EDUCATION SECTOR CHALLENGES IN AFRICA

Education is a cornerstone for development in any society. It is the source of skills, knowledge, technology and new innovations essential for socio-economic development in a country.

Thus, for a country to achieve rapid and shared growth, investment in education is very important. Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa, said that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’’

Therefore to achieve  quality education, the most important determinant to consider is the teacher, learning and teaching materials and conducive environment for learners, right from pre-school, primary and secondary schools all the to tertiary education. Teachers play a prime role to ensure teaching and learning process meet the desirable outcomes; since they are source of knowledge, skills, wisdom, appropriate orientation and role models for the students.

However, in developing countries, especially Africa, there are still teachers facing a number of challenges which significantly harm the quality of education. Low and irregular salary payments, poor working conditions, low status and limited opportunities for professional development are some of the issues impeding teachers to perform their duties wholeheartedly as a result deterioration of education quality.

Education does not mean only a lot of children going to school and finish classes; it means more than that, like creating skilled labour force that has the capacity to increase productivity in the country’s economy. Africa is not a poor continent, that’s why in the past and present we experienced scramble for Africa this should tell us that we are rich in resources. A considerable number of African children are out of school.

According to recent research, Africa has the world’s lowest secondary school rates of enrolment. Twenty-eight per cent of children get enrolled in secondary school. Around 90 million of African teenagers have to struggle for employment in low-paid and physically tricky jobs. 

Teaching

Teaching is a very important input in the education process. Likewise, the teacher is the heart of classroom instruction. In any education system the availability and quality of the teaching force is an indication of the quality of that system. In most of developing countries,education means teacher due to the fact that other essential learning facilities such as textbooks, visual aids and other learning materials are limited. Thus teachers play a big role as source of knowledge, skills, wisdom, appropriate orientation and role models for the students. Therefore the quality of education delivered highly depends on the competence and qualification of the teachers.

Africa is supposed to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) especially goal number 4 which is quality education. But still there are many questions about the quality of education, if it will lay a ground base for achieving the economic growth. There are arguments on the quality of education offered.

The national governments have been accused of putting more efforts on enrolment expansion, construction of classrooms and ignore other keys factors like teaching and teachers motivation through modest and decent salaries and benefits which contributes to a large extent on the quality of education to be delivered.

Experiences and research shows the quality of education has been deteriorating over time in many African countries. Disparities among and within the regions has been increased in the recent years. Overcrowded classes, high pupil teacher ratio, inadequate accommodations for the teachers, shortage of qualified teachers especially in remote rural areas has been witnessed for sometimes now. Teachers in public schools have experienced low and irregular salary payments, lack of proper housing, inadequate teaching facilities, low status and limited opportunities for professional development.

UNESCO agrees and strongly argues that the most important determinant of educational quality is the teacher. Therefore, if it is to improve the quality of education, first we have to improve the quality of teaching force. Teacher plays a prime role to ensure teaching and learning process meet the desirable outcomes, since they are source of knowledge, skills, wisdom, appropriate orientation and role models for the students. According to Chung in his book Education and Development argued that, “if for one reason or the other, teachers’ qualifications are inadequate and if his or her morale is low, education is doomed to failure to that extent regardless of the abundance of other supporting factors.” The achievements of students in the class are determined by the way the teacher is performing his or her obligation in and outside the classroom.

 Weapon

In a nutshell, education is the central point to development and a key on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). But also it is one of the most powerful weapons to fight against poverty and reducing inequality among people in the society. It lays foundation for a country to attain sustainable socio-economic development.

In this regard, quality education is very important for developing countries to realize rapid economic growth. But, a number of criticisms have been put forward with regard to poor quality of education in Africa, such as poor teaching force, low motivation for teachers in public schools, under-staffing to the most of public schools, low payments and poor working environment for teachers especially in rural areas just to mention few.

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