Ghana is known to be one of the African countries with the best educational system. From before European settlers came to the Gold Coast to the age of mercantilism to colonization to today, there have been many changes needed along the way, to get to the point where we are now.
This article tells a background story as to how education has evolved in Ghana age after age.
Pre-Colonial Era
Education in Ghana was primarily informal and focused on apprenticeship before the advent of European settlers, who established a formal education system targeted at the elites.
There was no necessity for employment outside of the home, which would have necessitated the acquisition of certain values, disciplines, and skills through a formal educational system. Most households traded with other families on a very small scale as each household’s members were experts in providing needs like food, shelter, clothes, and furniture.
A 1529 imperial order urging the Portuguese ruler of Elmina Castle to instill the Catholic faith and educate the populace in reading, writing, and other subjects revealed the Portuguese’s desire to create schools. Among the most well-known Castle Schools on the Gold Coast was one run by the Danes at Osu Castle, originally known as Fort Christianborg. Besides the British school at Cape Coast Castle and the Dutch school at Elmina Castle, there were other notable castle schools.
Philip Quaque established a school in his home in Cape Coast in 1765, and that institution eventually became Ghana’s first official elementary school. The former Speaker of Parliament Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, the former Chief of Staff under the government of former President Jerry John Rawlings, Nana Ato Dadzie, and other prominent people are alumni from the Philip Quaque Boys School.
The basics of all subjects were taught, including fundamental science, basic arithmetic, reading, and writing, as well as basic job skills. One of the major accomplishments during this era was the transcription of the regional dialects, Twi, Ga, and Ewe. A number of educational institutions were also built; 98 day schools, 7 boarding schools, 3 grammar schools, and a training college was established in Ghana by 1894.
Colonial Era
Great Britain’s influence over Ghanaian territories had grown by the turn of the 20th century, which led to the founding of the Gold Coast Colony in 1874. The Wesleyan and Basel missions were the most well-known missionary organizations that came along with it, along with an increasing number of merchant firms and missionary schools.
Prior to independence, missions continued to be the primary source of formal education.
The office of the Director of Education was established in 1890, after the first Inspector of schools had been assigned in 1887. The first concrete goals for the advancement of education in Ghana were established by Sir Hugh Clifford in 1918, and among them was the requirement of providing every African child with a right to a free elementary education, in each Province, a teacher training institution with the necessary facilities, an increase in teachers’ pay and an imperial College.
The Prince of Wales College was founded in Ghana in 1927 as a result of these goals and other recommendations. The College was then renamed Achimota College, which is now one of Ghana’s most prestigious secondary schools (Achimota School).
As more than 6% of the population of the country was enrolled in school at the time of Ghana’s independence, a strong educational foundation had already been established by the British.
Post-colonial Era
When Ghana became an independent nation in 1957, the Nkrumah government proclaimed basic education to be free for all and proposed a high-level university offering an “African point of view” as the key to the future.
The country was then operating an educational system that included 6 years of primary education, 4 years of secondary education, to prepare them for three years of university study, qualified students were required to complete a two-year sixth form course and those who were disqualified underwent two years of vocational training.
The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology was well established and given a university status in 1961, same year that a law was passed to make primary education both free and mandatory. The law is referred to as the 1961 Act (Act 87).
After operating for a while, the educational system at the time was found to be overly scholarly, and in 1974 it was reassessed. A Junior Secondary school system was formed but it failed along the line. This resulted in the 1980s educational reforms.
Education Now
The country holds that in order to excel, the educational system must place a strong emphasis on science and technology, which are regarded as the fields of the future. The main components of Ghana’s educational system now are: Basic education, Secondary education, Training institutes/Tertiary education.
Formerly, only students in public schools for their basic education had free tuition but now all public secondary schools also enjoy the privilege of free education.