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Ghana EDUCATION
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The University of Ghana at Legon
Courtesy Embassy of Ghana, Washington
The dominant mode of transmitting knowledge in the precolonial
societies of the Guinea Coast was through apprenticeship as smiths,
drummers, or herbalists. By observing adult skills, or through
proverbs, songs, and stories, children learned proper roles and
behavior. Also, at various stages in life, especially during the
puberty rites for young adults, intensive moral and ethical
instruction from family or societal elders was given. The purpose
of that "informal" education was to ensure that the individual was
able to satisfy the basic traditional or communal needs, such as
motherhood for women, and hunting, long-distance trading, or
farming for men. It was also important that the religious sanctions
associated with the various professions and stages in life be
understood, because the traditional society saw close relationships
between religious and mundane activities.
Western-style education was introduced into the Gold Coast by
missionaries as early as 1765. Many of these institutions,
established by Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries, were
located in the south of the country in what became the British Gold
Coast Colony
(see Christianity and Islam in Ghana
, this ch.). In
1852 the British colonial government instituted a poll tax to raise
money to support public schools, but the measure became unpopular
and was abolished in 1861. Mission schools continued to spread,
however, and by 1881 more than 139 had been established with an
enrollment of about 5,000 students.
A board of education was set up in the 1880s to inspect schools
and to standardize their management. Grants were established for
private schools that met government standards, and the government
devised regulations for the recognition of new schools. Primary
education was emphasized until limited secondary education was
introduced in the early 1900s.
After World War I, the development of education was given
additional impetus under Governor Guggisberg. His education
policies stressed the need for improved teacher training, equal
education for girls, a greater emphasis on vocational training, and
the establishment of secondary schools. In the governor's ten-year
development plan, which was announced in 1919, education was given
a special place, partly because of his goal of replacing Europeans
with educated Africans in many administrative positions within the
country. The policies were not fully implemented, especially at the
secondary and vocational levels, but the Achimota School, a firstclass secondary school designed to train Ghanaians for the lower
levels of the civil service, was established in 1927. Although
English remained the principal language of instruction in the
school system, vernacular languages were also allowed in the
primary schools, and the publication of textbooks in these
languages began in earnest.
Stimulated by nationalist ideas of political and economic selfdetermination in the 1930s through the 1940s, popular demand for
education reached such proportions that the combined efforts of the
colonial government and the missions could not satisfy it. The
result was the opening of hundreds of schools by local groups and
individuals. The Convention People's Party (CPP) promise of free
instruction during the 1951 election campaign was made in response
to an increasing demand for education. Whereas some parents in the
northern regions of the country resisted enrollment of their
children, many in the south encouraged formal instruction because
it was regarded as a virtual guarantee of acquiring white-collar
jobs and wage-earning positions. Western education was accepted
more readily in the southern sector of the country because
Christian missionaries had been in that area longer than they had
been in the north. The purpose of the CPP's free and compulsory
education policy was to make formal education available to all at
minimum cost.
In 1952 the CCP-led government drew up the Accelerated
Development Plan for Education. The program, which became a reality
in 1961, was designed to provide an education for every child aged
six and above. To achieve this goal, the central government took
responsibility for teacher training and funded schools through the
Ministry of Education. Since this time, a considerable portion of
the national budget has been spent on educating the population.
Various attempts to shift the cost to students and parents,
especially at the university level, have met great resistance.
Data as of November 1994
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