CHALLENGES AND COPING STRATEGIES OF STUDENT MOTHERS OF UCC COLLEGE OF DISTANCE EDUCATION: THE CASE OF THE CAPE COAST CENTRE

ABSTRACT Distance Education has been institutionalised in the public universities in  Ghana  and  women  who  enrol  in  the  programmes  have  to  combine  their family roles with work and theiracademic pursuits. This study sought to find out the challenges and coping strategies of student mothers of the College of Distance Education of the University of Cape Coast (CoDE, UCC). The study employed the descriptive survey. A questionnaire in the Likert-type scale was used  to  collect  data  from  175  student  mothers  of  CoDE,  UCC  at the  Cape Coast  study  centre.  The  data  collected  was  analysed  and  discussed  using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. It was found that the student  mothers  (a  minimum  of  71%)  performed  a  lot  of  laborious  nonacademic  activities  daily  in  their  homes  and  the  combination  of  these  roles with  their  academics  pose  negative  high  effect  on  their  family  lives  and academics. Unfortunately, the coping strategies they employed were, to a large extent, ineffective and wished for better ones.Among the conclusions was the supposition  that  student  mothers  have  inevitable  academic  impediments  that emanate from the non-academic activities that they perform, and therefore, the success of their academic pursuitis at the expense of the time they have for their  families.  It  is  recommended  that  CoDE,  in  collaboration  with  the Counselling  Unit  of  the  University  of  Cape  Coast  should,  as  part  of  their orientation  programme,  provide  intensive  counselling  services  to  all  the female students to be aware of the academic challenges that awaits them when they conceive or deliver in the course of reading their programmes.