Review of Ghana's Educational Policies and its Implication for Educational Leadership in Developing Countries

Education is regarded as a major force for building human capital thereby reducing poverty, inequality and promote social mobility (WDR, 2017, 41). Developing countries mandful of these have been developing educational... [ view full abstract ]

Education is regarded as a major force for building human capital thereby reducing poverty, inequality and promote social mobility (WDR, 2017, 41). Developing countries mandful of these have been developing educational policies to improve their educational systems however, the World Development Report (WDR, 2017) indicates that many educational systems in many countries suffer from non-alignment of the system with the overall goal of learning. Ghana as a developing nation has developed several educational policies. The recent is the Free Senior High School Policy introduced in August, 2017. According to SEND (a non governmental organization, in its assessment of the 2018 Ghana's national budget), the implementation of the Free Senior High School has led to increased enrolment at the SHS level from 300,195 students in the 2016/17 academic year to 396,951 students in the 2017/18 academic year, representing an increment of 32.2%. They further observed that, this development has exposed the infrastructural deficit and logistical challenges which is affecting the smooth implementation of the policy and for that matter impeding sound academic work. Yet government’s allocation to capital expenditure and goods and services were insignificant to address this situation.This development raises serious concerns about government’s commitments to deal with infrastructural (schools, dormitories, etc.) and logistical (teaching and learning materials, monitoring and supervision, etc.) constraints that contribute directly to educational outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to review this policy using Wadi Haddad's Educational Policy-Planning and applied framework. This includes analysis of the existing situation; the generation of policy options; evaluation of options; making the policy decision; planning of policy implentation, policy impact assessment; and subsequent policy cycles.The paper will share practical examples and experiences with respect to how Ghanaian leaders have planned, implemented and evaluated previous educational policies and how this has affected sustainable development. The expected outcome is for educational leaders to appreciate the educational planning process from the context of a developing nation.