Occasional Paper

Gender Issues In Ghanaian Higher Education

“The paper argues that Ghana has made significant strides in providing access to quality education at all levels of the educational system since independence. However, as the demand for education skyrocketed and the Ghanaian economy went into a tailspin in the late 1970s and 1980s, Ghanaian governments struggled to sustain an adequate level of funding to permit continued access and maintain academic excellence. Thus, access, funding and quality became core issues for the various stakeholders to address. The education reforms of the 1980s attempted to tackle these and other problems plaguing the system. However, the gender dimension to these issues, especially as they relate to the tertiary sector, was not given sufficient attention. The paper highlights the constraints to women’s access and achievements or performance in Ghanaian higher education, offers a critique of some of the remedies that have been proposed or tried and identifies critical ares that deserve focused attention, such as sexual harassment, HIV/AIDS on Ghanaian campuses and gender streaming into disciplines that prepare women for traditional low-paid female professions.”