Fishing Activities and Academic Life of Junior High School Students at APAM in the Central Region of Ghana

This study assessed how students combine academic work with fishing activities. The main objective was to investigate how fishing activities affect students’ education and how it influences their academic performance in Apam, a town in the Gomoa West District of the Central Region. Descriptive research design and a quantitative approach were used; questionnaire and structured interview guide were used to gather data from the respondents (students and teachers, respectively). Amongst all the students in this district, a hundred and ten (110) were sampled and nine (9) teachers selected for this study through census survey and purposive sampling, respectively. Validity and reliability of the research instrument were tested using expert judgment and Cronbach’s alpha, respectively. Descriptive statistics (frequency count and percentages) were used in the analyses the data. It was revealed that students participated in fishing activities alongside schooling. About 68% of the students held the view that their colleagues who were involved in fishing performed poorly in class. Also, parent’s occupation influenced students’ involvement in fishing works. It is imperative that fishing societies cooperate with parents, heads of educational institutions and school management boards to introduce actions that would prevent students from doing fishing activities in order to help improve their academic performance.