This article aims to cast light on the negative but silent effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on girls' education and welfare in Ghana. Since the pandemic emerged in 2019, unprecedented changes have occurred in ordinary people's health, education and social life. As a response to the pandemic, governments globally implemented social distancing regimes, lockdowns and school closures to curtail the spread of the virus. While this approach did help in curtailing the spread of the pandemic, implementing lockdowns and school closures in Ghana had unintended consequences: they amplified gendered inequalities in access to education. Drawing on one-on-one semi-structured interviews with (i) 10 teachers and one head teacher, 13 parents of child brides, and 11 child brides (aged 15–19), and (ii) Focus group discussions (FGDs) with 15 community leaders in a rural Ghanaian setting (Mion), this article provides empirical evidence to show how the pandemic has disrupted the lives and education of 11 girls. In particular, school closures and rising poverty due to the pandemic led to increased child marriage. These 11 schoolgirls were seen as a burden by their parents, and, consequently, married off to older men as an adverse coping strategy. Furthermore, some of the girls themselves requested to be married, due to rising household chores occasioned by the school closures. Finally, the school closures also offered the community the justification to reactivate deeply held notions about the value of a girl's education as a basis for marrying them off.

中文翻译：

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全球大流行背景下的童婚和教育：探讨加纳因新冠疫情而停课的性别影响

本文旨在阐明 COVID-19 大流行对加纳女童教育和福利产生的负面但无声的影响。2019年疫情发生以来，普通百姓的健康、教育、社会生活发生了前所未有的变化。为了应对这一流行病，全球各国政府实施了社会疏远制度、封锁和关闭学校，以遏制病毒的传播。虽然这种方法确实有助于遏制大流行的蔓延，但在加纳实施封锁和关闭学校却产生了意想不到的后果：它们加剧了受教育机会方面的性别不平等。利用对 (i) 10 名教师和一名班主任、13 名童养媳家长和 11 名童养媳（15-19 岁）的一对一半结构化访谈，以及 (ii) 焦点小组讨论 (FGD)本文以加纳农村地区 (Mion) 的 15 名社区领袖为对象，提供了实证证据来说明这一流行病如何扰乱了 11 名女孩的生活和教育。特别是，大流行导致学校停课和贫困加剧导致童婚现象增加。这 11 名女学生被父母视为负担，因此嫁给年长的男性作为一种不利的应对策略。此外，由于学校停课导致家务劳动增加，一些女孩自己也要求结婚。最后，学校关闭也为社区提供了重新激活根深蒂固的观念的理由，即女孩受教育的价值是她们嫁人的基础。