The analysis of access to education in Ghana builds on the Ministry of Education Sector Performance Report and the World Bank sector studies. Though access has improved it remains uneven and has not grown as fast enough to reach universal levels of participation in primary school and JSS [Junior Secondary School] by 2015. More needs to be understood about the reasons for stalled growth. Repetition and drop out remain significant at the beginning and end of primary. Overage entry appears stubbornly resistant to attempts to enroll all children, especially girls, at the age of six. Regional variations in access and participation are such that as many as 40% of school age children are not enrolled in some parts of the country, especially in the North. And levels of achievement suggest that further expansion risks increasing the numbers who learn little of what is required to assure sustained literacy and numeracy. This analysis identifies gaps in current research and maps out a programme of empirical enquiry. The following are appended: (1) Ghana's Structure of Education (before 1987); (2) Ghana's Structure of Education (After 1987); (3) New Structure of Education as in Government White Paper; (4) The Six CREATE Zones of Exclusion; and (5) Sampling Frame for Researching Access to Basic Education in Ghana. (Contains 26 figures, 25 tables, and 24 footnotes.) [The UK Department of International Development (DFID) funded this analytic review.]