Population Growth Dynamics and Implications for Pre-Tertiary Education Development in Ghana

Abstract

The growing population of Ghana over the past five decades has contributed to the rising inequality in access to quality education by increasing the number of school-going age children for basic and secondary education relative to the adequacy in physical infrastructure and trained teaching personnel in Ghana. Previous research works reviewed have primarily focused on the inadequacies in infrastructure, teachers, and budgeted expenditure for the education sector in Ghana, with limited consideration on the demographic variables of the size, growth, age-sex structure and spatial distribution of the population. These have likely implications for planning the education sector and in ensuring equitable access to quality education. The population dynamics and structure of Ghana were described using data from the 1984, 2000, 2010 and 2021 Population and Housing Censuses. These statistics were used to explore the relationship between the increasing school-age population and the corresponding need for sufficient classrooms and trained teachers for basic and secondary education. Based on an analysis of relevant data from the Ministry of Education for the academic years 2017/2018 to 2019/2020, the study discovered that there were inadequacies in the number of classrooms and trained teachers available to serve the school-going age children across the different levels of basic and secondary education. The study employed the cohort method of population projection to estimate the number of children in the age range of 0-17 years, who would be enrolled in basic and secondary education between the years 2021- 2031. According to the findings, the school-age population for basic and secondary education is expected to rise gradually over the ten-year period. If demographic variables are not considered in the formulation of policies and planning of the education sector in Ghana, the increasingly high population is likely to lead to an increase in the trained teaching personnel and physical infrastructure deficits. Hence, the Government of Ghana and the Ministry of Education should focus on forestalling the increasing growth of the population and its effects on meeting the recommended infrastructure and services standards in the education sector.