Privatization of Education in Ghana: An International Comparison with the Dutch Educational System

The paper in the main looks at the nature and impact of educational privatization at the basic education level in Ghana. The purpose of this piece is not to justify private education in Ghana, but rather to look into how it is existing and developing in different contexts, and to look at its impact in terms of growth- level of enrollment, number of teachers and pupil/ teacher ratio.

The study involves a review of relevant literature pertinent to the meaning and ideological foundation of privatization. A theoretical framework of the concept is provided to view private education as an alternative to the provision of public education. The relationship between macro and meso elements is delineated to understand how the concept fits into the national policy framework. A comparative analysis is undertaken to come out with the contextual features of the concept in Ghana and the Netherlands. The choice of the Dutch education system is explained by the assertion of Dalin (1998), that the Netherlands “currently has one of the world’s most liberalised educational systems”.