This paper examines meta-colonialism in Ghana’s educational system by examining how colonial values continue to shape schools even after formal colonial rule ended. Using Dr. Hussein A. Bulhan’s concept of meta-colonialism, the paper argues that colonialism not only attacked land, labor, and political power, but also the “world of meaning”: language, identity, beauty, religion, and culture. Through examples from Ghanaian schooling, including hair regulations, punishment for speaking local languages, religious assimilation, boarding school isolation, and Eurocentric curricula, the paper shows how education can continue to reproduce colonial hierarchies in everyday life.
I wanted to include this piece in my e-portfolio because it connects closely to what I have been thinking about in Global Engagement: power, culture, history, and inequality. Writing this paper helped me question the idea that education is always neutral or automatically good. It made me think about how schools can also carry colonial values, even in small, everyday rules and practices. This paper was also a way to think about what real change in Ghana’s education system would require. It cannot just be about surface-level reforms. It has to involve honestly examining the system’s deeper colonial foundations and finding ways to build an education that respects our languages, cultures, identities, and communities.
This was what ultimately informed my question at the UN ECOSOC Youth Forum
