What does inclusive education mean in Ghana?

I've been in Accra, Ghana for the past two days in meetings with the Ghana Education Service (equivalent to Ontario's Ministry of Education) and administrators from Ghana International School. I'm part of a team of four Canadian researchers (Dr. Magnus Mfoafo M'Carthy and I from Laurier, Dr. Jacqui Specht from Western, and Dr. Kimberly Maich from Memorial) working with partners in Ghana to better understand what it means to be a student with a disability or special education need in Ghana.

UN Sustainable Development Goal #4: A global priority

Entrance to the Director of Inclusive Education office

Our first meeting with the Director of Inclusive Education at Ghana Education Service was informative as we heard about the historical practices - and movement to - inclusive education. Supporting students with disabilities and special education needs in schools is a relatively new phenomenon globally. Canada has been moving in this direction for the past 50 years but still has a long way to go as there are still many gaps in services and resistance to full inclusion. Similarly, Ghana has a policy on inclusive education but there is still a significant gap between policy and practice. We are here to better understand this and to identify ways that we may partner together to support inclusive education in Ghana.

We have also met with administrators from Ghana International School, one of Ghana's top schools. GIS is a partner in this exploratory study as it seeks to support its own students who may have disabilities. But GIS also is committed to supporting education more broadly in Ghana. It is serving as a host for two days of workshops we will do with teachers from GIS and other schools in Accra to better understand their own experiences with, and beliefs about, inclusive education. These two workshops are tomorrow (Dec. 7) and the following Saturday (Dec. 14). Joining us at the workshops are a number of Ghanaian scholars and disability rights personnel who will further help with developing a better understanding of inclusive education in Ghana.

One way to conceptualize the spectrum from exclusion to inclusion

Next week we will travel to Tamale, a city in northern Ghana to explore the issue in focus groups with government officials, teachers, and other stakeholders. This will provide us with some comparative information to better understand inclusive education in diverse parts of Ghana.

This trip will provide us with some baseline data about inclusive education for our work with the partners over the next three years. It will also help as we develop a comparative and international understanding of inclusive education. We anticipate doing similar work in other contexts such as Haiti and Bangladesh. The study is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).