The present level of care and education offered to young children in Ghana is a direct consequences of many events from the nation’s past.

In 1957, Ghana was the first West African country to gain its independence from colonial rule. During the infancy period of the new republic, the government was proactive in recognizing the importance of the early years in the lives of Ghanaian children. In 1989, Ghana became the first country to ratify the United Nations’ Rights of the Child. Then, in 1998, the government passed The Children’s Act (Act 560), which strengthened existing laws on children’s rights, justice, and welfare.

Nearly half of Ghana’s 19.5 million citizens are younger than 15 (Ardayfio, 1999). The most recent census data reported that about 16.5 percent of the population is under the age of 6 (Statistical Service, 1987). Unfortunately, only about 12 percent of the nation’s very young children have access to early care and education; this lack of access is acute in rural areas.

In 1999, I spent four months in Accra (the capital), at the University of Ghana, on research leave. My research focus was on the history of early care and education in Ghana; I gathered survey data on early childhood teachers’ and parents’ beliefs about how children learn and develop. In order to garner key information on the present state of early care and education, I conducted extensive interviews with, and collected data from, child care officials and staff in both the public and private sectors.

All policies and directives regarding early care and education in Ghana emanate from Accra. Therefore, I was able to make contact with the majority of the individuals who influence early care and education in the country. The sense I gained from these discussions is that various early childhood personnel (government and non-government) are working arduously to improve the care and education experiences of children in Ghana. A look at the present state of early care and education in Ghana (known as the Gold Coast Colony until 1957) is best served by first gaining a sense of its history. The present level of care and education offered to young children in Ghana is a direct consequence of many events from the nation’s past.

A Historical Look at Early Care and Education

The long defunct Elmina Castle School, founded in 1745, is the first recorded education program for very young children in Ghana (Wise, 1956). Starting in 1823, a number of missions from abroad were established to convert the native population to Christianity. The colonial Ghanaian government, lacking money, ceded the responsibility of education to the missions. The missions readily accepted this task, believing that schools were the best means of spreading Christianity (McWilliam, 1959). The first mission, Basel Mission Society, was reported to have attached some kindergartens to their primary one classes (the Ghanaian equivalent to 1st grade in the United States) by 1843. The term “attached” refers to the inclusion of children within the group who are younger than the…