Table of Contents Pages

1.0 Chapter One.....................................................................................................................................1

1.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................1

1.2 Literature Review........................................................................................................................2

1.2.1 Definitions of Public Policy Making Processes....................................................................2

1.2.2 Public Policy Making; Concepts and Theories.....................................................................3

1.2.3 Views of Public Policy Cycles..............................................................................................4

2.0 Chapter Two..................................................................................................................................11

2.1 Introduction...............................................................................................................................11

2.2 Overview of Ghana and its arms of Government.......................................................................11

2.3 Public Policy Making Process in Ghana....................................................................................14

References...........................................................................................................................................23

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1.0 Chapter One

1.1 Introduction

Developing countries have been identified to face lots of problems during the formulation of

policies. Most of these problems have to do with the Political Culture and historical contexts

of most of these developing countries. Even during the process of public policy making, there

are several problems which arise within each of these stages. This paper does not seek to

identify the problems within public policy making in less developed countries but seeks to

identify the processes of public policy making within a developing country. In order to

understand the processes of public policy making, it will be very understandable to define

what public policy is.

Venus, (2011) defined public policies as an attempt by the government to address a public

issue. ‘‘The government, whether it is city, state, or federal, develops public policy in terms

of laws, regulations, decisions, and actions’’ (Venus , 2011 p.1). Also, Dror who seems to

have a clearer definition of public policies defined it as a very complex and dynamic process

whose various components makes different contributions to it. It decides major guidelines for

actions directed at the future mainly by governmental organizations. These guidelines on

policies formally aim at achieving what is in the public interest by the best possible means.

The definition of Dror clearly identifies that apart from public policy being a tool used by

government to solve the problems and meet the needs of its population; it is a process which

brings together deferent parts within one whole system. Lasswell (1936, p 1) suggests that

decision-making is involved in the determination of public policy which is the

pronouncement of "who gets what" and "who does not get". ‘‘Some schools of thought

describe politics related to public policy in terms of power, elitism, and pluralism. Other

schools describe politics in terms of institutions, actors, and pressure groups that shape public
1
policy. Still others describe politics in terms of demands, issues, process, and policy’’

(Stewart, 1998, p 107).

This paper mainly seeks to identify what is involved in the public policy cycle and describe

the policy process using Ghana as a case study. It identifies the concepts of public policy

making among various scholars and also looks at the theories that support each of these

concepts. Definitions of Public Policy Processes and various views of the public policy

process have also been identified within this paper. It goes further to give an over view of a

developing country (Ghana) and the policy process the country goes through when coming

out with a public policy. This has been done by using the policy cycle as a format. The paper

will take a close look at the processes that the country went through in coming out with its

educational policies. Finally, it identifies some lessons that can be learnt from this process

and how it can improve policy making within the country; Ghana.

1.2 Literature Review

1.2.1 Definitions of Public Policy Making Processes

‘‘The policy process defines how the multitudes of demands are translated into the outputs

that meet these demands’’ (Stewart, 1998, p 106). In this regards, the policy process by this

definition articulates the approaches, systems and mechanisms that delimits how demands

expressed in the form of needs and aspiration of citizens would be satisfied through public or

private interventionism. The policy process is subsequently not an action confined to the

public sector only but to organizations and institutions not under the umbrella of the

government.

The thrust of this paper concerns the public policy process. In defining public policy

processes therefore, two main statements from both Ripley and Franklin and Easton have

been adopted. The former suggested that "public policy making at the national level in the
2
United States is both important and complicated" (1991, p vii). They contend that it is

"complicated because of the vast numbers of items on the agenda of the national government

and because of the large numbers of individuals and institutions that get involved in making

policy decisions" (1991, p vii). However, as stated earlier within the document, Easton

believed that the whole process of public policy making had to do with the parts the political

system plays in the whole process of public policy making.

Therefore, after an analysis of these statements and views about Public Policy Making,

‘Policy Making Process can be defined as the process the government or an institution goes

through after considering all political and social factors in coming out with a policy or public

policy’. This paper will concentrate on using this definition as the working definition for

describing the policy process in Ghana.

1.2.2 Public Policy Making; Concepts and Theories

Most Policy scientists argue that public policy is best conceived in terms of a process

(Jenkins, 1978, Rose, 1976; Anderson, 1978). Rose (1969, p.xi) made an argument when he

said, ‘policy making is best conveyed by describing it as a process, rather than as a single,

once-for-all act’. This process involves negotiation, bargaining and accommodation of many

different interests, which eventually give it a political flavour. These political interactions

happen within the network through which decisions flow, programmes are formulated and

implemented and inter organisational dependencies and interactions take place. Thus ‘policy

making’ is not a simple process. Rather it is a complex dynamic process involving series of

actions and inactions of varieties of groups with varieties of interests at different stages

(Osman, n.d, p.38). Here it is important to note that public policy making does not only

involve the public bodies or public officials as policy actors; rather, private or non-official

groups also play a very active role in policy making.

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Lasswell (1936, p1) suggests that decision-making is involved in the determination of public

policy which is the pronouncement of "who gets what" and "who does not get". ‘‘Some

schools of thought describe politics related to public policy in terms of power, elitism, and

pluralism. Other schools describe politics in terms of institutions, actors, and pressure groups

that shape public policy. Still others describe politics in terms of demands, issues, process,

and policy’’ (Stewart, 1998, p.107). One clear example is David Easton.

David Easton a political scientist is often accredited with his view of political dynamics in

terms of a continuous process and a system of interaction. ‘‘To Easton, a political system is

an interrelated set of activities, roles, and institutions that operates within an environment

which provides inputs to the political system and then translates these inputs into policy

outputs’’ (Hayes, 2001).

Lots of views on the concepts and theories of public policy making can be derived and if this

paper is to go on and on about all these concepts and theories the main objective of this paper

will not be achieved.

1.2.3 Views of Public Policy Cycles

Within this section, this paper will identify various views on how the public policy cycle

should be, it will compare all these different cycles identified and eventually come out with

one defined cycle and will use the processes within the cycle to explain how policy making in

Ghana is done.

The first view this paper will identify is that of Charles O. Jones (1984); Jones model was

developed mainly form David Easton’s black box model. Jones elaborated on the idea of a

system and a process, contributing a comprehensive treatment of policy as a cycle, a logical

sequence of recurring events. Jones attached elements of analysis to the stages in the cycle,

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creating an orderly, but somewhat arbitrary, container by which to logically organize a

comprehensive and integrated study of public policy. Jones Public Policy Cycle is as follows:

 Agenda setting: Problems are defined and issues are raised. Filtering out those

which will be needed to be given attention by either the executive or the

legislative branches.

 Formulation: Analysis and politics determines how the agenda item is

translated into an authoritative decision: a law, rule or regulation, administrative

order, or resolution.

 Implementation: The authorized policy must be administered and enforced by

an agency of government. The agency must take instructions as stated in the

policy, but will probably be called upon to provide missing pieces and to make

judgments as to intent, goals, timetables, program design, and reporting methods.

 Budgeting: Financial resources must be brought to bear within an ongoing

annual stream of budget cycles.

 Evaluation: The impacts of the policy may be assessed. If goals exist, the

effectiveness of the policy and its components can be determined. Side-effects

must also be discovered and reckoned. The output of evaluation may be no

change, minor modification, overhaul, or even (but rarely) termination. The

feedback provided by evaluation is injected back into the agenda setting stage,

thus closing the loop of the cycle.

The second view this paper will identify is that of Venus .D (2011); Venus believes that the

rational model for the Public Policy-making process can be divided into three parts, these are

as follow:
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  Agenda-Setting: The agencies and government officials meet to discuss the

problem at hand

 Option-Formulation: Alternative solutions are considered and final decisions are

made regarding the best policy.

 Implementation: The decided policy is implemented

Implied within this model is the fact that the needs of the society are a priority for the players

involved in the policy-making process. Also, it is believed that the government will follow

through on all decisions made by the final policy.

Thirdly, this paper will identify the view of Gordon Floyd the executive director of Children

Mortality Health Organization (CMHO) (2004); Floyd view of the cycle of public policy

making was more of like planning a vacation. In his view in planning a vacation, one will

consider the objective of the vacation; meaning what kind of vacation is one looking for?,

Relaxing?, Educational?, Adventure?. The principles of the vacation; meaning what are the

parameters within his/her budget, consideration of safety and if the vacation should be

boycotted or not. The issues that may arise during the vacation; meaning what needs to be

decided, mode of transportation?, Accommodation?, will be on a tour ore be alone?. The

options made available; meaning what will be the realistic choices that meet the objectives

and principles. And finally the bookings where one then considers if it will be a reserve flight

or use a car and if one will stay in a hotel.

A link will be drawn between the points of Gordon Floyd which he linked to each of the steps for

preparing a vacation with his identified steps for public policy making. The steps are as follows;

Vacation-planning Policy-making
Objectives Goals and objectives
Parameters Principles and Values
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 Issues Issues
Options Options; Define/assess
Booking Action steps

A close look at all the three processes for public policy making, it can be identified that all

these processes seem to have one common understanding. They all seem to identify that the

first and most important step in public policy making has to do with Problem

identification /Agenda setting; within this stage, there is the identification of a problem and

the setting of goals and objectives. The next stage is the formulation stage where principles

and values are formulated; the development of acceptable proposed courses of action also

takes place within this section. The next stage is the implementation stage; within this stage

an action of implantation is done. This is usually the implementation of the policy developed.

It is to be noted that within the implementation stage, a lot of issues are taken into

consideration like budgeting and adoption.

It is to be noted that within all the stages, identified, after evaluation, there is the mentioning

of the process going back to the Problem Identification/Agenda setting stage making this

process a cyclical one. This section is frequently referred to as re-planning.

However, for the purposes of this paper, five main steps have been identified. These have

been derived from the many different cycles identified. These steps are as follows;

 Problem Identification/Agenda Setting; within this stage, the executive and

legislative members of government meet to identify the problems available. They

prioritize the problems according to what is most important based on their own

analysis and how the solving of one problem can lead to a solving of other

problems in order to improve the lives of the people within the country.

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 Policy Formulation; within this stage, the development of different alternative

courses of action for dealing with the identified public problem are derived. These

alternatives may be in the form of proposals /action plans, executive orders, court

decisions and some legislative acts. These alternatives are usually designed by

bureaucrats within the public service (usually those in the civil service) and also

some educational elites.

 Policy Adoption; within this stage, there is lots of scrutinisations and debates

about the alternative courses of action to solve the identified problems. This stage

mainly involves the legislative body of government who make up the parliament

of the country. After all the debating and scrutinisation of all the alternatives, the

alternative course of action for dealing with the identified public problem is

identified and selected within this stage. This is sometimes through a general

consensus among members of parliament or most times by voting within

parliament. In some cases, the general public is involved within these selections of

alternative courses through the media, but sometimes their voices are hardly

heard. However, they still play their parts during implementation.

There is then the development of support for a specific proposal/action plan so

that the policy can be legitimized or authorized. The proposal/action plan will

contain full details about the whole policy, how it should be implemented and the

parties that need to be involved in implementing the policy. It also includes a

detailed budget for implementing the policy. Usually, the selection of this course

of action is done by individuals who may not have full knowledge of the issue on

the ground or sometimes may have some personal/political interest within the

identified alternatives.

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  Policy Implementation; this is the stage within which the adopted policy is

effected with the help of the population within the geographical area it finds itself.

The application of the policy is usually by the governments’ administrative

machinery to the identified problem. The administrative unit of government

mobilize funds provided by government and also human resources in order to

implement the policy.

 Policy Evaluation/Assessment; this is the final stage of the process and it mostly

involves the efforts by the government to determine whether the policy was

effective or not. In other words, the government asks itself based on the reactions

of the people if the policy worked and if not why did it not work. This is usually

in the form of audit and accounting units of government determining whether the

executive agencies, the legislatives, and the courts are in compliance with stature

requirement of a policy and if they achieved their objectives. However, in some

cases when all government institutions and agencies have played their parts, the

people, who are the main agents of implementation, can object the policy by going

on riots or demonstrations. This is also a form by which the government may also

evaluate the policy.

It is to be noted that after this process has been completed and evaluated, if after the

evaluation it is identified that the policy did not work, the whole process begins again making

it a cyclical process. However, if the policy worked fine and has been accepted by the people,

it will lead to other problems which will then take the process back to the first stage again

making the process still cyclical. Therefore, at the end of the whole policy process, if the

policy is accepted or not, after evaluation, the whole process will definitely start all over

again making the process a cyclical one.

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2.0 Chapter Two

2.1 Introduction

After understanding what a public policy cycle is and what is involved in the public policy

processes. It will now be suitable to address the main objective of the paper. As identified

earlier in the first chapter, the main objective of the paper is to use the policy cycle as a

format and describe the policy processes in Ghana. This chapter will first give a brief

overview of Ghana. It will look at the geographical position of Ghana, the main arms of

government within the country and the kind of groups that can be found within these arms of

government.

Finally, using an explained example of Ghana’s educational policy, the paper will identify the

process which the government of Ghana went through in formulating this policy using the

policy cycle as a format.

2.2 Overview of Ghana and its arms of Government

Ghana is a tropical country on the West Coast of Africa. It is bounded by three countries,

with Burkina Faso at the North, Togo to the East, Cote d’Ivoire to the West and the Gulf of

Guinea to the South. Ghana is divided into ten administrative regions and 138decentralized

districts. Ghana has a total population of 22,113,000 as at 2005. The population density varies

from 897 per km² in Greater Accra Region to 31 in the Northern Region ((GOG) Ghana

Statistical Service, 2002:2000 Population and Housing Census). Ghana gained its

independence from its colonial masters in 1957. This was lead by Ghana’s inspirational

leader Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Ghana became a republic in 1960. In 1957, there was a

constitutional review which was approved by Sir Lennox-Boyd which saw the formation of

the three main government bodies in the country. These were the Executive Body, the

10
Legislative Body and the Judicial Body. These bodies form the main system of policy making

in Ghana. (Adjei, 2010, p 244)

The executive body is made up of the president, the vice-president and their ministers. This

forms the cabinet of the country which is chaired by the president. The president appoints the

ministers of state after he/she has been elected by the people and sworn in. These ministers of

state need to be approved by parliament. Included within this executive body are appointed

chairmen of various government institutions and agencies. These appointments are usually by

the president and the Council of States. The cabinet assists the president in determining

public policies. Included in the appointed chairmen is the chairman for the National

Development Planning Commission (NDPC). This commission is to advice the president on

development planning policies and strategies. The council of state is also included within the

executive body. The council of state is usually appointed by the president and it is made up of

the Chief of Justice, the Chief of Defence Staff of the Armed forces of Ghana, the office of

inspector-general police and the president of the national house of Chiefs (Ghana

Constitution, 1992: CH.8).

The legislative body of Ghana mainly constitutes the composition of the parliament. The

constitution of Ghana gives the legislative the power to operate in parliament and shall be

exercised in accordance with the constitutions. Therefore, it can be identified that most of the

members of parliament within Ghana form the legislative body of the country. These people

are usually citizens of the country and represent the constituency from which they are from.

They are mostly elected by the people from the constituencies they represent and serve as the

mouth piece of these people. The legislative body debates about issues brought before them

by the government and come out with policies which are implemented in the interest of the

country (Ghana Constitution, 1992: CH.10). Most of the legislative members in Ghana’s

11
parliament are also executive members and therefore, during the debates about alternative

courses of action to solve a problem, there are always some issues of personal interest in the

decisions. Also, Ghana’s legislative body is divided into two main bodies which are the

majority and the minority. The majority is made up of the majority of the legislative which

belongs to one political party, while the minority is made up of the other political parties

which have less representation within the legislature. This affects policy making greatly since

the policies adopted will be in the interest of the ruling political party which has a majority

legislature.

The Judiciary body of Ghana includes the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, the High Court

and Regional Tribunals. The judiciary has the judicial power of Ghana given to it by the

constitution of Ghana, neither the President, Parliament nor any organ or agency of the

President or Parliament has been given final judicial power. The judiciary body is headed by

the Chief Justice. In the exercise of the judicial power of Ghana, the Judiciary, in both its

judicial and administrative functions, including financial administration, is subject only to the

constitution of Ghana and shall not be subject to the control or direction of any person or

authority. Neither the President, Parliament nor any person acting under the authority of the

President or Parliament nor any other person whatsoever is allowed to interfere with Judges

or judicial officers or other persons exercising judicial power, in the exercise of their judicial

functions; and all organs and agencies of the State have to accord to the courts. Assistance of

the courts protects the independence, dignity and effectiveness of the courts, subject to the

constitution of Ghana (Ghana Constitution, 1992: CH.11).

However, there is one body which does not form a main part of the arms of government in

Ghana but plays a very significant role in the making and implementation of policies in

Ghana. These are the bureaucrats. They are mostly found with the civil service and also in top

12
managerial positions within the civil service. They play an advisory role to the ministers and

their deputies and also are the major implementers of the adopted policies in Ghana. They can

therefore define how a policy should be formulated in order to be implemented. They exert

some level of influence on most of the executive and legislative bodies. Due to the nature of

their actives, the bureaucrats play some part in the process of policy formulation in Ghana.

2.3 Public Policy Making Process in Ghana

Public Policy making in Ghana is a very complex and political issue and always seems to end

up in the interest of the political party in government at the time at which the policy is

implemented. These have led to issues of constant reform of certain policies to favour the

political party in government. Also, the problem of discontinuity of certain policies is

eminent in the country due the shape of the political system. Ghana has four main political

parties with two dominating the whole political system. These two parties are the National

Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic party (NPP), while the others are the

Convection People Party (CPP) and the Peoples National Convention (PNC). The CPP was

the first party to gain power after the colonial era and it was led by the first President of

Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The CPP came out with lots of policies which have served as

the basis for most policies that are still being implemented today. There were a couple of

coup d’états and finally in 1992 Ghana proved that it was a democratic state by conducting an

election which different political parties were involved in. This election was won by the

NDC. The party came out with policies which contributed to the process of policy making

within the country and served as reference points for the formulation of new policies.

This paper does not seek to look at the political transformation Ghana has gone through over

the years but is simply trying to identify the process involved in policy making in Ghana. In

13
doing this, the paper will use the educational sector to explain the process Ghana goes

through in producing public policies.

Ghana has transformed from a system of middle-school level where there was the traditional

six years of primary education, four years of middle schooling, and a seven-year secondary

education (five years of preparation towards the Ordinary Level Certificate and two years of

Advanced Level training) before entering degree granting institutions (U.S. Library of

Congress) to a system of six years of basic school and three years at the Junior Secondary

School (JSS), three years further training would be available in Senior Secondary Schools

(SSS), after which students could enter polytechnics or the universities.

The NPP which gained power through elections in 2000 tried to shape this policy after it had

identified some problems with the existing policy. This paper will explain the processes the

government went through in formulating this new policy with the use of the policy cycle

identified in the early chapter. It will give clear details about what occurs within each process

of the cycle. The processes the country went through in coming out with the new policy was

as follows;

i. Problem Identification/Agenda Setting; within this stage, the country goes

through a whole process in identifying the problems facing its people. There are

open forums which are usually conducted to identify the problems facing the

populace. It was with this that the minister for education held a forum where the

members of the universities and higher learning identified that the three years of

Senior Secondary School (SSS) was not long and effective enough. Therefore,

they felt that the students were not actually making the grades needed to enter the

university. This they associated with the maturity of the student entering the

university and other degree granting institutions. In an attempt to solve this

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problem, the members of the universities and other degree granting institutions

pleaded with the government to extend the Senior Secondary School (SSS) to four

years. This they felt would improve the students’ ability to understand the

curriculum of first year university education, thereby, making it easier for the

student to adapt to educational standards within the universities.

The open forum is just one step out of many which the government performs in

order to identify the problems facing its population. There are also desktop

surveys which they use to asses current situations on the ground. Also this survey

goes further to identify current situations within each district and how the

problems are affecting the population within the district. Sometimes, the media

plays a role of identifying some problems based on some documentaries they

cover or a radio discussion programme where members of the population phone in

and express their problems to the government. Sometimes through press

conferences were some political pressure groups mostly express their problems.

However, the private sector is not eliminated from this process of problem

identification. They play a role of expressing their concerns through their union

members. A clear example was seen when the union members of the textiles

companies within Ghana expressed their concern about increase of imported

textiles into the country.

After noting all this using most of these processes stated, the Ministry of

Education together with the Ministers and their deputies came out with the full

problem tree of the issues put before them and prepared reports which were then

taken to the President of the country. This leads to the next step of;

15
ii. Policy Formulation; the Educational Minister forms part of the executive body of

the government namely the cabinet. As stated earlier in the chapter, the cabinet is

selected by the president in power. It consist of the minsters, the chairman of the

National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and other heads of leading

governmental institutions and agencies. They usually meet to discuss all issues

brought to the Ministries by the people. Here, the president and his/her Ministers

came out with different alternatives which can solve the identified problem.

During this process, they came out with a whole proposal stating how the policy

would be funded, the programme and projects that will be derived out of this

policy and if it of importance to the country or not. It is within this stage that the

government as part of its alternative to solve the identified problem decided there

should be an extension of Senior Secondary School (SSS) from three years to four

years to enable the teaching of students’ basic university courses within the fourth

year. This they felt would improve the ability of the students to develop

appropriately for tertiary education. It was also suggested that the name would be

changed from Senior Secondary School (SSS) to Senior High School (SHS). The

government also took into consideration the population that will be entering the

Senior Secondary Schools and set aside a budget to build new school blocks and

dormitories within all public Senior Secondary School (SSS) to deal with the

increase. Included within all the steps identified, the cabinet also identifies the

timeframe for the implementation of each of the alternatives identified.

However, after all the alternatives had been developed, it was not of the president

and his cabinet to choose the suitable alternative. This is to be done by the people

of the country; this is mainly in a means to enhance participation in policy

formulation. The parliament of Ghana is made up of the legislative body who are
16
 elected by the people of their constituencies to represent them. This takes us to the

next face of policy formulation within Ghana, which is;

iii. Policy Adoption; All the alternatives developed by the president and his cabinet

were then sent to parliament where the parliament debated on each of the

alternatives and adopted the one most suitable for the country. The parliament

debates on if the project is to be implemented or not, the courses that the

implementation will have on the population, if there is the need to fund the policy

and if there are any available funds to fund the project. The parliament also

analyzes the timeframe for the implementation of the policy and if it can be

achieved or not, or whether there is the need for the timeframe given, as explained

in the earlier chapter, Ghana has a very big problem which has to do with the

political system. The first of these problems is that most of the members of

parliament (Legislature) are also members of the cabinet of the president.

Therefore, the principle of participation is not clearly exhibited during the process

of adoption. This is because there are lots of personal interests during this

processes and decision will have already been made during the formulation stage

before adoption. The second is that the Ghanaian political system is in a way that

most of the individuals who stand for the position of members of parliament

(legislature) are in a way affiliated with certain political parties and therefore have

turned their thinking towards the ideologies of the party they belong to. Thereby,

supporting the party in anything they do. There is also the problem of the minority

group and the majority group. In most cases, the majority in parliament is made

up of the ruling parties’ members and therefore the policy being adopted is in the

interest of the ruling party. There are clear cases of situations where the minority

have had to walk out of parliament due to them not accepting the policy that is
17
 being voted for by the majority. This usually occurs when the minority have no

option and their voice cannot be heard due to their numbers within the legislature.

A clear case of this action of the majority and minority groups can be seen during

the adoption of this new educational policy which the NPP government had put

forward for adoption. The minority which at that time was made up of members of

the NDC and the other political parities did not agree with the change in length

from three years of Senior Secondary School (SSS) to four years of Senior High

School (SHS). There were even alleged cases of lobbying among some members

of the minority to vote for the four years of Senior High School (SHS). The

adoption stage may last for quite a long time and is usually at this stage that the

policy delays before implementation. At other times, the alternatives are thrown

to the general public through the media. Media panellists discuss these alternatives

while people within the general public call in to radio programmes and make

some suggestions. Some may expresses their interest in the policy to be adopted

by writing articles in the news papers. All these sometimes change the alternatives

chosen or shape the looks of the policy being adopted.

Eventually, based on voting within the parliament, the policy to extend the length

of Senior Secondary School (SSS) to four years Senior High School (SHS) was

adopted and moved on to the next stage of the policy making process which is;

iv. Policy Implementation; this is the stage where participation plays a key role in

helping in solving the problem identified. Implementation of the adopted policy is

usually performed by the civil servants within the ministries and agencies in

collaboration with the people of Ghana. In cases where the people do not accept

the adopted policy, there are cases of riots and demonstrations by the people. A

18
clear example is with the educational policy which was adopted to increase the

length of Senior Secondary School (SSS), with some schools accepting the new

population of students coming in while others did not accept them. Some also

complained that the funds needed to construct the new school facilities had

delayed which led to them not admitting the new population of students for the

four year programme. Most of the Ministries are responsible for the

implementation of the adopted plans. They are to access funds that government

has apportioned for the implementation of the policy and divide it among all the

identified programmes under the policy. In doing this each project under the

programme will be implemented to achieve the programme and finally implement

the policy. The Ministries are to use their human resource and all other resources

provided to them by government which is situated across their decentralized

departments and agencies in implementing these policy. Another problem that

arises within this stage is the late realising of funds and also the fraudulent nature

of the Ghanaian civil service. The latter seems to be the nature of most people

within the civil service and in order to really explain this, a whole survey with

certain indicators will need to be developed which this paper does not want to

explain further.

This policy of extending the Senior Secondary School (SSS) to four years of

senior high school was eventually implemented amidst all the problems and is

currently been practiced by all Senior High Schools (SHS) in Ghana. However,

after evaluation of the previous government’s educational policy by the current

NDC government, there was the need for some changes. This will lead us to the

final stage of the policy process in Ghana which is;

19
 v. Policy Evaluation/Assessment; this is the final but not concluding stage of the

policy making process in Ghana. As stated earlier, Ghana has a political problem

of discontinuity of policies and the issues that arise during policy adoption. When

the new president was elected into power, a review was done on the educational

policy that was implemented by the NPP government. Among some of their

findings was the inability of the government to provide facilities for the growing

number of students entering the Senior High Schools (SHS). There was also the

issue of a political promise which this paper is not going to consider. However,

the point that is being made here is that within this stage, the government

evaluates the policy implemented, seeks the views of people concerning the

policies and also audits the implementing Ministries to identify if the funds

provided have been utilized in the manner that they have achieved the policy to

solve the problem.

If it is identified that the policy implemented did not have any effect on the

problem at hand, it will go back to the first stage of re-identifying the problem by

reviewing the existing problem and then it goes through the whole cycle again. A

clear case is the educational policy which was implemented by the NPP

government. This was reviewed and the process repeated again. Currently, after

the last batch of students enrolled within the four year Senior High School (SHS)

programme complete, the new educational policy of three years Senior Secondary

School (SSS) education will be implemented again.

The policy process within Ghana, as identified is a very cyclical process which involves lots

of political issues emerging from it. But the goal of this paper was not to look at the political

issues but to concentrate on the policy process within the country using the policy cycle as a

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format. This can clearly be seen from the explanations and different views given about policy

cycles and the processes that go with the cycle.

However, the political views that come with the process cannot be ignored. The paper has

done well to minimize the issues of politics that arose while explaining the policy process. It

will be therefore, in the interest of the country to focus more on coming out with acceptable

policies that will help the people of the country and ignore the political influences they attach

to the formulation of these policies.

Therefore, in conclusion, the process of public policy making can be viewed as a cyclical

process which is needed to be performed in order to help solve identified societal problems.

Public policy making is an essential tool for governments and therefore must be used

carefully in dealing with issues affecting society.

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