Since 1986, pre-tertiary education in Ghana includes six years of primary education, three years at the junior secondary school level and three years at the senior secondary school level. Successful completion of senior secondary school leads to admission eligibility at training colleges, polytechnics, and universities. In 2002 there were approximately 3.7 million students attending schools at these three levels: 70% at the primary level, 24% at the junior secondary level and 6% at the senior secondary level. There are over five hundred public senior secondary schools in Ghana that graduated a total of 90,000 students in 2004, representing a huge expansion over the old system (which was transformed in 1987), which consisted of three hundred institutions graduating 27,000 students a year. However, access to each successive level of education remains severely limited by lack of facilities. Only about 30% of junior secondary school graduates are able to gain admission to senior secondary schools, and only about 35% of senior secondary school graduates are able to gain admission to universities and polytechnics, plus another 10-20% to diploma-level postsecondary education. Private secondary schools play a very small role in Ghana, with only a handful of institutions offering international curricula such as the British-based A-levels, International Baccalaureate, and U.S. high school. Combined, they graduate fewer than 200 students a year.

Entrance to one of the five Ghanaian public universities is by examination following completion of senior secondary school. There are now five public and nine private degree-granting universities in Ghana, along with ten public polytechnics offering the British Higher National Diploma (HND), a three-year tertiary system in applied fields of study. Ghanaís first private Catholic university opened in 2003 in Sunyani. The polytechnics also offer vocational, non-tertiary diploma programs. In addition, there are approximately forty teacher-training colleges and fifteen nursesí training colleges. Private tertiary education is a recent but rapid development in Ghana, meticulously regulated by the National Accreditation Board. Over 5,000 undergraduates are now enrolled in secular degree-granting programs in nine private institutions.

In 2003/4, new enrollments in public universities totaled 18,149; new enrollments in private universities totaled 1,380; and new enrollments in polytechnics totaled 8,688, representing an increase of 30% over the last five years. Total enrollment in tertiary education has surpassed 100,000 for the first time in Ghana's history.