Socio-Moralist Vocationalism and Public Aspirations: Secondary Education Policies in Colonial and Present-Day Ghana

This paper examines the socio-moralistic justification of vocational education in colonial and contemporary Ghana. In the international arena, vocational education has been justified in various ways (mostly in economic terms), but in Ghana, the primary reason for introducing vocational education has always been the development of socially appropriate character, as a means of halting social problems such as urban migration and unemployment. The consistent socio-moralism of vocational education has been met with persistent public aspirations for academic and longer education. The government has attempted to solve social problems by curricular change, but the causes of the problems are in labor structure and the incentive mechanism of schooling.