“We Have to Charge Levies, Else We Will Close Down the Schools”. Delivering Ghana’s education capitation grant programme within chronic resource constraints: impacts and implications

Abstract

ABSTRACT Financial barriers to education such as the payment of school fees have long been identified as a key driver of the perennially high out-of-school rates in developing countries. Accordingly, Ghana implemented the education capitation grant (CG) policy in 2005 as part of efforts to universalise access to primary education. At its core, the policy abolishes the payment of school fees and levies and replaces these with a government-funded per capita allocation to every basic school. Despite its critical role in widening access to education, the CG programme has received very little scholarly curiosity. The extant studies have largely focused on the CG programme's impacts on enrolment and retention. The funding component of the programme has generally been under-researched. This qualitative study, therefore, examines the implication of funding challenges for the delivery of the CG programme. Relying on one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 16 head teachers and 16 chairpersons of School Management Committees (SMCs), the article shows how a system of long-lasting funding constraints has compelled school administrators to adopt unsanctioned coping strategies such as charging fees and padding enrolment figures. Ultimately, these coping strategies undercut the CG’s objectives of removing financial barriers to basic education in Ghana and also raise critical questions about the viability of the CG’s goal of addressing the wealth bias that has characterised accessing education.