Access to Basic Education in Ghana: The Evidence and the Issues

Abstract

This review of educational development in Ghana has been developed to explore key issues in access to education, capture recent research, and to identify gaps in knowledge and understanding. It is part of a programme of research developed collaboratively by partners in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK within the Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE). The research has several purposes and seeks to identify children who are excluded from basic education, establish the causes of their exclusion, and identify ways of ensuring that all children
complete a full cycle of basic education successfully.

Full text

The Consortium for Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE) is a Research Programme
Consortium supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Its purpose is to
undertake research designed to improve access to basic education in developing countries. It seeks to achieve
this through generating new knowledge and encouraging its application through effective communication and
dissemination to national and international development agencies, national governments, education and
development professionals, non-government organisations and other interested stakeholders.
Access to basic education lies at the heart of development. Lack of educational access, and securely acquired
knowledge and skill, is both a part of the definition of poverty, and a means for its diminution. Sustained access
to meaningful learning that has value is critical to long term improvements in productivity, the reduction of
inter-generational cycles of poverty, demographic transition, preventive health care, the empowerment of
women, and reductions in inequality.
The CREATE partners
CREATE is developing its research collaboratively with partners in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The
lead partner of CREATE is the Centre for International Education at the University of Sussex. The partners are:
The Centre for International Education, University of Sussex: Professor Keith M Lewin (Director)
The Institute of Education and Development, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh: Dr Manzoor Ahmed
The National University of Educational Planning and Administration, Delhi, India: Professor R Govinda
The Education Policy Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa: Dr Shireen Motala
The Universities of Education at Winneba and Cape Coast, Ghana: Professor Jerome Djangmah
The Institute of Education, University of London: Professor Angela W Little
Disclaimer
The research on which this paper is based was commissioned by the Consortium for Research on Educational
Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE http://www.create-rpc.org). CREATE is funded by the UK
Department for International Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries and is coordinated
from the Centre for International Education, University of Sussex. The views expressed are those of the
author(s) and not necessarily those of DFID, the University of Sussex, the University of Education, or the
CREATE Team.
Copyright © CREATE 2007
ISBN: 0-901881-12-0
Address for correspondence:
CREATE,
Centre for International Education, Sussex School of Education,
University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QQ,
United Kingdom
Tel: + 44 (0) 1273 678464
Website:
http://www.create-rpc.org
Email create@sussex.ac.uk
University of Education
P. O. Box 25 Winneba,
Ghana
Tel: 00 233 (0432) 22139
Email:
jsiaujd@yahoo.co.uk
Please contact CREATE using the details above if you require a hard copy of this publication.

Access to Basic Education in Ghana:
The Evidence and the Issues
Country Analytic Report
Kwame Akyeampong
Jerome Djangmah
Abena Oduro
Alhassan Seidu
Frances Hunt
June 2007

Contents
Acknowledgements............................................................................................................ vi
Preface............................................................................................................................... vii
Executive Summary........................................................................................................... ix
1. Background and Objectives............................................................................................ 1
1.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 1
2. Assessing the influence of Basic Education Policies on Access .................................... 4
2.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 4
2.2 The Early Policies to improve Access ..................................................................... 4
2.3 Expanding Access in Northern Ghana..................................................................... 6
2.4 Expanding Basic Education: the Continuation and Junior Secondary School
Concept .............................................................................................................. 7
2.5 Later Reforms: From the 1974 to 1987 Education Reforms and 1995 FCUBE...... 8
2.6 The New Education Reforms proposed by the 2002 Review Committee.............. 11
2.7 Recent strategic initiatives to improve Access....................................................... 11
2.7.1 Educational Decentralisation and Management ........................................ 12
2.7.2 Demand-Side Financing of Basic Education - The Capitation Grant
Scheme................................................................................................................ 13
2.8 General Financing of Basic Education................................................................... 13
3. Access to Basic Education in Ghana: Overview of Trends and Patterns ..................... 18
3.1 Introduction............................................................................................................ 18
3.2 General Trends and Patterns .................................................................................. 18
3.3 Summary ................................................................................................................ 37
4. Mapping the Zones of Exclusion.................................................................................. 38
4.1 Introduction............................................................................................................ 38
4.2 Zone 1: Children who have never attended school................................................ 40
4.3 Zone 2: Children who drop out of school .............................................................. 41
4.4 Zone 3: Children at risk of dropping out from schooling ...................................... 45
4.5 Zone 4: Children who complete primary but not junior secondary school............ 47
5. Review of Access Related Research in Ghana............................................................. 50
5.1 Introduction............................................................................................................ 50
5.2 Exploring access issues.......................................................................................... 50
5.2.1 Health, nutrition and access to schooling.................................................. 50
5.2.2 Disability, special educational needs and access....................................... 51
5.2.3 HIV/AIDS and educational access ............................................................ 52
5.2.4 Households influence on access ................................................................ 53
5.2.5 Migration and educational access.............................................................. 55
5.2.6 Gender and educational access.................................................................. 56
5.2.7 Geographic differences: educational access in the north of Ghana........... 58
5.2.8 Schooling access in rural and urban areas................................................. 59
5.2.9 Schooling costs and access........................................................................ 60
5.2.10 Child labour and access........................................................................... 61
5.2.11 Teachers: supply, qualifications and attendance...................................... 63
5.2.12 Schools: supply and facilities .................................................................. 65
5.2.13 School practices and gendered school experiences ................................. 66
5.2.14 Community links to school...................................................................... 67
5.2.15 Non state provision of basic education.................................................... 68
5.3 Summary ................................................................................................................ 71

6. Reconceptualising Access: New Agendas for Policy and Research............................. 73
6.1 Introduction............................................................................................................ 73
6.2 Basic Education as a Right..................................................................................... 73
6.3 Understanding Access in the Ghanaian Context.................................................... 74
7. Access to Basic Education in Ghana: CREATE Research Agenda.............................. 77
7.1 Introduction............................................................................................................ 77
7.2 Overview of Key Research Questions for the ComSS........................................... 80
7.3 Ghana: Key Research Areas and Questions........................................................... 82
7.4 Sampling and Data Collection ............................................................................... 83
7.5 Study Districts........................................................................................................ 84
7.6 Conclusion.............................................................................................................. 85
Appendix 3: New Structure of Education as in Government White Paper.................. 96
Appendix 4: The Six CREATE Zones of Exclusion.................................................... 97
Appendix 5: Sampling Frame for Researching Access to Basic Education in Ghana. 99
List of Figures
Figure 1 Access and Zones of Exclusion from Basic Education........................................ 2
Figure 2: Estimated cost of FCUBE programme in 2005................................................. 14
Figure 3: Enrolment Rate Irrespective of Level of Education, 2003................................ 18
Figure 4: Enrolment in school by location, 2003.............................................................. 19
Figure 5: Net Enrolment of children with disabilities ..................................................... 22
Figure 7: Age distribution of children in primary 1, 2003................................................ 24
Figure 8: Age-distribution of pupils in primary one by welfare quintile, 2003................ 25
Figure 9: Ghana: Gross Enrolment Rate 1998-2002......................................................... 25
Figure 10: Ghana: Enrolment by Grade 1998-2004 ......................................................... 26
Figure 11: Number of pupils by grade by age .................................................................. 27
Figure 12: Cohort tracking (P1 2001/2 to P5 2005/6) ...................................................... 28
Figure 13: Ghana Cohort Tracking (P1 2001/2 to P5 2005/6).......................................... 29
Figure 14: Cohort tracking, P5 in 2001-2 to JSS3 in 2005-6............................................ 29
Figure 15: Cohort tracking P5 in 2001- 2 to JSS3 in 2005-6............................................ 30
Figure 16: Evolution of Primary Enrolment (1980-2005)................................................ 31
Figure 17: Enrolment by Grade (Middle/JSS).................................................................. 32
Figure 18: Population and enrolment of 6-11 years.......................................................... 34
Figure 19: Participation by Grade by Household Income ................................................ 36
Figure 20: Participation by Grade by Urban and Rural.................................................... 36
Figure 21: Proportion of the population that has attended school, 2003.......................... 39
Figure 22: Proportion of population that has attended school by gender, 2003............... 39
Figure 23: Proportion of the population that have attended school by location, 2003..... 40
Figure 24: Distribution of children who have dropped out of school by education level
attained...................................................................................................................... 43
Figure 25: Characteristics of Access to Education in Ghana, 2003.................................. 49
Figure 26: Sampling Frame for Researching Access to Basic Education in Ghana......... 99
ii

List of Tables
Table 1: Expansion in Education between 1951 and 1966................................................. 6
Table 2: Overall Funding to the Education Sector........................................................... 15
Table 3: ESP Targets ........................................................................................................ 16
Table 4: Net Enrolment Rates, 2003................................................................................. 20
Table 5: Primary school net attendance ratio, 2006: Percentage of primary school age
attending primary or secondary school (NAR)
....................................................... ..21
Table 6: Number of students of different ages in grades 1 to 9, 2000/01......................... 26
Table 7: Public Primary Promotion, Repetition and Drop-out rates 2003-2004 .............. 33
Table 8: Public Primary Promotion, Repetition and Drop-out rates 2004-2005 .............. 33
Table 9: Repetition Rates and Trends: Public Primary Schools (2003-2005).................. 33
Table 10: Proportion of qualified JSS graduates gaining admission to SSS1 (2000/01-
2004/05).................................................................................................................... 35
Table 11: Estimates of proportion of the population who have never attended school.... 41
Table 12: Proportion of children who have dropped out of school .................................. 42
Table 13: Reasons why children are currently not in school, 2003.................................. 44
Table 14: Distance to the nearest primary school............................................................. 45
Table 15: Regularity of school attendance in three districts of Ghana............................. 46
Table 16: Percentage of children aged 12-14 years who ended schooling at primary 6. . 47
Table 17: Data on AIDS Orphans in Ghana ..................................................................... 53
Table 18: Children out of school (6-11 years).................................................................. 58
Table 19: Category and Range of levies Parents pay for Basic Education: Ga West
District....................................................................................................................... 60
Table 20: Primary qualified teachers as percentage of the teaching force ....................... 63
Table 21: JSS qualified teachers as percentage of the teaching force. ............................. 64
Table 22: Teacher absenteeism Rates, 2003..................................................................... 64
Table 23: Number of Basic Schools by Type of Education.............................................. 68
Table 24: Basic school enrolment by of education........................................................... 69
Table 25: Data on SFL learners (1995-2001) based on 30 districts ................................. 70
iii

List of Acronyms
AAG Action Aid Ghana
ADPE Accelerated Development Plan for Education
BECE Basic Education Certificate Examinations
BESIPs Basic Education Sector Improvement Plans
CAR Country Analytic Review
CREATE Consortium for Research on Education, Access, Transition and Equity
CRT Criterion Reference Testing
CWIQ Core Welfare Indicating Questionnaire
EdSAC Education Sector Adjustment Credit
EFA Education for All
EMIS Education, Management Information System
ESP Education Strategic Plan
ESSP Education Sector Support Programme
ESR Education Sector Review
FCUBE Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education
GDHS Ghana Demographic and Health survey
GHDR Ghana Human Development Report
GES Ghana Education Service`
GLSS Ghana Living Standards Survey
GNAT Ghana National Association of Teachers
GNCC Ghana National Commission on Children
GOG Government of Ghana
GPRS Ghana Poverty Reduction Scheme
GSS Ghana Statistical Services
HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome
JSS Junior Secondary School
MDG Millennium Development Goals
MOE Ministry of Education
MOESS Ministry of Education, Science and Sports
MOEYS Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
MTEF Medium Term Expenditure Framework
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
PMT Performance Monitoring Tests
iv

PSDP Primary School Development Project
PTA Parent Teacher Association
SEN Special Education Needs
SIF School Improvement Fund
SMC School Management Committee
SPAM School Performance Appraisal Meeting
SPIPs School Performance Improvement Plans
SSS Senior Secondary School
TED Teacher Education Division
TTC Teacher Training Colleges
REV Rural Education Volunteer
UNICEF United Nation International Scientific Education Fund
UNESCO United Nation Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation
USAID United States Agency for International Development
WSD Whole School Development
WVI World Vision International
v

Acknowledgements
We wish to acknowledge the support of those who assisted in the production of this
report through dialogue and feedback. First, we acknowledge the support of Professor
Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba and
the team of academics from UEW who made contributions in the early drafting of this
report.
Special thanks to Mr Ato Essuman, Chief Director of the Ministry of Education, Science
and Sports (MOESS) who offered valuable comments on an earlier draft. We also thank
senior officials from the Ministry on their feedback comments on an earlier draft. Mr
Coleman and Mr Daniel Zogblah both of MOESS supplied data for much of the analysis.
We wish to acknowledge the special contribution of Mr Peter DeVries of UNICEF Ghana
who provided some of the EMIS data for the analysis. Elena Dennison assisted with the
presentation and production of this review.
Finally, we wish to thank Dr Don Taylor (DFID, Accra) for his encouragement and
commitment to the CREATE work in Ghana. The UK Department of International
Development (DFID) funded this analytic review. The analysis and conclusions,
however, remain the sole responsibility of the authors.
vi

Preface
This review of educational development in Ghana has been developed to explore key
issues in access to education, capture recent research, and to identify gaps in knowledge
and understanding. It is part of a programme of research developed collaboratively by
partners in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK within the Consortium for
Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE). The research has
several purposes and seeks to identify children who are excluded from basic education,
establish the causes of their exclusion, and identify ways of ensuring that all children
complete a full cycle of basic education successfully.
CREATE conceives of access to basic education in four zones of exclusion – children
who never attend, children who enroll in primary school but drop out before completion,
children in school but attending irregularly and learning little, and children who fail to
transit to lower secondary school. There are problems in all these zones in Ghana despite
the progress that has been made over the last decade within the framework of Education
for All and the Millennium Development Goals.
The analysis builds on insights from the recent Ministry of Education Sector Performance
Report and the World Bank commissioned report on Books, Buildings and Learning
Outcomes. It notes that though access has improved it remains the case that access
remains uneven and has not grown as fast as is needed to reach universal levels of
participation through primary school and into JSS by 2015. More needs to be understood
about the reasons for stalled growth. Repetition and drop out remain substantial between
grades 1 and 2, and rise again in the upper grades of primary. Overage entry appears
stubbornly resistant to attempts to enroll all children, especially girls, at the age of six.
Regional variations in access and participation are such that as many as 40% of school
age children appear not to be enrolled in some parts of the country, especially in the
North. And levels of achievement are such that further expansion risks increasing the
numbers who learn little of what is required to successfully complete basic education at
levels that assure sustained literacy and numeracy.
The challenge this report offers is to develop a research agenda to inform policy and
practice in ways that will make a difference over the next ten years. This highlights
several key dimensions which will be explored through fieldwork, secondary data
analysis, and policy dialogue. The agenda includes needs to:
• Illuminate why the growth in enrolment rates has fallen below expectation and
explore whether demand as well as supply side constraints are an important part
of the explanation
• Deepen understanding at the community and school level of the characteristics of
entry and progression that result in peaks in drop out and repetition in early and
later grades which do not seem to be changing very rapidly and which may affect
girls and boys differently
• Establish the extent to which the introduction of capitation and other changes in
school financing are having an impact on improved access and whether these will
be sufficient to sustain recent gains in enrolment
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• Revisit regional and local strategies to improve access and transition to JSS which
recognise different contextual constraints in the North, Middle Belt, and the
South, and within different communities including migrants and those
economically disadvantaged
• Detail the effects of over age enrolment, especially on girls, and identify more
rather than less effective policy and practice that results in learning achievement
closer to national norms
This is an ambitious agenda and one that it is very important to pursue through to new
strategies for investment. The Team is to be congratulated on a comprehensive review
that suggests some new priorities and prepares the ground for empirical studies. The
research offers the prospect of genuinely new insights that can improve the lives of those
children whose basic right to education is yet to be fully realised.
Professor Keith Lewin
Director of CREATE
viii

Executive Summary
This report synthesizes analysis of evidence on access to Basic Education in Ghana and
uses this as a basis for outlining areas that need further research. Written as a critical
analytic review it provides a background of shared knowledge, understandings and
research evidence about access to basic education in Ghana. The review starts by
assessing the impact past and present policies on basic education have made on
expanding access and conclude with a number of recommendations for further research
on access as well as issues for policy reformulation.
The report:
• Investigates the evolution of access to basic education in Ghana. This assesses the
implications of primary enrolment trends over an extended period of time.
• Analyzes basic education policies and practices for insight into the effect they
have had on access to basic education.
• Examines the conditions and factors that underpin access as both a process and
outcome from which it develops preliminary understandings of the nature of
exclusion from meaningful access.
• Reviews recent empirical and secondary analysis studies on access to basic
education and maps out what the key challenges are to expanding access,
particularly for poor and marginalized groups in society.
• Provides preliminary policy recommendations and identifies specific issues,
themes, and agendas for further research in Ghana.
This Country Analytic Review (CAR) benefited from inputs from education officials and
academic researchers in Ghana.
On the influence of basic education policies on access
The current basic education structure and curriculum has its roots in Ghana’s colonial
past. Pre-independence education was characterized by attempts to create incentives for
all children to attend school, as happened in Northern Ghana with the introduction of free
education to improve access. The earliest sign of a plan to universalize primary education
was in 1945 when the colonial government proposed a 10-year plan to universalize
primary education in 25 years based on cost projections set within affordable limits.
The next significant basic education expansion initiative was the 1951 Accelerated
Development Plan (ADP) for Education. This plan also aimed to achieve universal
primary education (UPE) for all by abolishing tuition fees, although households were to
be responsible for the cost of stationary, textbooks etc. After independence, the
introduction of the 1961 Education Act continued the commitment to free basic
education. All of these policies helped to expand access rapidly but they were generally
not very successful in sustaining high enrolment and completion to universalize access
for all children.
A further wave of education reforms took place in 1987 and 1995. Both reforms
benefited from substantial investments, mainly from external donors and generally helped
to improve access significantly. But these later reforms also faced similar challenges as
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previous reforms had; how to sustain early gains in enrolment and universalize basic
education for all. Recent analysis of enrolment trends show that initial gains are reverting
to predictable decline below universal levels. The evidence suggests the need for a mix
of policies targeted at specific areas and a host of initiatives that can increase demand for
basic education, especially in rural areas. The recent introduction of the capitation grants
scheme is one such initiative that is clearly making an impact, but further research is
required to understand its potential to sustain the surge in enrolments and improve
completion rates.
An optional two-year nursery schooling for children aged 4 and 5 became part of the
mainstream education system in 2002. This has extended basic education from 9 years to
11 years (GOG, 2004). Extending basic education to 11 years has huge financial and
capacity implications. However, problems of access extend beyond financial constraints
and considerations to include the non-financial constraints such as teacher supply,
classrooms etc.
Clearly, ensuring that children start school early is one of the important issues emerging
from the analysis of access data. But accessing schooling at the grade appropriate age
does not guarantee that children will complete the full cycle of basic education as
additional evidence suggests. Required educational inputs and facilities (non financial
constraints) need to be present to mutually reinforce the effects.
One of the key lessons from previous education reforms is that rapid expansion must go
in tandem with measures to ensure quality provision of education if initial gains are not to
be reversed. Ensuring adequate teacher supply and improved school infrastructure
facilities are important to this endeavour.
On trends and patterns of access to basic education
Overall picture on enrolment
Analysis of the 2003 Ghana Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire (CWIQ) provided
some insights into enrolment patterns. An estimate of enrolment in school for children
aged 6-16 years, irrespective of grade, revealed that children between the ages of 8-13
(14 for boys) are most likely to be in enrolled in school, and among children aged 6 to 8
enrolment rates increased rapidly but declined for 13 year olds, and children aged 14-16
years. But amongst girls aged 6-10 years the enrolment rate is not significantly different
to that of boys. However, the gap widens for children aged 11-16 years, with girls lower
by almost 8 percent than boys. The suggestion is that girls enrolling later than the official
entry age are also more likely to drop out, especially as they approach adolescence.
Because of late entry into schooling, Ghana’s primary school population has a mean age
of 7.5 years in primary 1 and a mean age of 13.3 years in primary 6. The junior secondary
population has a mean age of 14.3 years in year 1 and mean age of 16.2 years in year
three. At the JSS level girls attendance rates are higher than boys especially in urban
areas.
Rural children are significantly less likely than urban children to be enrolled in school,
irrespective of the age-group. The existence and widening of the rural-urban gap in JSS
may be explained by the relatively late age entry into primary school of rural children.
Net junior secondary school enrolment rates amongst rural children are also significantly
x

lower compared to the urban rate because of the significantly larger proportion of rural
children who have never attended school.
An investigation into enrolment rates by welfare quintile also reveals that amongst
children from the lowest welfare quintile the junior secondary enrolment rate amongst
girls is lower than that of boys. However, amongst children in the fourth and fifth welfare
quintiles the reverse is the case. Indeed, children from households in the lowest welfare
quintile have significantly lower net primary and junior secondary enrolment and
attendance rates compared to children living in households with higher welfare measures.
Children from households in the lower welfare quintile are likely to enter primary school
at an older age compared to those from households in higher wealth quintiles. They are
also more likely to drop out of school whilst children from the wealthiest households are
twice as likely to be in school as children from the poorest households. At JSS they are
more than three times as likely. Household poverty seems to be an important predictor of
access and participation in basic education.
Age to Grade Enrolments
The official age for entry into primary schooling in Ghana is six years. However, only
about a third of the primary 1 population in 2003 was aged 5-6 years old. The estimated
mean age of 7.5 years included late entries, older-age entries, and repeaters. A slightly
higher proportion of girls in primary 1 are 5 or 6 years old compared to the proportion of
boys. However, the population of girls in primary 1 aged 5 to 8 is the same as that of
boys. Children in primary 1 in rural schools were on average older than those in urban
schools. The population of children from households in the lowest welfare quintile in
primary 1 had an older age structure compared to the children from the highest welfare
quintile. Whereas nearly 50 percent of children from the lowest welfare quintile in
primary 1 were aged 5-7 years, this rises to about 69 percent for children in the highest
welfare quintile. Children from more affluent households are likely to start school earlier.
But, even among this group there is still a significant minority, about a third, who are
starting school above the official entry age.
Gross Enrolment by Grade
Analysis of GERS by grade reveals a constant decline in GER by grade. In effect, as
children progress through school their numbers decrease almost at a constant rate.
Although in absolute terms many more children are completing primary school the
proportion of cohorts which start grade 1 has not changed very much over the years. The
overall indication is that children are beginning school at a late age, repeating grades, or
dropping in and out of the school system. Thus, the real problem is not about getting
more children officially enrolled (the evidence suggests that more are enrolling), but
rather, it is about reducing early drop out or overage enrolments. Some evidence suggests
that children are dropping out or attending infrequently because they feel the returns are
low. Research conducted in a rural area of Ghana revealed that ‘most children do not
follow schoolwork because they do not possess the understanding from previous work
that is a prerequisite for the syllabus of the higher grades of primary school and junior
secondary school’ (Pryor & Ampiah, 2003:25). Tackling the school quality and
efficiency problem is undoubtedly one important way of ensuring that high enrolments
stay up all the basic education cycle.
xi

Promotion, Repetition and Drop Out by Grade
Recent EMIS data shows that across all public primary grades the average rate of
promotion, repetition and dropout rates vary considerably by grade. Grade 1 has the
highest repetition and dropout rates, and the lowest promotion rates. Grades 2 to 5 show
patterns of repetition ranging between 4 percent and 6 percent respectively each year,
with an overall downward trend. Dropout is greatest in grade one, but peaks again in P4
and to a lesser extent P5. Promotion rates in P4 are also slightly down on the other
grades. Grade 6 has the highest promotion and lowest drop out rates, which may be due
to the prospect of completing primary and entering JSS. Repetition is relatively high in
Northern Ghana, particularly in Upper East and Upper West regions and among girls.
Out of School
Determining the out of school population is dependent on which methods are used in the
calculation. Errors can either overstate or underestimate participation in school.
Administrative data provided by EMIS suggests that there are about 1,500,000 children
who are out of school. This seems rather high and inconsistent with other indicative
analysis of enrolment trends of the 6 to 11 year olds based on household survey data.
Errors in the population estimates or projection data may explain this rather high figure
which perhaps has not taken into account those who have never enrolled and those who
enrolled but dropped out. Until there is accurate population estimates, the out of school
populations will remain difficult to pin down.
Transition to secondary
Generally, the majority of children in Ghana who reach primary 6 continue to JSS. For
those who enter junior secondary most are able to complete. The story is a little different
when it comes to entry into senior secondary. Here there is a significant drop. Less than
50 percent are able to make the transition into senior secondary. Analysis of participation
by household income and rural/urban clearly indicates that children from poor
households are less likely to continue their education to the secondary level (to JSS and
SSS). Participation also depends on location (urban or rural dweller). Richer households
are substantially more likely to access JSS (and subsequently SSS). Thus, demand for
basic education may be much less for low income families living in rural areas who may
be less inclined to invest personal energy and resources into enrolling their children and
ensuring that they stay on to complete.
Summary
The following questions are pertinent to the problem of access to basic education in
Ghana:
• What factors, especially among poor population groups determines which children
enroll, attend regularly, complete basic education, and make a successful transition to
senior secondary?
• Why have patterns of access, participation and completion improved so slowly? Why
does repetition in grade continue to be high compared to the other grades?
• Why is there, it would seem, such a high proportion of school-age children out of
school, and why is attracting these children proved to be consistently difficult?
xii

Providing answers to these questions will require investigations at the school-community
level where pathways and processes of access and participation in basic schools can be
studied more intensively.
On the zones of exclusion to access
An indicator of trends in participation in education is the proportion of the population
classified by age-group that has ever attended school. This is a crude measure of
participation because it includes those who entered but did not complete basic education
and does not provide any information on the current level of education attained for those
still in school. Using this measure it is observed that there has been an increase in the
proportion of the population that has participated in education in Ghana in the last fifty
years. But, the urban-rural gap still persists, although there has been some narrowing of
the gap in the last two decades. People in urban areas are more likely to attend or to have
attended school, although other analysis suggests that this differential gap is closing (see
World Bank, 2004).
Zone 1: Children who have never attended school
Approximately 15 percent of the population of Ghana aged 6-14 years and 17 percent of
the population aged 15 to 24 years had never attended school according to figures taken
in 2003. The difference between boys and girls is not significant for the 6-14 year age
group, but widens to 7 percentage points for the 15-24 year age group.
There is a significant urban-rural gap for age groups. Only 6 percent of urban children in
the 6-14 age/group had never attended school by 2003 compared to 20 percent of rural
children. Location also interacts with gender. Girls in rural households are more likely to
have never attended school than girls in urban areas.
The proportion of the population that has never attended school amongst the age-group 6-
14 years ranges from a mean of 5 percent in the Greater Accra region to a mean of 43
percent in the Northern Region. Amongst the population aged 15-24 years the mean
ranges from 5 percent in the Greater Accra Region to 54 percent in the Northern Region.
Thus location is important in trying to understand why some children never enroll. The
North, for example, suffers higher economic and social deprivation compared to the
South.
Zone 2: Children who drop out of school
EMIS data estimates a primary school population survival rate of about 83 percent for the
years 2004/2005. Overall, drop outs appear to be quite low, but this may due to the fact
that the CWIQ is survey and not census based. More rural children drop out of school
than children in urban areas. Also the incidence of dropping out is higher amongst girls
than it is amongst boys. The probability that children drop out of school increases with
age, with the increase higher for girls than boys.
The effect of welfare on the drop out rate is not the same across the different age cohorts.
Amongst children aged 6-11 years a positive relationship pertains between dropping out
and welfare indicators. A similar pattern holds for the 12-14 year age group. However,
xiii

for children aged 15-17 years, it would appear that the relationship is reversed, i.e.
children from high welfare quintiles are more likely to drop out from school. This
situation might be explained by the fact that more children from this quintile are actually
still in school at this stage than other socio-economic groups, leading to the possibility of
higher drop out rates.
Estimates from the 2003 CWIQ data suggest that more than a third of children aged 6-11
years who dropped out did so after completing primary 1. Grade 4 is the next grade at
which primary children are likely to drop out, with the risk higher for girls than boys.
Fewer than 2 percent of drop outs aged 6-11 had completed primary 6. Amongst children
aged 12-14 years who had dropped out, fewer than half had completed primary 4.
Approximately 13 percent of drop outs in this age group completed JSS3 before dropping
out. Amongst drop outs aged 15-17 years, about 52 percent had ended their education at
the end of JSS3. These figures are suggestive of high repetition rates between grades
and/or late enrolments. A number of factors are thought to explain drop out before the
end of the basic education cycle. These include the age at which a child starts school
(with overage entries thought more likely to drop out as pressure to enter adult life and
the workplace is increasing); low attainment; high absence; and high repetition rates.
Zone 3: Children at risk of dropping out
A number of interlocking in-school factors are thought to increase a child’s likelihood of
dropping out and as such make children at risk of leaving school before completing a
cycle of basic education. These include: low attendance, low attainment, and grade
repetition. These factors interact with other socio-economic, household and context-
specific features which also influence whether a child remains in school.
There is no national data on the frequency of school attendance in Ghana. However, case
studies suggest the phenomena of interrupted school attendance may be widespread. One
particular case study found that most children had temporarily withdrawn from school
more than once over a twelve month period.
Zone 4: Children who complete primary but not junior secondary school
Transition from primary to JSS is less problematic than that between JSS to SSS. Of the
sub-population aged 12-14 years about 30 percent of children who had completed
primary school managed to continue to junior secondary. Of children aged 15-17 years,
there is a significant increase in the proportion that complete primary school but do not
continue to junior secondary. As a result of late entry most of the population aged 12-14
years still find themselves in primary school. This can partly explain the extremely low
proportion of children aged 12-14 years in Northern Ghana who do not continue their
education after completing primary 6.
Summary
The 2003 CWIQ data and other enrolment analysis reveals that basic education in Ghana
is not available to quite a significant proportion of the population aged 6-17 years who
have never attended school, enrolled late, or had attended irregularly, probably as many
as 15 percent. There is also a relatively high drop out rate amongst the population group
aged 15-17 years.
xiv

On evidence from access related research in Ghana
This section covers a range of topics linked to educational access: health; disability;
HIV/AIDS; households; migration; child labour; educational costs; gender and access;
educational inputs e.g. teachers; non state providers and schooling practices
Health, nutrition and access to schooling
One important piece of evidence from research in Ghana is that malnutrition, stunted
growth are correlated with delayed enrolment in school. Health factors are important
determinants of when a child goes to school. Differences exist in the health status of
enrolled and non-enrolled children, with out-of-school children often more vulnerable to
health problems. Studies also indicate that health status has implications for attendance,
retention and drop out, with hunger, malaria, headaches and poor eyesight noted as major
causes of absenteeism and dropping out (Fentiman, et al., 1999, 2001).
Health issues have also been found to be gendered, with girls reporting more health-
related problems than boys. Painful menstruation, a lack of sanitary facilities and
pregnancy has been found to lead to both absenteeism and drop-out of adolescent girls
(Fentiman et al., 1999, 2001). Other research has noted that interventions targeted at
infants and first years of primary schooling helps to improve enrolment to quite a
significant extent (see Fentiman et al., 2001). Similarly gender-sensitive programmes that
focus on female adolescent health and specific strategies to reach out to those most at risk
have potential to improve access and retention.
Not much research has examined the impact that food aid and school feeding
programmes have on educational access (Pridmore, 2007), but in Ghana one study
investigated the impact of food aid intervention on girls’ enrolment, attendance and
retention in schools in the East Gonja District of Northern Ghana. Generally, it found
that although food aid is an incentive for girls to enrol, attend and remain in school till
completion, creating more awareness of the importance and benefits of girls’ education
was equally important in improving girls’ participation in basic education (Seidu, 2003).
Disability, special educational needs and access
It is estimated that around 5 percent of the population of Ghana have some sort of
disability with sight problems noted as most prevalent (around 59 percent), then
hearing/speaking. But, there is the possibility of under-recording of disability in rural
areas which would make disability a sometimes less-visible factor in educational access.
There are indications that access to education for many with disabilities in Ghana is an
urban phenomenon although this could also be a result of under-reporting in rural areas.
For example, a study in Accra and some rural areas in Eastern region revealed that
majority of students with disabilities had not had their disabilities detected or identified
by professionals (Obeng 2007). In a survey which involved 66 teachers/head teachers
(plus 16 parents), 87 percent of teachers and head teachers were not aware of any existing
policy for special education needs (SEN), and therefore had no arrangements in place for
implementation of such policy in their schools (Asamani, 2000). Many teachers are often
unwilling to have children with disabilities in their class, especially those with behaviour
problems (Obeng 2007). Generally, there seem to be a lack of detailed analytical research
xv

into the scale of disability and SEN in Ghanaian schools and its relationships with
educational access.
HIV/AIDS and educational access
There is limited research on children, HIV/AIDS and educational access in Ghana. In
comparison to some other Sub-Sahara African countries, Ghana is not seen as one of the
high prevalence countries. It appears that in the coming years the percentage of orphans
in Ghana is likely to remain largely unchanged (Bennell et al., 2002). There are a number
of potential impacts on educational access if teachers become infected with the
HIV/AIDS virus. For example, infected teachers might experience long and frequent
absences from school, low productivity, financial hardships and non-completion of
curricula. There are claims that the prevalence rate for Ghanaian teachers is higher than
the national average (Tamukong, 2004). Further research is required to draw firmer
conclusions on the impact of HIV/AIDS on educational access.
Household influence access
Research in Northern Ghana has suggested that the likelihood of children’s enrolment is
based on a complex mix of factors which include the educational level of parents,
particularly mothers, the ability to pay indirect/direct costs of schooling, and the types of
livelihoods households pursue. In some cases the likelihood of a child’s enrolment ‘was
an outcome of the different ways in which households were organised, the manner in
which household members’ time was occupied and the types of assets they invested in,
including human capital’ (Hashim, 2005:17). Other studies confirm the benefits of
parental education to schooling access for children (Mensah, 1992, Lloyd and Blanc,
1996 cited in CARE International, 2003; Johnson and Kyle, 2001; Montgomery,
Kouamé, Oliver, 1995), leading to the conclusion that parental education, particularly the
mother’s education has a big influence on children’s attendance and achievement.
Household decisions on who gets access and why often favours ‘those who are most
willing, able and determined’ going to school, while other children stayed at home to
ensure the availability of the necessary labour to secure livelihoods and assets’ (Hashim,
2005). ‘Parents frequently aspire to educate their children. However, education is
sometimes seen as one among a range of means of securing children’s long-term welfare.
Consequently, the ability and desire to educate all their children can be tempered by a
child’s perceived interest and scholastic ability, by parents’ assessment of education as a
viable livelihood strategy, and by the need to secure and protect the household’s
immediate well-being, which might require a reduction in expenditure, such as those
associated with educating a child, or a need for labour to ensure subsistence’ (Hashim,
2005:17).
In rural communities where schools are a distance away, children might be fostered into
another community where there is a school (Pillon, 2003). Interestingly, in rural areas the
enrolment rate for children residing without their parents is higher than that of the
household heads' own children, an indication that some children are fostered in order to
attend school. Conversely, in urban areas, children living without their parents seem to
have lower enrolment rates than the household heads' own offspring. In the urban areas
under-enrolment seems to affect girls more than boys, which might suggest that, girls are
xvi

fostered in urban areas to provide domestic support to households rather than to access
education.
Migration and educational access
Migration is linked to issues of fostering and orphan-hood, but also includes the
movement of household units. In villages specialising in out-migration, children
frequently drop out of school before the completion of compulsory education to migrate
to cities, although the earnings of these migrants might be used to pay for the education
of a sibling. Increasing demand for educational access in the south seems to be a factor
contributing to domestic labour requirements being filled by child migrants from the
north. However there are examples of young people who rather than dropping out,
migrate to acquire the funds to re-sit exams or further their education’ (see Hashim,
2005). A study by Fentiman, Hall, & Bundy (1999:334) allude to the gendered aspects of
child migration and the sense that girls seemed to be migrating more than boys with
consequences on opportunities for access to schooling.
Gender and educational access
Gendered schooling patterns are context-specific with research indicating differentiations
across Ghana. Research suggests that while some general patterns might be found around
gendered access, these might not be applicable across the board, and therefore the need to
look at this issue from location-specific contexts is important.
Several studies have documented reasons why girls tend to have lower enrolment rates
than boys, higher drop out and less transition to secondary. On the whole these reasons
tend to be multifaceted and interrelated but with poverty as a common denominator
(AED, 2002). Factors influencing female enrolments have been identified as: beliefs and
practices and the perception of the role of girls by families and communities; costs; the
opportunity cost of sending girls to school and girls having to travel long distances to go
to school (see AED, 2002; Shabaya & Konadu-Agyemang, 2004; Avotri, 2000). Using
qualitative interviews with fifteen families in Accra and Koforidua (as well as
observations), Yeboah (1997) found that there was some favouring of boys over girls, but
also that gender only became an issue to families when they were obligated to make a
decision about either a daughter's or a son's access to school. She notes that culture,
quality of school, performance of a child, gender, sex role stereotyping, and perceptions
of which child will most likely look after a parent were critical variables in family
decision-making around girls' education.
Location and educational access
Studies in Ghana have shown that access issues tend to be more pronounced in areas that
are prone to a range of interlocking socio-economic factors. For example, high levels of
illiteracy, low levels of human resource development, low levels of economic
development, low levels of democratic participation, high levels of infant and child
mortality and morbidity, and low levels of general family health, among others (see
Ministry of Education, 2002a). Most of these areas are more likely to be found in the
northern Ghana. Hashim (2005) found that the issue of access in the North was not static
but evolved with perceptions and expectations of childhood playing a role in how
demand for education is constructed by households. Education was not implicated in
xvii

‘normal’ childhood in the same way, and the inability to attend school was not perceived
as an opportunity denied. Transformations were occurring in the meaning of education as
a result of the changes in the lived experiences of individuals … in particular due to the
manner in which the labour market has changed and the increasing importance of the
‘modern’ sector economy. However, education was not fully implicated in the
construction of childhood but rather viewed as a new form of recruitment to work,
representing the possibility of alternative livelihoods’ (Hashim, 2005:18).
Schooling costs and access
Several studies conducted in the 1990s and early 2000 suggested that a major obstacle to
educational access was economic. The high cost of schooling pushes children into the
labour market to enable them to afford school or pulls them away from school as they
cannot afford it (Canagarahaj & Coulombe, 1997). With the recent introduction of the
capitation grant scheme into basic education, theoretically the issue of costs as a barrier
should be eliminated or reduced to its barest minimum. Future CREATE studies in Ghana
will test this assumption and explore the complexities surrounding household decision-
making, in relation to access.
Child labour and access
Depending on the nature of the work (and the type of educational opportunities
available), child labour can: increase pressure to or cause drop outs from schooling; or
provide financial support for the child’s schooling and/or that of siblings, many children
both work and attend school. In terms of age as a child grows older, the opportunity cost
of their time often increases (Glewwe & Jacoby, 1995 in Fentiman, Hall, & Bundy,
1999:340; Canagarahaj & Coulombe, 1997; Blunch & Verner, 2000). This can be seen
for example in the migration habits of children, often from economically poorer
communities who provide employment and domestic support (increasing quite
significantly after the age of 13). Pressures on children to work might be seasonal in
some contexts with implications for attendance at school. In one study, rural children
were over twice as likely as urban children to engage in child labor. Girls were more
likely than boys to be involved in child labour as were poor children. Finally involvement
in child labour was found to be related to self-employment, family ownership of land and
livestock, and the distances to the nearest primary and secondary school.
Non-state provision of basic education and access
Private schooling in Ghana is mainly an urban phenomenon and run mainly on for profit
basis. There has been some evidence which suggest that many ‘unrecognized’ private
schools and schools managed by charitable organizations, operate in low income urban
periphery areas. These schools are perceived to be providing better quality primary
education (largely to poor households), than state providers (see Tooley, 2005). But their
popularity could be attributed to the perception that they provide the mechanism for
social mobility, and partly because of falling quality in public school education
(LaRocque, 2001). Private schooling might also be plugging gaps in supply, with poor
quality private and religious schools growing in number to accommodate students who
cannot find access to state schools. Both the claims about the contribution of private
xviii

schooling to access particularly for poor households as well as the scale of such provision
will be investigated in the CREATE work in Ghana.
Summary
The research reviewed suggests that there is a range of interlocking supply and demand
factors which influence access to schooling in Ghana. These work in context-specific
ways, interacting with each other and external influences, to ensure that each access
situation in Ghana is distinctive. However, it is possible to make some general
observations about educational access from the research reviewed. Generally, children
living in the rural north have less access than those in urban south; girls’ in northern and
rural areas have less access than those in the south or urban and peri-urban areas.
Poverty explains why girls often leave school to migrate out of communities or remain
within households, to work. Age and the labour market interact to influence access –
children are more likely to be involved in child labour the older they are. Accessing
school at an older age increases chances of dropout and pull towards the informal labour
market, and is also influenced by a child’s health in their early years. Generally,
undernourished and stunted children are likely to start school late.
On new agendas for policy and research
There are a number of issues that have emerged from this country analytic review of
access to basic education that have implications for policy and further research.
Significant issues with implications for policy dialogue and re-formulation concern the
following:
• Costs: The introduction of capitation grants linked to fee-free provision provides the
opportunity for children from poor households to access basic education. But other
factors can compete to deny access. The cost barrier is important for policy to
address, but is one of many other equally important factors that shape access to basic
education. Issues about early child nutrition and health are critical to when a child
starts and completes schooling. Overage enrolment is a fundamental problem that
remains deeply rooted in basic education in Ghana, affecting attendance and
completion. Policies on access must therefore be judged on the extent to which they
tackle not only the supply side problems of access, but also the extent to which they
interact with early childhood health and nutrition initiatives.
• Social returns to investment into basic education suggest that the problem of access
should also not be construed simply as a choice facing parents, although this is
equally critical. Because of the micro and macro social returns, community level
participation in the enforcement of access policies, as well as in management, and
delivery of education provision is a key to sustaining high enrolments right from
grade 1. This also means that the setting of enrolment targets and support to achieving
them must be bottom-up, where local education authorities, schools, communities and
parents work together to provide access to quality basic education.
• A consistent policy agenda of basic education reform has been the attempt to make it
‘free and compulsory’. However, as the analysis in this report has shown, indirect
costs and other factors are equally important if free basic education is to mean
equitable access for all. Indirect and opportunity costs of education are clearly
xix

significant and therefore making basic education free of direct costs to parents, and
compulsory, is only one half of the battle. Other strategies are needed to encourage
demand. Besides, it is important to establish if basic education, even under the
capitation scheme, is really free in terms of the indirect costs. CREATE studies in
Ghana will provide some insights into this.
• What we know is that lack of access is concentrated mostly among poor rural areas,
especially in Northern Ghana, as well as among densely populated urban poor. About
39 percent of the 138 districts in Ghana are classified as educationally deprived. This
means areas with a high incidence of poverty and where access to good quality basic
education is particularly problematic. There are also pockets of population groups for
whom sending a child to school is a difficult choice because of the consequences this
has on economic survival. There are others, including a few poor, who feel private
schooling offers the best chance to post-basic education and a brighter future.
Whatever challenges families face in deciding whether to send their child to school
(state or private), the decision reflects investment choices as well as what they believe
are the returns. Thus, access to basic education is not simply a supply issue, but is
increasingly becoming an issue of demand, or at least a mixture of both supply and
demand.
• Finally, policies intended to expand access and completion of basic education need to
provide the kind of non-pecuniary incentives that are likely to make the prospect of
basic education attractive. Quality of provision (i.e. teacher supply, school
management, teaching and learning resources) and meaningful access (i.e. regular
attendance, improved learning achievement), are key to the proposition that basic
education is fundamental for personal and social development irrespective of the
location and welfare status of all in society.
xx

On key research areas and questions for Ghana
Based on the insights that have been developed from this analytic review the following
key research questions have been identified for future phases of CREATE work in
Ghana:
Researching zone 1
1. Researching barriers to enrolment
• What are the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of Ghanaian children
who never enrol in school? What is a good estimate of the size of this group?
• What conditions within the family or community acts as barriers to enrolment?
• What is the share of school-aged children in Ghana enrolled in alternative schools,
special education schools, NGO non-profit schools etc.)?
• What routes exist for children in alternative basic schools to access public basic
schools?
• What strategies have been used by alternative providers to enrol out of school
children?
• To what extent can alternative schools provide sustainable access to basic education
for children who unlikely to enrol in state basic schools?
Researching Zones 2, 3 & 4
2. Tracking attendance and participation
• What factors shape patterns of enrolment, attendance, drop out and completion of
primary and junior secondary school?
• What school level characteristics correlate with high or low attendance e.g. is there a
relationship between teacher attendance, characteristics of school management,
school/classroom size, health status of children, and pupil enrolment and attendance?
• What individual
1
and household characteristics
2
correlate with high or low
enrolment, attendance and progression in primary and JSS education?
• What factors account for lack of access to JSS after successful completion of
primary?
• Does attendance at pre -school (kindergarten) improve attendance and completion of
primary schooling?
• At what age and grade level are children in rural and urban areas most likely to enrol
or drop out of school? What factors account for any age and gender differentiation in
drop out?
• What happens to pupils who drop out from school in early, mid and late stages of
primary education?
- Where do they go, what do they do and how do they evaluate their school
experiences?
1
Individual characteristic include labour status of child, health status, gender, age, etc.
2
Household characteristics include family income, education of father & mother, etc. – will use similar
household characteristics as used by the Ghana DHS
xxi

- What proportion of drop outs re-enter and at what grade level do most re-enter?
- What challenges face drop outs who re-enrol?
- What policies do schools have to reduce drop out and address the problem of
poor attendance of pupils and teachers?
- What conditions hinder other drop outs from re-enrolling?
• What are the key determinants of high and low enrolment in schools in rural and in
urban poor areas?
• What whole school management practices increases the risk of low attendance and
drop out?
• What professional characteristics and practices of teachers increase the risk of low
enrolment, irregular attendance and low completion of primary school?
xxii

Access to Basic Education in Ghana:
The Evidence and the Issues
1. Background and Objectives
1.1 Introduction
The Country Analytic Review (CAR) provides a background of shared knowledge,
understandings and research evidence about the state of access to basic education in
Ghana. It assesses the impact past and present policies on basic education have had on
expanding access to all children. As an analytic review it forms the basis for
recommending the kinds of research on access that is needed to deepen
understandings of the challenges faced in Ghana, as well as what future policies in
basic education should focus on to promote meaningful access for all children.
Recommendations for further research on access will be incorporated into the second
phase of the Consortium for Research on Education Access, Transition and Equity’s
(CREATE) research agenda in Ghana.
This report addresses a number of main issues. Namely, it:
• Investigates the evolution of access to basic education in Ghana. The objective
here is to assess the implications of primary enrolment trends over an extended
period of time for policies and practices of basic education.
• Analyzes basic education policies and practices for insight into their
significance in the drive to expand access to basic education.
• Unpacks the conditions and factors that underpin access as both a process and
outcome and from that develops preliminary understandings of the nature of
exclusion from meaningful access.
• Reviews recent empirical and secondary analysis studies on access to basic
education and maps out what the key challenges are to expanding access,
particularly for poor and marginalized groups in society.
• Provides preliminary policy recommendations and identifies specific issues,
themes, and agendas for further research in the second phase of the CREATE
research project in Ghana.
• Outlines issues for dialogue with the CREATE national reference group
(NRG) in Ghana, which is made up of education stakeholders, development
partners, and education NGOs.
To facilitate the study of the problems of access CREATE has developed a conceptual
model for researching ‘zones of exclusion’ from basic education. Zone 1 describes the
children who do not enroll in school at all. Zone 2 refers to children who enroll in
school but drop out before the completion of primary school. Zone 3 describes
children who are currently enrolled in school, and who for various reasons, are
believed to be at risk from dropping out. Zone 4 refers to children who complete
primary education, but fail to make the transition from primary to junior secondary
school. In using these zones of exclusion, the issue of access can been seen in terms of
understanding the social, economic and cultural characteristics of children who
occupy each zone, and the appropriate measures that can be identified to target them.
1

Figure 1 provides a generic model identifying the various zones of exclusion from
education.
Figure 1
3
Access and Zones of Exclusion from Basic Education
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
12345678910
Girls and Boys who could be Enrolled in Expanded School Systems
Girls and Boys Excluded with Special Circumstances
Zone 3
Risk of
Exclusion
Zone 4
Primary Completers
Excluded from Secondary
Zone 2
Girl and Boy Drop Outs with
Incomplete Primary Schooling
below the Legal Age for
Formal Employment
Primary Grades
Zone 1
Girls and Boys Never
Enrolled
Grade
5+ 6+ 7+ 8+ 9+ 10+ 11+ 12+ 13+ 14+ Nominal Age at Entry
Key
A
c
c
e
s
s
N
o
A
c
c
e
s
s
N
o
A
c
c
e
s
s
A
c
c
e
s
s
% of
Cohort
Enrolled
Attendance
> 75%
% Achieving
Minimum
Learning
Outcomes
Lower Secondary Grades
Amongst other things, CREATE aims to:
1) Map the current status of access to basic education across the different zones of
exclusion and analyse the problems associated with achieving MDG and EFA
goals;
2) Synthesise what is known about how to improve access and provide examples of
better practice for further study; and
3) Identify gaps in knowledge and understanding and carry out research to address
these gaps.
This Country Analytic Review is the first stage of this process in the Ghanaian
context and sets the scene for further research.
The CAR has been developed from a review of available literature around the
Ghanaian context; and consultations with major stakeholders have broadened the
scope of the work and brought many issues forward for consideration and further
study. The CAR is a result of a negotiated process between key educational
stakeholders and academic researchers, and provides a basis for future debate and
discussion.
The report consists of seven sections. Section 1 provides the background and
objectives of the review. Section 2 examines some of the major influences of basic
education policies on access. It evaluates past and present policies on basic education
3
This model has since been modified to include 6 zones of exclusion from basic education. See
Appendix 4
2

in terms of their impact on access to schooling. This section also evaluates the
strategies that were proposed to address problems of access as basic education was
expanded in Ghana. Section 3 presents an overview of trends and patterns of access in
basic education in Ghana. Section 4 re-analyses aspects of the 2003 Core Welfare
Indicators Questionnaire relevant to issues on access. The analysis here is framed in
terms of CREATE’s model of the zones of exclusion from basic education (see Figure
1 above). Section 5 presents a review of research on access to basic education in
Ghana. Section 6 presents the implications of new understandings about the problems
of access for policy and research. Finally, Section 7 summarizes the main issues and
findings emerging from the analytic review before setting a research agenda to
investigate identified gaps for the second phase of CREATE research in Ghana.
3

2. Assessing the influence of Basic Education Policies on Access
2.1 Introduction
This section describes the policies that have informed activities to expand basic
education in Ghana. In particular, it investigates factors that have influenced policies
on access to basic education and the current policy strategies to expand access. Much
of what is discussed provides the background context for the analysis of trends and
patterns of access in sections 3 and 4.
2.2 The Early Policies to improve Access
The current basic education structure and curriculum has its roots in Ghana’s colonial
past. The earliest schools in pre-colonial period in the Gold Coast were started to
educate the mixed race children of European traders. Much later the colonial
government provided education to sustain the machinery of colonial rule, but the
major effort to expand education was the work of Christian missions who regarded
education as necessary for missionary activity. Later, some aspects of pre-
independence education were characterized by attempts to create incentives for all
children to attend school. Before independence, for example, Northern Ghana was
targeted with special incentives i.e. free education to encourage children to enroll.
As demand for education rose, more schools were opened by missionary
organizations and, by 1881, about 5000 pupils were enrolled in 139 schools. This
expansion concentrated mainly in the south and spread slowly till the era of the Gold
Coast governor, Gordon Guggisberg (1919–1927). Guggisberg produced the clearest
ideas on educational expansion in colonial Ghana when his administration proposed
16 principles for the development of education in the Gold Coast (see Box 1). These
principles stressed equal opportunities for boys and girls, relevance of education to
local economic activities, technical and vocational education, the place of the
vernacular in teaching, and the importance of well-trained teachers to deliver quality
education. By and large, many of these principles have continued to inform post-
independence education reform agenda. Guggisberg, however, did not subscribe to the
idea of education as a free and compulsory commodity (see Box 1).
As the end of the colonial era approached demand for education became more
pressing and in 1945 the government proposed a 10-year education expansion plan
which aimed to achieve universal primary education within 25 years (i.e. by 1970).
The plan was set within what it judged as affordable limits of educational expansion.
The next significant wave of education expansion was the 1951 Accelerated
Development Plan (ADP) for Education, which aimed to achieve universal primary
education (UPE) for all. The ADP produced a basic education structure consisting of:
six years of primary education, four years of middle school education (both terminal
and continuing) five years of secondary schooling and two years of sixth-form
education for entry into university (see Appendix 1 for the Structure of Ghana
Education System, 1951-1987).
The main ADP strategy to improve access to basic education was to abolish tuition
fees. After independence it was still considered a priority to make basic education
4

free and the 1961 Education Act was introduced to support this vision. In all, these
policies helped expand access rapidly (see Table 1).
Box 1: The Sixteen Principles of Governor Guggisberg
1. Primary education must be thorough and be from bottom to the top
2. The provision of secondary schools with an educational standard that will fit young
men and women to enter a university.
3. The provision of a university.
4. Equal opportunities to those given to boys should be provided for the education of
girls
5. Co-education is desirable during certain stages of education.
6. The staff of teachers must be of the highest possible quality.
7. Character training must take an important place in education
8. Religious teaching should form part of school life
9. Organised games should form part of school life.
10. The course in every school should include special references to the health, welfare,
and industries of the locality.
11. A sufficient staff of efficient African inspectors of schools must be trained and
maintained.
12. Whilst an English education must be given it must be based solidly on the vernacular.
13. Education cannot be compulsory or free.
14. There should be cooperation between the Government and the Missions; and the latter
should be subsidized for educational purposes.
15. The Government must have the ultimate control of education throughout the Gold
Coast.
16. The provision of trade schools with a technical and literary education that will fit the
young men to become skilled craftsmen and useful citizens.
(Source: McWilliam & Kwamena-Poh, 1975:57)
The ADP had its critics. Busia (1952 cited in Foster, 1965a) argued that it consisted of
‘ill-digested series of proposals based on political expediency.’ Others argued that
rapid expansion without ensuring sufficient numbers of trained teachers was unwise
because it would compromise quality. Foster (1965a) held a more optimistic view,
and argued that the initial dip in quality as a result of rapid expansion was to be
expected and did not negate the importance of rapid education expansion. He noted:
‘there is little doubt that the period of rapid expansion did lead to a lowering of
academic standards within the primary and middle schools, but it is equally
true that the emergency teacher training schemes could enable the system to
recover at a rapid rate once the initial peak of enrolments was past. The
opponents of the plan, in reiterating criticisms which had formerly led the
British administration to proceed cautiously in the diffusion of education
facilities, ignored more significant consequences of mass educational
expansion’ (Foster, 1965a:190).
5

Table 1: Expansion in Education between 1951 and 1966
1951 1966 Type of School
or College
No of Schools No of Students No of Schools No of Students
Primary 1,083 153,360 8,144 1,137,495
Middle 539 66,175 2,277 267,434
Secondary 13 5,033 105 42,111
Teacher Training 22 1,916 83 15,144
Technical 5 622 11 4,956
University 2 208 3 4,291
(Source: Hayford B. K., 1988:35).
The concern that rapid expansion undermines quality continues today especially
where no effective strategies are in place to train and retain teachers. A further
criticism of the ADP was that it created a financial burden for local authorities who
were expected to fund about 40 percent of teachers’ salaries, with the remaining 60
percent coming from central government. The inability of local councils to discharge
this responsibility contributed to some of the difficulties experienced in maintaining
the quality of education provision as enrolments increased. Some of the lessons to
emerge from the accelerated development of education include the importance of
ensuring that teacher supply and demand meets with rapid enrolment expansion;
improving the capacity of local authorities to recruit and incentivise local teachers;
and finally the importance of management of educational inputs (see McWilliam &
Kwamena-Poh, 1975).
There are two main lessons that can be learnt from early policies to expand access to
education:
• The need to factor the impact that rapid expansion can have on quality and the risk
that this poses to initial enrolment gains if demand softens as quality deteriorates.
The imperative is that expansion and quality improvements needs to work in
tandem so they can produce mutually beneficial effects.
• A comprehensive plan is required for promoting meaningful access. Issues such
as effective teacher supply and management, and improvements in instructional
inputs are crucial elements of any expansion policies to improve access for all.
2.3 Expanding Access in Northern Ghana
Rapid expansion in the early years of education development did not benefit every
part of the country. Attention focused on the south and created a gap in provision
between Northern Ghana (currently the three Northern regions: the North, Upper and
Upper West), and the rest of the country. The roots of this gap can be traced to the
Guggisberg era which resisted the temptation to expand access rapidly because of its
concern about the impact on quality. Basically, the Guggisberg administration
adopted a cautious approach (Bening, 1990) – rooted in the principle of developing a
6

primary education system that was thorough and from the bottom up (see principle 1,
Box 1). As McWilliam and Kwamena Poh noted (cited in Akyeampong, 2006:216-7),
“the idea of a thorough primary education system meant that even when resources
were available to expand access to primary education, and in Guggisberg’s era there
was enough to triple provision, there was reluctance to do so because trained teacher
demand could not be matched with supply to support accelerated expansion”. Quality
was imperative and expanding access was done selectively on the basis of available
educational inputs e.g. trained teachers availability and assurances that expanded
facilities would not be underutilized. Thus low population density areas particularly
in the North did not receive much attention when it came to plans to expand access to
primary education. Akyeampong (2006) argues that part of the solution to this
problem should have been multigrade teaching because of how it allows for schools
of low population density to use just one or two teachers to teach all grades (Little,
2006). This makes redundant the one teacher per class idea as the main quality
assurance indicator.
On attainment of independence in 1957, a special scholarship
4
scheme was instituted
to close the gap between the North and South of Ghana. Even though this scholarship
helped to improve access, Northern Ghana continues to experience low levels of
educational performance. For example, repetition rates in primary schools in the
North are generally higher than the national average and the phenomenon of out of
school children is particularly acute there (see Section 3).
2.4 Expanding Basic Education: the Continuation and Junior Secondary School
Concept
After 1966, when the Nkrumah era ended the quality versus expansion debate
resurfaced with calls to scale back accelerated education expansion plans and focus
more on quality provision. Other concerns included unemployment of school leavers
and issues of quality and relevance of education to the world of work. A committee
5
on education recommended that elementary education should be extended to 10 years
with a break in year eight for selecting suitable candidates for secondary education.
Those who were not selected went on to complete two years continuation classes with
an emphasis on pre-vocational education.
This recommendation saw many middle schools become continuation schools in the
early 1970s (see Appendix 1). Issues of inadequate access, resulting from non-
enrolment and drop-outs did not feature as prominently as they did in the late 1950s to
mid 1960. Education developments in the late 1960s to early 1970s conceptualized
primary education mainly as preparation for entry to either secondary education or
middle schools for early employment. Middle school leavers could attend technical
and vocational schools and four-year post-primary teacher training colleges. Concerns
4
On the attainment of independence in 1957, a special scholarship scheme was instituted to enable the
North and the parts of Brong-Ahafo to achieve educational parity with Southern Ghana and Ashanti.
This scheme gave automatic scholarships from primary to tertiary education to any pupil who could
show that he was from the North. The scholarships covered tuition fees, boarding and lodging,
textbooks, school uniform, stationery, examination fees, transport allowance. Access and participation
in the North was much less than in the South; in 1960 the age group enrolled in the North was 11.7%,
31.8% in Brong-Ahafo, compared to an average of 48.9% for all other regions.
5
The Kwapong Committee was set up in 1967 after the fall of the Nkrumah Government.
7

about inequitable access to secondary education became an issue in the early 70s
(Addae-Mensah et al., 1973). Later the continuation school concept was severely
criticized as promoting inferior education for the masses whilst secondary schools
became the preserve of elite Ghanaian children (Dzobo, 1987 cited in Ministry of
Education, 1999)
6
. The concept of a three-year Junior Secondary School as the
common post-primary school for all products of primary schools recommended in
1971 by a Government Committee on Education, was a key recommendation of the
“New Structure and Content of Education” in 1973. Primary school was followed
automatically and compulsorily by three year junior secondary for all. Selection for
entry into a senior secondary school was to take place after junior secondary
education.
2.5 Later Reforms: From the 1974 to 1987 Education Reforms and 1995 FCUBE
Educational reforms in 1974 introduced the idea of thirteen years of pre-tertiary
education; six years primary school, three years Junior Secondary School (JSS), and
four years senior secondary school (SSS). It also mooted the idea of pre-technical and
pre-vocational subjects – an attempt to make the JSS curriculum comprehensive and
thus cater for all talents and provide them with practical skills.
Unfortunately, the implementation of the 1974 educational reforms in its pilot form
coincided with the decline of the Ghanaian economy. Throughout the 1970s the
Ghanaian economy declined considerably. In 1982 per capita income was 30% below
the 1970 level. The index of real monthly earnings fell from 315 to 62 over this
period. This was a period which witnessed acute shortages in teachers, textbooks and
instructional materials throughout the country’s schools. Teachers left in droves to
neighbouring Nigeria where its new found oil wealth had become a magnet for
attracting thousands of teachers seeking better pay and conditions of service. By this
time Ghanaian society had become increasingly polarised and education was also
increasingly becoming a tool for social stratification (Addae-Mensah, 2000). By 1983
access to basic education and other levels of education were at their lowest (World
Bank, 2004).
The coup that brought in the Rawlings government into power in 1981 was basically
anti-elitist (Donge, 2003) and came promising to create a more equitable society.
Driven by a strong socialist ideological agenda the education system was earmarked
for radical reform to achieve two key things. First, reforms were seen as necessary to
improve the quality of education provision – a survey had showed that a large
majority (often more than 80%) of children completing grade 6, or even JSS 1 ‘were
completely illiterate’ (MOEC, 1986). Second, reforms were needed to provide more
equitable access to primary and secondary education. In 1985/86 academic year
6
Professor Dzobo, chaired the committee which produced the 1974 New Structure and Content of
Education. In his address at the National Workshop on the 1987 Educational Reforms, January 14,
1987, said: ‘In spite of the bold educational innovative measures of the 1920s and of the subsequent
ones Ghana’s formal education system remained Western and predominantly academic and elitist. As
a result of the Accelerated Development Plan of Education in 1951, the pre-university educational
system has become increasingly dysfunctional as it turns out a lot of school leavers who have no
marketable skills, neither do they have the mind to go into self-employment ventures. These leavers
could see no bright future for themselves and they come to constitute a veritable economic and social
problem for our society to solve…’ (Dzobo 1987. cited in MOE, 1999, pp. 12 -13).
8

students in secondary schools represented only 7% of the relevant age group and
primary enrolments had stagnated from the early 1980s until 1987 when it started
rising (MOEC, 1986).
Thus, the 1987 education reforms set out to improve access to basic education but also
emphasized the need to include measures that would improve quality, efficiency, and
equity in the education sector. It set the following objectives and introduced a new
structure of education (see appendix 2) which was really an implementation of most
of the 1974 proposals:
• To expand and make access more equitable at all levels of education;
• To change the structure of the education system to 6 – 3 – 3 – 4, reducing the
length of pre-tertiary education from 17 to 12 years;
• To improve pedagogic efficiency and effectiveness;
• To make education more relevant by increasing the attention paid to problem-
solving, environmental concerns, pre-vocational training, manual dexterity and
general skills training;
• To contain and partially recover costs and to enhance sector management and
budgeting procedures.
Progression from primary to junior secondary school required no external
examination. The curriculum combined general academic studies and practical skills
training
7
. The main objective of the 1987 reforms was to implement the 1974 reforms
nation-wide. It also introduced the 3-Year SSS instead of the 2 Year SSS Lower
followed by the 2-Year SSS Upper which was proposed under the 1974 plans.
Three principal objectives of the new system were that it would:
• Enable all products of the primary school to have access to a higher level of
general academic training as pertained in the lower forms of the traditional
secondary school to address the inequity between secondary school and the middle
school/continuation school;
• Provide practical skills training in technical and vocational subjects to all children;
• Prepare majority of children whose formal education terminated after JSS for the
world of work.
It is now generally acknowledged that the implementation of the technical and
vocational aspects of the reform was less successful because of the inadequate supply
of well-trained technical and vocational instructors. The JSS workshops intended for
pre-vocational and pre-technical education failed to work as planned. But as Foster
(1965a) noted years before, the idea that schools would use the skills and expertise of
local artisans and craftsmen and women to support teaching pre-vocational and
7
Primary level subjects are English Language, Ghanaian Language and Culture, Mathematics,
Environmental Studies, Integrated Science, Religious and Moral Education. Physical Education, Music
and Dance are taught as physical activities. JSS curriculum comprises English Language and Culture,
Mathematics, Social Studies, General Science, Agricultural Science, Pre-vocational Skills, Pre-
technical Skills, Religious and Moral Education and
optional French. Other subjects taught but
examined internally are Life Skill, Music and Dance, and Physical Education.
9

technical courses is unlikely to work in practice because it fails to recognize the
difficult challenge of implementation.
To date, the 1987 reforms have benefited the most in terms of investment
8
to improve
access and quality of basic education, and although it has made an impact on
educational performance in Ghana, many educational performance indicators suggest
that there is still more to do if the goals of EFA are to be achieved and sustained (see
analysis in Section 3).
In 1995, the ‘free compulsory universal basic education’ (FCUBE) reforms were
introduced to fix the weaknesses in the 1987 reforms. FCUBE aimed to achieve UPE
by 2005. Clearly this target has been missed. Additionally, it sought to improve
girls’ enrolment and has generally succeeded in achieving this target (see MOESS,
2006). Implementation of the FCUBE was supported by the World Bank Primary
School Development Project (PSDP). Two main areas of activity of the PSDP were
the following:
• Policy and management changes: (i) increased instructional time, (ii) reducing
student fees and levies, (iii) improve skills and motivation of headteachers, (iv)
community involvement in selection of headteachers, (v) orientation of district
officials and community leaders, (vi) support to school supervision, and (vii)
school mapping
• Investment in physical infrastructure: (i) construction of classrooms, (ii)
construction of head teachers’ housing, (iii) provision of roofing sheets.
Communities were to be responsible for building the external walls (“cladding”)
for pavilions constructed by the project
(World Bank, 2004:21-
22)
The FCUBE programme met with several problems and constraints. Management
weaknesses undermined its impact including poor supervision at system and school
level (Fobih et al., 1999). According to the FCUBE 1999 implementation report, one
of the important lessons learnt in the implementation of the FCUBE programme is
that, ‘continuing to expand access to basic education and increasing physical inputs
into the system are not effective unless the quality of activities at the school level
improves significantly’ (MOE, 1999:4). This echoes Guggisberg’s concerns
expressed as far back as the 1940s.
The World Bank’s assessment of its role in improving educational access and quality
through its support to both 1987 and 1995 reforms is generally positive. It concluded
that its contributions have led to “revers(ing) the deterioration of the educational
system, the number of schools increased, from 12,997 in 1980 to 18,374 in 2000, the
basic school enrolment rate increased since the beginning of the reforms by over 10
8
By 2003, over US$ 500 million of donor funding had been injected into Ghana’s education sector.
Funding from the World Bank, the principal donor from 1986 to 1994 were used for school
infrastructure development and rehabilitation, teacher training instructional materials including the
production of teacher materials and textbooks in primary and JSS. Other support from the World Bank
went into head-teachers’ housing (see World Bank, 2004). DFID, USAID, and the European Union
also supported various aspects of the reform