Impact Assessment, the Capitation Grant Policy and the Rhetorics of Academic Achievement: A Neglected Methodological Approach to the Education Finance Policy Process in Ghana

Abstract

This article examines the crucial role that Impact Assessment plays in structuring positive outcomes for academic achievements in public basic schools in the education finance policy milieu. The Capitation Grant policy is used to make this case, and to show that understanding and using Impact Assessment as a paradigm becomes a useful foundation to establish a well-grounded policy implementation process. This view stems from the fact that Impact Assessment has proved itself to be a dominant method that incorporates impact considerations in the policy process for efficient and effective policy outcomes.  Impact Assessment is therefore considered a useful paradigm for knowledge production towards policy implementation, and suggests that application of Impact Assessment in the terms expressed, offer a comprehensive guide to educational finance policy implementation. The author argues the paradigmatic approach to Impact Assessment based on six basic, consecutive questions that relate to each other but independent at the same time. With this end in mind, two main objectives are pursued. Firstly, it makes explicit the six basic questions for structuring an Impact Assessment paradigm. Secondly, the two main Impact Assessment paradigms currently in competition with each other are compared.  There is a further explanation about how these two currently predominant Impact Assessment paradigms answer the six questions. Consequently, the paper presents the dominant paradigm to develop a more critical understanding of the underlying assumptions, motivations, and values which inform policy research. Finally, the variability of the different answer options is considered between the two paradigms in order to determine comprehensive ways of defining and grounding educational finance policy Impact Assessment practice.