Education: A tool to reverse Africa's endemic malaise
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| Johannesburg,
8 December 1999Despite the several obstacles that African
countries have met in their efforts to provide education to
their nationals, there are encouraging signs that the continent
is making progress in expanding access and sustaining enrolment
in learning institutions. |
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| During
the third day of the sub-Sahara Africa Regional Conference on
Education For All (EFA), the chairman of the regional working
group, Dr Ko-Chi Tung, told a press briefing that many countries
had registered significant growth in school enrolment and expanded
access to many children. |
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| He
was briefing the press on the draft synthesis report for the
Eastern, Central and Southern African Region. Together with
him during the press briefing were the National EFA co-ordinator
for Senegal, Mr Pape Sow, who represented the West and Central
Africa Region. The objective of the briefing was to present
the findings of the EFA 2000 Assessment exercise in the sub-Sahara
Africa in which 44 countries participated. |
|
| Dr
Tung said that in many countries, the gender disparity in enrolment
was getting narrower, which indicated that the affirmative actions
put in place to boost girls education were bearing fruits. On
average, 65 per cent of boys and 55 per cent of girls were in
schools in many countries in the region. |
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| However,
he pointed out that there were wide disparities in some parts
of the continent and added that many countries were going through
hard times, which hampered the development of education. Poverty,
armed conflicts, civil strife, child labour and HIV/Aids, among
others, had made it difficult for countries to achieve universal
primary education. |
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| "In
nine countries, rural primary enrolment lags significantly behind
urban, with the gap ranging from 26 percentage points in the
Central African Republic to 49 percentage in Burkina Faso,"
says the report for the Central and Western Africa Region |
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|
Presenting the findings from the West and Central Africa Region,
Mr Sow said some countries notably Angola, Burundi and Congo
had registered declining education standards due to war. He
called for intervention measures to end the wars and ensure
that peace prevailed and children had access to school. |
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| The
two reports indicated that many achievements had been made in
areas like early childhood education and adult literacy, which
is the bedrock for life-long learning. |
|
| According
to the report from the Eastern, Central and Southern Africa
Region: "Despite the limited involvement of governments in the
provision of early childhood care and development facilities,
many governments have taken on the responsibility of developing
a national curriculum that focuses on the overall development
of a child: social, pyschological, pycho-motor, cognitive development
of a child." |
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| The
reports highlighted the fact that HIV/Aids epidemic was directly
affecting the "productiveness of any economic activity." "It
is clear that education should be used as a tool to reverse
the pandemic, while at the same time the escalation of the pandemic
has put severe constraints on its effectiveness," says the report. |
|
| Other
issues of concern to the education sector that were highlighted
by the reports include, environmental protection, culture of
peace and understanding. |
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| Dr
Tung said the EFA Assessment exercise was a process of incorporating
African experiences, aspiration, leadership and ownership of
the goals, targets and strategies for realising African Renaissance.
The assessment was conducted at the country level using specific
and clear guidelines and indicators. |
|
|
Present during the press briefing were the chief, Education
Section Programme Division, UNICEF, Mr Sheldon Shaffer and a
consultant with UNICEF's Eastern, Central and Southern African
Region office, Mrs Debbie Gachuhi. |
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| The
EFA conference, which ends on Friday, is convened by five United
Nations agencies - UNESCO, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP and the World
Bank. The conference is expected to come out with a document
that the African Region will present during the global EFA conference
in Dakar, Senegal, in April next year. |
