Dec 30, 2006

Education in Africa

by Laura Starita

A recent New York Times article highlights the challenge of ensuring that children in sub-Saharan Africa receive an education. In this era of Millennium Development Goals, where the target is to provide all the world’s children with a sixth-grade education by 2015, countries such as Mali are registering close to 1,000 children in schools that employ only three teachers and have no or few textbooks. The article does highlight that more parents see the value of education than a generation ago.

While the Millennium education goals are more likely to be met than others, whatever achievements are made will remain dubious since the measure is children enrolled not quality of education received. Ramping up education infrastructure to provide the quality of education necessary requires innovative approaches to providing learning materials, teacher training and classroom space.

As far as achieving the MDG, regardless of its flaws, the article says,

At current spending levels, the World Bank estimates, [attaining the MDG of universal primary education] will take sub-Saharan nations another 50 years. Achieving it within the next decade would require a ninefold increase in aid, Unesco’s experts say. They argue that donors should shift funds to Africa from other, less needy parts of the world and to primary schools from higher education.

New York Times: Crowds of Pupils but Little Else in African Schools