In Grand Kru County, a quiet crisis is unfolding as students have abandoned classrooms in search of gold.
The situation, education officials say, has steadily drained classrooms, thereby pushing school-age children into the depths of artisanal gold mining sites.
By that, the once isolated absenteeism, has now evolved into a widespread pattern with children abandoning school entirely in favor of hazardous mining work.
The trade has resulted into an immediate cash, which is more attractive than long-term education achievement.
County Education Officer Josiah Sloh Negba, has therefore, warned that the situation is no longer a routine education challenge, but “a structural social and economic emergency.”
“We are not just losing students; we are losing the future workforce of this county,” Negba said in an interview.
He added that the scale of child involvement in mining has increased in nearly all the districts.
Investigations suggest that the crisis is being driven by a combination of “extreme poverty, weak enforcement of child protection laws, and the absence of viable livelihood alternatives for families.”
In multiple rural settlements, parents admit that survival has become the overriding priority.
“If the child goes to school, there is no food at home. But in the pits, at least a child can bring something small for the family,” one parent in a mining community told reporters.
Education stakeholders say, this economic reality has fueled a silent, but steady collapse of school attendance, particularly among adolescents.
Teachers in affected districts report a declined enrollment and irregular attendance patterns, with some schools operating far below capacity.
Negba has meanwhile, called for urgent coordination among authorities at the ministries of Education, Labor, Gender, Children and Social Protection, Justice and
Mines to address the impasse.