Individualized Educational Planning in Ghana's Inclusive Education System: A Qualitative Policy Analysis

Ghana has made measurable progress in expanding access to inclusive education for learners with disabilities, most notably through the Persons with Disability Act, 2006 (Act 715) and the Inclusive Education Policy of 2015. These instruments establish the right of learners with disabilities to attend mainstream schools and assign schools the general duty to accommodate diverse learning needs. However, a critical implementation gap persists between the policy commitment to inclusion and the operational mechanisms required to translate identification and placement into individualized, monitored educational support. This paper presents a qualitative policy analysis of Ghana's inclusive education framework, applying document and thematic analysis to primary legal instruments, policy texts, and a purposively identified body of peer-reviewed literature published between 2015 and 2026. The analysis finds that although the 2015 Inclusive Education Policy references the development of Individualised Educational Plans (IEPs) as a school-level responsibility, it does not establish a standardized process, format, accountability structure, or monitoring mechanism for such plans, leaving their development inconsistent, under-resourced, and largely absent in practice. Drawing on this finding and on comparative review of individualized planning mechanisms in other jurisdictions, the paper argues that a nationally standardized, contextually adapted Ghanaian Individualized Education Plan (G-IEP) framework would strengthen inclusive education in Ghana by providing this missing implementation mechanism. The paper concludes by outlining the essential components of such a framework and proposing a research and policy agenda for its development, validation, and piloting.