Deepening Inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa Amidst the Covid-19 Crisis: Education and Labor Market Spaces in Perspective

Abstract

In this paper, we examine inequalities in education and labor market spaces in Ghana during the covid-19 pandemic. Methodologically, the paper adopts both qualitative and quantitative research strategies. Using concurrent mixed-sampling methods, 14 in-depth interviews and 122 survey participants were elected from Tamale and Accra. We demonstrate that Ghanaian youth—especially young females were predisposed to losing their jobs and exposed to underemployment amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The paper also established that the adoption of virtual teaching and learning platforms during the pandemic resulted into marked differences in the acquisition of skillsets among youth from rich/urban and poor/rural settings. We found that unequal access to e-learning and internet infrastructure could translate to uneven learning platforms, creating differentials in skills and competencies that will be acquired for the labor market. This could create and heighten inequalities in labor market participation post-pandemic, with youth who had poor access to e-learning platforms experiencing diminishing prospects in future labor market engagements. Among others, we recommend the provision of adequate internet infrastructure for schools patronized by kids from low-income households, and the adoption of programmes that will widen the ICT interface for people from deprived backgrounds to enable them cope with changes occasioned by pandemics to reducing inequality in education and labor market spaces.