Press
Release No.2002-95
EDUCATION IN
AFRICA: MINISTERS MEET TO ASSESS PROGRESS
Paris, November 29 - African education
ministers from across the continent will meet in Dar es Salaam
(Tanzania) from December 2 to 6 to assess progress in the quest
to bring quality education to all.
This eighth meeting of the conference
known as MINEDAF, will be held under the theme of "Taking
up the Challenges of Education in Africa: From Commitments to
Action." It is organized by UNESCO, in cooperation with the
host country, and the African Union, and is also supported by
the World Bank and UNICEF.
"MINEDAF VIII is a golden
opportunity for Africa's educational leaders collectively to take
the decisive step from commitment to action," says UNESCO
Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura. "Ranging from poor
quality and the impact of HIV/AIDS to teacher shortages and under-funding,
the challenges facing education in Africa are truly daunting.
There are, however, new opportunities to address these challenges
with renewed vigour and enhanced support. These opportunities
must be seized for the sake of all African children. Their education,
after all, is Africa's future."
Africa has one of the highest rates
of population growth in the world (2.6%). Poverty, war and civil
conflict, which have shaken 17 of Africa's 53 countries over the
past decade, external debt and the AIDS pandemic are seriously
compounding the difficulties faced by education systems already
suffering from the lack of qualified staff and material resources.
According to a report prepared
for MINEDAF VIII*, primary education, which is at the heart of
basic education, is accessible to only half of the continent's
school-age children. And only half of them complete the full primary
cycle of studies. In 2002, claims the report, 16 countries have
achieved or are about to achieve universal primary education (Algeria,
Botswana, Cape Verde, Egypt, Gabon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Lesotho,
Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo,
Tunisia and Zimbabwe). Another 16 have a gross enrolment ratio
of between 70% and 98%. However, in 15 others this ratio is only
between 31% and 67%. These countries (Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central
African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti,
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Sudan and
Tanzania) will be especially hard pressed to achieve universal
primary education by 2015.
According to the British NGO, Oxfam,
annual spending will have to increase by US$3.6 billion to put
sub-Saharan Africa on the road to education for all in 2015. This
presupposes a significant increase in regional spending, and a
sevenfold boost in external aid. The World Bank estimates only
3% of the education budget in developing countries today comes
from the international community.
In half of all African countries,
enrolment in secondary education has reached the minimum threshold
of 20%. But some 20 other countries are below that rate, with
some at less than 10%. Problems of access, equity, structure,
quality and adaptation to the cultural context present so many
difficulties in some areas that the very nature of secondary education
is put into question, suggests the Minedaf report.
Limited access and high cost are
characteristic of higher education in Africa. With the exception
of Sao Tome and Principe and the Seychelles, all African countries
have at least one university. But in 30 nations the median enrolment
rate does not exceed 2%. It should be noted, however, that between
1980 and 1995, the number of male students multiplied by 3.4 while
the number of female students multiplied by 5.4.
One of the major challenges facing
education in Africa is quality. In 23 countries for which statistics
are available, 15% of pupils on average have to repeat a year.
This is mainly due to an insufficient number of qualified teachers
(in some countries, the percentage of teachers in secondary education
without qualifications is as high as 55%) and to poor working
conditions. In higher education however, there have been some
encouraging experiences, such as distance learning programmes
in South Africa, at Dar-es-Salaam University and in the creation
of the Open University in Nigeria.
The AIDS pandemic is also wreaking
havoc on education systems throughout the continent. According
to the most recent report of the Joint United Nations Programme
on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), ten million 15 to 24 year-olds and nearly
three million children are currently living with the virus in
Africa. AIDS has already orphaned 11 million children there and
is decimating the ranks of teachers. It affects every sector of
education, whether it be administrators, civil servants or inspectors.
High on the meeting's agenda will
be the 2002 Education for All Global Monitoring Report**, published
by UNESCO, which concludes that only about half of African nations
will achieve universal primary education by 2015, a deadline set
at the World Education Forum in Dakar (Senegal, 2000).
These conclusions have fuelled
lively debate on the continent. A number of observers pointing
out that the data on which the report bases its conclusions pre-dates
the Dakar Forum, and does not, therefore, take recent progress
into account. Participants at the recent High Level Group Meeting
on Education for All (Nigeria, November 12-13), including several
African ministers, nonetheless acknowledged that given the many
and complex obstacles faced by African nations, special efforts
will be needed in many countries.
All of these issues will be debated
during the Dar es Salaam Conference, which is organized around
seven discussion panels, each one dedicated to a different aspect
of education. Several special sessions will deal with wider issues
such as AIDS, emergency, conflict or post-conflict situations,
the use of new information and communication technologies, multi-lingualism,
micro-science and the involvement of civil society.
*See the full report and other
documents prepared for the meeting at the MINEDAF VIII portal
on UNESCO's website at http://www.unesco.org
** The 2002 Education for All Global
Monitoring Report is available in PDF format at http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/monitoring/monitoring_2002.shtml
Contact
Jasmina Sopova
Bureau of Public Information, Editorial Section
E-mail: j.sopova@unesco.org
In Dar-es-Salaam: (+255) 22 211 24 16
Mobile: +255 (0)7 44 61 30 74
Sue Williams
Bureau of Public Information, Editorial Section
E-mail: s.williams@unesco.org
In Dar-es-Salaam: (+255) 22 211 24 16
Mobile: +255 (0)7 44 61 30 74
