Political Dynamics In The Adoption And Implementation Of The Free Senior High School Policy In Ghana

Abstract

The various political contexts under which free education programmes have been introduced in many developing countries account for the differences in the outcomes and benefits that such interventions have produced. Beyond the generic knowledge that politics matter when it comes to governments’ commitments and dispositions to implement effective education reforms, the explanatory factors and the analytical approach on how exactly these contexts shape policy process have not fully been explored and applied to many education interventions. The Government of Ghana introduced a free Senior High School policy with the goal of achieving a functional secondary education for all with specific key milestones to meet. The political context under which the policy emerged and the manner of its adoption and implementation, however, put policy goals at risk. This study set out to explore how competitive partisan-politics shaped the adoption and implementation of the Free Senior High School policy in Ghana. The study employed a mixed method approach collecting both qualitative and quantitative data through the use of a concurrent embedded design. In this regard, 21 in-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders whilst 420 Survey questionnaires were administered on Parents, Students and Teachers. From a political settlement perspective, the study argues that Ghana’s competitive partisan-politics helped shaped the Free SHS policy design, prescription and implementation. This specifically accounted for government choice of a universal approach and a presumed comprehensive policy package among others intended to achieve multiple objectives including political expediency to gain electoral support. The pursuance of the political expediency explained the hurried implementation of the policy and also a blurred policy posture as well as the political control over implementation machinery including the creation of a Free SHS secretariat. These circumstances equally explain why a universal policy intervention was introduced even under a competitive clientelistic setting. All of these have varied implications on achieving ultimate policy goal of equitable quality secondary education for all as government prioritised to achieve visible short-term targets. The study also noted the inherent opportunities under an emerging dynamics in state power alternations in Ghana beyond the weaknesses in short-term development agenda usually associated with countries with competitive clientelism. It thus therefore recommends among other things, the need to leverage this potential in order to help achieve long term social transformation and development.