Post-Millennium Development Goals: Analysis of Education Policies and Gender Inequity in Basic Education in Ghana – A Case Study of Tema

This study focuses on Ghana’s effort to achieve gender equity in basic education after signing on to the Millennium Development Goals. In addition to the work of the Girls Education Unit in tackling school retention, the government has initiated other policies, including school grants, school feeding programmes, and free school uniforms to provide girls with equal opportunities to access the full cycle of basic education by 2015. However, even with these policies, girls still have a lower school completion rate relative to their male counterparts. Drawing on the intersectional framework of Black Feminist Thought, this study explores the professional experiences of education policy administrators and the views of parents to understand the impact of education policies on gender equity in public education. In this qualitative study, I conducted in-depth interviews with policy administrators and educators in Ghana and held focus group meetings with parents of children enrolled in public schools. The interviews revealed several trends and practices that may account for girls’ low school completion rates. Among them were the preference for male children, the burden of girls’ domestic chores, teenage pregnancy, early marriage, sexual harassment, the foreign influence of social media, broken homes, and traditional cultural practices. The focus group meetings revealed that gender equity in education is hindered by partisan politics, the politicization of policies to attract electoral votes, and the discontinuity of previous governments’ education initiatives. The study’s findings reveal that to promote gender equity, underlying economic and social barriers must be interrogated and addressed. These barriers include family poverty, girls working as domestic house cleaners to augment family income, poor school infrastructure, lack of teaching and learning materials, and inadequate school facilities. The study recommends a collaborative approach by stakeholders to overcome the socio-cultural barriers. If there is to be an equal opportunity for basic educational attainment, the government needs to transparent about their role because education policies are not politically neutral. Also, policymakers must allocate adequate funds to support the Girls Education Unit and the existing education programmes like the Capitation Grant (Abolishing of fees), free textbooks, free school uniforms, and the school feeding initiative