Impact of Small Scale Mining on Basic School Education

1. Introduction
This chapter has been organised around themes such as overview of the study, background of the
study, purpose of the study and its significance, the objectives to be achieved and the research
questions to be used in achieving the objectives as well as the description of the study area
among others.

1.1 Overview of the project
This is a traditional research that seeks to find out how the lost glories in terms of education can
be regained at Subin Hill. Subin Hill used to be an academic hub of Upper Denkyira District
about ten years downwards. Basic School Certificate Examinations results by JHSs in Subin were
among the best in the District as a result of which parents were sending their wards from the
surrounding towns to attend school at Subin. In those years students from Subin JHSs had top
Secondary Schools to attend unlike in recent times when some JHS products from Subin are
hardly placed by the School Placement and Selection System (SPSS) even in less endowed
Secondary Schools. The whole situation became reversed when teachers and students took to
„galamsey‟. What compelled me to research into this is when I was informed of the zero percent
score in BECE by Ameyaw Junior High School in 2005, one of the best schools.

1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Subin-Hill is 36 miles away from Dunkwa, the major town in the area. The area is severely
engaged by the activities of galamsey as a carcass left by the death of Dunkwa Continental
Goldfields, a dredge mining company which operated on River Offin. Many are the people who
have died and others being maimed as a result of accident involved in „galamsey‟ yet people do
it. People of all ages and levels are engaged in this dreadful occupation including school children,
adults (males and females) and even the aged. Prominent people like teachers, chiefs, students
from tertiary institutions, self employed people and others are all involved in the „galamsey‟.
Although many people have amass wealth through „galamsey‟, it has had a tremendous adverse
effect on basic education in the area leading to persistent absenteeism, lateness, school dropout,
teenage pregnancy, dead of school children among others and subsequently poor academic
performance. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the benefits of illegal mining include the
springing up of new buildings, large market and prevention of rural-urban migration in the area.

Mining activities have been on ascendancy and have become more lucrative to private entities
since the launching of the Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) in 1983 which legalized small
scale mining. Gold ore (or lode) is found in the goldfields such as Obuasi and Tarkwa, while
alluvial deposits are found in the valleys of the Offin, Jimi and the Ankobra rivers. In Ghana,
most of the gold deposits are found in the South-Western part of the country embedded within the
tarkwaian rocks. Thus, all the major mining companies are located in this region.
These companies use various mining methods including open-cast, deep-shaft, panning and
dredging depending on the nature of the gold bearing rock and their depth, environmental
conditions, climatic conditions, statutory requirement and the presence of human habitations.
Whether a gold mining company is actively operating or collapsed, one legacy left to the local
populace is the activity of small scale illegal mining, popularly called „galamsey‟. “Galamsey” is
the corrupt version of the phrase “gather and sell” which is a form of small-scale mining that take
place without official approval. The vocation was formalised in 1989 through the promulgation
of the mineral and mining law PNDCL 153 and the Small-Scale Mining Law 218 was also
enacted to cater for small-scale mining. The large number of illegal miners is just a symptom of
the scale of unemployment in the whole country. Within these, “fortune hunters” are also armed
robbers and pure criminals, who are not really interested in gold but other things. Murderers, who
are not interested in gold but in human parts use the illegal mining activities as a mask to track
some of the young people who are into it and the ladies are normally trapped.

1.2 Problem Statement
It is widely accepted fact that education leads to sustainable development. This is evidenced in
countries like Japan, America, and England etc. where literacy rate is high. These countries are
highly developed because of their high literacy rate. Education brings skills to discover and create
things needed. The situation in the third world, which Ghana is one, is different. Even though our
educational policy suggests that all children of school going age must be in school, in reality,
about 20% of children of school going age are still at home doing menial jobs which constitute
child labour (UNICEF).
The situation of children doing menial jobs has been worsened by the perception of our societies.
Our societies respect rich people no matter how they acquired their riches. Parents therefore

encourage their children to involve themselves in lucrative but risky jobs such as illegal gold
mining. This is because guardians have seen that the only most available job in the nation is
teaching which is more or less from hand to mouth. Or probably they have seen graduates
without jobs. The researcher however believes that, if these future posterity is not groomed in the
right direction our societies will be full of murderers, thieves, armed robbers, fraudsters, rapists,
prostitutes, vandals and other social vices and the future of mother Ghana will be jeopardised.
Young children in our part of the world have realised that it is not only formal education that
leads to personal prosperity. They see private enterprises as being more lucrative than spending
large sums of money on formal education that is likely to land you in government department,
where workers take home awfully very meagre amount. Children at Subin-Hill have after all seen
that the wealthiest person in the area, Mr. Awudu has very little education and a private
entrepreneur. In fact, all the financially capable people in the area are private business men with
some of them without any formal education.
The over flooding of River Offin into Dunkwa into township this year is to some extent attributed
to the dumping of tailings into the river by illegal gold miners. Other rivers with tailings in them
over flooded their banks blocking almost all roads in the district.
The presence of “galamsey” in the area has brought about excessive high prices of food stuffs.
This is because the youth who are supposed to till the land are all engaged in “galamsey”. Very
fertile lands conducive for farming are thus being used for mining activities.
It is realized by the researcher that students in basic schools at Subin-Hill do not attend school
due to their involvement in illegal mining activities in the area. The problem is severe in
Anglican Primary and J.H.S at Afiefiso where this research work will focus on. Students‟
involvement in „galamsey‟ is causing absenteeism, lateness, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and
delinquencies among school children in the area, which are all enemies to effective education.
These behaviours are leading to the downturn in Basic Education Certificate Examination in
recent years in all the Junior High Schools in the area. Ameyaw Junior High School, for instance
scored zero percent pass in their 2006/07 BECE examination which had never happened in the
history of the area when students in basic schools and their teachers were not engaged in illegal
mining activities.

Students as young as those in class three have resulted to the use of expensive mobile phones and
neglecting their books. With these fashionable phones in the hand of basic school students,
teachers are tempted to exchange their inferior phones with their students. Teachers are thus not
able to stump their authority in class. It is also alleged that teachers encourage students to engage
in „galamsey‟ so that they could borrow money from the school children. Although teachers I
contacted denied the money borrowing allegation, they confirmed the mobile phone exchange.
Although, artisanal gold mining activities have offered employment to many people, the adverse
effects they cause to basic school children is worth discussing. It is envisaged that the finding
from this research would lay bare the impact of „galamsey‟ on basic education with particular
reference to Denkyira Subin.
The researcher hopes that the above practices together with others are the causes of the lowering
standard of education in the area.

1.3 Purpose of the study
Generally, this study seeks to unveil the negative impact of illegal gold mining activities on
education in Subin. It is also to suggest ways of helping students choose education other than
mining. To this end, suggestions by the researcher would uplift the image of education when
fully implemented. The school children at Subin-Hill would embrace education whole-heartedly
so that education does not play second fiddle to mining.

1.4 Objectives of the study
Specifically, the study will;
1. Find out why school children engage themselves in illegal mining activities despite the
risk involved
2. Find out the effects of illegal mining activities on students‟ education.
3. Assess the extent to which mining activities have influenced education at Subin-Hill.

1.5 Research Question
The main questions that this research work seeks to answer include the following.
1. Why school children engage themselves in illegal mining activities despite the risk involved?
2. What are the effects of illegal mining activities on students‟ education?
3. To what extent has illegal mining activities influenced education at Subin?

1.6 Significance of the Study
The significant of this study is to help promote education at Subin-Hill. The degree of
absenteeism, lateness, child delinquencies and subsequent poor academic performance in the
research area indicates that the schools and all institutions have a very serious problem to solve.
The schools have social and academic decisions to take which demand information. The schools
need as much information about their administration and their relationship with the communities
in which they are established.
The outcome of this research work will therefore be of importance to the Ghana Education
Service and the Ministry of Education to formulate policies and programmes to solve the problem
of school children engagement in mining. Parents will be exposed to the problems and dangers
ahead of their wards and will assist teachers in finding lasting solution to them. Teachers will
also be able to suggest to the Ghana Education Service the necessary solution to the problems and
give more education to the parents on absenteeism, lateness, poor academic performance, child
delinquencies among others.

1.7 Organisation of the Study
Chapter one of this research work consists of introduction, which provides a brief history of
mining in Ghana, the problem statement which reveals the effects of small scale mining at Subin
and objectives of the project, revealing what this project seeks to achieve. In addition to the
above the chapter one also captures the research question which the project will address and the
significance of the study which reveals the long term goal of this research work. Description of
the study area is also dealt with in chapter one.
Chapter two is about the literature review, that is, existing literatures related to the research topic
done by others organised under.
Research methodology, methods used in gathering data for this research, sample size and
problems encountered during the study are captured in chapter three.
Data analysis is captured in chapter four. It discusses the various statistical tools employed in this
research work.

The fifth chapter gives recommendations, summary and conclusion of the entire project work.

1.8 Description of the Study Area
Subin-Hill is cluster of settlements located in the Upper Denkyira West district of Central
Region. The area is named after the main river that is seen in three out of the four communities in
area. River Subin is close to Ameyaw, Afiefiso and Compound. Only Akwaboso Township is not
close to River Subin. River Subin is a tributary of River Offin and joins River Offin few metres
away from Compound. Subin is part of Central Region but shares boundary with Ashante
Region. It has Diaso as its district capital. It is River Offin which serves as a boundary separating
this area of central region from Ashante Region.

STUDY AREA

A. Tribal Composition
Originally, the indigenes of the area are Denkyiras. Until the booming of „galamsey‟ activities
about seven years ago, the area was dominated by Denkyiras and Asantes constituting about 97
per cent. Currently, the area has a mixed populace. As it stands now, the indigenous Denkyira
people form less than 50 per cent due to the intrusion of illegal miners who have now become
permanent settlers of the area.
B. Housing
Housing constitutes an important need in the socio-economic development of the lives of the
people. The area is beset with housing problems. Housing delivery lags behind population
growth. For instance the occupancy rate is around 4-6 persons per room.
The quality of housing is poor and maintenance of existing stock is irregular resulting in
predominately sub-standard quality of housing units.
There are three types of building in the area according to the material used. They are blocks,
brick and mud houses. Generally, the buildings are made up of sand Crete, landcrete, the wattle
and daub or swish wall and pole frame wall and mud wall (atakpame). Majority of the buildings
are roofed with corrugated aluminium or iron sheets especially the block and brick houses. The
wattle and daub houses are normally roofed with thatch. Houses are either single or compound.
Due to poor construction, lack of maintenance and poor drainage around the houses, erosion from
run-off has exposed foundations and introduced other structural defects evidenced by several
serious cracks in houses in the area
The area has a very large town hall for occasional festivities. This town hall was a club house
built by the collapsed mining company.
C. Communication and Transportation
Communication and transportation in the area is not up to the standard required. The general
condition of roads in the area is very poor. This makes transportation of people, goods and
services very difficult and expensive. Most of the time, the most reliable means of transport is by
foot. Some very few vehicles ply the roads. The entire area is served by four old Neola buses and
two Benz buses. All the buses leave the communities at 5:00am with the neoplans heading for

Dunkwa and the Benz buses travelling to Kumasi. On Wednesdays one of the neoplans travel to
Diaso, the new district capital. The inadequate means of transport to connect the area to the
market centres encourages subsistence agricultural production rather than commercial
production.
In terms of telecommunication, there are no fixed lines. Zain is the most available network which
is available in almost everywhere. Although, MTN, tigo and vodaphone are available, you only
get network at higher elevations. This is because the masts are all located in an Asante Region
town called Bonsaso far away from Subin. The Subin area has no post office.
D. Economic Activities
When Continental Mining Company was in operation, about ten years ago, the most sustaining
economic activity in the area was mining. Although, many people were into crop farming than
mining, the life of miners was highly improved than farmer. When the company eventually died
off, most miners who could not return to their hometowns took to farming, planting mainly
cocoa. Realizing how slow farming yields returns, they took to gold prospecting. They started
around the banks River Offin, where they had worked as dredge mining workers before. Due to
fatalities involved in River Offin, they left the areas along the river and started exploring
everywhere. It was this time that they realised gold was everywhere in the area. Land owners
begun selling their lands to galamsey operators and within a short period the area became choked
with people from all walks of life. Since then galamsey has become the major economic activity
of the area. Despite the involvement of majority of the populace in galamsey, the area is one of
the highest cocoa producing areas in Ghana.
E. Population
The area has a population of about five thousand (5000) people with females forming about fiftyfour percent (54%) whilst males form forty-six percent (46%).
F. Commerce
There is no well-established market centre in the area and this has negative impact on agricultural
production.

1.8 Community facilities
A. Educational Facilities
Subin has about four public schools and one private school. They are all basic schools, that is,
primary and Junior High. At least every community has its primary and Junior High Schools. It is
only Afiefiso that has established private basic school from KG 1 through primary to JHS three.
Ameyaw and Compound have newly established private schools but have not yet got to primary
level.
B. Health
There is one health post serving the four communities operating in the old mines clinic premises.
When the mining company was in its heydays, the clinic (a big clinic with six „self-contain‟
nurses‟ quarters) was of the best in the Central Region. When the company collapsed all the
structures were left at the mercy of the weather for over eight years. It was only two years ago
when the District Assembly renovated the main ward to be used as clinic.
The clinic is providing very essential service to the galamsey operators. In most of accident cases,
victims are treated in the clinic but in severe instances, the victims are just given first aid before
taken to Dunkwa Government Hospital or Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi. Although,
galamsey operators continue to die due to the deadly nature of the work, the number of dead has
decrease ever since the clinic came into being.
C. Electricity
The area was reconnected to the national grid in January 2009 after experiencing a total blackout
for almost ten years. The area lost electricity immediately Dunkwa Continental Mining Limited
collapsed. The disconnection became necessary when Electricity Company of Ghana disapproved
the use of metal electricity poles.
D. Water
Bore-holes serve all the communities as a source of drinking water. The area also uses water from
nearby streams and hand-dug wells to supplement water from the bore-holes. There are a lot of

nearby streams with some of the communities completely surrounded by streams. One of these
settlements is Ameyaw which has streams such as Adukuama and Ahodwo surrounding it.

1.9 Geographical Description of the Study Area
A. Climate
Most rains in the area fall between June and August. The highest rainfall is between 215.9 to
233.8 centimetres (85-96 inches) a year and the lowest rainfall is between 114.3 and 127
centimetres (45-50 inches). The average annual rainfall ranges between 1500mm to 2000mm
distributed in a bi-modal pattern. The driest months are December and January. The rainy season
begins mid March and ends in November. In March and April, before the raining season, the
maximum temperature of about 30o C is recorded. The minimum temperature of about 23oC is
recorded in August. Rainfall in the area is very consistent and very favourable for both crops and
livestock production. Dry weather is experienced from December to March when the dry
harmattan wind blows from the Sahara region southwards and causes considerable fall in
temperature within the whole district. The average sunshine, humidity and temperature are high.
Temperature is generally high throughout the year with mean annual temperature of 26.50
B. Geology and Soil
The area is composed of Precambrian rocks mainly Tarkwaian and Birimian formation and
massive underlying intruded granites. There are series of massive extrusive volcanic rocks in area
around Compound and Afiefiso. Areas with these extruded volcanic rocks have large grain sandy
soil. Areas underlain with intruded volcanic rocks are where vigorous mining activities are taking
place.
Soils of this area have top layers ranging from brownish to black and vary in thickness depending
on the slope of the terrain. There are numerous patches of loamy and sandy soils.
C. Vegetation
Subin is within the moist-semi deciduous forest belt with secondary forest vegetation interspersed
with raffia and bamboo. The area is mainly forest. The original forest is now giving way to
savanna due to indiscriminate farming and excessive illegal mining activities