A Qualitive Review of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) Policy in Ghana

Abstract

The FCUBE policy in Ghana came with the idea of reducing poverty through a free and compulsory education system for students within the basic school. The policy has contributed and made impacts towards improving enrolment. It has also helped in improving the basic education curriculum by introducing vocational and technical training, as well as communication and information technology. This has helped a lot in raising the standard of the basic education system in Ghana. However, the policy has fallen short of its expectation as it did not take the very conditions of the poor into consideration. If the policy was meant to reduce poverty through free and compulsory basic education, then the poor should have been the first to consider before implementing the policy. The policy’s measures have to an extent failed to reduce poverty in terms of moving towards offsetting the opportunity costs of going to school for the poor, by not removing all kinds of fees and reducing the indirect costs that come with schooling. The policy, therefore, needs to be revised taking into consideration the very conditions of the poor, especially in rural communities.

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