ABSTRACT
THROUGHOUT the previous chapters we have frequently drawn attention to the focal role of secondary schools in the Ghanaian educational system. Their position merits special attention within the context of this study. A detailed examination of this type of school will enable us to illustrate some of the general processes that we have noted in previous discussion. We will draw upon empirical data collected in the field, in contrast with earlier discussion where we have been obliged to rely heavily upon documentary materials and existing statistical sources. The succeeding materials are drawn from a large-scale empirical survey of Ghanaian secondary schools which was carried out in 1961, and they serve to justify some of the conclusions which we have reached in previous chapters concerning the relationship between the schools and the contemporary social and occupational structure in Ghana. In this sense we are using the secondary schools as a paradigm for empirical research, since their small numbers and great selectivity might be presumed to highlight certain processes and relationships which we have already considered in historical perspective.
