A social problem or a sacred promise? Explaining the mechanisms driving fee-free educational policy change in Ghana

Figures & data

Figure 1. Timeline of fee-free educational policy adoption in Ghana.

Source: Authors’ construction.

Table 1. Case selection rationale.

	Indicators	Ghana	SSA average	Source
1	Quality of Democracy	6.02	4.33	Economist Intelligence Unit (2023)
2	Government Effectiveness	−0.09	−0.77	Kaufmann and Kraay (2023)
3	Poverty headcount ratio at $3.65 a day (2017 PPP) (% of population)	51.9	61.2	World Bank (2021)
4	Upper secondary school gross enrolment (%)	38.95	32.81	UNESCO Institute for Statistics [UIS] (2023)

Notes:

– The quality of democracy index ranges from 0.00 (authoritarian regimes) to 10.00 (full democracy).

– The government effectiveness scale runs from −2.5 (weak governance performance) to 2.5 (strong governance performance).

– The poverty rate ranges from a value of 0% (no poverty) to 100% (extreme poverty).

– Upper secondary school gross enrolment ranges from a value of 0% (no enrolment rate) to 100% or above (high rate of participation).

Table 2. Fee-free educational policy in Ghana. Main findings through the lens of the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF).

Problem stream	Poverty as a major reason for low enrollment in upper secondary education has long been recognized as a problem;
	International and civil society actors played at best a marginal role in putting the issue on the agenda;
	The presidential candidates were the effective problem brokers.
Policy stream	Uncrystallized policy community, no discernible influence of policy experts from outside the government;
	No evidence of screening of policy alternatives for their feasibility (a softening-up process).
Political stream	A shift in national mood concerning educational policy preceded the policy change;
	Presidential campaigns and partisan politics were the drivers of the changing national mood;
	Forming a political majority was a smooth process in the context of Ghana's presidential system.
Policy window	The political stream played a dominant role not only in decision-making but also in agenda-setting;
	Policy windows for educational policy change in Ghana opened during presidential election campaign periods.
Policy entrepreneur	Presidents (prior to being elected: presidential candidates) were the main political entrepreneurs and acted as policy entrepreneurs in the adoption of both the Progressive Free Senior High School policy and the Free Senior High School policy.

Source: Authors' construction.

Table A1. Distribution of interview participants.

Category of respondents	Number of respondent(s)	Respondent’s code(s)
Former deputy minister for education	1	#01
Minister for Education	1	#02
NDC Member of Parliament, education committee	1	#03
NPP Member of Parliament, education committee	1	#04
Senior high school head	2	#05 and #06
Retired educationist	1	#07
National Association of Graduate Teachers	1	#08
Concerned Teachers Association	1	#09
Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition	1	#10
IMANI Center for Policy and Education, Ghana	1	#11
Civil servant (senior staff of Ministry of Education)	2	#12 to #13
World Bank representative	1	#14
UNESCO representative	1	#15
NDC political party representative	1	#16
NPP political party representative	1	#17
Free senior high school national coordinator	1	#18
Total	18

Source: Authors’ compilation.

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