(The No Child Left Behind Policy)
One early morning in 2016, I received a call from Dr. Carnita Groves, an amazing African American woman who had moved to Ghana permanently, on the same morning, I had a call from DJ Switch’s mother asking me to come train her daughter for TV3 Talented Kidz competition.
But, because I had already promised Dr. Carnita, I decided to go to DJ Switch’s home town the next week. Dr. Carnita Groves wanted me to go set up an online radio for an African American woman by the name, Mama Shiriki. I met to discuss where the studio was going to be located and the name of the radio station, which later became KCBLR-GH, which stands for Kansas City Black Liberation Radio Ghana.
And Ladies and gentle men, I start this article with a heavy heart as the amazing Mama Shiriki who was in her 60s by the time we met passed away during the Covid era. I am not sure what exactly took her away but, it is a conversation I had with her on that day, that has become the background story for the unforgivable sins of the famous Free Senior High School policy and the almost hidden twin brother, The No Child Left Behind shadow policy. The No child left behind, the policy that ushered Ghana’s education into full swing wokism where teachers became slaves to little monsters called students.
This write-up explores the sins committed against the good people of Ghana through the No Child Left Behind policy, the moral degradation on Senior High School campuses through the implementation of the N.C.L.B, the slave and master relationship created between teachers and students in the various senior high schools in Ghana under the Free S.H.S policy now back to mama Shiriki.
On our way to her place at Tantra Hills, Shiriki said something alarming to my ears, she told me, “I packed everything I have and shipped them to Ghana months before I came, so I am not going back to Babylon a.k.a USA”. “I didn’t leave anything in the US including this car I’m driving” at this point I got intrigued.
So, I asked but, you could have left some of your belongings to your children or family? Her next answer got me speechless, “I had only one child, a son but, I lost him to police brutality. After hearing that I couldn’t say anything but, to listen to her until she mentioned something very alien to my Ghanaian world view.
At a point the conversation had shifted to safety in Ghana versus safety in the united state of America, Mama Shiriki told me: “The best way for me to paint the picture to you is that in some states and areas in the US, you see police patrolling the school gate and the class rooms because of fight between gang groups, teenage gun violent and in some cases the police must be there for the safety of teachers.
This narrative made me want to know more about the kind of school environment in some of the states, how does the parenting style over there also contribute to such atmosphere where teachers alone cant control what goes on at the campuses and the classroom?
Even though in Ghana, we hear of clashes between schools and rival groups from time to time, I wanted to prob further to know how we can prevent Ghanaian schools from getting to that point where we have to station police in our classrooms in the future.
I started researching and gathering information about the relationships between parenting and education policies, most importantly how the two main western political ideologies of Liberalism and conservatism influence educational and parenting outcomes in the west and how it affects developing countries like Ghana where most of the time copy and past policies from the west without thorough investigation into such policies.
And by the end of this paper, Ghanaians will be shocked to know that the very policy under discussion here, the No Child Left Behind was copied and pasted with one of the most useless reasons behind its adoption and implementation in Ghana.
While majority of the fingers will be pointing to former president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufu-Addo and his education ministers or his government, any lover of democracy and effective opposition would ask what investigation did the members of the opposition in parliament do about the N.C.L.B policy or was it because it was over shadowed by the famous Free Senior High School policy?
Apart from the silence of the then opposition, the question can be asked of the NAGRAT and the many other stakeholders in education like the PTAs, and other civil society organisations in the country who claim to be interested in better and quality education.
THE IMPORTANCE OF IDIOLOGICAL CLARITY BY CITIZENS AND POLITICAL PARTIES
When most Ghanaians hear the statement: “No Child Left Behind” in association with the beautiful Free Senior High School policy, what comes to mind? Is it, secondary education which is free and quality? Or is it secondary education sponsored by the government and because of that we can’t complain about quality?
Or No Child left Behind means government don’t want any child to be left at home but, rather every child will go to school because government have the money and ready to spend it to ensure quality? Or lastly, is it, government does not have money to pay the tuition and feeding fees for any child who must be repeated for either bad academic performance or repeating a student to serve as a punishment?
Well, before we answer the above questions, let’s go into how our politicians love to copy and paste policies from developed countries without understanding them and how the nature of our politics makes it difficult for sectoral stakeholders to effectively intervene . It was Mussa Danquah who provoked me to go look into why his predictions suggested, the Free SHS graduates are likely to vote against the NPP in the 2024 elections.
My question to myself was, I have my personal issues with the Free SHS policy and the graduates it was producing but, I asked, how bad could the policy be for the very beneficiaries to vote against it?
Since the inception of the Free SHS policy 3 children under my care have gone through senior high school and because of that, I became aware of the liberal nature of the education system at the senior high level, but I didn’t know what brought about that level of liberalization and wokism in Ghana’s education.
So the Global Info Analytics predictions made me to dig deeper and in the process, I came across the “term” No Child Left Behind beautifully attached to the Free SHS policy implementation then, I also saw the same N.C.L.B as an educational policy in the United State of America which was introduced into the US education system by the former US president George Bush in the year 2002.
So I started reading into what No Child Left Behind meant in the US and what it means in Ghana under the president Nana Addo’s government, former US president Bush was a Republican and as such, ideologically he is a conservative and I have said many times that I think the two main political parties in Ghana do not practice any serious ideology but the NPP in Ghana claims to be capitalist which then suggest, they may much more align with the Republican-conservative ideology so when I realized the policy came from the US and the Republican party, I was a bit relaxed thinking these two parties may have a lot in common idiologically.
Let’s start with what N.C.L.B means in Ghana under the Free SHS policy, to understand what the policy means in Ghana, let’s hear from the former president himself in a speech read on his behalf by Mustapha Ussif, the then Minister of Youth and Sports, “ President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the successful implementation of the Free Senior High School policy has benefitted the entirety of Ghanaian children”. The president’s speech further spoke about how no child is left behind under the implementation of the Free SHS policy.
“The programme ensured access to quality secondary education in Ghana; no child under the programme was left behind due to financial challenges”. As reported by myjoyonline.com
Meaning, money or finance was not a problem, but we will soon come to find out that under the Free SHS policy, the adoption of the Ghana version of the No Child Left Behind was because of lack of money to finance the program. Thus, in Ghana N.C.L.B means, under normal circumstances, children who are academically poor must repeat a class once or twice for them to build their capacity but, because government does not have money we can’t repeat any student in a class therefore, the government cannot afford to repeat or leave any child behind a class and not in the house which is what a lot of Ghanaians thought was the case.
But the impression was created that the policy is not leaving students behind in homes which was not the case, rather government cant afford for any student who needs to be repeated to stay in the same class twice so, the politically incorrect way of putting it should have been: under the Free SHS policy, we can’t repeat students in any class hence, No Child will be left behind in a class because government does not have the money to feed them twice in a class.
Angel Carbonu, The President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) explains this sin against our education system better when he spoke on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen program when he said, “You cannot repeat a student right now under the Free SHS policy because the government is providing a scholarship for that student, and it cannot be granted twice If that student repeats Form 1, it means the government is paying fees twice for that student, which creates a financial burden on the government,”
Why do I call this an unforgivable sin against Ghana’s education? In 2009, I made some non-spiritual prophecies about Ghana’s education and how the affordability of Television sets and mobile phones are going to affect how Ghanaian students perform at the BECE and WASSCE negatively. On the contrary, electricity, TV, mobile phones should rather help students to learn better to pass their exams, but I rather saw a negative result instead, not because I am a prophet of doom or someone who hates technological advancement.
I came to those unfortunate conclusions because I saw our government slowly adopting the negative side of socialism which is the far left liberal way of parenting and I knew that, very soon government will take over parenting from mothers,fathers and teachers as well.
Because anytime government takes over parenting it is TV and mobile phones which does the real job of parenting on behalf of the government. These technologies like TV and mobile phones are not only new to the student but also new to both parents and kids so over time, it will be difficult for a lot of parents who sees accessibility to TV and mobile phone as a movement from the lower class to their own definition of middle class to dictate how their children use these tecnologies. This new middle class parent finds it difficult to control how their kids use these gadgets.
What this means in simple terms is that the government was becoming woke and over time forcing parents and teachers to go woke by taking over discipline from teachers and parents to a large extent. And if you think I’m exaggerating, Angel Carbonu, once again puts it better when he said: “the option of repeating a student is no longer available” and because of that, he felt there would be no to little incentive for students to learn.
“There’s no pressure for students to learn since there are schools in Ghana where students simply don’t attend class, and whether they fail or not, they are automatically promoted,” Mr. Carbonu helplessly said on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen as reported by adomfmonline.com.
And this is the true definition of modern-day salary and the creation of little uncontrollable monsters for teacher and education administrators in Ghana. Knowing what the No Child Left Behind policy meant in Ghana, let’s find out what it meant in the USA where I am suspecting it came from since Ghana just love to copy and paste policies form the west in most cases. At the same time, let me put on record that I am not against the coping of a good idea from another country. Just that I have watch my country over the years mostly either coping blindly or wrongly.
WHAT DOES N.C.L.B MEANT IN THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA?
Just as the No Child Left Behind policy had an explicit and implicit meaning here in Ghana under the Free SHS program, the policy had two different meanings in the US as well to the ordinary American, N.C.L.B meant, the government wanted every American child of school going age not to be left behind in terms of literacy, arithmetic and science.
Another interesting feature of the (NCLB) policy in both Ghana and America was that, in Ghana it was the president’s special initiative program for his 2016 elections campaign and the same was the flagship campaign message for the former president George Bush to use the policy to reform the American education system to make sure every American child gets to the same level in reading mathematics and science no matter their financial background, race or ethnicityin the United States.
To president Bush, the No Child Left Behind Act was to be the “cornerstone” of the Bush administration’s domestic policy he believed that the (NCLB) Act will close the academic achievement gap and to ensure accountability through standardised testing. Mr. Bush also believe that every child can learn and that every child’s result must be measured and compared with other kids in the country. This means the previous education policy which was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, the (NCLB) Act came to replace, did not allow for students results to be compared to one another and there wasn’t standardised testing as well, but President Bush saw the need to introduce some competition in the American education system.
WHAT WERE THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE (NCLB) POLICY IN THE US?
1: Ending Discrimination in the US education System: To George Bush, the educational gap between Black and white children “was one of the urgent civil right issues of our time” with the tone of a Marthin Luther King type, he stated, “It is discrimination to require anything less” of the highest standards from disadvantaged children. In American politics this statement was a carefully crafted campaign message targeting the Black community.
2: Accountability through Standards: The focus of his message was that America through his flagship educational policy or Act, must set a higher standard and adopt an annual testing for reading and math skills to measure progress in order to identify failing schools and added that schools should not be allowed to lower standards or do away with accountability structures.
3: Parental Choice and Involvement: In American politics, parents gets more say in their kids’ education depending on which political ideology is in power therefore, if the far left-liberals are in power, parents gets less rights and choices over their kids’ education because if parent have too much choice and involvement in their children’s education under the far-left democrats government, it will be difficult for ideologies like gayism, LGBTQ + to be indoctrinated into the minds of the children.
Then candidate Bush knowing how thirsty American parents are for control over what goes into what their children learns and which school choice their children can have, decided to give parents the choice to move their children to a new school if the current school is not performing well. President Bush asked parents to be their kid’s best advocates and also make sure schools stick to accountability standards.
4: The (NCLB) Act in the US also focused on scientifically proven methods to make sure that only the best qualified teachers end up in the classrooms under the policy.
NOW THE IMPLICIT FEATURES OF (NCLB) ACT OR THE DOWNSIDE OF THE POLICY IN THE US
Yes, the policy in terms of it’s promises versus the final outcomes, seems to fail in achieving some of it targets but, if you read through the whole Act you come to a certain conclusion that at least there was a hidden somewhat positive target that was achieved and I will say, that hidden target was the reason why the existing US educational Act was amended but can we say the same for the Free SHS policy in Ghana?Maybe yes maybe no.
Because, the targets that were met in the US were first beneficial to the republican party’s ideological way of governing America in terms of national security in relations to military recruitment. So the anti-war people who believe in demilitarising the United states, using the No Child Left Behind policy to get more high school student recruited in to the US military was a failure of the policy but to the more conservative American who believe that America is what it is because of it’s military might, to a large extent the policy was a success.
Mind you, in Ghana the No Child Left Behind policy in the Free SHS implementation also came out with some positive benefits to the NPP party in terms of electoral victories so, to the non NPP person, the Fee SHS and it’s almost hidden brother, (NCLB) policy was a flop but to the real NPP apparatchiks, the policy was a success because it helped them to win the 2016 election and did the magic for the NPP in 2020 once again.
On the surface the (NCLB) looks very patriotic and a policy designed to put all students in the United states at the same level of reading and math proficiency, the act also made sure that, only highly qualified teachers are allowed to teach in order to achieve the intended result. And I think a similar thing happened in Ghana where trained teachers were made to write a special exam before been allowed to teach which has the same intentions of making sure that only the best teacher teaches our kids but, just like in the US, there were other factors of the policy that made all the efforts of having only qualified teachers failed to yield the expected result in education.
Some of the implicit features of the (NCLB) Act in the US was that, yes the Bush administration made sure only highly qualified teachers became teachers, parents have a lot of say in their children’s education the Act actually made it possible to change school for your kids if that school is not performing and the government also started closing down non-performing schools. The performance of a school was measured by the yearly national exams result of the students and for school administrators not to have their schools closed down or lose federal funding, the schools started teaching only how to pass exams which resulted in exam malpractices like cheating and the rest, does this ring a bell in your Ghanaian mind?
As a people, anytime you see a government coming out with a policy, ask yourself what is in this policy for the government versus what is in it for you the citizens because, mostly we turn to focus on what the policy turn to give us alone and forget to look for what the government stand to gain which sometime turn to be gigger than what the people must get. The (NCLB) Act also inserted into the Act a clause very tempting and cunning that silently gave the Bush government and the Republican Party their ideological satisfaction by stating that, schools who want federal government’s funding must allow military recruiters to have access to student information like their name address, location and other personal details.
In other words, any school that fails to give military recruiters access to student’s information will not get government funding and what is a school without funding? So, in a nutshell, even though, the policy did solve some of the educational challenges in the United State of America, while worsening some, the bigger win was how the Republican Party and president Bush were able to use this Act to recruit more young people to join the military.
Many Ghanaians reading this with what just happened at the EL-WAK sports stadium will be like, why should a government, go through all of this just so they can get their citizens to join the army. Well, let’s do a little bit of American politics and come back to what the (NCLB) policy did to Ghana’s education, our morality and parenting to some extent.
In American ideological politics, the republicans are seen as the voice of conscience, common sense and the custodians of reality. Instead of now using only diplomacy and soft power to police the world, they must always maintain their military power so that in the world of reality where anything is possible, anytime an emerging power tries to attack, they can defend themselves.
An article published by motherjones.com in 2002 shows how frustrating it was for the military to have access to information of secondary school student in the US before the passage of the (NCLB) Act. The pentagon is reported to have said, up to 15% of American high schools were “problem schools” for military recruiters according to a republican Rep. David Vitter from Louisiana, in 1999, military recruiters were denied 19,228 times from having access to student’s information. Aside politics, some Americans believe that enough of their sons have died in wars therefore, they the parents staving the government of new solders is away to stopping their sons from dying in a war some believe only benefit some few military industrialists.
THE REAL SINS OF THE (NCLB) UNDER THE FREE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL POLICY
So, we now know that in Ghana, No Child Left Behind means, government is not going to repeat any child in any class no matter how poor their academic performance because, government does not have money to take care of the repeated student. But in the former president’s speeches and those at the United Nations, Nana Addo said No Child is Left Behind due to financial a challenge which is very deceptive and insulting to the Ghanaians.
Now let’s take the Sins one by one, let’s start from howAngle Carbonu described what happed under the free Senior High School system, “There’s no pressure for students to learn since there are schools in Ghana where students simply don’t attend class, and whether they fail or not, they are automatically promoted.
The statement above calls for a national mourning as the situation created there, does not only destroy the education system in terms of academic performance but it also, encourage the highest level of indiscipline, immorality and total disrespect of authority, free education did not only abolish repetition of students which used to be a form of punishment for poor academic performance and some misbehaviours it should also be noted that during the implementation of the Free SHS and the No Child Left Behind policy, corporal punishment was also abolished by the Ghana education service which would have been done even if it was the NDC in power because it was a UN directive.
As if this was not enough in 2019 the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) was also banned from contributing their dues to support the various Senior High Schools in the country and what was the reason given for that order? The government said the (PTA) dues was a financial burden to parents as if the government could handle everything by itself. In a nutshell, the Free SHS policy undertook three main actions which destroyed Ghana’s education in terms of academic performance and morality.
First the government abolishing repetition of students, second abolishing of physical punishment and lastly disempowerment of parents through the banning of (PTA) dues, these action by the government was also a means of creating an entitled, narcissistic and unaccountable future citizens in Ghana.
HOW THE SINS BENEFITED THE GOVERMENT BUT DESTROYED OUR CHILDREN
The president said No Child will be Left Behind because of financial constraint, but the realities were the opposite, governments don’t have money to finance a repeated student in a class, but the term was deceptively used to mean every child will leave the house and go to school. Now, how the government framed the lowering of educational standards made the non sophisticated Ghanaian have a positive outlook towards the government so the government deceptively attracts good-will from the citizens majority of whom didn’t know (NCLB) meant I can’t repeat you because I don’t have money.
The adoption of (NCLB) meant that a lot of (shit) was about to go down in Ghana’s education so, government needed to put in further interventions to gain more control over how parent have a say in their kids’ education so if you carefully checked, terminal exam result were not easily given to student in a lot of schools for parent to know how bad their kids were doing in school because, he or she does not have any punitive reason to study hard.
Whether he learns or not, what shows that he or she has studied will be given to them which used to be promotion to the next class this posture of the government was made possible also because of the Ghanaian parent singular way of measuring good academic performance and over all quality education which is once the children passes at the BECE or WASSCE and the just ended 2025 WASSCE results which says about half of the students failed is a testament that, someone did some magic for the students to pass to make the government look good for delivering quality education in a system where there is almost no incentives or what so ever for a student to learn.
Listening to commentaries about the just released exam result tells me, something little has happened at the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education even though I am not sure if repetition is brought back but certainly the result shows, something commonsensical was put in place to test the real performance of the student which is a means for government, parent and all stakeholders to look for a way forward to make student learn to understand instead oflearning to write an exam.
Banning of (PTA) dues was a smart way for government to win the political and the electoral points. we have the money to finance the Free SHS policy and we are doing without the help of parents. Ghanaians should understand the NPP government is trying so bad to win this unnecessary argument because any time either NDC or NPP comes out with a social intervention policy, the opposing party would always be waiting for when the government make the citizen comes in to help even if that is what will help all of us.
Because among the numerous problems the Free SHS policy faced, lack of infrastructure was one of the major issues, but the NPP government was determined to put out a no stress posture just to let parent know that we are paying everything which will translate into votes on elections day which really worked to a larger extent. The refusal to receive (PTA) contributions, naturally and psychologically, limited the voice if the (PTA) by so doing, the government treated the parents as a jobless husband who is been taken care of by his wife, you contribute nothing to the table so limit your complains about what you don’t like about my bad behaviour.
THE FREE SHS AND THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHID POLICY MADE TEACHERS SLAVES TO THE STUDENTS
As I mention at the beginning of this paper, one thing became very apparent during the entire period of the Free SHS policy which is how gang groups became rampant and uncontrollable in most senior high schools in Ghana and that bad campus culture did not start only from the NPP government it had started gradually from previous government’s adoption of western liberal parenting styles which focuses more on the so-called right of the child because I am sure if the NPP had not won the 2016 elections, the NDC would have also abolish corporal punishment in Ghanaian schools no matter what.
The atmosphere created by the Free SHS cum the No Child Left behind Policy was that of a slave and a masterrelationship where, the students became the masters while the teachers rather became the slaves to the students. I came to this conclusion because, anytime a person is given responsibility over someone without any form of authority to control the unacceptable behaviors of the people under their authority, the one given the authority becomes a slave to the one they have authority over and that’s exactly what happened in our various senior high schools.
These teachers who have little to no means of disciplining students are always told to instill discipline and order on campus and in the individual students as if discipline and order can be achieved without shame, stigma and consequences I personally, do not agree with the total abolishing of corporal punishment in schools but, to borrow chairman Wontumi’s words, “whom am I?” To stop a country on a free fall journey to wokism? All I am trying to say is, you can’t abolish caning and at the same time, not repeat academically non-performing student that is more than making the teachers slaves to the students it is a way the government through the Free SHS policy decided to also insult the teachers for whatever crime they might have committed against the government.
Apart from angles, in heaven, most human beings will not do the right thing in the absence of shame, stigma and consequences and the abolishing of corporal punishment and automatic promotion of every student was a serious crime against Ghana’s education and a total destruction of morality and discipline in students across the country. With these factors in place, it wasn’t a surprise to hear professors at the University of Ghana been confused of how Free SHS graduates with aggregate A in core math and in elective mathematics could not solve simple algebra. The WASSCE results we were getting under the Free SHS/No Child Left Behind policy was a total insult to our intelligence as a country.
The next thing I want to talk about is an advice to the two main political parties to put a stop to the practice whereby they come up with a social intervention program without adequate funding which leads to sacrificing quality for quantity this kind of politics I think died with the 2024 election and must stop or the new Ghanaian voter will stop it for them. Looking at the contradictory circumstances under which the Free SHS policy was run, my hypothesis is that, most of the flying colors Ghanaians were seeing examination after examination were painted to look that colorful and that the ministry of education GES should investigate into such an unforgivable sin.
At least we could go woke by adopting this liberal parenting and education system of no corporal punishment and use repetition as a means to give students a reason to learn to pass their exams but, the Free SHS and the No Child Left Behind, rather centralized most forms of punishment where if a teacher wants to punish a student, he has to report to the head master who then report the district, the district then have to report the case to the regional office and finally, the region report the student to the national office for investigation and then give directives on what to be done to such student. Are we as a nation surprised how student hooliganism became normalized in senior high schools in Ghana?
I am rather surprised at how Ghanaians are crying about the poor performances from the 2025 WASSEC results especially the so-called CSOs in education and child right organizations in the country. Ghanaians must begin to watch these CSOs in child right and education with a pinch of salt because, for them to watch this backwardness in Ghana’s education without educating Ghanaians especially parents to equip them with the necessary information to stand up to the governmentis a big shame onto them.
In one of my articles about the high cost of early childhood education in Ghana, I spoke a lot about the inventors, the engineers and the sponsors of the current class roomeducation we have in the world today. I also explain why the person behind the current education spent millions of dollarsto create the education we went through and giving to our children today. A read through that article will make it explicitly clear to you that, every kind of education you go through have far reaching consequences on you so, Ghanaians should never forgive and forget such a crime of education our children went through at the hands of Nana Addo and his government.
And once again no NDC person should read this article with a smile of their face because, they equally failed us for not doing what an effective opposition party must do rather, they now have the power with the mandate and the blessings of the gods to right all the wrongs of wokism and that far-left liberal educational system brought to this country. This system of education if not checked and stopped permanently, It will produce narcissistic, overly entitled future citizens who do not understand the concept of delayed gratification, Citizens who do not understand the importance and the existence of consequences in life and citizens who cannot compete outside their comfort zones.
Finally, Ghana must be bold not to sign up to everything the UN brings up about education and parenting we must investigate those treaties very well to know the people behind it who are the sponsors of such treaties who is going benefit from such treaties.
I wrote this paper to call on my fellow Ghanaians to open our eyes on the government in power, the opposition parties, CSOs and the media to always investigate whatever policy a government introduces in order to prevent such backwardness of education again in this republic PEACE!
About the writer:
Kwabena Bibini Barima is a socio-political activist, a philosopher by passion. a researcher on liberal ideologies and policies like feminism, postmodernism and its related subjects. He is the host of the 33 Men’s Voice Podcast on Tiktok and youtube.
Contact the writer @blaqnificentmedia@gmail.com
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