Education in Ghana

Before I start describing my teaching here in Ghana, I’m going to give a brief overview of education here so you have a better understanding of what I’ll be talking about later on.

Education starts in kindergarten, and leads into primary school.  Primary school consists of Classes 1-6.  Upon completed Class 6, the student will enter Form 1 of Junior High School.  Junior High School consists of Forms 1-3.  In Form 3, the students take (write) their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).  This exam is essentially the only factor dictating whether or not the student will enter Senior High School.  The BECE tests the students on core subjects.  Each subject is assigned a score, with 1 being the highest.  Six subjects are combined to give an aggregate score, with 6 being the highest score possible.  Primary and Junior High School are free.

When students enter Senior High School, they generally move away from their hometown, and board at the school.  In Senior High School, the students are required to select a study track.  These study tracks range from Home Economics, General Arts, Business, General Science and so on.  In Form 4 of Senior High School, the students will take the WAECE.  In large part, this exam will dictate whether or not they will go to the university.  Students must pay to attend Senior High School.

If the student does not get a good score on the WAECE and is denied admission to the university, they may opt to attend a Teacher Training College.  This course will take roughly three years to complete.  The newly trained teacher would then teach for 3-5 years.  At this point, the teacher may be eligible for admission to the university, and may continue to receive their teacher’s pay during their time in the university. A student may also attend the Teacher Training College if they initially don’t have a enough funds to attend the university.  

With this arrangement, there are many young teachers here.  At my school, nearly all of the teachers are younger than 30 years old.  Last year two of the previous teachers left our school to further their education.  In several years, several of the teachers here are likely to do the same thing.

Admission to the university is competitive due to the large number of applicants.  There are a number of universities here, and international students can do a study abroad program at the University of Ghana – Legon.  Unfortunately, a student’s options are somewhat limited following their graduation from the university – especially in fields of science and engineering.  This is one of the reasons for the “brain drain” that people cite here in Ghana.  However, if a person studies and does well in the business field, the chances are good that he or she will find reasonable opportunities here.

So, there you have an introduction to education here.  I’m teaching at the Junior High School level, so no students have been weeded out by exams yet.  My goal is to adequately prepare as many students as possible for the BECE (Not through teaching to the exam of course, but through inspiring them to discover the joy of learning and education.  At least, that’s what I’ll try to say without smiling.), and boosting them up to the Senior High School level.