As Ghana’s democracy becomes more entrenched, we are seeing a shift — albeit slow — from a politics of mere promises to one in which voters expect persons seeking elected offices to defend the promises made on the campaign trail.We are seeing political parties bring on board professionals and academics to the forefront in order to help with the articulation of their proposed policies. Although we still hear of some complaints of politicians using money and other means to sway (or intimidate) voters, such reports are on the decline.From all indications, Election 2012 is going to further consolidate Ghana’s growing democracy. The general public opinion is that Ghanaians want to continue to advance their democratic credentials, and nothing is going to stop them. The major campaign issues for Election 2012 include the economy; corruption and integrity of persons seeking elected offices; and education.On education, at least three political parties (the Convention People’s Party; New Patriotic Party and the Progressive People’s Party) have publicly declared their intentions to make some aspects of education free. The remainder of this article will consider whether education can be entirely free and an alternative to a wholly free educational system.Can education ever really be free?The three political parties mentioned in this article do not all mean the same thing when they talk about free education. The proposed policies of the parties on free education differ on a number of criteria including the stages of education to be made free; the extent to which education will be free; and the type of educational institutions to be covered — public institutions, private institutions, or both.But can education ever really be free? Is there something in the world that is entirely free apart from, perhaps, the air we breathe?In the discussions on free education, it is assumed that free education means people do not have to make direct out-of-pocket payments towards their education. In this instance, government funding becomes the primary means to make education free. Government funds may come from taxes, borrowing (which results in indebtedness), income from activities on the capital markets, printing more money (which causes inflation to rise) and donations.A look at the possible sources of government revenue shows that inhabitants of a country indirectly or directly bear the cost of education through their money, time and labour. Consequently, it appears that education is never really free — or is it?Do we need the government to completely finance the education of all students?Whether people pay for their education directly or indirectly may only be a subject for academic debate, but one important subject which has not received the needed attention is whether government should bear all the cost in educating students in Ghana.Not all persons need free education. Some people can afford to pay all their schools fees while some can afford part-payments. And there are some also who genuinely cannot afford to make any financial contributions towards their education.Therefore, as a nation, we should perhaps be discussing whether (and how) to institute a need-based financial aid programmes to support students. We should be discussing criteria that would be used to assist students in genuine need to pursue education of the highest standard. We should be discussing the needed legislation that will make all this possible.If we collectively decide to adopt a need-based scholarship approach to education, then an agency like the Scholarship Secretariat can rely on data from the Ghana Revenue Authority to determine who should pay what. A need-based scholarship system is not a new idea. Many educational institutions have operated this system, and we may learn more from such institutions. As a country that practices a progressive tax system, a strong argument can be made in favour of expanding such a tax system to cover education.In the end, it is a process, but not an event. Whether we decide to make education free or not, one thing we all agree on is that Ghana’s education system will not be transformed in a day. It will take a process to remove all the bottlenecks that plague education in Ghana.In the meantime, we can make a lot of progress by consolidating and working on our positions of agreement. We all do agree that education is important. We all do agree that access to quality education must be improved in Ghana.We all do agree that teachers and other staff must be adequately catered for. (And of course, if it ever will be possible, we all would want a free education!) These points of agreement are more than enough to get us working to make education in Ghana of the highest standard.