Education development in Africa: the first 50 years of independence
Forty-six of Africa’s 52 countries achieved independence from colonial rule between 1960 and 1966. It is 2010, exactly 50 years after the first ululations (uhmmm ... declarations) of independence were proclaimed. Time to celebrate!
It is a perfect time to look back. Many African countries have had ample time and opportunity to independently plan and steer their own development. Let’s look back at how the continent’s (higher) education landscape has fared in this half-century.
Demand for education
The population of Africa tripled between 1960 and 2010, growing from 284,933,820 people (9% of world total) to 1,013,788,264 people (15% of world total) in this period. The total African population has increased by 21% in the last decade alone (see Figure 1 below), signalling increased demand for education at all levels, both today and in the near future.
Figure 1: The total population of Africa by age group (Source: US Census Bureau International Database, 2010)
Education provision, access and participation
But have African governments been able to adequately accommodate the demand for education? And will they be able to do so in the near future? The EFA Global Monitoring Report (GMR) 2010 provides an analysis of education provision, access and participation in Africa and concludes that the continent has made significant progress in increasing pre-primary school attendance since the adoption of the EFA goals in 2000, with enrolment having doubled to 10m children since 1999. However, this still forms only 15% of the pre-school age group, compared to 33% in other developing regions. Similarly, universal education has led to an increase in primary school attendance (with the net enrolment ratio rising from 56% to 73% between 1999 and 2007. Nevertheless, the percentage of the primary school level population out of school remains significantly large, representing 45% of the global total. Barriers to school entry and attendance include geographic isolation and the long distance to school, labour market demand, civil conflict and discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, language and disability.
In 50% of African countries, the EFA GMR further reports that late entry remains a problem, with more than 50% of children entering school above the official starting age in 2007. In the same number of countries, one in three children drops out of primary school before completion. For lower secondary school, 38% of the appropriate age group was out of school in 2007 while 39% of this age group was still enrolled at primary level. Africa’s secondary gross enrolment rate is the world’s lowest (34% in 2007). The continent’s share of secondary level TVET is also among the world’s lowest (6% in 2007).
Gender parity and tertiary enrolment
According to the World Bank Gender Statistics Database, gender parity has also been achieved in Sub-Saharan primary and secondary schools with approximately half of the students and 40% of teachers being female in 2008. Even though the private provision of education at all levels is growing and outsizes public education provision, the number of tertiary level institutions in Africa remains very small relative to the demand for access. The World Bank reports that participation in tertiary education in Africa is the lowest in the world, with a gross enrolment ratio of 5% in 2007. UNESCO statistical estimates for female participation in tertiary level education in Africa showed 41% in 1999 and 40% in 2006. General adult literacy rose from an average of 17% in 1985 to 62% in 2007, with women accounting for more than 60% of the adult illiterate population (EFA GMR, 2010).
Download the 2007 World Bank report (425 kB)
So, what progress has been made?
Despite all the positive progress described above, the EFA GMR (2010) reports that no African country has achieved or is close to achieving the four EFA Education Development Index targets (i.e. on net primary enrolment, adult literacy, gender parity and the quality of education).
Download the EFA Education Development Index (354 kB)
Quality of education
The quality of education in Africa remains under pressure at all levels, with overcrowded classrooms, insufficient numbers of qualified teaching staff (particularly for scientific and technical disciplines), insufficient teaching aids and ill-equipped and dilapidated physical facilities.
Download a study on massification in Higher Education in Africa (479 kB)
In 2007, the World Bank analysed education quality assurance in Africa and reported that African governments are increasingly implementing structured mechanisms in order to improve the quality of education and regulate new providers, private or otherwise. Due to financial and human resource constraints the national QA agencies are often small in scale and so institutional and programme audit and accreditation processes entail self-assessment, followed by a peer review and communication of the conclusion to the institution, government and other stakeholders. According to the study, francophone Africa is lagging behind the rest of Africa in developing structured management of quality assurance at national and lower levels.
Research
With the exception of emerging economies such as South Africa, research does not form a core component of the academic activities of education institutions in most African countries. Several countries have established National Research Councils but these often do not have sufficient financial resources to support research on a significant scale. Where research does take place, academic institutions do not systematically keep a record of it.
Medium of instruction
Missionaries and colonial powers introduced education in Africa. Today long after the colonial era, the colonial language is still the language of choice in academic instruction in Africa, mainly English, French or Portuguese since these languages are languages of opportunity and they allow access to global knowledge and interaction with the rest of the world. The first few years of primary school form an exception, where instruction is given in the main local language.
Quality of graduates and the educated labour force in the labour market
Some African countries have adopted the quota system for selection into public secondary and tertiary institutions to ensure ethnic parity. The best performing students are selected until the quota for a given ethnic group is filled. If there are not enough best performing students for a given ethnic group, and the quota has not been filled, the next best students from such a group are selected until the quota is filled. Sometimes those obtaining better grades are therefore denied entry to continue their education if the quota for their ethnic group is filled while others who are underperforming are allowed to proceed simply because the quota for their ethnic group has not yet filled. This policy has consequences on the quality of graduates and the educated labour force in the labour market since those receiving training are not always the most talented or motivated.
There is also considerable critique on the relevance of secondary and tertiary education to the personnel and expertise needs of the labour market. Education focuses on training students for the formal sector (jobseekers) rather than for self-employment (job creators). Yet the formal sector in Africa is very small (on average 20% of the economy) and can only absorb a specific number of graduates. There is an increasing call for more focus on practical skills development and entrepreneurship training at these education levels so that drop-outs and graduates who cannot find work are able to start up, sustain and professionalise their own businesses. In addition, the curriculum should be geared towards imparting expertise relevant to the local (African) context. In response, TVET is growing in importance, with many countries developing a national strategy for TVET geared towards local labour market needs.
Brain drain
Public education spending is rising with increasing national economic development, despite the recent global economic crisis. In many countries students pay fees and there is limited access to loans or scholarships financed locally. Study-abroad scholarships at post-graduate level are increasingly becoming available, financed by donors outside Africa. While total international aid for education is growing it remains a small share of total aid (EFA GMR, 2010). The outcomes of these investments could, however, be more satisfactory. Low salaries and political conflict are forcing a significant number of well-educated graduates to move out of the continent. As a result, Africa is training a considerable number of people for 'export', satisfying the manpower needs of already developed nations. Through this brain drain, the African education budget actually serves as a supplement to the education budgets of already developed countries and is cynically seen as 'development assistance' to these countries. The continent itself is missing out on the development opportunities emigrating highly educated individuals offer.