The secondary-education system in Ghana was reorganised in the early 1980s. The present study addresses one part of this reform: the attempt to introduce a more vocationally oriented curriculum in junior secondary schools. The findings on which this study is based are drawn from interviews at several levels as well as from documentary analysis and case studies. It is shown how planned changes were not clearly conceptualised and how a serious lack of communication has continued to exist between the various elements of the education system. Classroom observation also reveals that the ideas originally laid out in the National Education Policy--such as integrated approaches to subject matter, student involvement, and problem oriented teaching methods--have not been effectively implemented by teachers.