Reform of Educational Systems in Ghana: The Case of Polytechnic Education

Over the last few decades, the educational system in Ghana has undergone a series of educational reforms to enhance teaching and learning in the country for high skills acquisition and national development. The Ghana Educational Reforms, initiated in 1987 recognized the need for relevant practical education for the solution of problems for the country’s overall development. In line with these reforms, Ghana’s polytechnics were upgraded from Second Cycle Technical Institution to Tertiary Institutions in 1992. This was on account of the growing need to produce more middle level manpower for the industries in Ghana. In September 2007, another educational reform took placed and the polytechnics were mandated to train graduates for industry, commence, business and administration in Ghana. Competency Based Training (CBT) therefore has been introduced in the polytechnics in order to help in achieving this goal and objective. The paper highlights on the educational reform that has taken placed in Ghana and the need for polytechnics to reform their programmes and run them on the principles of CBT. It also outlines the importance of CBT in the polytechnic education. Keywords: Educational Reform, Tertiary Institution, Polytechnic, Ghan