INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION STRUCTURES GHANA Flashcards
Understand Educational Systems of Top Sending Countries
How many years do students spend in each category of development? What is the structure of primary and secondary education?
Ghana’s educational system is a 6-3-3-4 structure, consisting of 6 years of primary school, 3 years of Junior High School, 3 years of Senior High School, and 4 years of university to the Bachelor’s degree.
What is the accrediting body in Ghana?
Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, GTEC, in 2020. This body is responsible for regulating the higher education sector, including accreditation of public and private institutions and credential evaluation.
How many public vs. private schools? How many students roughly in each?
307 tertiary institutions, half of them public with 85% of the 635,000 students enrolled
Private tertiary education is rapidly developing in Ghana, meticulously regulated by GTEC. Over 65,000 undergraduates are now pursuing academic degrees or diplomas in private institutions.
What credential is equivalent to a U.S. High School Diploma in Ghana?
Students who do not attend Senior High School and who do not take the WASSCE are not high school graduates and not eligible for university admission in Ghana, but U.S. admission committees often admit Ghanaian students during their final (‘senior’) year before completion of WASSCE exams, the results of which would not be available until early fall.
A Ghanaian application to U.S. colleges should include both the school transcript and WAEC WASSCE results.
What is considered a good mark on the WASSCE Exams?
Admission to Ghanaian universities is based solely on the WASSCE aggregate; cutoff points vary depending on the competitiveness of each major and can be as high as aggregate 6-8 for medicine and electrical engineering.
Does Ghana have a homeschooling system?
Ghana does not have a homeschool system, although some students who failed their first attempt at WASSCE and retook exams as private candidates may claim to have been homeschooled.
Do other credentials equal a U.S. H.S. Diploma? E.g. Vocational Technical Credits?
Vocational/technical credentials including the General Business Certificate Examination (GBCE), Ghana Commercial Exams, Advanced Business Certificate Examination (ABCE), RSA, City & Guilds, and other technical exams are not equivalent to secondary school and do not lead to tertiary admission.
Are there problems with the validity of some credentials?
Ghanaian transcripts can be inconsistent due to teacher absences, forgeries are not unknown, and students don’t cultivate a GPA as is the case in the U.S. If the student has completed the senior year, insist on receiving WAEC WASSCE results and don’t base the admissions decision on the transcript alone.
Should you ask students to send their original WASSCE results?
Images of WAEC certificates are available online. You should not ask students to send you their original documents, because students are given only one copy, and duplicates are not issued.
When do students take the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE)?
Taken at the end of SSS Form 6 (12th year) in 7-8 subjects, four of which are Core subjects, and the remaining are Elective subjects.
The Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination represents attainment of a level of education comparable to completion of senior high school in the United States.
Tell me more about grading in Ghana?
OTHER RESOUCES
Africa Universities. 2016. Ghana. http://africauniversities.org/ghana-2/
Commonwealth Education Online. 2017. Education in Ghana. http://www.cedol.org/africa/ghana/
Embassy of Ghana, DC. 2020. https://www.ghanaembassydc.org/
G.F., Daniel. 1997-8. The Universities in Ghana. The Commonwealth Universities Yearbook. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~univghana/ghanahed.htm
Ghana Education Trust Fund. 2017. GETFund. http://www.getfund.gov.gh/
International Network for Higher Education in Africa. 2017. Ghana. http://www.inhea.org/ahen/ghana/
Institute of International Education. 2017. Open Doors. https://www.iie.org/opendoors
Ministry of Education. 2017. Various Agencies. http://www.moe.gov.gh/site/agencies
National Board for Professional and Technician Examinations. 2017. https://nabptex.gov.gh/
National Council for Tertiary Education. n.d. http://www.ncte.edu.gh/
Sedgwick, Robert. 2000. eWENR, March/April 2000: Education in Ghana. eWENR. http://wenr.wes.org/2000/03/ewenr-marchapril-2000-education-in-ghana
The West African Examinations Council. 2012. Coprorate Site: Ghana. https://www.waecgh.org/
The West African Examinations Council. 2013. Results Checker. https://ghana.waecdirect.org/
