Amend Education Act to reposition NaSIA — Eduwatch
The Ministry of Education should amend the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 1023) to reposition the National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA) as a non-ministerial department reporting directly to Parliament, Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has advocated.
That, it said, would mirror the structural separation seen in Ofsted (UK), ensuring that the body responsible for evaluating school quality was not situated within the same ministry responsible for delivering education services.
Again, it said the Ministry of Education should amend Sections 89 (3) and 99 of Act 1023 to eliminate the requirement for NaSIA to consult the minister before making certain regulatory decisions.
“The NaSIA Board should be restructured to include a broader range of independent professionals. Executive representation should be reduced to only the Inspector General of Schools for policy alignment.
“Independent board appointments should be made by the Public Services Commission to ensure members are education sector experts selected for their expertise rather than political affiliation, while maintaining stakeholder representation from private schools, teacher unions, and the West African Examinations Council,” a policy brief on Reforming NaSIA's Governance Framework for Enhanced Autonomy & Quality Assurance said.
Ofsted
It said the UK’s Ofsted was widely regarded as one of the most structurally independent school inspectorates globally.
“It operates as a non-ministerial department, meaning it does not sit under the Department for Education and does not report to the Secretary of State for Education. Instead, it reports directly to Parliament.
This governance model ensures that inspection judgements cannot be altered by the Secretary of State for Education, nor can he/she intervene in individual inspection outcomes or enforcement actions,” it said.
Background
NaSIA was established by the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act1023) as Ghana’s independent quality assurance institution for pre-tertiary education. Before 2020, it operated as the National Inspectorate Board under the Education Act, 2008 (Act 778).
Operating under the Ministry of Education, NaSIA is mandated to conduct school inspections and evaluations, set and enforce standards, license all public and private pre-tertiary schools, publish performance reports, support school improvement, and, where necessary, recommend closure of institutions that fall below minimum requirements.
However, Eduwatch said that nearly 18 years since its establishment, stakeholder consultations and reviews of performance reports, policy documents and institutional reports point to major governance gaps and operational independence.
Those shortcomings, it said, limited NaSIA’s ability to regulate impartially and weakened the credibility of Ghana’s education quality assurance system.
Key Issues
Eduwatch said a credible national schools inspectorate must be visibly independent, professionally insulated, and structurally empowered to hold all schools (public and private) to the same standards.
However, it said a review of Act 1023 and NaSIA’s governance arrangements reveals significant weaknesses that undermined the authority’s operational independence, with direct implications for fairness, accountability, and public trust.
The policy brief said that although the authority was required under Section 92 to independently evaluate all schools, “it is structurally situated within the very ministry, whose institutions, among others, it must regulate.
This arrangement weakens its independence and gives rise to a perceived conflict of interest.”
“NaSIA is expected to enforce standards in public schools, including those directly under the Minister’s oversight, yet under Section 99, the minister, acting on the advice of a board appointed and dominated by the executive, retains authority over key regulatory decisions such as school closures.
