Many education reforms driven by personal preferences, not public demand – Prof Ayeetey

Professor of Development Economics at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Professor Ernest Ayeetey, has criticised the approach to education reforms in Ghana, saying that many changes are driven by the personal preferences of individuals rather than broad stakeholder consultations.

He said some reforms were introduced after policymakers and officials became impressed by education systems they encountered during international conferences and engagements, without sufficient public discussion or evidence of the need for such changes.

Speaking at the Achimota Speaks event on Wednesday, November 11, Prof Ayeetey said education had experienced more changes than any other sector in the country, but questioned the reasoning behind several of the reforms.

“Many of the changes that we've seen in education, and education has seen more changes than any other sector in this country. Many of the changes have been prompted by personal preferences,” he said.

He explained that some individuals returned from international conferences with ideas picked up from other countries and pushed for their adoption in Ghana.

“Individuals go to conferences, they sit by somebody from Malaysia, and the Malaysian tells them about how they are doing and is impressed. Now as soon as they return to Ghana, they start a memo to the minister, they start a memo to the chief director, and that's how our changes are. They will push and push and push,” he said.

According to him, such proposals often gained traction depending on how strongly their proponents advocated for them, rather than through broad public engagement on the country's educational needs.

Prof Ayeetey said he could not recall many education reforms that had been prompted by extensive community discussions or widespread dissatisfaction expressed by different stakeholders.

“I don't recall any change or reform that we've had in education apart from the movement from five years secondary school plus two years Six form, moving to the junior secondary school.

“I don't recall any change that was precipitated by large discussion in the community. That was precipitated by obvious dissatisfaction with what was working and different people, different stakeholders expressing their discomfort,” he added.

He said that the absence of broad consultations and clear justification for reforms could help explain why repeated changes had not produced meaningful improvements in the education system.

“It's not surprising that the changes have not led to any meaningful outcomes, meaningful outcomes that we can all see as evidence of improvement. I haven't seen any report that suggests that there have been any, but we've changed things so many times,” he said.

Prof Ayeetey acknowledged that Ghana had introduced several major education policies over the years, including Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) in 1996, the establishment of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) in 2000, the education reforms of 2007 and 2008, the Free Senior High School policy and the more recent No-Fees-Stress policy.

He noted that the introduction of reforms was not new to Ghana, but maintained that the processes through which decisions were made deserved closer scrutiny.

He said the country needed to pay greater attention to the reasoning, consultations and evidence underpinning education policy changes to ensure they translated into measurable improvements.