Many people believe that Ghana has a shortage of school buildings, however the evidence suggests otherwise. The true difficulty is not infrastructure; it is the pervasive influence of central planning, which is reflected year after year in our national budgets. Until we confront this fundamental structural problem, no amount of new classrooms will fix what truly ails our education system.
Laudable Budget Promise, Repeated Problems
The promise of 600 new basic schools and 400 teacher bungalows made by the Finance Minister, Dr. Carsel Ato Forson at the 2026 Budget reading is very laudable to us all, especially teachers. The problem I find here is how cyclic our problems have been in this country. Better promises, the same old state-centered formula that has caused education never to walk but crawl for decades.
More concrete blocks will make a stronger building to contain students and teachers, but building such a messianic edifice around bureaucracy instead of learning, the concrete becomes weak in its essence.
Central Planning and Failed Basic Education
The truth is simple: when everything is centered in Accra, all other communities automatically assume the observer status.
Government planners over the years write up beautiful lists of infrastructure such as classrooms, toilets, textbooks, and bungalows, but these also do not translate into any results. It is not because we construct fewer schools but because the people who actually use them have no actual control over the way the projects are executed and/or are managed. Headteachers do not have the right to fire or hire teachers based on performance. Parents pay taxes, but still have no say on where their children’s share of education funding goes. District offices go scot-free with abandoned projects because the communities cannot hold them accountable. All of this boils down to central planning, making the people powerless and compensating them by promising structural development.
Fixing Rural Education through the Illusion of Teacher Bungalows
Bungalows for teachers give another steep viewpoint into the issue. It is factual and evident that schools in rural areas lack teachers, but it is not necessarily because there is no housing; rather, the reason is that control of salaries, postings, and incentives are all done by a central body from a central command point. Instead of allowing schools to compete for talent through flexible pay and bonuses, the ministry at the capital attempts to correct a problem it caused by centralizing authority in the first place.
Private and many schools with low fees, on the other hand, operate with fewer resources and are able to deliver better outcomes because they have competition as the core force behind their drive. They survive only by satisfying the collective concerns of parents. “Saito” schools survive regardless of the performance, not because they have an established name in education but because they enjoy the derailing monopoly of bureaucracy. Their funding does not follow the child (performance-based); it follows existing orders from the top (bureaucracy).
Panacea through a Decentralized Lens
Ghana does not require an increased number of centrally planned buildings. It must be decentralized to such an extent that it holds school heads accountable to communities but not the Accra offices. It should have school choice that gives power to parents. It must have competitiveness in accountability rather than announcements of annual budgets.
Instead of the government running the entire system from top to bottom, a standard system should be created to protect vulnerable children and run independent of bureaucracies. Education thrives through freedom and innovation as well as local control and not through rigid command structures.
To an extent, Ghana must depend on the communities and not much on central planners if the country is to ever attain improved learning. However, only at that point will we be capable of making the classrooms that we are developing more than a mere empty promise.
Conclusion
The Honourable Dr. Carsel Ato Forson is really forcing and I applaud his constant acceleration by mass; however, distance by time without a clear road map to the actual destination will end up with the usual results: a regular speed drive because there is the availability of a vehicle and fuel (the work force and money).
Ghana’s classrooms should serve their intended purposes instead of being monuments of bureaucracy. The aim should not only be to build only concrete to keep students but also trust, autonomy, and creativity in order to have our education system grow on purpose.
Article by
Nii Lamptey Klokpah
He holds a degree in Political Studies from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. With a deep interest in innovation, technology, agriculture, and philosophy, he is driven in a firm belief that Africa’s future must be shaped by its own people through inclusive, forward-thinking approach.
