Girls caught up. Then came the STEM wall

Are girls still behind boys in school in Ghana?

Mostly no, if you count heads. The gender gap in education in Ghana used to mean fewer girls in classrooms. On the latest World Bank figures, built on UNESCO data, that gap has closed at secondary and tertiary level. Girls and women are now level with boys and men, and slightly ahead.

How far did girls and women come since 2009?

In 2009 the picture was lopsided. The World Bank series shows 44.5% of secondary-age girls enrolled against 51.3% of boys, a gap of nearly seven points. At university level it was 6.3% of women against 10.3% of men.

By 2024 the secondary numbers were 76.4% and 75.0%, and the tertiary numbers were 21.6% and 21.1%. Girls and women gained more than boys and men, because they started lower and the whole system expanded. Secondary enrolment grew for everyone after Free SHS began in 2017, and our page on girls and boys in Ghanaian schools goes through the parity figures.

Two cautions. First, this is a gross enrolment ratio. It counts every pupil enrolled at a level, whatever their age, against the number of children of official school age. Many Ghanaian pupils start late or repeat a year, so a ratio can look healthier than the number of children who are the right age and actually in class.

Second, the series has gaps. The source has no 2023 secondary value, so the chart compares 2009 with 2024 only, and we do not fill in the missing year.

When did women pass men at university in Ghana?

Only in 2024, and only just. Men led the tertiary ratio in every year of the series before that, including 2023, when it was 22.5% for men and 21.7% for women. In 2024 the order flipped: 21.6% for women and 21.1% for men, a lead of half a point.

Half a point is small, and the men's number dropped by 1.4 points in one year, which is an unusual move. We would not call it a lasting overtaking until another year or two of data arrives. What the line does show is that the long gap, about four points in 2009, is gone.

The headline hides a split by field. A ratio counts how many are enrolled, not what they are studying. For that we need programme-level data, and national figures by sex and programme are not published. We say more below.

Why are there so few girls in STEM in Ghana?

The best figures we could find come from one university, so treat them as a single case and not as the national picture. The CSIR Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) ran a project on women in engineering education in Ghana and Benin. Its project page reports female shares at KNUST by college, from 2003/04 to 2019/20.

In the College of Health Sciences, the female share rose from 42.4% to 57.1%. In the College of Science it rose from 26.3% to 35.9%. In the College of Engineering it rose from 12.2% to 18.1%. All three went up. Engineering is still the lowest of the three by a long way.

The same page reports that women made up 0.2% of Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE) members in 1988 and 9% in 2022. That fits the pattern: progress, from a very low start, and still far from half. All of these are reported figures. We read the project page, not the full technical report, and the students surveyed were at one university.

If you are a student weighing options, our pages on technical universities, private universities and the full university list show where engineering and applied science programmes are offered.

Does where a girl lives matter more than her sex?

For literacy, the numbers say yes. The World Bank puts the national gap between women and men at about nine points (72.1% against 81.3% in 2021). The regional gap in the 2021 census is far bigger.

Greater Accra stands at 87.9%. Savannah is at 32.8% and the North East at 35.9%, with Northern at 41.3%. Those are the same regions that top the list for crowded primary classes in the next section. We calculated each share from the counts the Ghana Statistical Service published for people aged 6 and over. The World Bank's adult measure uses different ages, so do not compare the two directly.

The census numbers cover everyone, not girls only. We show them because they are the clearest official sign that place shapes who learns to read. For more census and household survey figures on Ghana, PollsAfrica keeps a page that gathers them. Our own literacy rate page goes through the regional figures in more detail, and education in northern Ghana covers what the data can and cannot say about the north. You can also open the pages for Northern, North East and Savannah on the register.

Is the teacher shortage a northern shortage?

The Teachers for All report, launched by the Ministry of Education with UNICEF and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, says the pressure is greatest in the north. UNICEF's news note on it, dated 10 July 2026, names three regions. The average primary class in the North East has 48 pupils per teacher. In Savannah it is 41 and in Northern it is 39. The Ministry's national target is 35.

This is a partial list. The news note names only these three, and we could not find the full regional table in a form we could read, so we show three bars and the target and leave the other 13 regions out. The note does not state the year of the ratios.

The note also says that around 20% of districts face severe teacher shortages, and that rural schools have the greatest shortage of women teachers. That matters for girls. The report links women teachers in rural areas to girls' learning, and it names safety, travel and sanitation as reasons women teachers hesitate to take rural posts. These are the report's statements. We have no figures to test them.

The national average tells a calmer story.

According to the World Bank, the primary pupil-teacher ratio fell from 32.3 in 2004 to 27.0 in 2019. The series also ends in 2019, and Ghana redrew its regions that year, creating North East and Savannah from the old Northern Region, so older regional numbers do not line up with today's map. Our page on teachers in Ghana has the national history.

Qualifications are a separate question. Citi Newsroom reported on 10 May 2026 that the National Teaching Council says more than 42,000 teachers in basic and senior high schools lack professional teaching qualifications. The council's licensing director was quoted as saying about 12,279 of them are in senior high schools and more than 30,000 in basic schools. That is a reported figure, from a council official to the press, and we have not seen the underlying register.

What we left out and why

We left out two figures that appeared in earlier research notes: that women were 7.4% of KNUST College of Engineering students in 2014/15, and that about 7% of GhIE members were women in 2020. We could not trace either to a page we could read. The CSIR-STEPRI project page gives different numbers (18.1% for 2019/20 and 9% for 2022), so we used those and say where they come from.

We left out any claim about why girls choose or avoid engineering. The numbers show the choice, not the reason. We also left out subject entries at WASSCE by sex, and programme enrolment by sex at national level. Neither is published in a form we can use. If you hold them or know where they are, the methodology page says how to reach us.

Frequently asked questions

Are there fewer girls than boys in school in Ghana?

Not at secondary level on the latest figures. The World Bank series gives 76.4% for girls and 75.0% for boys in 2024. At primary level, UNICEF's note puts gross enrolment at 99.6% in 2022/23, but it does not split that by sex.

What is the gender gap in education in Ghana now?

The gap in enrolment has closed at secondary and tertiary level. The gap that remains is in adult literacy (72.1% for women, 81.3% for men in 2021), in what is studied, and between regions.

How many women study engineering in Ghana?

We could not find a national figure. At KNUST, women were 18.1% of College of Engineering students in 2019/20, according to the CSIR-STEPRI project page. That is one university, and the figure is reported, not official.

How many women are in the Ghana Institution of Engineering?

The same project page reports 9% in 2022, up from 0.2% in 1988. We could not check this against the institution's own register.

Why is there a teacher shortage in northern Ghana?

We cannot say why. The Teachers for All report finds that teachers are unevenly deployed and that rural schools struggle most, especially to attract women teachers. It names the North East, Savannah and Northern regions as having the highest primary pupil-teacher ratios, at 48, 41 and 39.

How many teachers in Ghana lack professional qualifications?

The National Teaching Council says more than 42,000 teachers in basic and senior high schools, as reported by Citi Newsroom on 10 May 2026. About 12,279 of them are in senior high schools, according to the same report.

Are girls in STEM in Ghana doing better than before?

Yes, at KNUST at least. Female shares rose in all three STEM colleges between 2003/04 and 2019/20, from a low base in engineering. We have no national series to confirm the pattern elsewhere.

If this page raised questions about funding, see our look at how Ghana's education budget has changed. For what the country trains and who ends up where, read the talent pipeline story. The technical universities and TVET story covers the other route after school. More are on our education data hub, and the Ghana education in numbers page holds the headline indicators. The wider data hub lists every story. Students looking for a place to study can start with nursing colleges or law schools, and the Academy has BECE and WASSCE practice.

Sources

• World Bank, School enrollment, secondary, female (% gross) (checked 13 October 2026)
• World Bank, School enrollment, secondary, male (% gross) (checked 13 October 2026)
• World Bank, School enrollment, tertiary, female (% gross) (checked 13 October 2026)
• World Bank, School enrollment, tertiary, male (% gross) (checked 13 October 2026)
• World Bank, Literacy rate, adult female (checked 13 October 2026)
• World Bank, Literacy rate, adult male (checked 13 October 2026)
• World Bank, Pupil-teacher ratio, primary (checked 13 October 2026)
• Ghana Statistical Service, 2021 Census General Report Volume 3D, Literacy and Education (checked 13 October 2026)
• UNICEF Ghana, Teachers for All report calls for urgent reform of teacher deployment (checked 13 October 2026)
• Citi Newsroom, Over 42,000 teachers lack professional qualifications, NTC (checked 13 October 2026)
• CSIR-STEPRI, Women in Engineering Education and Careers in Benin and Ghana (checked 13 October 2026)
• PollsAfrica, Ghana statistics (checked 13 October 2026)