteenth century envisaged that parents retained the primary duty for providing education to their children. Rather it was the state‟s obligation to ensure that parents complied with this duty, and many states enacted legislation making school attendance compulsory. Furthermore, child labour laws were enacted to limit the number of hours per day children could be employed, to ensure children would attend school. States also became involved in the legal regulation of curricula and established minimum educational standards.
It is obvious from the above literature that not until liberal thinkers of the nineteenth century pointed to the dangers in state involvement in the sphere of education, and the reliance on state intervention to reduce the dominance of the church, and to protect the right to education of children against their own parents that educational rights were included in domestic bills of rights.
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The constitution recognised education as a function of the state, independent of the church. Remarkable at the time, the constitution proclaimed the right to free education for the poor, but the constitution did not explicitly require the state to set up educational institutions. Today education is a right that requires states to ensure its respected promoted and protected to be fulfilled.
It would be recalled in the above literature on the historical perspective of the right to education that at no point did the thinkers made mention of the media to promote education as human right. This may be as result of the earlier thinkers‟ struggles to identify education as human right. This research therefore fills that gap of making sure that the media especially the print uses newspapers at least their headline to promote the right to education among Ghanaians. Despite the above analysis the researcher believes that the newspaper which remains the reliable source of information to Ghanaians could use their contents to promote education as a human right if they employ agenda setting and the social responsibility theory of the media just as they do on promoting politics, entertainment and business.
It is however worthy to note now that since the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights in 1948 education has been accepted by almost every member state of UN.
Almost all countries are signatories to all human rights instruments on the right to education and by that are obliged to ensure they are promoted, respected protected and fulfilled as any other rights people have buy virtue of beings human. The right to education is already embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and was further developed with detailed state obligations in the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and in the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child. Education is regarded as a right in itself, but also as a key
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instrument for exercising other human rights, since it enables people to claim their rights or promote the rights of others, freedom of thought, conscience and worship, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and to political participation.
It is therefore surprising to note that the basic universal human rights as identified by Oso and Pate (2011, p .159) excluded the right to educations but included : right to life; right to dignity of human beings; right to personal liberty; right to fair hearing; right to compensation from property compulsorily acquired; right to private and family life; right to freedom of thoughts, conscience and religion; right to peaceful assembly and association; right to freedom of movement; right to freedom from torture; right to freedom from discrimination on the grounds of ethnic group, place of origin, circumstance of birth, sex, religion or political opinion; and right to freedom of expression.
UN General comment no. 13 (1999) on the right to education report, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Doc. 1 position the right to education as one of the identified three rights which according to the independent expert on the right to development should be given priority in the development process. According to the
General Comment No. 13 (1999) Paragraph 51 of the European Convention on
Human Rights states parties are obliged to ensure the provision of free and compulsory primary education is respected and fulfilled. Anyangwe (1998) holds it that it is still a debatable issue whether the right to receive education under the
African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) entails an obligation on the part of the state to provide compulsory free education. However, the reference in the
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) to basic education
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has according to Gose (2002) been chosen to replace primary education of which the concept might have remained ambiguous in the African context.
It is clear that the World Education Forum in Dakar 2000 did not only emphasise the need to achieve education for all but did also notice the need to improve the quality of education. In furtherance of this point the forum made the following recommendation improve all aspects of the quality of education to achieve recognised and measurable learning outcomes for all especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills”
(World Education Forum, 2000). The Article 28 of the Convention of the Right of the
Child enshrined the child‟s right to education and the states to as a matter of duty ensure that primary education at least is made free (Ulf & Inclusive International,
2009).
Based on the recommendations in the Dakar Framework for Action (1990) and the
Convention of the Right of the Child, as well as a number of other international conventions and recommendations, it can be concluded that everyone has the right not only to receive education, but also to receive education of a high quality. This should be achieved without distinctions of any kind, such as those based on parent‟s income, colour, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin.
According to the Right to Education Project (2013) Education is not a privilege it is a human right. the right to education is guaranteed legally for all without any discrimination” it further indicates that states have the obligation to protect, respect and fulfil the right to education and are to be hold accountable for its violations or deprivations . Education is a fundamental human right and a major driver of human and economic development that strengthens personal integrity and shapes societies in
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which we live therefore we must demand a commitment to high quality education that‟s available to all(Transparency International, 2013 ).
In 1948 when education was recognized as a human right, only a minority of the world‟s children had access to any formal education; now a majority of them go to school, and participate in formal education beyond the elementary stages (World
Education Report, 2000). This shows a reverse in Ghana where majority of the children are out of school because the need base approach to education has failed by not given way for right based to education which ensure education for all. The right to education has a solid basis in the international law on human rights.
The World Education Report (2000) agrees in its preamble that whereas the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 26 proclaims that everyone has the right to education the elementary and fundamental education shall be „free‟ and compulsory. The Declaration adopted by the World Conference on Education for All proclaims that „Every person child, youth and adult shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs “(Inclusion
International, 2009). Similarly the United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms and the right to education in security and Armed Conflict authored by Tkhmin and Stuart make it clear that even in war; factions must protect the right to education of all especially children. The Encarta Dictionary acknowledges that the right to education is a universal entitlement to education recognized in the Rights as a right to free compulsory primary education for all is an obligation to develop secondary education accessible to all”. To the UNESCO/UNICEF (2007) the right to education also includes a responsibility to provide basic education for individuals who have not completed primary education. In addition to these access to education provisions, the
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right to education encompasses the obligation to rule out discrimination at all levels of the educational system to set minimum standards and to improve the quality of education.
Education has been formally recognized as a human right since the adoption of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This has since been affirmed in numerous global human rights treaties, including the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960), the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural
Rights (1966) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1981)(UNICEF/UNESCO, 2007).
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) further strengthens and broadens the concept of the right to education; in particular through the obligation to consider in its implementation the four core principles which are non- discrimination, the best interests of the child, survival and development of the child to the maximum extenders.
Morka (2012) put forward that the right to education is high on the agenda of the international community affirmed in numerous human rights treaties and recognized by governments as pivotal in the pursuit of development and social transformation.
This recognition is exemplified in the international goals, strategies and targets that have been set during the past 20 years.
Education has been regarded in all societies and throughout human history both as an end in itself and as a means for the individual and society to grow. Its recognition as a human right is derived from the indispensability to the preservation and enhancement of the inherent dignity of the human person.
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International standards on the right to education include the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights which states in article "Everyone has the right to education that shall be free and compulsory at least in the elementary and fundamental stages Higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit, and technical and professional education shall be made generally available. The UDHR also stipulates that education should be directed towards the full development of the human personality and strengthen respect for human rights. Finally, it acknowledges that parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) also covers education in articles 13 and 14 setting out detailed formulations of the right to education. Article 13 contains a general statement that everyone has the right to education and that education should contribute to the full development of the human personality. It also specifically stipulates: Primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all. Secondary education, including technical and vocational education, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, in particular by the progressive introduction of free education.
Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, in particular by the progressive introduction of free educa- tion. Fundamental education shall be intensified for those persons who have not received or completed the whole period of their primary education. Systems of schools shall be established and the material condition of teaching staff shall be continuously improved.
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The liberty of parents or guardians to choose for their children schools other than those established by the public authorities who conform to minimum educational standards shall be respected. In addition, article 13 recognizes the liberty of parents or guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in confor- mity with their own convictions. Article 14 requires each state party that has not been able to secure compulsory primary education free of charge, to undertake, "within two years, to work out and adopt a detailed plan of action for the progressive implementation Similar to the provisions contained in ICESCR the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Articles 28 and 29 deal with the right of the child to education stating that school discipline should be administered in a manner consistent with a child‟s human dignity. Article 29 stipulates that the education of the child shall be directed towards the development of the child‟s personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential.
UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education stipulates that states parties must undertake to formulate, develop and apply a national policy which will tend to promote equality of opportunity and treatment, and, in particular, to make primary education free and compulsory. In addition, it recognizes parents‟ right to freely choose their children‟s educational institutions and to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions. The
Article 10 of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women also contains provisions dealing with the right to education. It pro- vides, for example, for equal access to career and vocational guidance and to studies at all educational levels; access to the same curricula and examinations; elimination of stereotyping in the roles of women and men; and the same opportunities to benefit from academic scholarships.
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Regionally, the right to education is recognized and guaranteed under several regional human rights instruments. These include the African Charter on Human and Peoples‟
Rights (article 17) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; the
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (article 12) and the Additional
Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (Protocol of San Salvador) (Article 13); the European
Convention on the Legal Status of Migrant Workers (Articles 14 and 15); and the
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (Articles 13 and14)
Moreover, the Education for All goals which were established at Jomtien, Thailand in
1990 and reaffirmed at a same forum in Dakar –Senegal in 2000 reinforces this by focussing on education as a basic human right.
Clifford (2007) underscore the fact that education is a basic right for all children around the world, yet in the developing world there are almost two billion children which are not receiving proper education or any education at all. this can be supported by the global fund for children‟s position that one in five children, 120 to
125 million children, are not enrolled in school that Even those who do receive an education mostly in the developing world, one in five will not make it past the fifth grade. The lack of education for much of the world‟s children is of grave concern, and continues to impact not only the lives of the children themselves, but the development and progress of entire nations. Therefore if a large majority of a countries child are not educated, the prospect of the future business, political, religious and government leaders is marred for many generations”
It must be understood that Education remains one of the most important sources for those who want to improve their lifelong opportunities and to achieve better labor market prospects. Hence, equal access to education and its quality are essential in
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generating equality of opportunity for individuals. This may be the reason why in the last decade the Turkish government has launched several programs to enhance the equity and quality of education. As puts forward by Tomasevski (2006), Singapore has shown several times over that significant change is possibly as that country has developed a high-quality system in terms of educational retention, quality and efficiency. To become and remain high-performing, countries need a policy infrastructure that drives performance and builds the capacity for educators to deliver it in schools. It continues that where Singapore is today is no accident. It is the result of several decades of judicious policy and effective implementation. The above literature makes it evident that though Singapore have identify the importance of education and has as such committed resources to it, the literature did not show whether that country approaches education from a human rights based.
In a sharp contrast to the Singaporeans education system the right of children to free and compulsory education act' or 'right to education act enacted on 4 august 2009, describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under article 21a of the constitution making India one of the 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when their act came into force on 1 April 2010. Unlike the above literature on the
Singapore‟s education system which can‟t be traced to right based so clearly the India has stated clearly in its constitution, parliamentary act and has join other countries to accept education as fundamental rights. At this point it would not be far from the troth that the role of newspapers to promote the subject matter has not been captured by both countries in review of their literature concerning their education.
2.4 The Right to Education in Ghana
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Whiles the preceding point reviews relevant literatures on the subject matter of right to education in general and some examples of other parts of the world the researcher now centres on the way Ghana approach the right to education.
Before Independence, various interventions on education were implemented to reform Ghana‟s education system. Particularly, in 1951, Dr. Nkrumah‟s implemented an Accelerated Development Plan of Education to rapidly expand recruitment into elementary and secondary education. The Kwapong Review
Committee in 1966 addressed the issue of the majority of pupils from elementary schools who could not gain entry to the restricted number of places in secondary
"grammar" schools by introducing the concept of Continuation Schools. This policy was later criticized as elitist. But the problem of nurturing Ghana's teenage population through some process of post-primary training for the majority still remains with us and must be resolved in the present round of educational reform.
The Dzobo Review Committee of 1974 introduced the concept of "comprehensive"
Junior Secondary Schools to teach academic and practical skills to all pupils. This followed the latest education reforms in 1987, reforms which introduced the Junior and Senior Secondary School (JSS) concept. All these reform interventions sought to strengthen Ghana‟s education system. However, a number of problems seemed to have been created in an attempted to reform the education system.
Surprisingly all the above reforms have not clearly been interrogated on human rights basses. Newspapers have not query these documents demanding its rights based reforms. This might be as a result of lack of human rights education for the reporters and editors who contribute to the publication of the newspapers. However, if the
Ministry of Education (2003) background paper of the draft policy 5 sections 1 which
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says “education delivery in Ghana is a right for all citizens of school age hence no person of school age is to be denied of is anything to go by then the newspapers in
Ghana may be blamed for lack of awareness on this matter because their headlines do not use the right to education themes to educate the public on the subject matter.
The Catalyst (2009) admits that the educational system in Ghana has undergone enormous changes in the last 50 years from being highly regarded among African nations through a period of collapse and more recently rejuvenation supported by a donor-funded reform programme FCUBE. Underlying these ups and downs the literature recognises the need for a more fundamental change in different ways of knowledge and ideas about the nature, purpose, and scope of school subjects to meet the needs of a diverse student population that have come to the fore. The paper concludes by admitting that there are many challenges facing the education system in
Ghana that a number of problems seemed to have been created in an attempt to reform the education system. However, it has been observed that in order for Ghana to be truly the gateway to Africa and play a key role in the economic renaissance of the continent, there needs to be a radical overhaul, re-analysis and re-appraisal of the current education system in Ghana (Opoku, 2012).
The above information has identified that there is a problem with Ghana education however, in solving them it failed to recognise the right to education approach to solving the problem. This paper therefore puts forward that the problems go beyond strategies but include the inability of the media to promote such rights as a fundamental human rights and proposes that if Ghanaians newspapers include the right to education themes in their headlines citizens will become aware of education as their fundamental human rights so as to claim it as such.
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The Constitution of the Republic of Ghana recognizes education as a right and emphasises the important role of education in society by stating in its article 25.1(a) that “basic education shall be free, compulsory and available to all. It further urges authorities in Article 38 in the following words “government to provide access to Free
Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) and, depending on resource availability, to Senior Secondary, Technical and Tertiary education and life-long learning.” Despite this constitutional provision large number of Ghanaians still do not know their right to be in school especially at the basic level as large number of parents thinks that they must be able to afford their children fees before giving them access to school even at the basic level. It is evident here that, governments efforts at ensuring all children of school going age are in classroom is not promoted since huge sums of school fees continues to be a challenge for children‟s who parents can‟t pay for their primary school education.
In Stanislaus Kadingdi‟s earlier submissions of Critical Review Policy Initiatives for change and innovation in basic education programmes in Ghana “The education system in Ghana has undergone enormous changes in the last 50 years as over this period it has gone from being highly regarded among African nations, through a period of collapse and more recently rejuvenation, supported by a donor-funded reform programme (FCUBE)” It seems at this point the writer views Ghana pursuing education as a human right per his recognition of the free compulsory basic education in the current state of the Ghana education. So therefore the newspaper could be blame for the lack of awareness on the subject matter.
It is worthy to acknowledge that Ghana is one of the few African countries in a position to accomplish the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (Bourke, 2012)
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Per the above statement, it seems therefore justifiable for the government of Ghana to insist that it is committed to the provision of quality education to its citizens thus the spending of 25% of its national budget in the sector. However, Sylvain Aubrey/
Action Aid Annual Report (2012) confirm that the Ministry of Education is responsible for the administration and the coordination of public action regarding education. The education indicators in Ghana reflect a gender gap and disparities between rural and urban areas, as well as between southern and northern parts of the country showing disparities drive in public action against illiteracy and inequities in access to education though education delivery in Ghana is a right for all citizens of school age. Hence no person of school age is to be denied of education. This literature indicates that there is the gaps in the promotion of the right to education which newspapers have a role to educate inform the public with this information to create awareness.
Djangmah (2010) indicated that the framers of the 1992 constitution recognized the value of education to the nation‟s development and considered the cost of providing it free. The constitution also prescribed that the governments that came into office after
1992 should plan the implementation of Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education
(FCUBE) within ten years. However, in 2010 eighteen years after Ghana‟s latest constitution became law a sizable number of Ghanaian children are out of school, many who never enrolled and dropped out of school. An article by the Catalyst newspaper titled “why Ghana needs to change its approach to education” ,Agyeman
(2012) observes that in order for Ghana to be truly the gateway to Africa and play a key role in the economic renaissance of the continent, there need to be a radical overhaul, re-analysis and re-appraisal of the current education system As there are many flaws in the current education system in Ghana”
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According to Opoku (2012) who questioned the free secondary education in Ghana was a possibility recognises the importance of education to Ghana by placing on record that it is not for nothing that educational matters continue to engage the attention of national governments and other stakeholders in their quest to move their nation forward. This stems from the positive impact the educated individual makes to the society. Education forms an important part of a person‟s life because it enables the individual to gain the needed skills to face life situations and also meet work demands. It is against this backdrop that Ghanaians expect the government as a matter of necessity, to remove all forms of barriers to quality education in order to ensure that this fundamental human right of the Ghanaian child is fully enjoyed.” from the above literature what is left is the promotion of the right to education amongst
Ghanaians which newspaper has a responsibility to ensure that the right to education become known to every Ghanaian as his or her fundamental rights.
2.5 The Media and Human Rights in Ghana
The media and human rights intersect in two important ways. First of all, the media have the ability to cover and cover-up human rights abuses, to call for accountability as well as to support abusive regimes. Secondly, freedom of expression is a fundamental human right in and of itself, which is exercised through the media and journalists by virtue of their very profession.
Traditionally newspapers, both state owned-owned and private, have played an important role in setting Ghana„s news agenda. During the early post-colonial era and under military rule, the state media had a significant influence due to its status as the sole player on the media scene. Nevertheless in the past 15 years, paper newspapers have flourished along with the resurgence of democratic institutions that began in
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1992. By 2005, Ghana had 50 newspapers, journals and periodicals regularly appearing on the newsstands, and a total of 106 newspapers published daily, weekly, bi-weekly or tri-weekly (Africa Media Development Initiative, 2005).
The term media is the sum of the public mass distributors of news and entertainment such as newspapers, television, radio, broadcasting, which may require union membership in some large markets such as Newspaper Guild and text publishers
(Wiimmer and Dominick, 2001). Touching on the role of media and human rights
Maria et, al. (2012) postulated that “the media and its elements have turned out to be a useful and efficient tool to broadcast and emphasize human rights issues in the world.
Since the 1990s, the projection of human rights issues became more public which developed as an initiative for all the media. Media resources like internet networks, television, newspapers and other online services have created an impact in the world on the basis of human rights, in order to be heard and to support these universal standards. The point of the Ghanaian print media is to promote human rights and to give suggestions about the coverage and treatment of these standards.
Ansu-Kyrermeh (1996) appreciates that broadcast and print media have played an important role in Ghana‟s democratic development. Like the colonial rulers that precede them, post-independence leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah and john traveling recognized the power of open access to information and a free press. Viewing information as a government controlled tool for development, they stifled independent media outlets and attained strict control over the state-owned press.
The drafting of the 1992 Constitution and the dawn of the Fourth Republic ushered in a new age of freedom and democracy. The right to information, free speech, and a
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free media was enshrined in Article 21, and the criminal libel law was eventually abolished. Journalists no longer had to labour under intense fear and intimidation; citizens could more freely criticize their government.
Today, media are the collective communication outlets or tools that are used to store and deliver information or data. It is either associated with communication media, or the specialized communication businesses such as: print media and the press, photography, advertising, cinema, broadcasting (radio and television), and/or publishing (Blay-Amihere, Alabi, 1996). Unfortunately the media do not explain and contextualise human rights information as well as they might. In general, data on human rights violations and on human rights standards are not lacking. However, the impact of this information on the public is not as great as might be expected. The media miss human rights stories because they do not pay attention to the specific legal and policy implications they have. Often, they do not have adequate knowledge of human rights and its relevance to the material they are covering. The media frequently also miss the context of human rights stories. These shortcomings diminish the professional quality of reporting, and hamper the communication of information that is sometimes essential for understanding. They indicate that the profession should identify or improve reporting and editorial standards in order to enhance the accuracy and consistency of human rights coverage (Moore, 2006).
The media of Ghana, now one of the most freest in Africa, has previously undergone periods of severe restriction. Chapter 12 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana guarantees freedom of the press and independence of the media, while Chapter two prohibits censorship. According to the Freedom House (2011) “the media in Ghana is ranked four among the free to operate in Africa. Around 135 newspapers are published in
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Ghana, including sixteen independent newspapers and nine daily newspapers. The contribution of a large number of state and private newspapers create a diverse media environment in Ghana. State papers such as the Daily Graphic and Ghanaian Times tend to promote and encourage support for government policies and follow a conservative line, unlike private press which has exposed lavish styles of government officials and mismanagement of government affairs. In the words of Boafo -Arthur
(2008) Available data on media distribution indicate that media systems in the country operate in an extremely centralized fashion with a sharp concentration of the power, resources and services of the media in the urban centres.
Ghana National Media Commission (2000) defines the print media as “comprising newspapers and magazines that are printed for mass readership. Newspapers are a very important source of information. Before the liberalization of the airwaves and the media in 1996, only the state owned radio, television and newspapers were in operation (NCA, 2010). Many in Ghana today depend on newspapers for all kinds of information pertaining to Ghana and the outside world. According to, The National
Media Policy of Ghana whiles the print media comprises newspapers and magazines printed for mass readership, the broadcast media comprise radio and television involving transmission by airwaves, cable or satellite of sound or images for simultaneous reception by mass audience.
The place of the mass media in the promotion of human rights in any given society cannot be overemphasised; the mass media generally, can be used to bring about positive attitudinal change in the individuals (Asemeh, 2011). This shows that the newspaper can be used to promote the right to education among Ghanaians.
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Ghana‟s 1992 Constitution as cited by African Media Barometer (2013) claims that guarantees and provides strong protection for the right to freedom of expression as well as media freedom and independence. In very elaborate provisions relating to the media, the constitution underscores the critical role of the media as the watchdog of society and states that all agencies of the mass media shall, at all times, be free to uphold the principles, provisions and objectives of this constitution, and shall uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people of Ghana.
Indexed African Journals Online identifies the basic human rights to include: right to life, right to dignity of human beings, right to personal liberty, right to fair hearing, right to compensation from property compulsorily acquired, right to private and family life, right to freedom of thoughts, conscience and religion, right to peaceful assembly and association, right to freedom of movement, among others. Again they refuse to mention education as aright. The main principles of the media are accuracy, balance, fairness, timeliness which means that the media should report the exact and correct information to the public. They must ensure that their publications are true.
The history and development of the mass media in Ghana are inextricably linked to the country‟s political history. Under colonialism, the newspaper was introduced and used more as a political tool to link the centre to the periphery than as a tool for the dissemination of information. Ansu-Kyeremeh and Karikari (1998) write that “during the struggle for independence, newspapers were used to organise and galvanise the people to fight to liberate the country from colonialism” (Ansah, 1991) states that their roles have mainly been determined by the unstable, complex, social and political environments in which they function. They have tried to play the watchdog role during most civilian administrations (Blay-Amihere & Alabi, 1996). Ansah (1987)
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also emphasises the need for newspapers to engage in serious promotion of right to education by set the agenda and take it as their responsibility. IAAR (2013, as cited in Afful, 2004) states “the place of the mass media in the promotion of human rights in any given society cannot be overemphasised; the mass media generally, can be used to bring about positive attitudinal change in the individuals.”
Asemah (2013) identifies the basic human rights to include: right to life, right to dignity of human beings, right to personal liberty, right to fair hearing, right to compensation from property compulsorily acquired, right to private and family life, right to freedom of thoughts, conscience and religion, right to peaceful assembly and association, right to freedom of movement, among others. More so, the paper identifies that the mass media have not really been effective in the promotion of human rights in Nigeria. That is, it proposes that the media, both electronic and print, should be used to promote the issue of human rights in Nigeria, so that people will know their rights. This statement is in consonance with this research problem that
Ghanaian newspapers do not use their headlines to promote the right to education.
Human rights violation in most developing nations has become an issue of utmost concern however this elaborative information offered by the literature failed to mention right to education violations in Ghana though more girls and children are out of school in Ghana.
In Bird, Lutz, and Warwick (2008), Media as partners in education for sustainable support emphasize the need for the media personnel to be trained with well- documented documents on how to promote human rights which includes the right to education in a developing nation. This was retrieved from the internet. Chioma (2011) in my view wanted to find out whether the media include human rights to promote the
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subject matter or they were reporting on them just like any news story. The article
162, 163 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana States “editors and publishers of newspapers and their institutions of mass media should not be subject to control on interference by government nor shall they be penalized or harassed for their editorial opinion and views on the content of their publications” However, several issues serve as impediments (government‟s coercive power to deal with them) for journalist in doing certain stories. Moore (2006) examines the effect of human rights training on Ghanaian journalist and actually supports journalists training on the right to education for promotion of the subject matter whiles Fleeson (2000) provides training of journalists on specific areas for effective reporting. The Preamble of GJA
Code of Ethics (2004), describes the media as the fourth estate of the realm and subsequently states that “as the fourth estate of the realm the public expects the media to play watch dog role with high sense of responsibility of bringing development”
This is directly in line with the significance of this research which is to ensure print journalist take right to education promotion seriously as public depends on them for their information and reduction.
Haberman & Fotongalland (2003) describes an approach to communication which provides communities with information they can use in bettering their lives which makes public programmes and policies real, meaningful and sustainable. Letowska
(1995) emphasizes the “Human Rights Education for the Media was important for
Monitoring and Promoting Human Rights. Lustgarten and Debix (2005) supports this research which has its problem as the newspapers in ability to report in the newspapers about the right to education by maintaining that the reason why the media is not carrying other development issues as they should is as a result of their preference for flashy audience, grabbing and ratings-soaring image or story makes
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them to be nonchalant in matters which are of interest to the public, owing to their inability to pursue events in detail‟s.
According to Human Rights Council (2000) human right and media have limited interests in common unlike human rights organizations news organization do not consider human rights stories to be intrinsically more important. The dilemma and challenges for NGO is how to keep media interests in high alert without trivializing the issue they want to see aired. Furthermore the newspaper industry in Ghana is being buffeted by an array of challenging forces ranging from changing trends in advertising, rising costs due to the worldwide financial crisis to a decline in circulation arising from economic constraints facing newspaper readers. In Ghana, the press is a powerful tool in advocacy of all kinds.
Hasty (2005), states that newspapers form the nexus of news discourse in Ghana.
Newspapers, she says, constitute a significant source of public information for much of the social and political discussions in the country. Moreover, newspapers serve as a relatively more immediate physical reference material for study, especially in schools.
Again Hasty (2005) notes that “the press contributes significantly to promoting development and national unity, the Ghanaian press has established a distinguished history of political activism. Besides, the press enhances governance through the provision of, and dissemination of local, national, and international information to help citizens build their knowledge-base to constitute a viable public sphere of political and social discourse (Fosu, 2011).
Human Rights Education (HRE) is the creation of awareness on issues of human rights with the aim of inculcating human rights values in people (Australian Human
Rights Commission (2011). In short is the art of incorporating all making human
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rights literacy high in societies. This shows that There is no doubt that creating awareness on human rights in society will make people aware of their rights which interns Empower people to the enhancement of realisation of human rights in society.
According to the United Nations (2012) “Human rights education is a learning process encompassing various dimensions such as Knowledge and skills, learning about human rights standards and mechanisms, as well as acquiring the skills to put them into practice in daily life; Values, attitudes developing and reinforcing attitudes which uphold human rights; Behaviour, action encouraging action to defend and promote human rights.
Similarly International Federation of Journalists (1999) says Human rights education aims to build an understanding and appreciation for human rights through learning about rights and learning through rights. Human rights education is inextricably linked with the pedagogy of teaching. It requires not just imparting knowledge about human rights but also applying a human rights-based pedagogy to ensure young people learn in a rights-respecting environment – an environment that respects their rights and promotes the rights of others.
There are three main elements of human rights education: first, the acquisition of knowledge and skills about human rights second, the development of respectful values and attitudes and changed behaviour that reflects human rights values, and third, the motivation of social action and empowerment of active citizenship to advance respect for the rights of all. Human rights education encourages using human rights as a frame of reference in our relationships with others. It encourages inquiry, forming arguments, deciding, cooperating, evaluating, sharing and living according to values. Human rights education encourages us to critically examine our own attitudes
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and behaviours and, ultimately, to transform them in order to advance respect for the rights of all However, all these international treaties and national constitutional provisions have little value if the people they were created to protect don‟t know about them. This literature supports this work because the research is on how citizens would gain knowledge about the bright to education.
2.6 Newspapers and their Role in the Ghanaian Society
In particular Newspapers which is periodical publication containing news and other informative articles usually has a major role in the promotion of human rights such as the right to education. A newspaper which is a major form of the media has been the most reliable source of information and for that matter means for public education.
In Manish Rajkoomar‟s Essay on the Role of Newspapers in 2009, he defines
Newspaper as “printed publication appearing daily containing news, advertisements and articles on various subjects.” It is a fact that Newspapers play an important role in a democracy. They act as bridge between the government and the governed.
Everybody, except a few read the newspaper every day (Journalism Degree).
Among means of communication, newspaper and magazines play an important role in our lives. He then sums up with three point functions or roles of the newspapers which includes, supply variety of news every day, informed of the political situation of the world and know what is happening in our country as well as in the world at large. Secondly, newspaper and magazines contribute a great deal to the development of our knowledge through valuable and subtle critical and commentary articles on culture, social civilization, new life style we learn a lot of interesting things.
Newspapers and magazines, our mind and point of view are consolidated and enriched When reading them we can train our reasoning power. in a survey
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Rosenstiel, Mitchell, Purcell, and Rainie (2011) indicated that newspapers play a far more complex role in the civic life of communities than many Americans believe. The researchers maintained that Newspaper is one of the initial communication tools of the society. They‟ve been the most usual and a generally received medium to be used in conveying the local, regional, international and national news to readers. Ever since the beginning of the society, the newspapers were published to convey the latest happening in different parts worldwide. According to NMC (2010), the print media comprises newspapers and magazines printed for mass readership, The National
Media Policy of Ghana recognizes the electronic, print, film broadcasting, wire services, advertising and public relations as dimensions of the media.
A large number of Ghanaians rely mostly on newspapers for information and education as it is not transient and could always be referred to at any time. Also the message carried out by the print media affect lives of people in various ways. They are able to learn about what goes on around them as well as how to deal with certain education problems. According to Asante and Gadzekpo (2000), the first newspaper was established by the British colonial government in 1822 and was called the Royal
Gold Coast Gazette and Commercial Intelligencer. Again Asante and Gadzekpo
(2000) note that the newspaper was a replica of the British colonial government had produced in Sierra Leone used largely by the colonial government to consolidate and extend its sphere of influence and authority in West Africa. Melkote and Steeves
(2010) as cited in Fosu (2011) say “Newspapers in Ghana continue to offer platforms to their audiences to raise issues of national interests that concern their lives in order to create awareness, and influence policy direction”. In the view of (Dearing and
Rogers, 1996; McCombs, 2005) there is the need for the press in a developing environment like Ghana to make information and knowledge available to citizens for
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empowerment. The question is how is the newspaper not able to use their headlines to promote the right to education.
Generally, print news in particular can be seen as an integral source of public policy depending on selection and presentation of issues. Today, everyone has come to be entirely dependent on the media in the quest for knowledge on a wide range of interesting events. As the organization of society became more complex and far- reaching, the importance of the media in the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge had inevitably increased (Open Society Foundation, 2012). In the process of informing and educating, the media provide inputs for the formation of ideas; hence, they constitute veritable instruments for mobilization.
Asemeh, (2013) maintains that “the major role of the media is to educate the public on policies of government, social, cultural, political and economic issues. On Awareness creation the public are made aware of whatever happens in the country. Important national issues such as Independence Day, elections, outbreak of fire, flood and outbreak of diseases are made known to the public through the media. In surveillance watch over function the media serve as a watchdog of the government. They expose the lapses of the government and recommend the government on its achievements also, put the government on its toes to ensure effective administration of the state. The media serve as a forum for the formation of public opinion. Also, the views of the people expressed on national issue could be used to measure public opinion. The agenda setting theory demonstrates that the media have the ability to influence what topics and issues should be considered salient (Snider, 1967; Boyle, 2001). The main proposition of agenda-setting theory is that the media can establish the main issues that will be the subject of discussions by ranking and ordering them McQuail, (2005).
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The major research and theoretical work on agenda setting and inter-media agenda setting have been done in other parts of the world, particularly the United States and other Asian countries by( McCombs and Shaw,1972; Min, Y. and McCombs ,2006;
Reese and Danielian (1989); and Boyle (2001).
Asomaning (2005) identifies that The public„s dependence on the media for information is substantial in a sub Saharan country like Ghana, where mass media options are few and far between. He acknowledges that in the country as a whole, the media have a very important role to play in informing the people about what is happening around them.
Agenda setting theory on the other hand says that the media are not always successful at telling us what to think, but they are quite successful at telling us what to think about. According to McCombs and Shaw, (1972) cited in Asemah (2011) in choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff and broadcasters play an important part in shaping political reality. Readers learn not only about a given issue, but how much importance to attach to the issues from the amount of information in a news story and its positions.
Wimmer and Dominick (2000) observe that the theory on agenda setting by the media proposes that the public agenda or what kind of things people discuss, think and worry about is powerfully shaped and directed by what the media choose to publicise.
The theory is therefore relevant to the study because the media can be used to set the agenda of education as human rights so that the people will think along that line. “The social responsibility theory is relevant to the study because it calls for responsibility on the part of the newspapers to use the headlines to promote human rights.
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2.7 Newspaper Headlines
Newspapers, headlines serve as centre of attraction and arouse readers‟ interest. They also reflect the facts of the story and catch the attention of readers. The type and size of headlines indicate the prominence placed on the story. The bigger the headlines type the premium placed on the story. A headline must be able to summarize the content of a story and be strong enough to urge the reader on. Headline talks a lot and is supposed to give meaning and attraction to stories and so when the headline makes it difficult to get the true picture of a theme.
Based on Busch, et al (2012) assertion of content analysis, the researcher looked out for certain words in the headlines of the selected newspapers. The study looked for words such as FCUBE, school feeding, quality education access to education. The study found out that most headlines did not contain some of those themes. The study also found out that certain themes used in headlines require readers to read through the entire story to identify the right to education. This is what lynch et al (2002) referred to as latent content.
2.8 Conclusions
This chapter has considered the human rights concepts itself, the role of newspapers in promoting human rights, the right to education, and the way right to educations works in Ghana.
Both hard copies and electronic sources of materials used for this research indicate that little work has been done on the print journalism and right to education. Though a lot has been done about the media and its role in the promotion of human rights in general there is only a particular research titled Journalism, Media and the challenge of Human Rights Reporting that sought to find out how the media are not able to use
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human rights underpinnings in their reportage. This research fills that gap in the literature and provides solution to how newspapers in the print media could create awareness on right to education in Ghana by using right themes in the writing of their headlines which are the major attraction of audience to stories in the newspapers.
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CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
Hussy and Hussey (1997) and Crotty(1998) as cited in Kripanont, (2007) argue that there are several research types and designs but whichever the type chosen, the researcher needs to focus on a particular methodology and justify how the chosen methodology is the most appropriate for the study. The approach adopted to undertake this research is a qualitative. This enabled me to provide an interpretive measurement of human right issues involving the right to education and its promotion in the newspapers in Ghana.
This chapter discusses the methodology that helped the researcher carry out this study.
It covers the Populations of the Study, Research Design, Sample Size, Sampling
Procedure, Source of Data Collections and Instruments for Data Collection.
3.1 Research Design
When it comes to research approach, it basically refers to the forms of data approach.
There are three methodological approaches to research in the social and behavioural sciences. These are the qualitative research approach, quantitative research approach and the mixed method approach (Creswell, 2003). This study employs the qualitative research method in the collection and analysis of the data. To be specific, content analysis technique was used to examine how the Ghanaian Times and Daily Guide covered the right to education from 1st September, 2011 to 31st December, 2015.
The study was rooted in the qualitative research paradigm, specifically in the content qualitative analytical approach. According to Busch, De Maret, Flynn and Kellum
(2012) ,content analysis is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain
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themes or concepts within texts or sets of texts. The researchers‟ analyse the presence, meanings and relationships of such themes and concepts then make inferences about the messages within the texts. This design is appropriate for the present study which attempts to make sense of a human phenomenon or a social construct the presence, meanings and relationships of such themes and concepts then make inferences about the messages within the headlines texts in the newspapers selected for this study.
Again Busch, et al (2012) argues that content analysis can be applied to examine any piece of writing or occurrence of recorded communication. Content analysis is currently used in many fields of study, ranging from marketing and media studies, to literature and rhetoric, ethnography and cultural studies, gender and age issues, sociology and political science, psychology and cognitive science, and many other fields of inquiry. Lynch and Peer (2002) put forward that content analysis does not need to involve laboriously measuring every piece of news or information in the paper over an extended period of time. Tabulation and analysis time varies greatly depending on the level of detail desired. Content analysis works best when the focus is on a few key elements in a text. It also recognizes that designing questions can become complex. There are a lot of interesting aspects of content that are so subjective that there is no way to create firm guidelines that coders can apply consistently, both as individuals and amongst themselves. A good example is trying to measure whether a story is positive or negative. Occasionally a content analysis attempts to measure positive or negative coverage but it is usually very narrowly defined and is often problematic and costly. It‟s also helpful to decide whether what you‟re trying to measure is a “latent” or “manifest” content. Manifest content refers to concrete things that you can point to in the text of the story, for example how many
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times a certain word appears, or how many different people are quoted (Creswell,
2003). In relation to this thesis, manifest shows how some headlines appeared in the newspapers to promote the right to education. Some headlines also give the manifestation by showing the positions at which they were placed. Latent content doesn‟t have those same concrete cues and is usually the more subtle result of many different things. It is however, noteworthy that, the qualitative research approach adopted for this research was complemented by quantitative techniques such as tabular presentation and frequency. The study employed content analysis of print editions of newspapers to ascertain whether their headlines themes promote the right to education issues in Ghana.
Both the Daily Guide and the Ghanaian Times were selected purposively for the study to represent privately owned and public print media and in terms of the same widespread circulation and its general recognition as more inclined towards covering social issues than the other newspapers in Ghana. The newspapers were selected because of their national reach and readership. Accordingly, four separate quarterly samples of 20 issues of each newspaper covering a period of 2012 - 2015 were conveniently drawn for the study.
3.2 Population of the Study
Population is any set of people or events from which the sample is selected and to which the study results will generalize Anastus, Oyetunde and Azeek (1999). In line with the scope of the study, the target population is made up of the two newspapers
Ghanaian Times and the Daily Guide - at the time of the research which was purposively selected from 2012 to 2015 to represent the private and public owned newspapers. The population comprised 200 copies of editions published in the Daily
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Guide and Ghanaian Times for the period excluding weekends and holidays editions.
They were selected for this study in Ghana within a five-year period from January,
2012 to December, 2015.
3.3 Sample Size
The size of the research is limited to educational headlines with specific reference to the right to education in the Daily Guide and The Ghanaian Times from January, 2012 to December 2015. In all a total sample of 200 newspapers were collected and analyzed. However, the sample size is 100 copies of each of the two major newspaper published in Ghana the Ghanaian Times and Daily Guide. With exceptions of holidays and weekends editions, an estimated 200 copies of the two selected newspapers covering five years from 2012 to 2015 was the sample size for the actual work. The period was also chosen because it marks a period where right to education had gained recognition amongst Ghanaians as it was widely used as campaign messages in the manifestoes of political parties in Ghana drawing attention to the way forward of education in Ghana. The State-owned newspaper was chosen based on
Article 163 of chapter 12 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana which states that “all state-owned media shall afford fair opportunities and facilities for the presentation of divergent views and dissenting opinion”. With reference to the selection of the private newspaper the Daily Guide was also anchored on article 163 of the 1992 constitution which opened the access to the establishment of private media in Ghana.
3.4 Sampling Technique
The technique used for this work was purposive and convenient sampling. Purposive was used to select the two newspapers- Daily Guide and Ghanaian Times to represent
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the private and government newspapers respectively so as to make the study appear representative. The convenient was used in selecting the copies of the newspapers.
Sample selected for the study were the Ghanaian Times and Daily Guides newspapers from 2012 to 2015. Each year was divided into four quarterly base where five editions were collected making the researcher to arrive at the 160 editions for the study.
3.5 Instruments for Data Collection
Krugman and Cameroon (1996) postulate that content analysis of articles in newspapers in America used coding guide and coding sheet to facilitate their work.
The coding guide and sheet made it possible for assistants to help me and look out for the specific items in their themes. The researcher adopted the above coding system.
According to Stemler (2001) there are several different ways of defining coding units.
The first way is to define theme physically in terms of their natural or intuitive borders. For instance, newspaper articles, letters, or poems all have natural boundaries. Schwandt (1997, as cited in Hara, Bonk & Angeli (1998) indicates that content or document analysis involves comparing, contrasting and categorising a set of data, and in both numeric and interpretive in nature. O‟Leary (2004) also opines that document analysis is examining the content of materials such as books, journals, newspapers and radio programmes among others.
In this study therefore, content analysis on two newspapers Daily Guide and Ghanaian
Times was carried out. This was to establish the right to education themes in the headlines of the newspaper to determine how the print media promote the right to education in Ghana.
The researcher perused the newspaper documents which are the copies of newspapers published within the five years from 2012 to 2015 and to find out how they promoted the right to education. Issues found were coded or writing down. These instruments
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were used because newspapers reportage can be described by the frequency, headlines, and editorials.
3.6 Source of Data Collections
The main sources of data for this study were copies of the two newspapers selected -
Ghanaian Times and Daily Guide. The purpose was to see the right to education themes, frequency, placement, and editorials dedication of the headlines in the newspapers. The secondary data was collected in order to achieve the objectives stated in chapter one of the study to analyse how newspapers promoted the right to education.
The textual data were available at the, Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), Jayee
University College (JUC), Marine Railways and Port Department collections and
Daily Guide libraries in Accra. The 2015 papers were collected from the Marine
Railways and Ports Department of the Ghana Police Service Orderly Room in Tema.
2011 to 2015newspapers were obtained from Jayee University College Bemile
Library in Accra from 7th march 2015 to 10th April, 2015.
The use of print media for this research was strategic in the sense that it has over the years set the agenda in Ghana‟s democratic discourse whereas, the electronic media in most cases tend to pick and elaborate on what the press publish in the form of newspaper reviews.
Daily Guide is the most widely read private newspaper in Ghana currently. It is owned by Western Publications which controls three other newspapers in the industry.
From a humble beginning, it has grown to become arguably the most successful private newspaper. Its circulation stands at about 22,000. It is noted for its persistence
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in pursuing social justice describing itself as “Big in news, big in spread” (Kuhrench,
2012).
On the other hand The Ghanaian Times is the oldest among the newspapers selected.
The Ghanaian Times is the oldest among the newspapers selected. It is a state-owned newspaper established as the Guinea Press in 1958 by Ghana‟s first President Dr.
Kwame Nkrumah. Under the 1992 constitution, the Ghanaian Times, published by the
New Times Corporation, is supposed to be neutral and serve everybody irrespective of political affiliation but over the years it has not hidden its strong preference for political parties in government. Its Circulation is around 10, 000.
The researcher looked through the newspaper documents to see the themes used in the headlines of their editorial, news and feature to see if they used the themes such as
Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE); school feeding programs, and free Girl-child education, access to education and quality education. The researcher further looked at the entire newspapers copies to see if they position the right to education headlines at important places in the pages. The editorial was targeted because it is the opinion of the entire newspaper showing the importance attached to issues placed there. Similarly the researcher relied on the notion that issues that are given specific columns and positions in newspapers show the importance the gatekeepers attach to them.
3.7 Methods of Data Analysis
The reason for selecting qualitative research method is because it lays emphasis on the process of discovering how the social meaning is constructed and the topic studied. This is referred to the meanings, concepts definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and description of things.
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The analysis of the study was done in tandem with the research questions to find the headlines with the right to education themes, frequency, positions and editorial from all the contents of the two selected newspapers. The researcher used the right to education indicators such as the FCUBE, School Feeding Programme, Free School
Uniform, Free Education, access to education and, quality education. To identify the right to education headlines of features, news and editorial stories in the Daily Guide and the Ghanaian Times, the researcher took into consideration how the headlines with the right to education in the newspapers drew attention to the right to education among Ghanaians.
The methods used to analyze the secondary data were conceptualization, categorizations, deductions and inferences. This was used to present information that facilitates easy understanding and interpretation of data collected. The information from the contents analysis of the two major newspapers selected for this study has been interpreted and conceptualized because it made data collected through contents analysis easier, necessary and logical. Contents of the two newspapers headlines used for this study were themed, and categorized between the periods from 2011 to
December 2015.
Contents were analyzed on four important issues; the right to education headlines in those newspapers, its frequency of appearance, positions they were placed and editorial dedication so as to determine the importance they attach to the right to education promotion. Two factors informed the choice of the years 2011 to 2015.
Firstly, landmark events took place during this period in respect of the right to educations among which were the campaigns. Political parties in their campaigns
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debated on the possibility of free compulsory education from the basic level to Senior
High School (SHS).
Secondly, one of the objectives set out to achieve in this study was to examine how
Ghanaian newspapers covered the right to education in general, using headlines as a unit of analysis. To make a fair representation of the newspapers in the countries, it was necessary to draw from both government-owned and privately owned newspapers. This was easy with respect to the newspapers Ghanaian Times are synonymous with government-owned national newspaper whilst Daily Guide represented privately owned newspaper.
The unit of analysis comprised the right to education issues in the headlines of news, features, and editorials in the selected newspapers. The researcher skimmed through the newspapers to quickly locate page or columns on education and went ahead to scan through the identified column or page on the right to education.
The purpose was to see if newspapers presented education as human right in terms of frequency of right to education themes in the headlines, page placements, and editorial dedication. Due attention was taken specifically to the headlines of the stories to determine their correlation with right to education as all education related headline in the selected newspapers was coded for this study. They were examined based on headlines, placements of the stories, the frequency with which the right to education headlines appeared in the newspapers.
3.8 Validity
Although, validity was not measured through repeated testing of the instruments, the following issues were observed in the study: the extensive literature by experts‟
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reviewed by the researcher in the human rights and print media‟s promotion of the right to education in chapter two and the referencing of all cited work validates this work. Neville (2008) cited Angélil-carter (2000) confirm that referencing and acknowledgements should not be seen as a nuisance but rather a way of asserting and validating researchers‟ own arguments.
3.9 Reliability
According to Babbie (1979) “reliability refers to the degree to which a particular procedure enables one to collect the same data in repeated observations of the same phenomenon” Holsti (1969) says if research is to satisfy the requirement of objectivity, measures and procedures must be reliable that is repeated measures with the same instrument on a given sample of data should yield similar results.
In order to ensure the data collected was valid and reliable, the researcher had an interview with some news editors and some journalists of the newspapers to determine how they report on the right to education as well as the determining factor for the positioning of headlines in the newspapers. The researcher also sought for data from two other newspapers to see how their headlines on educations are written to enrich the quality of the data collected. The quality of the raw data was checked after which it was grouped according to the questions and the themes. After the grouping the inferences and deductions was used for analysing the data collected in tabular form for vivid description.
3.10 Ethical Considerations and Access
During the course of this study, ethics were given due consideration. According to
Walliman (2006:148), ethics are the rules of conduct in research. The following ethical norms served as guide in data collection and analysis: The ethical issue of
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informed consent was considered. Israel and Hay (2006:61) state that informed consent means that participants need first to comprehend and second to agree voluntarily to the nature of the research and their role within it. Though there was no human participant in this work, sources where the newspapers were collected that is librarians of the print media houses selected and the schools whose library provided the researcher with the documents were informed about the research verbally supported by the introductory letter that the research was academic.
They were informed that the research was being conducted solely for academic purposes. One of the librarians was concerned about the use of the data. He explained that a student once requested newspapers and promised that the data would be used for academic purpose but later realised that the information found was to be used for another newspaper to copy its house style for competitive advantage in the dwindling newspaper market. However, he admitted that the student might have not internationally released the information for that purpose but the newspaper was smart to use his finding to their advantage when they got hold of the work. He again the researcher was able to convince the librarians in question that he has no intention of using deceit to get the information since its documentary sources.
All the participants were assured of confidentiality. This was done to protect them
(Parker, 2005, as cited in Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009). Hence, to ensure that the principles of anonymity and confidentiality were guaranteed, there was no collection of the details of the personal information on the participants (McMurray et al, 2004); their names were not revealed in this study though most of the headlines had the writers name just upon top of them. However they are traceable to the print media
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houses they write for in this study since their identities are clearly indicated on top of the headlines.
The researcher abided by the principle of respect for all in sourcing for data therefore a commitment was made to the privacy of the source and data. The researcher approached the librarians of print media houses and schools to access their libraries for the data by telling them how the confidentiality of the information was to be kept and used as such and that if any benefits arose out of the research they would benefit substantially. Analysing news, features, editorials on right to education stories provided a means by which the researcher determined within a given period how newspapers have promoted the right to education among Ghanaians.
In other to gain access to the documents which in this research are the newspapers the researcher that the study was solely for academic work. An introductory letter from
UEW spelt out the purposes why the researcher was there and called on them to offer the necessary assistance the researcher may need.
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CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
4.0 Introduction
In this section, results of the data collected are presented paying attention to the four research questions outlined in chapter one - the right to education themes, the frequency, the positions the headlines were placed and the editorial headlines dedicated to the right to education. From the sample taken for the five -year period
(2012-2015) 333 newspaper headlines were published regarding education in Ghana.
Of these, the Ghanaian Times had a bigger number of the headlines whilst the Daily
Guide has just a handful in the contents as compared. Some headlines blended facts and comments on right to education matters, analysing reality and its implications without necessarily attempting to present education as human right.
Themes in the headlines were mostly on personalities especially government officials and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) who were supporting education because they wanted to exhibits their philanthropist works or to earn political points with no regard to the promotion of the right to education were also recorded.
However, generally there were limited headlines that pointed out the right to education and how Ghanaian would understand it as their fundamental human rights just like the right to vote. During the period under review there were seven opinions and letters in the two newspapers on the right to education. The study aimed at analysing the contents of the Ghanaian newspapers to see how their headlines contain the right to education themes that promote the subject matter in Ghana. This study applied the qualitative approach to answer the questions raised in chapter one. The sample size was 200 copies of newspaper editions selected during 2012 to 2015
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This chapter presents findings in the headlines of the two newspapers contents. These findings are presented in accordance with objectives of the study. The results of the content analysis are presented below by way of tables and narrative format. The chapter begins by highlighting the aim of the study and how data was collected. The right to education headlines in the newspapers are coloured green for clarity and emphasis.
4.1 The Aim of the Study
The aim of this study is to analyse the contents of The Ghanaian Times and Daily
Guide newspapers to determine how their headlines promote the right to education in
Ghana.
4.2 How Data was collected
The main sources of data for this study were copies of the two newspapers selected for this study (The Ghanaian Times, Daily Guide). It was to see the right to education themes, frequency, placement, and editorials dedication of the headlines. The secondary data was collected in order to achieve the above stated objectives in chapter one. Copies of the newspapers on relevant existing literature on a topic researched from 2012 to 2015 to analyse how newspapers promoted the right to education. The data collected for this study were from headlines of feature, news and editorial using the headlines to indicate relevant stories on the right to education published in the
Ghanaian Times and the Daily Guide from September 2012 to December 2015.
The textual data were available at the, Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), Jayee
University College (JUC), Marine Railways and Port Department‟s collection and
Daily Guide libraries of newspapers in Accra as well as from friends who had collection of selected newspapers. The 2015 papers were collected from the Marine
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Railways and Ports Department of the Ghana Police Service Orderly Room in Tema.
On the other hand the 2011 to 2015 newspapers were obtained from Jayee University
College Bemile Library in Accra from 7th March, 2015 to 10th April, 2015.
The choice for these newspaper publications was hinged on coverage or distribution and the prestige these newspapers have in the Ghanaian print media. The reason stems from the fact that all the newspapers have gained some prestige among Ghanaians and have quite a large audience. Public documents the researcher looked through the newspapers to see the themes used in the headlines of their editorial, news and feature to see if they used the themes such as Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education
(FCUBE); school feeding programs, and free school uniforms, access to education and quality education. The researcher further looked at the entire newspapers copies to see if they position the right to education headlines at important places in the pages.
The editorial was targeted because it is the opinion of the entire newspapers showing the importance attached to issues placed there. Similarly the researcher relied on the notion that issues that are given specific columns and positions in newspapers show the importance the editors attach to them.
4.3 Presentation of Data on Daily Guide and Ghanaian Times Newspapers
With reference to the selected newspapers, 200 editions were selected purposively conveniently. What follows is a description of the results got and a thematic or narrative based on the publications of contents in the newspapers selected. The following tables present the data on the right to educations themes, frequency with which they appeared in the newspapers, the headlines of editorials and the positions where those headlines were placed. All headlines appeared to have the right to
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educations themes in the tables are coloured green for easy identification of the subject matter in the analysis.
4.4. Data collected on Daily Guide and Ghanaians Times in the year 2015
representing:
The right to education theme in the headlines
Frequency with which they appear
Positions the right to education headlines was placed
editorial headlines on the right to education
All the above information is captured in the table below labelled as table 4.4(a) and
4.4(b) respectively. It could be observe that the Daily Guide„s first quarter of the year saw 7 headlines being recorded on education. There were positioned in the top, top right, middle bottom left. No editorial headline was on the right to education. Only one headline title NDC free SHS costs Ghana 38 was found with the right to education headline
Table 4.4a: Daily Guide: 2015
Headlines Placement Frequency 1. Bilingual School Gets e-Learning Friday September 18,2015 7 Centre. pg. Top 2. Ghc, 20000 Computer Labs for Wednesday, April18, 2015 Top Kumado Basic School. Right. 3. NDC Free SHS Costs GHC 38. of page 16 Tuesday,October27,2015 Middle 4. K‟dua Poly Students Demo Hits. 5. SHS Repeats Final Year Students. Tuesday, March31,2015 6. WASCEE Student Fights Over page 7 of December 19,2014 Boyfriend. Bottom Left 7. Ho POTAG Goes Wild. Top
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The Daily Guide also recorded 7 headlines across all the quarterly divisions under review. Here, a headline captures with the following words „capitation fails to abolish basic education school charges, was found as one with the right to education themes.
In terms of placements the Bottom, Top, bottom right and, bottom left were covered.
Table 4.4b: Ghanaian Times: 2015
Headline Placement Frequency
1ST QUARTER 11 1. Bed Bugs Attack Fijai School. Page15 of Wednesday March 4,2015 Bottom 2. SHS Students Caught Smoking. Monday, July 27 Page 10 Bottom Left 3. Student Defrauds Black Star Page 17 Player. Bottom Left
2ND QUARTER 4. Second Lady Urge‟s Patronage Education Column Page 14 of of litrants. Friday, October 30,2015 Top
5. Sekondi Hosts Breasts Cancer Bottom Quiz for Schools. 7. KNUST College of Engendering honours firm. PG 8 Feature Pages 13 of 8. First Private Medical School March. Established. Monday16 20 15 Education ICT and The Third Educational Page Top Wave.9. Capitation Fails to Abolish Basic PageTop 17 Top Let‟sSchool Make Charges. Examination Valid-Prof pageRight 23 Wednesday top August 5, Fletcher.10. Ghana Glorifies Paper page2015Pg. 18 8Page Monday, 15 June 29,2015 AsanteQualification Akim-Rev Central Mensah Steps Boye. Up featureBottom top Education11. NUGS Promotion.Suspends President. EducationMonday, November Column Page 23, 201513 of Give Opportunities to Children 6/29/15page 17 Without Gender BAIS. FeatureBottom TopRight Ministry, GSA Launches ASHI Middle Education Programme. 2nd Education page 14 COTVET Youth Employment Top Study Landed. Middle 3RD QUATER Bottom. Impact of New Educational Education Column Page 14 of Technologies in the Classroom. Thursday, May 21,2015 Add First Aid to Basic Education Top Curriculum. Bottom Left ENACHS Wins Community Bottom70 Left Service Award. Bottom Left MP Rewards SHS Student. Education Column of TEWU to Help Ensure Free SHS, Thursday July 28,2015 Quality Education. Top University of Education,Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh
4.5 Data collected on Daily Guide and Ghanaians Times in the year 2014
representing:
The right to education theme in the headlines
Frequency with which they appear
Positions the right to education headlines was placed
editorial headlines on the right to education
The Daily Guide had 4 headlines on the right to education out of 16 headlines on education through the year in question. It had two in the first quarter, 7 in the third quarter and 5 in the 1st quarter. The headlines were scattered in all the positions of the newspapers expect in the front and back pages which did not have education headline.
Table 4.5a: Daily Guide: 2014
Headlines Placement Frequency 1ST Quarter 18 1. Bolga SHS students‟ Dies. pg 14 Friday November. 2. Achina SHS students sleep in the open. 3. Teacher hiding behind Islamic school to page 20 cut work. 4. So free SHS is not a ruse? Wednesday Dec 3, 2014 pg4 editorial 5. Education no more a right? PAGE 14, Dec 3. Top 2ND QUARTER 6. Asebu schools scores 100% Page 20 Tuesday November 27, 2014. top 7. No cash, chalk, notebooks. Teachers go Front page Tuesday wild! Dec 5, 2014. Bottom Left Tuesday October 28 8. Ashanti schools observes sanitation day ,Dec,2014 Bottom 9. Enchi college of education principal Page 13 Thursday exposed November 20, 2014. Bottom 3RD QUARTER 10. Wisconsin university exposed facilities Page 20 Wednesday
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October 29.2011. Bottom 11. Students nurses cries over unpaid page 12 Tuesday 2014 allowances left. Top 12.Mfantsipimclocks138yeras pg. 20 Thursday November, 11 2014 Top right 13. K- poly plunged to darkness. page 20, November 11 2014 bottom left 4TH QUARTER 14. Winneba varsity campus for Krobo. page 13 Wednesday nov,19 2014 Bottom 15. 2439 graduates from UPSA Page 20 Wednesday. Bottom 1.6. Public relations to free SHS Page 26 Thursday Dec.4 2014 article Top. 17.School feeding cateress goes wild pg. 20 Monday, Monday June 30, 2014 Top left.
The Ghanaian Times reordered 38 headlines on education only three out of the number were found to be on the right to education. All the positions were represented with a headline no editorial headlines captured the right to education. In all only 2 headlines were found to have the right to education. Headlines were placed in all positions of the papers except that both back and front pages were not represented with a headline .no headlines with right to education was dedicated to editorial of the newspaper.
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Table 4.5b: The Ghanaian Times: 2014
Headline Placement Frequency
1ST QUARTER 38 1. More Health Science for Varsity of Page 14 educations Health and Allied Science. Top.
2. Motivate Teachers in Deprived Areas- Page 14education top. Head Teachers. Bottom.
3. Ve-Lukusi citizens assist Afadjato South GES. page 4 bottom 4. Pentecost University College Admits 90 Page 13 education Graduates‟ Students. Top.
2ND QUARTER
5. WAEC Releases WASCEE results. bottom right
6. Meridian Pre -University Distance Itself page 14 education from MUC. Top
7. Kofi Anan to Grace MOBA Awards of 8/19/14 Night. page 16 bottom right 8. Works on Nyanoa Community SHS page 16 page 14 education Progress. page 23 Top 9. Poly administration appeal to FWSC. middle
10. SCEF Supports E-syllabus. Bottom
11. Minister Bemoan Academic Decline. Bottom left.
12. Varsities Asked to Set Up Ebola Bottom left. Screening Centres. 13. Link Education with Job Market-Naa Abdul. 14. Pennell Preparatory School Holds Graduation. 15. UCC to construct distance Learning College at Serejiri. 16. Seek Admission Into Accredited Institutions.
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3RD QUATEER
17. Higher Education Forum Held at Cape Coast. 18. UCC Encourages Teachers to Upgrade Themselves. 19. Accra Poly Admits More Students.
20. Government Urged to Partner Private Schools. 21. Work Starts at Barbianko SHS.
22. Bishop Daly Anglican School Awards Students. 23. Wesley Grammar School Holds 58th Middle Speech Day. 4TH QUARTER 24. Ga South Parents Demand Quality Food. page 13 of 10/1/14 Top
25. UPSA Gets New Governing Body. page 14 of 10/1/14 14 bottom 26. Parent‟s Negligence Causing School bottom left Dropout. 27.106 CBE Volunteers Undergo bottom right Training. 28. Mfantsiman Girls‟ Wings Drama Top Festival.
29. Sewhi Wiaso Chiefs Pledges Land for middle Technical Institute.
30. UDS Summer School On Research education page 14 Opens. bottom left
31. Mp‟s Wants Lazy Teachers Punished. page 18 top 32. Reading Contest Held In Tema. page 13 of education12/1/14 33. Ho Poly POTAG calls for probe. bottom left
34. Domaa Central Hold Education top Forum. 35. GES Indicted Over Poor Reading middle Ability. 36. Teach Education for National bottom Development. 37. Ho Poly To Open Satellite Campus. page 17 top 38. NAGRATS Holds Promotion Seminar for Teachers.
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4.6 Data collected on Daily Guide and The Ghanaian Times in the year 2013
representing:
The right to education theme in the headlines
Frequency with which they appear
Positions the right to education headlines was placed
editorial headlines on the right to education
The table below shows that the Ghanaian Times in 2013 recorded 30 headlines on education. a headline captioned „2 pregnant girls write BECE exams‟ appears to be the best headline with the right to education theme because of the nature of the teams direct correlations with the right to education. The Girl-child, who is pregnant, allowed to write exams, is one of the teams that best promotes the right to education among Ghanaians. Most of the headlines were also placed in the middle positions of the newspaper.
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Table 4.6a Ghanaian Times: 2013
Headlines Placement Frequency 1st Quarter 30 1. Mount Crest University Page 11 Gets Rector. 2.18 Student‟s Collapse at Page 6 march Agonna. 3. Students Peak Down. Page 7 of March Thursday 7,2013 4. Collapse of Health Page 19 Science Records- Staff. bottom left 5.Student Killer Caged Pg.4 bottom left 6. Jealous Man Shoots Students at Dompoase. page 10 bottom 7. Students Storm Naval Page 15 Base. top left
8.Bungalow for Wesley Development agenda page. Girls Headmistress 9. School Feeding in no Page 19 fit. Bottom left. 10. Students Pelts Teacher with Stones. page 15 of march1/2013 11. Newmont Gives Solar top right Lamp to students. 12. Students Trained to bottom right fight Fire. 13. Thug‟s Attack page 17 Students in Saboba. top left
2ND QUARTER 14.Female Trainee top left page 13 of Teacher Angry Over Wednesday, May 1,2013 Sexual Harassment 15. NIIT/NUNU Sports page 15 Scholarship Programme middle Underway. 16. Students Write Exams bottom right Bare Footed. 17. Pupils Escape Death. top 18.Woman Boils JSS middle Students 19.Fire Stops Legon bottom right Exams
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20.Truck Run Over middle Teacher 21. Boy Drink Poison bottom right Over School Fees. 22.I Married at School bottom left 23. Teacher 55 Raped. bottom right 24. Students Get 7 Years bottom left for Defilement. 25. ASEC Old Students top left Donate to Alma Mater. 26. DUC Supports AU bottom left Inter Schools 27. President Takes Over top left School Toilet Facility. 28.2 Pregnant Girls Write bottom left BECE Exams. 29.2 Teachers Nabbed for middle Exams Fraud in Kumasi. 30. Volta Varsity Land Top Owners Cry Fowl.
3RD QUARTER Page 17 of Monday 31. Teacher Chops September 2/2013. 23 Students Exams Fees. 32.Mfantsipim Hits 137 Bottom Year 33.Implement Childhood page 15 of Tuesday Development Policy september,3/2013 top left 34. Children Advocate Long Vacation Camp. bottom left 35. UHA Donates Brain Machine to Volta page 19 Hospitals. bottom left bottom 36. Techiman Holds Girl left page 15 Child Education Forum. 37. Young Scientist September 4 Undergoes Training. top left
38. KNUST Student Dies page 2 of from Poison. top left 39. Old Students Support left Nkakaw SHS. 40.School Has No Toilet page 16 top left 41.Lancaster Varsity page 18 Opens bottom left
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Ghana Campus.
42.7 Pregnant Girl‟s Write page 6 of march July 1/20 BECE in Suyani. 13 top left 43. Lutheran School Assist Osu Home. October 29,2013 top 44.Aburamean SHS Gets page 11 Science Lab. 45. Compassion page 17 of Thursday July International Gives Shoe 2,2013 to Kids. Top Left 46. Hull University Partners Zion College. page 16 bottom 47. Suyani Poly register bottom left probed.
48. Girl‟s Child Academic bottom right Performance Encouraged. 49. Furniture for left of July 24 Ashaiman schools. Top
50. Takoradi Poly ABL Top Signs MOU. 51. Ho Student Killer page Thursday august 27, Nabbed. 2013 bottom left
4th Quarter page 20 of Friday 52. Mfantsipim as a november1,2013 Brand? 53. Poly Administration Angry Over Single Spine. top 54. EOCO summons 30 page 6 page 6 of teachers over 100,000 November 8 frauds. right
55. Ghana missed MDG page 10 page 16 on education. bottom left
56. K‟si special school in middle left debt crisis. 57. Volta Students Receive page 17 Laptops. top left
58. President Condemns Bottom. UDS School of Hygiene.
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59.Graduates Angry page 19 Studied for Fun-Mariam bottom right Osei. 60. Be Serous With Your Bottom Left Studies-NCCE. 61.Kuffor Schools Monday, Dec 12, 2013 Appeals for Improved page 17 Sanitation Top 62.Mahama is Collapsing Education page 18 Middle
Daily Guide recorded 32 headlines on education. 4 was on the right to education n. the middle position of the newspaper recorder majority of the headline being placed there, there was no editorial headline dedicate to the right to education in the whole year‟s editions.
Table 4.6b Daily Guide: 2013
Headline Placement Frequency
1. Get fund abandons Ghanaian students abroad. 1st Quarter 2. Amend get fund law to benefit NVTI 32 3. Keta snr. High school is 60yreas. TOP 4. Discourage wards from trading. 5. All is set for WASCE 2013. 6.63 old Achimotans Assist Almer mater. 7. UEW Revises Internship Programme. 8.Padmore School Battles Lunatics 9. Don‟t Sack Pregnant Girls from School. 2ND QUARTER
10. UEW Review Performance in Education. 11. Adenta Basic School Receive Desks. Bottom Right 12. RMU Turns out 228 New Graduates. 13. Kpon Schools Receive Assistance. 14. Avail Yourself for Upgrading by Distance. Top right 15.somotex presents prize to students 16. Reviews Education System. 17. Regent University Holds Congregation. 18. Moe receives computers for teachers. 19. Babilomeon basic school gets new classroom.
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3RD QUARTER
20. Gov‟t Committed to Education in Mining Communities. 21. Assist Teachers to Bring the Best of top left Students. 22. Two Institutions Signs MOU to Train Students-Education Minister. 23. Government Committed to Polies for Skills Middle Dev. 24. NLA Gives to Lawra Training School.
25. Public, Private Partnership in Education 4TH Advocated. QUARTER
26. Target hard areas to reach areas ibis. 27. Intervention children day ends. Middle 28. Don‟t limit learning to only books. 29. Don‟t focus only on get fund. 30. Mamapong Akuapem School for the Deaf Bottm Right needs computer lab. 31. Improve school environment for quality education. 32.1700 children begin literacy class in north.
4.8. Data collected on Daily Guide and The Ghanaians Times in the year 2012
representing:
The right to education theme in the headlines
Frequency with which they appear
Positions the right to education headlines was placed
editorial headlines on the right to education
In 2012 Daily Guide had six educational headlines first quarters had two which were found to be on the right to education. The second Quarter had 2 the third quarter had shared each which did not represent the right to education theme. The fourth quarter had one headline with the right to education. No editorial headline was seen
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Table 4.8a: Daily Guide: 2012
Headlines Placement Frequency 1st Quarter nil 31 2ND QUARTER
1. Jomoro Chief Rescues Page 17 of Wednesday Needy Students. ,March bottom right 2. School Nutrition page 18,19 2012 Projects Launched. top left 3RD QUATER 3. Students Promotes Arts Page 8 of Wednesday Industry. ,July4,2012 top left 4. Medical Students Page 19 Support Sexual Health. bottom right 5. Pupils and Holidays. 4th Quarter Page 13 bottom left 6.MP Pilot Free SHS Page 10 of Thursday, November 1,2012 top
Ghanaian Times recorded 26 educational headlines. 4 were found to be with the right to education themes. All positions in the newspapers had a headline on education.
Only back page and front pages was not represented with a headline which incidentally happens to be an important position in the newspaper.
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Table 4.8b: The Ghanaian Times: 2012
Headline Placement Frequency 1ST Quarter 1. Minister Supports ICT 26 Centre 2. Stop Charging Illegal page14 of January 3,2012 Fees. 3.79 Students Offered top right Scholarship. 4. K‟Poly Award B.Tech top left Degree. 5. Computerised Admission middle into SHS some basic truths. pg. 8 of January, 2012 Feature story. top 6. Graduate to be Enlarged Pg14 education by MMDAS-minister. Middle 7. Minister fetes 500 teach Pg. 13 of Friday invest in children education. Feb24,2012 Bottom 8. Finatrade awards left Page 14 scholarship to students. Top 9. BBS-Too 270-brest feeds Page 17 code Bechem. bottom 10.Three Chairs for WAEC; Page 9 feature article top 11. Three Chairs for UCC. bottom 12. Salvation Army Top right Teachers Schooled on Child Welfare. 13.„Rethinking the Teachers top Reward in Heaven Concept‟ 14. Poor BECE Results are top a Challenge to Teachers. 15. Prestea Huni-Valley Top Right Honours 30 Teachers. 16. Catholic University Bottom Left. Holds Congregation. 17. Address Poor Bottom. Performance in Basic Education. 18. All Nations Varsity Bottom Partners Canadian schools. 19. Aburi JHS gets news Bottom classroom block. 20. Government Expands Bottom right. Access to Secondary Page 14 education
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Education. top 21. Supper Lock Adopts Page 13 education page Oyibi Junior High School. of3/1/12. Middle 22.Giff Supports 14 Bottom right Institutions with ghc185.8m 23.Ho Holy Spirit Page 14 Preparatory Honours middle Spelling -Bee Hero 24. Give Institute of Page 15 Accountancy Autonomy. top
25. Female Students Urged Pg16 to Pursue Science Subjects. bottom
26. Mankoadze College Page 14 education column Appeals for Supports. top of 3/1/28/12
4thQUARTER
4.9 Identified headlines with the right to education themes
The headlines with the right to education themes as shown in the above table are presented below
1. NDC free SHS costs ghc38.
2. SHS repeats final year students.
3. Capitation fails.
4. Parents‟ negligence causing school dropout.
5. School feeding is not feet.
6. Pupil drink poison over school fees.
7. Pregnant girls write BECE
8. Techiman holds girl child education forum.
9. Pregnant girls write BECE in Suyani.
10. Girl child academic performance encourages.
11. Gov‟t committed to education in mining communities.
12. Jomoro chief resources needy students.
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13. MP pilots free SHS.
14. Government expands access to secondary education.
15. Female students urged to pursue science subjects.
16. Produce budgets must scrap extras school.
17. Talensi-Nabdam takes steps to abolish school under trees.
18. Education demands participation approach- Mould Iddrisu.
19. GES permits church to establish schools.
20. Action aide Ghana organises camp for girls.
21. Place emphasis on early child hood education.
4.10 Conclusions
This Chapter has been presented with the data collected in the newspapers in a tabular form to indicate right to education themes in the headlines, the frequency with which they appeared, the positions they were placed and number of editorials dedications both newspapers gave to the right to education headlines. It can be seen that only 21 headlines were found to contain the right to education themes such as Girl - child school feeding, quality education, and access to education. Few headlines touched on
FCUB and school feeding.
On editorial dedications only 3 headlines were dedicated to the right to education in both newspapers which two of them were found in the Daily Guide which is a private newspaper and Ghanaian Times had 1 pointing to the right to education. It is clear that the Ghanaians Times which is a national newspaper had more of the number of headlines with right to education themes the researcher deduced that they were reporting on education from the need based with little attention on the right based.
The next chapter five deals with the full analysis and discussion of the data presented in this chapter.
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CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
5.0 Introduction
Having presented the results from the selected newspapers on the right to education themes in the headlines of the newspapers in the previous chapter, the researcher now focuses on the discussions of the interpretation of those results. The study was conducted to show how the newspapers covered the right to education in the headlines of their reportage in order to create a shared understanding of viewing education as human rights in Ghana. In covering these fundamental rights of citizens in the newspapers, the headlines examined were mainly found in the Daily Guide and the
Ghanaian Times news, opinion and editorials to create awareness on the right to education with the purpose of adding knowledge necessary to take action on the subject matter.
The fact that almost all the headlines were not with right to education themes is an evidence of the gap in right to education coverage of newspaper media in Ghana.
There is the possibility that in presenting headlines on the right to education from the lens of the newspapers whose house style is not to set agenda on the right to education in the case of the Daily Guide newspapers reportage could be reason why most
Ghanaians are not aware of education as human right. Nonetheless, such headlines did not provide a feeling of shared understanding of the right to education to Ghanaians.
This section presents the analysis and discussion on headlines in the Daily Graphic and The Ghanaian Times to elicit the right to education themes, frequency with which they appeared, positions they were placed, and editorial dedications to see whether they promoted right to education among Ghanaians. In this section, results of the data
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collected are analysed and discussed paying attention to the four variables outlined in the research questions - the right to education themes, the positions they were placed, frequency with which they appeared and the editorial headlines dedicated to the right to education. The discussion also looks at other relevant areas like the positions where the headlines were placed to make the study more holistic.
5.1. Brief Analysis on the Newspaper Contents from 2012-2015
From the tables in chapter four a total number of 333 education headlines were seen in both newspapers covering the period 2012 to 2015. However, 21 right to education themes were identified in both newspapers Daily Guide newspaper had 88 and the
Ghanaian Times recorded 245 during the period 2012 to 2015.
Below is an over view of data collected. Table 4.4a Daily Guide 7 education headlines, 1 on right to education no editorial headline. In Table 4.4b The Ghanaian
Times 11 headlines on education, only one on the right to education. Table 4.5a Daily
Guide had 17 headlines on education with 5 on the right to education, no editorial headline on education or the right to education. „Capitation grant fails to abolish basic school changes‟ 4.5b 38 headlines on the education, 4 on the right to education.
In table 4.6a headlines on education like students write exams bare footed was difficult to categorise as right to education because of the non-clarity of the theme.
Here, 62 educational headlines were found in The Ghanaian Times of 2013. However, only 4 rights to education were recorded during the same period.
At 4.6b Daily Guide recorded 32 headlines on education 4 of them were on right to education. The middle position of a newspaper recoded most of the position in the newspapers. No headline on editorial of the newspapers.
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In 4.7a 6 Educational headlines out of which 3 right to education headlines with no editorial headlines on education and on the right to education. The 4.7b had 26 headlines on education, 5 rights to education, no education headline or editorial.
5.2 RQ1: How frequent do Ghanaian Times and Daily Guide newspapers report on the right to education?
In 2014 Daily Guide had 38 headlines as against 61 in Ghanaian Times. Ghanaian
Times recorded 32 in 2013 as against 12 in Daily Guide. The year 2012 saw Daily
Guide recording 6 headlines on education. The first research question sought to find out how frequent the Ghanaians Times and the Daily Guide newspapers reported on the right to education issues in the number of editions they published from 2012-2015.
The tables provided in chapter four indicate the number of times the papers published education related headline for the period. It also captures the number of editorial headlines on the subject matter as well as headlines on the right to education in the news and features. It finally captures the positions and the themes this headlines were placed. In all only 21 out of the 333 headlines were identified with themes on the right to education.
In 2012, from the table(4.4a) page 58 the Ghanaian Times published 7 times on education but carried 2 the right to education headline and 5 education headlines while the Daily Guide published 11 times with 2 education headlines out of which 2 the right to education headlines was reordered.
Together the two papers published 333 times with 21 the right to education. Both newspapers just carried 21of the right to education headlines in relation to the number of times they published. By looking at the themes on the right to education headlines
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published by the two newspapers it can be said that it was not much enough to promote the subject matter.
While the Ghanaian Times had 91 headlines placed at the top right and 42 at the bottom right 81 was placed in various positions in the entire newspapers. Both newspapers covered insignificantly of the right to education which were scattered through the pages respectively.
From table1 (b) the Daily Guide had 311 editions with 12 on the right to education, only 5 headlines were found in bottom right and top left positions. While Daily Guide published 310 times with 94 Right to Education headlines scattered in all the newspapers positioned and 48 headlines at the middle of the pages. Together the two papers published 21 times with 11 the right to education headlines on top of respective pages through entire collection. Both newspapers just carried small of the right to education headlines in relation to the number of times they published.
When compared the frequency with which the right to education headlines appeared in the newspapers, it can be said that it was not much. The papers had 106 education headlines, 68 were on the right with 38 placed in other pages in the newspapers other than front pages ,centres spread and back pages. The papers covered only few of education headlines. The figures as reported by the papers showed an increase of the right to education headlines respectively in the number of headlines in 2012 to 2013.
At the same time the report from Ghanaian Times for 2012 also showed an increase in both education and the right to education headlines. The right to education went up. It is therefore understandable when the headlines published by the Ghanaian Times
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newspaper went up because they have a specific column on education sometimes two pages with two being least headlines and maximum four headlines.
From table1 (c), it showed that there were more number of publications than the previous years, the number of the right to education headlines published reduced.
Ghanaian times reduced from 53 in 2012 to 34 in 2013 while Daily Guide‟s to 88 from 106. It was also evident that the right to education headlines reduced. In the report, it reduced from 38 in 201 to 29 in 2013.
During the four years the table 1(d), under discussion the two newspapers published a total of 1871 editions 200 editions were to be used but it fell short to 180 because of the 20 copies of Daily Guide which was not accessed by the researcher after strenuous efforts in doing so. The Ghanaian Times came out with 38 making up of the 23 Daily
Guide published. There were 25 education headlines and 12 the right to education headlines for the five year period.
The study also found out that though the Daily Guide; a privately owned newspaper published less of the right to education headlines the state owned newspaper Ghanaian
Times which has more correspondents across the country the latter‟s reportage did not present education as a human rights to Ghanaians. The Daily Guide published a total of 70 education headlines against 44 by the Ghanaian Times.
Daily Guide came out with 42 headlines of the right to education headlines as against
43 by The Ghanaian Times which is respectively The Ghanaian Times report gave the number of the right to education for the five year period at 333 respectively. However what both papers reported in there headlines on the same issues were just few of the
Daily Guide report on the right to education. On the same issues, they published just
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few. For the 333 headlines between the two papers, Daily Guide reported 44 times and Ghanaian times reported 32 times. The study found out that some of the headlines promoted education but did not show it as a human rights aside the positions of least prominent they were placed.
In most headlines, the indications were that someone or institutions are helping and individual or a particular group to achieve education at some leveller. Even when government was linked to education it appeared government was supporting but did not position it as a duty bearer who should provide and ensure at least people have access to quality education as a matter of human right.
The study observed that the Daily Guide did not allocate specific pages to education or the right to education headlines as they do with political and business news. The stories were spread in the pages. Some few headlines found prominent on front pages of the papers to do not show the importance or the seriousness of the offence.
A headline may indicate education in general but not contained the right to education theme or point to subject matter as human rights. For instance Daily Guide (April, 30,
2012) showed that the headline did not depict the right to education as the human rights indicators were not present. For the year 2012 bottom positions of the newspapers recorded 3 headlines with the bottom left positions also recording 3. The top right had 1, middles also 1 and bottom right had 2. Over all 35 headlines on the education in general was reported however, none of the stories were found to be on the right to education. The year 2015, recorded 21 headlines on education in the first quarter i.e. January to March of the year under review.
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5. 3 RQ2. Themes on the Right to Education in the Headlines of the Newspapers
Which right to education themes run through the education headlines in the Ghanaian
Newspapers? The second research question (RQ2) sought to find out which themes run through the educational headlines in the newspapers. Themes were put out in order to see if their focus was on the right to education. Subsequently, five themes were therefore selected based of similarity and the focus of the headlines on education as human rights. The themes selected were access to education, Quality education,
Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), Girl Child, and School
Feeding. Access to education was chosen as a theme based on the fact that it points to one indicator of right- based approach to education.
5.4 Positions of the Right to Education Headlines in the Newspapers
RQ3 What positions in the Ghanaian newspapers are the right to education headline placed in terms of pages in the editions. The positions as in centre spread, front page and back page. In all there were 333 education headlines recorded in both newspapers. The Ghanaian times took more than half of the headlines. Out of these
164 was place at bottom left and top right and the rest spread over.
The Ghanaian Times recording 102 times in a scattered form across the entire newspapers whiles the Daily Guide had 21 times of the total number of the right to education issues respectively. It was evident from the headlines that both newspapers did not dedicate their editorial to the right to education.
The right to education headlines cut across all areas of the positions in the newspaper pages. They were not limited to specific columns except in the Ghanaian Times which sometimes had two pages on education. Other headlines that were in positions other than the centre spread.
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One thing noted about positions of headlines on the education in the newspapers pages were that except those on a column as in page 13 and 14 or 14 and 15 in the case of Ghanaian Times all other positions did not see them at the prominent positions in the newspapers. Bottom positions numbered 70 out of the 333 headlines representing minute of education related themes. Bottom positions were the third highest on the continuum.
Though bottom came in third position, it is very high considering the respect to the number of times and how easier for readers to read top and bottom stories than in the middles. When one considers the number of bottom headlines involved, they could have taken the first position comparing if bottom right and bottom lefts did not form a distinct position. With FCUBE they have full components of education as human rights and form the core of right based approach to education. It was also observed that most of the headlines on education did not incorporate these themes. The theme of school feeding was scanty considering the number of headlines in education columns in the case of Ghanaian Time‟s reportage and in development and gender columns in the case of Daily Guide which places most of its education stories.
In all there were 110 headlines published in the news out of the 333 headlines in the
Ghanaian Times that involved education. The feature column recorded the total headlines with right to education in the editorial reported by the newspapers. Though they had good number of headlines on education in the opinions and letters column they did not much up to that on the news.
One headline “give opportunity to children without gender bias” was seen as having a theme on the right to education in the paper. Under the year another headline „SFL targets 1800 out of school children‟ was seen to promote the right to education.
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In terms, of placement, no story was placed on the centre spread where most important issues are placed in a newspaper. The Daily Guide according to the above table recorded seven headlines on education, three out of this was on the right to education, and one headline was placed on top of page 19. No headline on education was found in the centre spread, or the back page. The headlines did not show
Ghanaians that education is human rights. In 2015 January, February and March the
Daily Guide reported 2 stories on education.
It recorded 1 from April, May to June for the second quarter. Three stories were reported in the third quarter comprising July, august, September. The fourth quarter;
October, November and, December fifteen stories were reported. Daily Guide had no page, column on the right to education neither did it have an editorial on the right to education. Daily Guide has maximum of 25 pages with most copies ranging from 24 to 25 pages. Daily Guide has a column on education however stories did not point directly to education as human rights. Some editions had nothing on education at all.
For The Ghanaian Times 3 headlines were recorded on the right to education during the first quarter January - March. During April - June being the 2nd quarter of the year 2015 less number of headlines were reordered on the subject matter. However,
23 stories were reordered in the third quarter which is July - September. The fourth quarter of the same year saw just two stories on education.
The Ghanaian Times have a whole page dedicated to education stories. Sometimes two pages were dedicated to education. No headline in the editorial was on education front page has nothing on education comes was on the right to education. None was also seen in the back pages. However, some education Headlines were found in the middle pages.
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The front pages of the newspaper did not feature education related stories therefore never tackled right to education. As a matter of house style the Ghanaian Times also had a maximum of 31 pages per editions copy whilst few editions copies were 24 to
28 pages. It was deducted through observations that the paper writes more on education with little emphasis on the rights to education. Hence they did not use clear themes for a reader to tell how education is human rights. No editorial headline was dedicated to right to education.
Some centre headline was on education however not clearly promoting education as a human right. It has a column on education. In 2013 education stories were only placed at education column. No headline on education or the right to education was given a front page as a banner headline. In some cases education story was not found in a copy. As usual two pages were dedicated to education.
From January to March 2013 8 headlines were reported on education with the following headlines; “get fund abandoned Ghanaian students abroad”. April to June
10 headlines was reordered. Similarly 6 six headlines on education was recorded whiles October to December saw (8) headlines. Ghanaian Times had a page dedicated to education with columns purposely on the same issues only. In the same year 2013 education headlines were only placed at a page known as education column. No headline on education was given a banner headline on the front page. In some cases education headlines was missing in some editions. The Ghanaian Times were able to dedicate two pages to education. Some of their headlines were found in centre spread.
Surprisingly in 2012 the Daily Guide reported few headlines on education throughout the year where education received serious attention in the Ghanaian society as a result
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of the political campaign for election 2012. In the second quarter of the year 2012
Daily Guide January edition did not report on a single issue on education.
5.5 Editorial Headlines with the right to education themes in the Newspapers
RQ4. How often are the editorials of Ghanaian newspapers dedicated to the right to education? Table 3 in chapter four is on identification of editorial headlines, the right to education theme, no of time the right to education headline appeared. Based on above facts that the researcher sought to use the research question (RQ3.) to find out whether the papers published the right to education headlines in the prominent positions in the pages as in RQ2. None of the editorial of the newspapers edition dedicated a headline to the right to education.
From table 2, the researcher sought to find out the editorial dedication of the right to education headlines published by the newspapers. It was observed that there were only two editorial headlines in the Daily Guide for all the five years period. These were not placed neither in the front page nor the back pages. Because the headlines were not placed in the prominent places in the newspapers, for the purpose of this study the researcher described that no agenda was set to promote the right to educations by the newspapers.
In all there were 21 headlines from the Ghanaian Times while the remaining 11 were published by the Daily Guide. Daily Guide published 26 headlines scatted in all pages of the newspapers pages of the total number while Ghanaian times did 42 headlines of the total. When it came to positioning of headlines at the centre spread Daily Guide published 83 out of 333 total numbers with Ghanaian Times taking up the remaining
257 headlines. Here again all the 333 headlines published by the newspapers were used in the discussion.
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The papers published 47 education headlines on the right to education as against 26 in
Ghanaian Times and the rest in Daily Guide However, none of them showed educations as human right in their headlines.
Again, the 47 in Ghanaian Times and the 26 of Daily Guide formed the right to neither education headlines in the newspapers respectively were not placed in either front page nor the back pages positions believed in the newspaper publication as important. The study found out that all newspapers reported from the need based or who can afford point hence the element or themes of the right to education were missing in most cases when the headlines are picked from the right to education view or have the ability they did not present it as human rights to the readers.
They could have had a column on the right to education to at least draw reader‟s attention to the subject matter for them to ask questions to promote the issue. Most of the headlines were placed in positions where the readers do not spend time watching. for instance The Ghanaian Times had a maximum of forty six pages so stories in the
20th pages are not touched and the places in middle pages but not what is refers to as centre spread are flipped over. The newspapers did not set agenda nor employed social responsibility theory of the media to promote the right to education hence though they promoted education they did not make people aware that the subject matter was a human rights.
Because human rights field is a news or grey area the journals, editors, and the print media houses did not have knowledge on the subject matter to consider it as pertinent to published on them to promote and protect it. Some of the decision makers of what stories go published and the position that should be placed for greater attention do not think that human rights promotion was necessary for them. For the 333 education
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reported, was without the right to education themes as can be seen from the above tables. Most of the headlines were on provision infrastructural of school going age without explicit by the newspapers.
5.6. Conclusion
The results presented from the selected newspapers on the right to education themes in the headlines of the newspapers in the previous chapter after which the researcher focused on the discussions of the interpretation of those results in this chapter it can be said that the study conducted to show how the newspapers covered the right to education in the headlines of their reportage in order to create a shared understanding of viewing education as human rights in Ghana revealed newspapers performs abysmally when it comes to using the right to education themes in their headlines.
Obviously this affected the frequency with which they same subject appear in the papers. It was also observed that only The Ghanaians Times newspapers dedicated editorial headline over the five years to the right to education. Surprisingly Daily
Guide newspaper - political oriented newspaper had a front page headline on education. All other headlines were placed in other position known in the newspaper publication as difficult to notice position.
In covering these fundamental rights of citizens in the newspapers, the headlines examined were mainly based on the informational frame to create awareness on them and the knowledge necessary to take action. The fact that almost all the headlines were not with right to education themes is an evidence of the gap in specialized right to education coverage in the Ghanaian newspaper media. There is the possibility that in presenting headlines on vital right to education from the lens of the newspapers whose house stile is not to set agenda on the right to education in the case of the two
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newspapers reportage could was based on lack of human rights orientations.
Nonetheless, such headlines did not provide a feeling of shared understanding of the right to education to Ghanaians hence couldn‟t have promoted the subject matter hence the unawares of the subject matter as a fundamental human right in Ghana.
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CHAPTER SIX
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND,
RECOMMENDATIONS
6.0 Introduction
We are in a dispensation of promoting and protection of human rights as expected of all signatories of state parties of the United Nations to respect and promote human rights. All over the world states has included human rights and its promotions in their constitutions. Ghana is no exception; it has the 1992 constitution of the Republic of
Ghana which makes provisions in chapter 12 and 5 to respect these rights. There is no doubt that the role of the media in the promotion of human rights cannot be overlooked; same can be said about the newspapers and the promotion of the right to education. The research analyses the contents of the Ghanaian newspapers to see how their headlines promote the right to education in Ghana.
This chapter first discusses the summary of findings from the previous chapter, recommendations and conclusion to the project. The purpose of the study was to find out whether newspapers promoted the right to education through their headlines from
2012 to 2015. The Chapter focused on analysis of data collected using tables to indicate the years, months and editions in quarterly bases as in January –March, April to June, July - September and October –December.
6.1 Summary of Key Findings
This thesis set out to investigate the effects of newspapers headlines with the right to education and how that translate to the promotion of that human rights of Ghanaians it examines the frequency, positions and editorial headlines the newspaper publish and the goal of the researcher is to ensure an increase in the quality and quantity of the
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rights to education reportage by newspapers in Ghana so people will become fully aware of the subject matter in Ghana. It aspired to fill a gap in the literature regarding newspapers and their role in the promotion of the right to education in Ghana to educate citizens about their internationally, nationally, regional and the local constitution enshrined rights on education.
The methodology for the data collection as indicated in the previous Chapter was purposive sampling that involves determining the frequency of reported headlines, position in the pages where headlines were placed, the editorials dedicated to the right to education headlines, and the right to education themes in the daily guide and the
Ghanaian times, from January, 2012 to December, 2015.
Firstly, the selected newspapers were scanned to see headlines on education then skimmed to see if it was on the right to education and its promotion i.e. whether the reportage made people aware that education is their human rights just as right to live and that it should or must be pursed from the right based approach and not the need based approach. Position of Headlines (the front page, centre spread and the back pages) constituting the important places in the newspaper were sought for.
In a particular, the headlines was also checked against the various positions of the newspapers pages - top, top left, top right, bottom, bottom right, bottom left, right, left, middle to indicate the importance attached to the right to education.
That notwithstanding other pages on education headlines was also considered in terms of their placements. In cases where there are multiple headlines in those pages they were recorded as such. Editorial headlines were also reviewed to see if they were in the promotion of the right to education.
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Frequency, placements and the focus on the headline were considered through deductions was made on the headlines via the quantitative on the frequency and placements whiles the headline determinations were done by deduction i.e. qualitative analysis. The researcher analysed the headlines based on the research questions in chapter one.
During the year 2012 to 2015 the data collected on all the selected newspapers were carefully gathered and analysed as follows. The following data gathered from the newspapers excludes foreign, Africa and weekends editions as well as sports and entertainment pages because those pages with its respective columns do not take account of the right to education in Ghana.
In other to achieve these objectives, four research questions were formulated as follows:
i. how do Ghanaian newspaper‟s title of news, features and, editorials on the
right to education in Ghana promotes the subject matter?
ii. which positions do the Ghanaian newspapers place the right to education
stories in their publications?
iii. how frequent do the right to education stories appear in the Ghanaian
newspapers?
iv. how often are the editorials of Ghanaian newspapers dedicated to the right to
education?
Before the researcher adopted the theoretical framework for this study, the researcher read some published works and newspapers. After seeing some shortfalls in those publications, the researcher thought of taking this study by developing the topic, the statement of the problem, reviewed some literature and theories. The research design
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used was the content analysis which sought to look out for some key themes in the headlines. Data was gathered by going through all the editions of the selected newspapers for the period under study. Themes were selected and Microsoft offices excel was used for further analysis.
The first research question sought to find out how frequent the right to education headlines were reported in the two newspapers. It emerged that though they did report on education the human right aspect (the right to education) was less in both newspapers. The newspapers together published 333 headlines on education out of which the headlines on other issues of politics and development for the four year period. The second research question also sought to find out the positions in the pages of the newspapers where the right to education headlines were placed in the newspapers.
It came out that the middle and bottom right pages were observed to have the most headlines in both newspapers. Out of the total of 333, headlines the above position had 164 of the headlines on the subject matter. On the editorial dedication, it emerged that it cut across both newspapers as only one editorial in both newspapers were on the right to education.
On the prominent among the positions which were centre spread. It was realized that political and business issues were placed there while the few education headlines were on the infrastructural and government official‟s inaugurations and visits. With the third research question, the researcher wanted to know whether the newspapers published the themes or the core of the right to education in their headlines.
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It was clear in both newspapers that the core of right to education indicators were not featured because the newspapers business did not set agenda, or take it as their social responsibility or the journalists did not have requisite knowledge on the right to education therefore the right education issues that were published by the papers did not show clearly on the subject matter in a manner that promotes the subject matter. In some cases one had to deduce by using the right to education indicators as FCUBE to be able to tell education is a human right. For the 333 headlines only 26 had some links to the right to education which will create awareness on the right to education published by the newspapers. The data was collected using a coding sheet designed by the researcher for the purpose and the collected data was computed and analysed using tables and the pie chart and used the Microsoft office excel software.
The study was based on content analysis and sought to look out for specific headlines in the newspapers. Busch et al (2012) mentions that content analysis as a tool determines the presence of certain key words in a setup. The researcher therefore used themes like education, human rights, FCUBE, quality education access to education
Girl-child education for all in the headlines. Most of the headlines reported did not have had these themes in them. Again the research established that they contained or captured education but not as a human right and was not their agenda to report on the subject matter. The study found out that the newspapers though had some headlines on education issues; the human rights themes on promotion of the subject matter were very few.
A total of 333 headlines were reported between the two newspapers for the five year period. Unlike politics, sports and business stories, the right to education headline were not assigned specific pages by the newspapers. The headlines were published on
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any of the pages in the Newspapers. The Daily Guide, a private newspaper reported less on the right to education headlines whilst the state-owned Ghanaian times which has correspondents across all the regions had more of the headlines on education.
While the Daily Guide published 44 headlines, the Ghanaian Times published 70 headlines. There were 285 education published by the two newspapers in the year
2013. Both newspapers reported more issues on education at positions other than centre spread, back pages and front pages.
There were 308 issues from The Ghanaian Times and 106 reported by the
Newspapers at bottom in most situations. It also came out that the publications did not set the agenda to create awareness on the fundamental human rights to education recognized by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) article 26 and enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana article 38.
A total of 67 headlines were published in The Ghanaian Times as against by the
Daily Guide in the 2013.
The researcher counted many headlines on education as reported by the two newspapers which confirms Journalists for Human Rights (2007) assertion that journalists do not think human rights reporting was their responsibility there by do not report adequately on to promote the subject matter. Though there some headlines were on education, the majority of the headlines did not have the right to educations themes.
6.2 Conclusion
A total number of two hundred (200) newspaper editions were purposely collected and analyzed during the research. The collection comprised hundred (100) newspaper
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editions each from the Daily Guide and The Ghanaian Times, and analyzed on yearly bases divided into quarters: January to March, April to June, July to September and
October to December. The researcher used the method of convenience to select the sample size.
Conveniently, five copies each from a quarter were selected for the four year periods leading to the researcher to arrive at 200 copies of the selected newspapers editions to form the sample size. The sample procedure for this work to select the sample size was convenient. Conveniently five copies each from a quarter were selected for the four year period leading the researcher to arrive at 200 copies of the selected newspapers to form the sample size. This was done in the period January 2012 to
December 2015.
Themes were put out in order to see if their focus was on the right to education.
Subsequently, five themes were therefore selected based of similarity and the focus of the headlines on education as human rights. The themes selected were access to education, Quality education, Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE),
Girl Child, and School Feeding. Access to education was chosen as a theme based on the fact that it points to one indicator of right- based approach to education. THE other four themes were selected on the basis of the similarity and their links with the right education components.
The researcher went to the libraries of the print media houses of the two newspapers as well as the libraries of Ghana institute of journalism, Jayee University College as well as the archives unit of the Police Public Affairs and the Marines Units to get the required newspapers.
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Owing to the inadequate themes on the right to education in the headlines of the newspapers , the capacity of newspaper and print journalist should be built to give special attention on such right so that the their reportage would give hope to
Ghanaians by furnishing them with useful information to overcome the unawareness of education as a human right .
Four objectives were set for this study: they are finding out the themes on the right to education in the headlines, frequency with which the right to education headlines appeared, position where the headlines on the right to education were placed and, editorial headlines dedicated to the right to education in The Ghanaian Times and
Daily Guide newspapers from 2012 to 2015.
Despite these limitations, the study showed that Ghanaian newspapers create awareness on education matters through the publication of straight news stories.
Thought these straight news accounts may be one-sided, they can provide a shared understanding of some of the serious education problems confronting our society. The inadequacy of specialized right to education reporting across the public and private newspapers means that education as a human right could hardly be well framed in the print media as problem that can be solved through newspapers as one mechanisms for promotion of human rights in Ghana.
However, the fact that the media can play an important role in the promotion of the right to education amongst Ghanaians points to the fact that if newspaper headlines especially the front and back pages which are the major attractions to readers use right to education theme to indicate the importance of the subject matter it can stimulate discussion on the problems and challenges of the education situation of our society, more importantly if the newspapers headlines are effectively framed to include
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themes on right to education they can serve as very good sources of empowerment and direction towards education. Therefore, it is important newspaper establishments, educational institutions, and schools of communication studies collaborate and devise strategies on how best to equip journalists with specialized knowledge and skills to enable them write articles on the right to education problems based on their expertise on such issues to reflect education as a right. Further research should investigate coverage of right to education in the Ghanaian electronic media as well as on radio and television targeted at specific audiences on how the media in general can promote the right to education.
In conclusion, comparing the number of headlines on education and the numbers of the right to education themes that was published by the two newspapers it could be concluded that the headlines was woefully inadequate to promote the right to education amongst Ghanaian. To compare with the level of awareness on the right to education in the country, one can say that the newspapers did not promote that human right per its headlines which serve as a major attraction to stories in the newspapers hence confirms this research pre observation which proved that most Ghanaians are not aware of education as their human rights.
Reporting on only few of the right to education issues in their headlines can therefore be said that in relation to RQ1, the newspapers did not promote the subject matter.
They can do more if they create pages for such stories and must fill the spaces, they will go after more stories to publish. Secondly if the journalist, editors and the Owners of those newspapers are trained on human rights issues they will be in the better position to promote right to education in their newspapers.
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Though the newspapers reported averagely more on education the right to educations themes did not show that people will become aware of education as their right. This is an indication that the newspapers do not either employ agenda setting or the social responsibility theory of the media to promote the subject matter. So therefore if the newspapers want to inform and educate the society about existence of the right to education then they should do more in that area.
Both the Ghanaian Times and the Daily Guide newspapers reported on education but did not present it as a human right. This is an indication that the newspapers do not have enough knowledge on human rights and for that matter they consider other issues important than the right to education hence the inability of them to place the right to education in a particular column or in the front pages, back pages, centres spread or at the editorial.
Looking at The number of times education issues appeared in the Ghanaian Times with a full column coupling with the newspaper‟s wide circulations in the country if the subject matter was reported with the right to education themes then most
Ghanaian would have been aware about education as a human right just like they are aware about the right to vote. It could be also concluded that some editors and owners of the newspapers do not understand or think that it‟s important to present education from a human right view point. Education was not presented as a human right by the newspapers as the right to educations issues were not published by the newspapers.
It could also be concluded that the two newspapers knew that education was important for nation‟s development but did not see at as a human right of all to be aware of at least (FCUBE) as enshrined by the UDHR and all other United Nations documents on education and the 1992 constitution of Ghana. It can also be concluded
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that due to lack of available documents or sources presenting information on the subject matter might have contributed to the absence of the promotion of education as a human rights by the newspapers.
Finally, the way education issues were pursued by stakeholders basically gave the understanding that it is a matter of affordability to be in school might have contributed to the way print journalists reporting for the newspapers who have no formal training on human right presented it as they got them. The style format pagination as well as the positioning of stories in the newspapers do not change so much unless periods or editions where they had an addendum even that it usually was a bout profiles of people or advertisements but not on core developmental issues. These headlines in both Ghanaian Times and Daily Guide placed in the bottom positions in the both newspapers made up of 56 were the fourth highest.
The number here also supports and confirms the research problem stated that
Ghanaian newspapers reportage on education did not show the education as a human rights and that they do not report adequately hence the failure of audiences in ability to judge on the right to education as human rights. Most of the headlines here were on students or pupils at the schools. The headlines written in both front page and back pages on the right to education were on schools especially those in second cycle but did not expose right based approach to education. The above information collected from the The Ghanaian Times and the Daily Guide newspapers by the researcher with regards to the right to education themes in their headlines it can be described that the newspapers do not employ the agenda setting and the social responsibilities of the media to promote the right to education among Ghanaians.
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With reference to agenda-setting theory which is one of the theories this research is anchored on, it can be deduced that though the media have the ability to influence what topics and issues should be considered The selected newspapers in the case of this research did not use its headlines to promote the right to education amongst
Ghanaians as the above data indicates that they did not use the right to education themes. The results also showed that the newspapers did not employ the social responsibility theory because the education headlines identified were on the personalities, individual and organisations making efforts to help people receive education. Despite these limitations, the study showed that Ghanaian newspapers did not create awareness on right to education matters through.
6.3 Recommendations
Having analysed the contents of selected newspapers, the following recommendations have been made so that newspapers will use right to education themes in the headlines of their reportage:
i. The researcher recommends that the newspapers as a print media should
allocate specific pages in their newspapers to the right to education just as they
have specific pages and columns on politics, business, sports and
entertainments to promote report on human rights and for that matter the right
to education so that people will be aware of the subject matter as their
fundamental human rights. This will help them claim it as right holders whiles
government will also provide them as duty bearers respectively. It will also
ensure that the right to education becomes mainstreamed in Ghana to help
realise the education for all programme initiated in 2000 at Jomtien, Thailand.
ii. The researcher also recommends that reporters from Newspapers should not
report only on education rather they must be trained to include the core theme
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of the right to education to draw people‟s attention to the fact that education is
their right and not what government fills he can do. They should set the
agenda to make sure they promote the right to education that is by ensuring
that Ghanaian come to know that education is their right just like their right to
vote.
The publishers as well as editors of newspapers should encourage the right to education or human rights stories with themes on the subject matter to ensure people become aware of the subject matter. The inability of readers to see headlines on the right to education in the newspapers did not help the appreciation of the newspapers role in society to help promotes issues of human right to education.
i. A human rights desk should be setup in all print media houses out of which the
right to education beat must be given to some reporters to handle.
ii. The Ministry of Education should design and introduce a curriculum that will
show student journalists that the right to education is a first step to the
realisation of development as they hold governments accountable for the people.
iii. The newspaper editors should place headlines and for that matters educational
stories with human right themes at prominent places or positions in the pages
such as the top left and the bottom right based on the newspaper theory that says
that people read from right to left so that when stories are places on top right of
pages it gives attention to the audience more than also where.
iv. Newspapers editors should employ the social responsibility theory of the media
to as a matter of responsibility make conscious effort to promote education as
human right among Ghanaians through the writing of their headlines on
education.
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They should also set agenda for the right to education mainstreaming as they do
on the right of the people not to be tortured to educate the public that the right to
education includes the 30 Articles in the United Nations Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. This obviously calls for human rights education for print
media editors and journalists.
It is also recommended that in future, columns and editorial in the newspapers should be allocated solely to the right to education that so as to promote education as human rights of all citizens in Ghana.
6.4 Limitations of the Study
This research had limitations which was associated with the qualitative methodology that was employed in data collection and analysis. Some of the concerns involved the validity and reliability as well as the generalizability of qualitative research (Sullivan
& Spilka, 2011). This is because the selection of newspapers through purposive sampling constitutes a threat to the external validity of qualitative research since some of these newspapers have large volumes of pages contained adverts and other promotion on companies and other business contents. Much time was spent to get to the pages on education which wouldn‟t have been if they had fewer pages. Also some newspapers though considered as minor might have used right to education themes but because i have purposively selected the two based on their wide circulations they were not selected because of their limited coverage areas.
Technological challenges were encountered especially on computer application that was used. This pushed me to look for external help to enable me present my work according to the prescribed manner.
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Also, want of information with regards to the access of the 2011 Daily Guide was a problem as the researcher tried as much as possible but could not get the data on as indicated in chapter three of the study. The problem led the researcher to infer from the previous data since the style, pagination, positions of headlines and the agenda on the contents of the newspapers do not change much from year to year.
The use of two newspapers was limited in serving as a representative of the about 106 newspapers in Ghana hence the sample size limited the depth of the research because some newspapers which are not considered major or well patronised could write accurately, appropriately, and concisely on the right to education yet due to their minute circulations and readership they were left out in this study though their inclusion would have enriched the data.
The four years (2012-2015) chosen for the study was obviously too much for the research because content analyses is time consuming. Also looking the headlines of two newspapers representing both the private a national newspaper was too demanding because of the tedious work it involved in analysing the data collected and coding by the researcher.
6.5 Suggestions for Further Studies
This work may serve as the basis for further studies concerning questions on education as human right. The finding by the researcher on the right to education reportage in the two newspapers would aid editors from the selected newspapers and those in other print media houses to gain general understanding of what right to education is about so they could give attention to its promotion in Ghana.
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Further information on the right to education reportages in adequacies with right themes could also be found in other print media the print media such as educational magazines so some research should be also done in further studies. The systematic study of the entire two newspapers on their headlines with right to education themes, the frequency with which they appeared, positions they were placed and the editorial dedication with the right to education, will offer the opportunity for expanding our knowledge on the subject of the promotion of the right to education in Ghana.
There should be a further study on the knowledge of print journalists on the right to education to find out if they are aware its theory responsibility to promote the subject matter using the agenda setting and the social responsibility theory of the media. The research limited itself to right to education themes in the headlines of the newspapers.
However narrowing on the journalists and editors who contribute to the content of a newspaper and which stories are giving prominence will be necessary. Additional similar study should be done in the radio and televisions so as to give an opportunity to compare newspaper print and radio and television electronic media to show which of them promotes the right to education in Ghana.
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
The Research Questions
i. How frequent do headlines on the right to education appear in the
Ghanaian newspapers?
ii. Which themes run through the education headlines in the Ghanaian
newspapers?
iii. which positions in the Ghanaian newspapers are the rights to education
headline placed in terms of pages in the edition?; and
iv. How often are the editorials of Ghanaian newspapers dedicated to the right
to education?
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APPENDIX B
Definition of Terms:
The Right to Education; presenting education as a human rights or pursuing it with the right based approach.
Agenda setting: the media ability to influence what topics and issues that should be considered salient or important.
Social Responsibility Theory: Media should accept and fulfil certain obligations to the society; these obligations are mainly to be met by setting high or professional standards of information, truth, accuracy, objectivity and balance;
Newspaper: A form of media that disseminate printed matter usually on a low cost paper (newspapers and magazines).
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APPENDIX C
SELECTED HUMAN RIGHTS PROVISIONS
1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
2. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)
3. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966
4. The African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, 1981.
5. The United Nations Charter, 1945
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