What Does Africa's Future in Education Look Like?

According to UNESCO's Regional overview on sub-Saharan Africa, in 2000 only 58% of children were enrolled in primary schools, the lowest enrollment rate of any region. UNESCO also reported marked gender inequalities: in most parts of Africa there is much higher enrollment by boys, but in some there are actually more girls, due to sons having to stay home and tend to the family farm. Africa has more than 40 million children, almost half the school-age child population, receiving no schooling. Two-thirds of these are girls. The USAID Center reports as of 2005, forty percent of school-aged children in Africa do not attend primary school and still 46 million African children have never stepped into a classroom.

The regional report produced by the UNESCO-BREDA education sector analyst team in 2005, show that less than 10% of African children are now excluded from the system. However 4 out 10 children still did not complete primary school in 2002/2003. So, five years after the World Education Forum and the adoption of the Millennium Goals, progress at primary level is far from decisive. The analysis highlights that now principal efforts should be direct to reducing the number of dropouts per level. It appears also that geographical disparities (rural areas/urban areas) or economic disparities (low income households/wealthy households) are more significant and take longer to even out than gender disparities. From the quality point of view, the existing data from school achievement evaluation programmes and of household surveys indicates very significant disparities in country performance, between the different countries and within each country.

This report shows besides that secondary (lower and higher levels) and higher education enrolments have progressed proportionally more than primary enrollment over the period 1990 – 2002/2003 which questions the reality of policy priority given to primary education. The strong pressure for educational continuity from the majority already benefiting from schooling explains this trend. To this must be added the weakness of mechanisms regulating pupil flow between the different levels of education system. In 2005, the inventory and trends show a definitive risk of not reaching universal primary enrollment by 2015.

Source:

www.unesco.org

Education and Poverty Video

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Recent News

Botswana: Pre-School Education Lagging Behind

17 October 2007

Assistant Minister of Education (MOE), Moggie Mbaakanyi says that pre-schools are still lagging behind in the educational system because of a backlog of classrooms and other facilities at primary schools.

Mbaakanyi was speaking at the handing over of a pre-school by Tati Nickel Mining Company to the community of Matshelagabedi Village last week. Mbaakanyi quoted the Revised National Policy on Education of 1994, which recommended that government provision of pre-primary education be deferred until the backlog of classrooms, teachers' housing and toilets in primary schools was cleared.

"Presently, access to pre-school education is a meagre 17 per cent nationally," she said.

Mbaakanyi said this left the provision of pre-school education to the private sector, community organisations and churches to fill in the gap.

"Presently the government role is limited to providing an enabling environment for non-state partners to participate in the provision of early childhood development.

"This was done by developing guidelines for the establishment of day-care centres as well as the development of a pre-school curriculum to ensure quality of educational instruction and the service provided," she said.

 The Ministry of Education is discussing government provision of pre-primary education.

"Provision of this level of education is one goal of 'Education for All' in which we are performing rather poorly. We are often criticised for concentrating on the upper levels of education to the detriment of the foundation levels. In fact some have said we are like a builder who tries to build a multi-storey building by starting on the seventh floor," she added.

The assistant minister further admitted that there are hurdles that the MOE will have to overcome before pre-primary education is made universal.

"We are trying to determine whether the backlog of primary school facilities has been eradicated. We are determining what it will cost to universalise this level of education," she said. She said that then they will have to do a cost benefit analysis which should help to determine priorities in terms of investment at different levels. "We also have to train teachers who will teach at this level," she said.

South Africa: School Children Stand Up Against Poverty

17 October 2007

Hundreds of school children showed their commitment to fighting poverty on World Poverty Eradication Day by assembling at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Wednesday.

The Stand Up Against Poverty campaign, aimed at raising awareness of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) saw over 1000 learners gathering to "demand government keeps its promises."

South Africa is a signatory to the eight MDGs which include reducing extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education for all, equality between men and women, reducing child mortality at birth or before turning five years and improving maternal health.

Last year 23.5 million people set a new Guinness World Record by supporting the worldwide campaign. Various events around the world were held again this year between 9pm on 16 October and 9pm on 17 October in an attempt to break the record.

The campaign is a joint initiative of the United Nations Millennium Campaign and supported by the 2015 End Poverty Millennium Campaign and the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. The learners said they wanted to ask government to cut the number of people dying of AIDS, keep a clean environment and urge rich countries to form partnerships to achieve the millennium goals.

"We urge the leaders of poorer countries to make it your first responsibility to save the lives of your poorest citizens.

"We ask that you to tackle inequality, be accountable to your people, govern fairly and justly, fight corruption and fulfill human rights," said the learners.

Director of the United Nations Information Centre, Margaret Novicki told BuaNews that South Africans needed to be involved in the worlds' issues, particularly the youth, and not leave everything up to the government.

"We want to see people becoming ambassadors. Africa is far from achieving it target to halve poverty by 2015 and we need the developed world to assist with debt relief, more and better aid, trade justice and gender equality," said Ms Novicki.

She said the schools which had gathered at the Union Buildings had been joined by millions of pupils around the country in support of the campaign. The Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor urged other schools to participate.

"The minister was very supportive and the office of the Presidency encouraged this initiative by allowing us to gather outside the Union Buildings," said Ms Novicki.

A 19-year-old Nosipho Ruka urged the youth to live their own lives and stay away from drugs and alcohol as they have an impact on poverty.

She said sometimes the youth sought comfort in drugs especially if they had impoverished backgrounds.

"They tend to seek comfort by using drugs and alcohol to numb themselves, not realising that they are making the situation worse. They could end up stealing from their parents in order to buy more drugs and become school drop outs," said Ms Ruka.

The campaign coincides with World Food Day on 16 October designed to increase awareness, understanding and informed year-around action to alleviate hunger.

Nigeria: 'There are No Dull Students, Only Dull Classrooms'

16 October 2007

"As we have always believed that there are no dull students, only dull classrooms, so also we believe that the destiny of any child or pupil can be greatly influenced by the quality of information available tohim or her at any point in time."

This was the submission of the Managing Director of Green CircleNetwork Africa, Mr. Okeowo Olushobunmi, at a press conference to unveil its initiative, tagged 'GreenCircle Offer for Schools'.

The Green Circle project he said, was designed to deliver access to quality hardware and software that would improve the potential of a child to learn effectively, "the focus is on the individual child, the Green Circle learning platform is designed to provide the much needed access to an interactive learning platform that would open up a child to a new world of learning vis-a-vis harness their Godgiven skills to excel both in class and anywhere in the world", he said. Noting that the organisation has been able to provide the solutions to a large number of schools, Olushobunmi said the firm has partnered with EcobankNigeria and Environique Technologies to provide access to finance at zero contribution, such that schools can access and purchase its educational equipment, spread payment over the year and pay no interest rate whatsoever, adding, "the challenge today is to see how we can raise a new generation of learners that can access an all rounded complete quality education that can make them compete with their peers globally.

The only way to bridge this gap is via technology ", he noted. Similarly, Mr. Tayo Adesina of School XP, an arm ofthe Green Circle Network added,"education as the bedrock of any nation should betaken seriously, the future of this our great country Nigeria is strongly dependent on the quality of manpower at her disposal", he remarked.

Cameroon: MDGs - Priority on education and poverty

15 October 2007

The 62nd edition of the UN Day in Cameroon will focus on achieving some specific Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Since the implementation of the Millennium Developments Goals (MDGs), reports from the UN indicate that there is a major problem in Africa as far as implementing the MDGs, are concerned especially with regard to the goal on poverty reduction. If changes are not made, the Resident Coordinator of the UN System in Cameroon, Sophie De Caen, during a press briefing in Yaounde said, Africa will not attain the MDGs.

This is why the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, commemorating his first UN Day, has placed emphasis on the theme "A stronger United Nations for a Better World" with specific attention on some of the MDGs; eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, ensure environmental sustainability, promote gender equality and empower women and reduce child mortality.

In Cameroon, although some of the MDGs are doing well such as education for all, "much effort is still needed", Sophie De Caen underline. This is why the theme of the UN Day in Cameroon focuses on education for all, which according to Sophie De Caen, is not because it is one of the MDGs that are still backward but because there is a link between education and poverty, for the more educated the population is, the less poor they are. The UN Day will be commemorated in Cameroon under the theme "Education For All to Fight Against Poverty and Sustain Our Environment".

Hence tomorrow, 16 October, many young people in Cameroon will "Stand-Up" against poverty. The campaign dubbed "the Stand-Up Speak Out" against poverty and for the Millennium Development Goals, will involve 10 primary schools through out the country. The Resident Coordinator says pupils in these schools will not only be working with their teachers to learn about the MDGs and their importance, but at noon on that day they will all stand-up against poverty.

The "Stand-Up" campaign is an initiative to draw more attention towards the MDGs and that people should at one moment stop and reflect that they need to do more in achieving the MDGs. Sophie De Caen says although focus is placed on children in achieving the MDGs in Africa, the civil society and governments are not left out in the fight against poverty and in achieving the MDGs.

Millenium Development Goal #2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

More than 100 million primary school age children remain out of school.

Since 1990 the world has called for all children to be able to complete primary school. To reach universal primary education by 2015, school systems with low completion rates will need to start now to train teachers, build classrooms, and improve the quality of education. Most important, they will have to remove such barriers to attendance as fees and lack of transportation, and address parents' concern for the safety of their children.

Education is the foundation of all societies and globally competitive economies. It is the basis for reducing poverty and inequality, improving health, enabling the use of new technologies, and creating and spreading knowledge. In an increasingly complex, knowledge-dependent world, primary education, as the gateway to higher levels of education, must be the first priority.

Africa Education Initiative (AEI)

Students in Senegal reading from new textbooks. Credit: R. Nyberg, USAID/Senegal.

Primary school enrollments in African countries are among the lowest in the world. Education in most of Africa is adversely affected by limited funds and lack of adequate numbers of teachers, classrooms, and learning materials. President Bush's Africa Education Initiative (AEI) is a $600 million multi-year initiative that focuses on increasing access to quality basic education in over 30 Sub-Saharan countries through scholarships, textbooks, and teacher training programs.

 

Ambassadors Girls' Scholarship Program

In Africa, girls account for a majority of the approximately 40 million primary school-aged children who are not enrolled in school. AEI is working to bridge this gender gap by providing 550,000 scholarships by 2010 to African girls at the primary and secondary levels. These girls will grow into educated members of their societies and play positive roles in the education, political, and economic sectors of their countries. Support may include tuition, books, uniforms, and other essentials needed to ensure continued access to education. Scholarship recipients also benefit from mentoring activities from community members that promote self-development and provide positive role models.

Textbooks and Learning Materials

The AEI textbook program addresses the shortage of learning materials in many African countries. In partnership with African institutions and American minority serving institutions, AEI is working to develop and distribute 15 million textbooks and related learning and teaching materials. This program emphasizes relevant content, institutional capacity building, and the long-term sustainability of the partnerships between African institutions and American counterparts. Universities that have already joined the program include; Elizabeth City State University - NC, Chicago Sate University, University of Texas at San Antonio, Alabama A&M University, Jackson State University - Miss, Mississippi State University, Tugaloo State University - Miss, Medgar Evers University - NY, South Carolina State University, White Cloud University, Boston University, Wellesley College, MA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Morehouse College - GA, Alcorn State University - Miss.

Teacher Training

The pursuit of universal access to education places enormous stress on already burdened education systems in Africa. Recruiting, training, and supporting enough teachers to provide quality learning can be particularly challenging. To meet this challenge, AEI is developing, promoting, and expanding innovative methods for training more that 920,000 teachers and administrators to improve the quality of learning for millions of African children.

Working through USAID mission education programs, the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help, and African and international nongovernmental organizations, teachers upgrade their skills though pre-service and in-service training programs.

Innovative ActivitiesMinimizing the Impact of HIV/AIDS - AEI supports a focus on HIV/AIDS mitigation and prevention and increases the capacity of African education systems to manage the impacts of HIV/AIDS on teachers and students. The training programs include information about HIV/AIDS and introduce the teachers to an HIV/AIDS curriculum for their students. Many of the scholarship recipients are students who have been affected by the disease.

Increasing Parent/Community Involvement - The initiative also works to increases parent and community involvement in children's education through such activities as sponsoring reading programs and strengthening parent associations. This will help schools and school systems become more transparent and responsive to the needs of civil society.

Technological Components - AEI will facilitate outreach to marginalized populations such as orphans and vulnerable children and out-of-school youth; construction and rehabilitation of schools; and use of technologies including information technologies and interactive radio instruction.

Over the life of AEI (2002-2010), 80 million African children will benefit.

To implement AEI, USAID works closely with African ministries of education and higher education institutions, local and international NGOs, and the private sector. AEI also seeks to strengthen and extend development partnerships between the United States and Africa by actively engaging African leaders and educators, the international development community, and U.S. interest groups.

http://www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/initiatives/aei.html

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