News – Ghana
Ghana, the First Country in Africa and One of the Few in the World to Have Entirely Free Education at All Levels
For many years under colonial rule , very little was done to lay the founda-tions for a broad and general education in the Gold Coast ( old name for Ghana ) . Education was a luxury enjoyed by few privilege people , and it was geared to- wards training qualified men to take up clerical jobs in the colonial administrative service . Missionary Societies pro-vided most of the education .It was not until 1951 that the first real attempt was made to break with the past and to take positive steps in popu-larising education in the Gold Coast . In that year an African majority took over the reins of government for the first time and set up an Accelerated Development Plan for Education
The plan was aimed at checking illiteracy by providing free primary edu-cation for every child of school going age and at the same time extending widely the facilities of secondary and higher edu-cation . It proved a tremendous success ; subsequent supporting schemes have since been introduced by the Government to take education to the door – step of every citizen of Ghana .Primary and Middle school education in Ghana is now free and compulsory for all children between the ages of five and twelve ; there are more than half a million pupils attending primary and middle schools throughout the country.
From fewer than 3,000 pupils in secon-dary ( higher ) schools in 1951 , there are now over 11,000 .The medium of instruction in all schools is English , French is a compul-sory subject . In secondary education emphasis is placed on scientific and mathematical subjects in pursuance of the Government’s policy of producing as fast as possible enough qualified men in the scientific and technological fields .But it is perhaps in the field of higher ( university ) education that Ghana’s achievement is most significant . Uni-versity education is entirely free . There are at present about 13,000 students in the three universities of Ghana which maintain very high academic standards similar to those of British universities .The University of Ghana.
The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the newly – established University College of Cape Coast are the three institutions of higher learning in Ghana . Till 1961 , the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology ( founded in 1948 and 1952 respectively ) operated under a scheme of special relationships with
London University . But the two institution.
