Ghana’s school system is well understood by everyone who went through it and almost impossible to decode if you did not. This is the map.
The structure
Basic education runs 11 years and is constitutionally free and compulsory:
| Stage | Years | Ages |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten (KG 1–2) | 2 | 4–6 |
| Primary (Class 1–6) | 6 | 6–12 |
| Junior High (JHS 1–3) | 3 | 12–15 |
At the end of JHS every pupil sits the BECE — the Basic Education Certificate Examination. The BECE result decides which senior high school a child is placed in, and in Ghana that placement matters enormously.
Senior High School (SHS) is three years, ending in the WASSCE, the West African Senior School Certificate Examination. WASSCE grades determine university admission.
The academic year runs roughly September to July, in three terms.
Free SHS
Since 2017, public senior high school has been tuition-free under the Free SHS policy — fees, boarding and meals covered by government.
It is the most consequential education policy in modern Ghana and the most argued about. It has hugely expanded access. It has also strained facilities, produced the “double track” calendar in some years to manage numbers, and shifted costs onto parents in other ways: uniforms, provisions for boarding students, transport, and the endless list of items a boarding house expects a student to arrive with.
Free does not mean costless. Budget for it.
The placement system
This is the part that catches families out.
SHS placement runs through the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS). When a child registers for the BECE, the family selects schools in order of preference. Placement is then made by the algorithm on BECE aggregate, choices, and available places.
- The aggregate is the score that matters. It is the sum of the best six subjects, including core subjects. Lower is better; aggregate 6 is perfect.
- Choose realistically. Listing only the most competitive schools with a weak aggregate produces no placement at all, and then you are in the self-placement window competing for leftovers.
- Categories matter. Schools are banded, and there are rules about how many from each category you may select.
- Boarding versus day is part of the choice, and boarding at a good school is the traditional Ghanaian aspiration.
The famous schools — Achimota, Wesley Girls’, Presec Legon, Mfantsipim, Prempeh, Holy Child, St Augustine’s — are national institutions with alumni networks that follow people through life. Competition for them is intense.
Public, private or international
Public basic schools are free and everywhere. Quality varies enormously by school and by district. Class sizes are large.
Private basic schools are the default for Accra families who can afford it, and there are thousands of them, from one-room operations to well-resourced campuses. Fees run roughly ₵1,500 to ₵6,000 a term at mid-range to good schools, plus admission fees, uniforms, books and transport.
International schools follow British, American or IB curricula and charge in dollars — roughly $8,000 to $25,000 a year.
International schools in Accra
Choosing a private school
Fees tell you very little. What to actually check:
- Is it registered with the Ghana Education Service? Ask to see it.
- What curriculum? Ghanaian, British (IGCSE), American, or IB. This decides what your child can do next and how portable it is.
- BECE or WASSCE results for the last few years. Good schools publish them; ask directly if they do not.
- Class size, and teacher turnover. High turnover is the clearest warning sign there is.
- Are teachers trained and licensed? The National Teaching Council licenses teachers.
- The full fee schedule, in writing, including admission fee, PTA dues, exam fees, excursions, uniforms and books. The advertised termly fee is rarely the whole number.
- How fees rise. Annual increases are normal; unpredictable ones are not.
- The commute. — Getting around Accra
- Visit while school is in session. Look at the children, not the building.
Admission is a season, not a moment
Good schools fill up. For a September start, enquiries begin the previous term and many run entrance assessments early in the year. Arriving in August looking for a Class 3 place at a sought-after school will not go well.
What you will need to enrol
- The child’s birth certificate
- Immunisation records / health record book
- Reports and transcripts from the previous school
- A transfer letter, if moving mid-system
- Passport photographs
- Your Ghana Card, and the child’s if they have one
Coming from abroad, expect the school to place your child by assessment rather than by age or by the year they were in. Ghanaian year groups do not map cleanly onto British or American ones.
Language
Instruction is in English from the start in most private schools and from upper primary in public ones, with a Ghanaian language taught as a subject throughout. A child arriving without Twi or Ga will not be at an academic disadvantage, and will pick it up in the playground faster than you will.