Africa - Education

Education in Africa - a case of getting back to basics and educating the masses in the need for education

The struggle to increase literacy and reduce ignorance in Africa

Education in Africa has historically been seen as a stage in preparing the youth to take their place in African society. It was not necessarily geared to prepare children for life outside of Africa. Elders in society taught pre-colonialist informal education through rituals and customs that graduated students into adulthood. This was through games, ceremonies, singing, festivals, dancing and drawing. Boys and girls were separately taught as part of their markedly different gender roles as adults.

Each community member had to contribute to the education of the younger generation. No academic examinations were administered for graduation in the African society. During and after European imperialism and colonialism formal education began taking shape and gradually changing the African system of education. Now it was not just about passage rites and rituals - it meant earning formal education that would enable African countries to start competing with countries like Europe and United States.

Africa is now able to produce its own educated and skilled labour. African education is however, still significantly less developed than the rest of the world, with a lot of African countries having low participation rates. The majority of African schools lack many fundamental facilities like laboratory equipment. African universities are also plagued by overcrowding, a brain drain to other countries and general corruption.

It was reported in 2000 that sub-Saharan Africa had only 58% of its children attending primary schools. It also reported a significant gender disparity with a much higher number for boys than girls attending. There are some cases however where girls students dominate, with boys left tending farms at home. With over 45 million children in Africa, nearly half of the school-age children have schooling with two-thirds of those being girls. In 2005 it was reported that only 40% percent of school-age children attended school. At least 46 million children from Africa have never seen the inside of a classroom.

Africa has many untapped resources such as unlimited innovation, courage and optimism. Even the warlords know this. In Liberia for instance, several schools remained open in refugee camps throughout a war, thanks to several religious groups, non-governmental organizations and communities. The teacher's association was also active and easily resumed to its activities after the war. A good number of African countries such as Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe are heavily investing in teacher training and higher salaries.

African educators have also released the importance of tapping potential in the early years and elementary childhood education has consistently received more attention, with more pre-school activities being encouraged to develop the children's minds. Adult literacy programmes are also being encouraged with even an 84-year-old male, a Kenyan and the world's oldest pupil, returning to school. It is estimated that over 140 million of adults in Africa are illiterate, which is between 60 and 70 per cent of all African adults. With reduced ignorance, cessation of wars, continued planning and focus on development goals it is possible to have a fully educated Africa.