The Ministry of Education is the body responsible for education policy and development in Ghana. The National Accreditation Board (NAB), a regulatory agency of the Ministry, ensures that education standards are set and maintained for both public and private tertiary institutions. All public higher education institutions are overseen by the National Council for Tertiary Education which forms an advisory and coordinating body at the national level.
Public spending on education was 5.5% of GDP in 2010.
The Education Strategic Plan 2003–2015 embodies targets and strategies aimed at achieving the UN’s Education for All goals. Ghana has qualified for the World Bank’s ‘Fast Track Initiative’, which aims at meeting the education Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All goal that all children complete a full cycle of primary education by 2015. Under the initiative developing countries commit to design and implement sound education plans and development partners commit to align and harmonise additional support around these plans.
In 2005 the Ministry of Education began to make capitation grants to all basic schools and abolished school fees for basic education. This immediately resulted in a marked growth in school enrolments and a narrowing of gender gaps, at all levels of basic education, and particularly in nursery schools.
The education ministry is working in partnership with other governmental and non-governmental organisations to achieve sector-wide goals and objectives. One such organisation is the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition, an NGO with a network of about 200 organisations, institutions and practitioners working to promote quality basic education for all Ghanaian children.
