Public education spending in northern Ghana: Implications for regional inequality

This Chapter explores the emergence and persistence of educational inequalities in Ghana, focusing specifically on the role of public spending in underpinning the relatively poor educational outcomes in the northern part of the country. Education access and quality have a high regional dimension in Ghana, whereby the “North,” comprising the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions, has been lagging far behind since colonial times. How did the north-south educational inequalities emerge in Ghana, and what have been the role of colonial educational policies in this? How have various postcolonial regimes attempted to redress these inequalities, and why has the problem persisted after more than half a century of political independence in Ghana? To what extent, if any, have budgetary allocations and actual government educational expenditures been driven by needs-based criteria in the interest of geographically equalizing outcomes? This Chapter addresses these questions through a detailed analysis of annual budgetary allocations and actual government expenditures on basic education during the period 1992-2012. The Chapter concludes by making recommendations aimed at facilitating the attainment of more inclusive educational outcomes in Ghana.