Equipping Africa’s Primary School Learners for the Future by Atlantic Council

Equipping Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Primary School Learners for the Future Constance Berry Newman

ISBN: 978-1-61977-398-1 Cover photos, from top left to bottom right: Students at Miga Central Primary School in Jigawa State, Nigeria, photo credit: Global Partnership for Education/Kelley Lynch; Schoolchildren in Sierra Leone, photo credit: bobthemagicdragon/Flickr; Students at Janbulo Islamiyya Primary School in Jigawa State, Nigeria, photo credit: Global Partnership for Education/Kelley Lynch; Students at a BMCE Bank Foundation-supported Medersat.com school system participate in class, photo credit: BMCE Bank Foundation. This report is written and published in accordance with the Atlantic Council Policy on Intellectual Independence. The authors are solely responsible for its analysis and recommendations. The Atlantic Council and its donors do not determine, nor do they necessarily endorse or advocate for, any of this reportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conclusions. November 2017

About the Atlantic Council Africa Center’s Education Initiative With generous support from BMCE Bank of Africa, the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center set out to assess the current state of primary education in Africa. While for many years this issue has rested with the international development community, the Center sought to use its convening power—an ability to reach into academia, the non-profit and private sector worlds, and the policy sphere—to raise the profile of the issue, given the centrality of education policy to solving the economic and security challenges presented by Africa’s youth bulge. In particular, the Center focused on innovative examples of countries and organizations working to set up quality primary education institutions, often in the private sector, and asked whether these successful models could be replicated and scaled. This report is the initiative’s final product. Atlantic Council Vice President for Research and Regional Initiatives and Africa Center Director Dr. J. Peter Pham travelled with Africa Center Senior Fellow and former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Constance Berry Newman to Morocco in 2014 to observe this phenomenon up close at the BMCE Bank Foundation’s Medersat.com school system. Newman, who also served as assistant administrator for Africa at the US Agency for International Development from 2001 to 2004 and was President George W. Bush’s personal G8 representative on Africa, is exceptionally well-suited to head this study. In February 2016, the Atlantic Council convened a high-level workshop on its draft report, seeking input from a diverse array of practitioners, policymakers, and academics with experience in primary education in Africa. The comments, conversations, and data from those two days have been integrated into the final report. The Atlantic Council is grateful for the visionary generosity of the Chairman of BMCE Bank of Africa, Othman Benjelloun, for supporting the Africa Center’s Education Initiative, as well as the hospitality and encouragement of Dr. Leïla Mezian Benjelloun, Chair of the BMCE Bank Foundation, one of whose principal missions is promoting education integrated into sustainable development. Thanks, too, to Dr. Brahim Benjelloun-Touimi, Group Executive Managing Director of BMCE Bank of Africa, for the assistance given by him and his team.

Table of Contents List of Acronyms................................................................................................................................ 1 Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 4 Background: The Evolution of Educational Goals................................................................. 6 Performance: The Current State of Primary Education in Africa.................................... 10 Key Challenges.................................................................................................................................... 14 Key Strategies for Providing Effective Primary Education................................................ 18 Conclusion............................................................................................................................................ 23 Case Studies........................................................................................................................................ 24 About the Author............................................................................................................................... 31

EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE

List of Acronyms AAI

Africa-America Institute

AEC

African Economic Community

BMCE

Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur

BREDA UNESCO

Office in Dakar and Regional Bureau for Education in Africa

CAR

Central African Republic

CEPD

Primary school leaving certificate (Certificat d’études du premier degré)

EFA

Education for All

EFA FTI

Education for All Fast-Track Initiative

GDP

Gross Domestic Product

GTZ

German Technical Cooperation Agency

IFI

International Financial Institutions

ILO

International Labor Organization

ICT

Information and Communications Technology

IMF

International Monetary fund

LDC

Least Developed Countries

MDGs

Millennium Development Goals

MNC

Multinational Corporation

NGO

Non-Governmental Organization

ODA

Official Development Assistance

OECD

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

SACMEQ

Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Measuring Educational Quality

SDG

Sustainable Development Goals

SEIA

Secondary Education in Africa

SOE

State of Education

SSA

sub-Saharan Africa

Transparency International

UIS

Institute for Statistics

United Nations

UNECA

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

UNICEF

United Nations Children’s Fund

UPE

Universal Primary Education

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EQUIPPING AFRICAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE

Executive Summary

ducation remains a crucial component of economic development and poverty reduction. Primary education, in particular, provides students with the literacy, numeracy, and communication skills necessary to continue education at a more advanced level and to participate in the local and global economies. Further, these benefits extend beyond individuals, as increases in education tend to benefit the broader community. Despite its importance for development, primary education in Africa remains in a persistent crisis. Of the sixty-one million primary school age children out of school globally in 2016, over half were in subSaharan Africa.1 In addition to low enrollment, the quality of primary education in Africa is some of the poorest in the world. Far too many African learners drop out of primary school before completion, or finish without having obtained the skills necessary for success at higher educational levels. African primary schools, especially those in rural areas, lack funding, materials, qualified teachers, and pedagogies that make learning accessible to the student body. This report gives an overview of the state of primary education on the continent, detailing the evolution of primary education in the post-independence period, before discussing the key challenges impeding better learning among African primary students.

still taught in dominant, unfamiliar languages. Instruction exclusively in the dominant language both impedes the apprehension of core primary concepts and exacerbates inequalities within national education systems.

Invest in teacher training. While enrollment rates in Africa have increased, requisite employment of qualified teachers has not. The shortage of qualified primary teachers remains a key driver of the continentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s education crisis. Efforts should focus on both training and retaining qualified primary teachers.

Demand good governance and transparency. African educational systems remain susceptible to corruption at both national and subnational levels. Efforts to improve the transparency of budget allocations, as well as capacity building for staff responsible for managing budgets, are critical to ensuring efficient management of budgets.

Incorporate technology, when appropriate. When correctly introduced to complement strong existing educational foundations, information and communication technology (ICT) can enhance curriculum delivery and improve the quality of education.

Involve the community. Parental involvement in primary education is a key determinant of the effectiveness of primary education. Additionally, including community leaders in schooling reinforces local appreciation of education and helps instill a sense of local ownership in the success of students.

Take steps to ensure gender equality in every aspect of primary education including full participation of girls in school and in the classroom.

This report identifies the following key strategies for improving primary education in Africa:

Return to educational basics. Too many African students leave primary school without an adequate acquisition of reading, writing, and mathematics. These skills are a crucial foundation for continued learning. Curricula and pedagogy should be recalibrated to emphasize these basic skills.

This report concludes with several case studies, including the Medersat.com model in Morocco, that illustrate the effective implementation of these key strategies.

Teach in mother tongue. Despite wide acceptance of the benefits of mother-tongue instruction, many African primary learners are

Jenny Perlman Robinson and Rebecca Winthrop, Millions Learning: Scaling Up Quality Education in Developing Countries, Brookings Center for Universal Education, April 2016, 8.

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Introduction

rimary education provides students with the fundamental skills in reading, writing, and mathematics that serve as an essential foundation for consecutive levels of education.2 In many countries, the right to primary education is legally guaranteed and has been recognized as a basic human right since the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 3

Education is an essential element of development and has a positive impact on individuals, families, and countries. Access to quality education creates the opportunity for people to gain the literacy, numeracy, and communication skills necessary to engage in the global economy and break the cycle of poverty. The link between education and poverty alleviation is well established, and the holistic benefits of education extend beyond economic aspects to include improved health outcomes, as well as increased equity and empowerment, particularly of minorities and marginalized communities.4 Government and donor investment in education has significant economic benefits. The global private rate of return for education is 10 percent for every year of schooling—a rate calculated by equating the value of a person’s lifetime earnings to the net present value of their education. In essence, this means that a person’s income increases by 10 percent for every additional year of education they have. The economic benefits of education extend beyond the individual, impacting societies and countries on a broader level. It is estimated that each additional year of education in the adult population of a country is positively correlated with an 18 percent higher gross domestic product per capita.5

The correlation between education and poverty alleviation is particularly magnified in low-income countries. World Bank data drawn from 139 economies show that the returns for investment in education are highest in sub-Saharan Africa.6 Different levels of education have different increments of impact on a country, depending on the country’s income status. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) analysis of research shows that in low-income countries, primary education has the most significant impact on economic growth at a national level.7 In contrast to both secondary and tertiary education, primary education is accessible to a much more diverse group of people across all levels of society. In Africa, where twenty-seven out of fifty-four countries are low income, investing in primary education is a strategic move to accelerate development. In particular, education has a profound impact on reducing gender inequality. Educated mothers know firsthand how important education is for their own children, and they are thus more likely to ensure that their children attend school. Educated women are also better equipped to control their own fertility, acquire prenatal health care, ensure the health of their children, and avoid underage marriage.8 In sub-Saharan Africa, women who have at least a primary school education have mortality rates 14 percent lower than women who have less than a primary school education.9 Women’s participation in family decision making is also impacted by level of education—women who do not have a primary education are 35 percent more likely not to play a part in financial decision making than those who do.

Etor R. Comfort, Usen F. Mbon, and Ekpenyong E. Ekanem, “Primary Education as a Foundation for Qualitative Higher Education in Nigeria,” Journal of Education and Learning 2, no. 2 (2013): xx, doi:10.5539/jel.v2n2p155. 3 UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Children Out of School: Measuring Exclusion from Primary Education, (Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2005), PDF, 3, http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/oosc05-en.pdf. 4 UNICEF, “The Investment Case for Education and Equity,” 2015, https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Investment_Case_for_ Education_and_Equity_FINAL.pdf; UNESCO, “Reducing Global Poverty Through Universal Primary and Secondary Education,” June 2017, http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/reducing-global-poverty-through-universal-primary-secondaryeducation.pdf. 5 UNICEF, “The Investment Case for Education and Equity,” 2015, http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Investment_Case_for_ Education_Summary.pdf. 6 Harry A. Patrinos, “Trends in returns to schooling: why governments should invest more in people’s skills,” World Bank Education for Global Development Blog, last updated on August 1, 2016, http://blogs.worldbank.org/education/trends-returns-schoolingwhy-governments-should-invest-more-people-s-skills. 7 UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “Children Out of School: Measuring Exclusion from Primary Education.” 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid.

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE Better education is key to Africa’s economic prospects. The continent started from a very low baseline: In 1975, the World Bank reports that the net primary enrollment ratio in all sub-Saharan Africa was only 45 percent, about half of the levels then found in East Asia and the Pacific (88 percent) and Latin America and the Caribbean (82 percent).10 Despite significant improvement in primary school enrollment numbers in recent years, African nations lag behind the rest of the world in terms of access to and quality of primary education. In 2014, net primary school enrollment was reported at 78 percent, a dramatic improvement. However, despite the increased enrollment, 121 million children are not attending primary school or lower secondary school. This ongoing education crisis will continue to have devastating effects on the continent’s development until the trend can be reversed. This crisis is a twopart problem: Policy makers are challenged not only with the task of ensuring that more of Africa’s 128 million school-aged children have access to education, but also with improving the quality of education available to them. Understanding the unique social, political, economic, and historical contexts of the individual education crises facing African nations is, of course, a prerequisite for designing successful, nationallevel interventions. But, as the case studies at the end of this report suggest, some useful conclusions can be drawn from a study of sub-Saharan Africa as whole. The following examination of the nature and quality of primary education on the continent reveals a variety of generalizable trends highlighting areas for intervention and finds that, despite the difficulties faced by African nations, the news is not all bad. Several innovative education initiatives are worth studying and replicating on a larger scale. The 2016 Brookings’ Millions Learning report details examples of successful scaling of quality education

in the developing world. The report found that “successful scaling of quality learning often occurs when new approaches and ideas are allowed to develop and grow on the margins, and then reach many more children and youth.”11 This report identifies internationally recognized elements of a successful primary education and investigates four such innovations “on the margins”: Medersat.com in Morocco, the public-school system in Botswana, the SOS Children’s Villages in the Central African Republic (CAR), and the Early Grade Reading Assessments developed by Concern Worldwide in Somalia. The recommendations concluding this report are designed to inform policy makers seeking to best assist the African continent as it moves toward improving educational outcomes for primary school learners. This report is based on a literature review, field visits to primary schools in Africa, and interviews with primary education experts. The report draws inspiration from the observations of Lord Paul Yaw Boateng, who addressed a group of education experts at the Atlantic Council.12 In his remarks, Lord Boateng summarized the essence of Africa’s education crisis: A real and ongoing crisis in education on the continent of Africa, in which the tension between access on the one hand and attainment, is acute and as yet, unreconciled. Demand outpaces resources, and a youthful population finds itself literally fit for nothing— unemployed, often unemployable despite years “at school.” And that in itself represents a threat—a real threat I would argue—to the peace and stability of the continent from Cairo to the Cape.

10 UNESCO Institute for Statistics,” Net enrollment rate, primary, both sexes (%),” The World Bank, 2014, http://data.worldbank.org/ indicator/SE.PRM.NENR. 11 Eileen McGivney, Jenny Perlman Robinson, and Rebecca Winthrop, “Millions Learning: Scaling Up Quality Education in Developing Countries,” Brookings Center for Universal Education, April 13, 2016, 8, https://www.brookings.edu/research/millionslearning-scaling-up-quality-education-in-developing-countries/. 12 The Atlantic Council convened a one-day conference in February 2016 to draw on the expertise of education experts from the Washington, D.C area.

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE

Background: The Evolution of Educational Goals

n most African countries, children enter primary school at age six or seven and graduate by age eleven or twelve.13 Typically, African children lag behind their global peers in access to quality primary education. Of the sixty-one million primary school age children out of school in 2016, thirtyfour million of these were in sub-Saharan Africa.14 Approximately 50 percent of all out-of-school African children will never attend school.15 Pre-colonial Africa had strong indigenous norms of training and learning. There were forms of traditional education, but these mostly revolved around the family unit, which served as the primary mechanism for instruction.16 This transfer of knowledge was particularly concerned with instilling a sense of communal responsibility and reciprocity in children and youth, respect for their culture and ancestry, along with fundamental skills such as subsistence farming practices. Teaching methods often involved dance and song, oral storytelling, as well as cultural or spiritual rituals. African traditional education was closely tied to the community, and its primary objective was to encourage children to take up productive roles in their immediate surroundings.

Colonial education: assimilation and control

Colonial conquest fundamentally reshaped the foundations of Africa’s education systems. The diversity of the African nations, combined with the variety of colonial powers that controlled the continent during different historical periods, makes it difficult to generalize about the impact of colonialism on institutionalized education.

For example, the two most significant colonial powers on the continent, Britain and France, had different approaches to their expansion in Africa, which in turn affected the education systems that each established. The French employed an “assimilation” strategy, which aimed to create an elite group of French-speaking Africans who embodied the values of French culture and society. In contrast, the British governed through a policy of “indirect rule,” in which existing structures of traditional society were amalgamated with those of the colonial power.17 Traditional authorities were expected to maintain their community role while simultaneously serving as administrative agents of the British government. A study of the comparative impacts of British and French colonization on African education reveals that in 1960, British colonies had higher average levels of education.18 This is partially because the British colonial authorities outsourced the responsibility of providing primary education to religious missionaries—a cheap mechanism for delivering basic education, which also assisted in promoting Western cultural ideals. Africans who successfully completed their missionary educations and acculturation could expect to find relatively lucrative jobs within the colonial administration, but they missed out on the richer cultural and communal dimensions of the traditional African learning experience. This had corrosive social effects. According to Aïcha Bah-Diallo, former director of UNESCO’s basic education division: “Africans were […] asked to accept a system of education that was systematically destroying the very values that traditional education had sought to promote and preserve.”19

13 Comfort, Mbon, and Ekanem, Primary Education, “Primary Education as a Foundation for Qualitative Higher Education in Nigeria.” Journal of Education and Learning, Vol.2 No.2 (2013). 14 UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “Leaving no one behind: How far on the way to universal primary and secondary education?,” 2016, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002452/245238E.pdf. 15 The Africa-America Institute, “State of Education in Africa Report,” 2015, http://www.aaionline.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ AAI-SOE-report-2015-final.pdf. 16 Dama Mosweunyane, “The African Education Evolution: From Traditional Training to Formal Education,” Higher Education Studies, Vol 3. No. 4 (2013). 17 Remi P. Clignet and Philip J. Foster, “French and British Colonial Education in Africa,” Comparative Education Review, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Oct., 1964), pp. 191-198. 18 Denis Cogneau, “Colonization, School and Development in Africa an Empirical Analysis” in Development et insertion international, 2003, http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0708/DOC20078.pdf. 19 Aïcha Bah-Diallo, “International Seminar on Basic Education and Development Assistance in Sub Saharan Africa,” JICA Research Institute, 1997, https://www.jica.go.jp/jica-ri/IFIC_and_JBICI-Studies/english/publications/reports/study/topical/sub_sahara/keynote_1.html.

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE

Students at Zanaki Primary School in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania attend English class. In 2016, the public school received a World Bank grant for increasing student performance on the national Primary School Leaving Examination. Photo credit: World Bank/Sarah Farhat.

Both the British and French colonial educational systems were designed to select out the most gifted students and educate them to a very high level, rather than to provide equal access to all students.20 When, following independence, most African nations chose to pursue a model of universal education, their colonial-based educational systems struggled to accommodate the change.

of which were newly independent or in the final throes of securing their freedom. The conference was dedicated to examining the development of education in light of Africa’s unique cultural and socio-cultural factors. Ngugi wa Thiong’o, renowned Kenyan author and a strong voice for the decolonization of education in Africa, recognized the alienating effects of the education system:

As educational systems in Africa were no longer geared toward attracting only the most gifted and elite children, opening their doors instead to all children, the educational infrastructure was overwhelmed by the dramatic increase of students and could not keep up with the growing demand.

Education, far from giving people the confidence in their ability and capacities to overcome obstacles . . . tends to make them feel their inadequacies, their weaknesses and their incapacities in the face of reality; and their inability to do anything about the conditions governing their lives. They become more and more alienated from themselves and from their natural and social environment.21

Post-independence liberalization of the education sector

In 1961, the Conference of African States on the Development of Education in Africa was hosted by UNESCO in Addis Ababa to “establish an inventory of educational needs” of the assembled states, many

Many African economies were hit with stagnation in the 1970s, which impacted budget allocations for education. Recognizing that import substitution

20 Joel Samoff, “Everyone Has the Right to Education,” African Studies Review 51, no. 1 (2008). 21 Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Decolonizing the mind: the politics of language in African literature (East African Educational Publishers: Harare, 1981), 54

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“Though access to education had improved by the 1980s as a result of these programs and increased financing, the quality of education remained poor.” policies and state-led investment had failed to sustain the growth of the 1960s, international financial institutions (IFIs) began promoting liberalization policies in an attempt to stimulate economic growth. Alongside the push for economic liberalization, a new focus on bilateral and multilateral education financing came to the fore. With increased primary school enrollment and the inability of many African governments to meet the high demand on resources due to structural financial deficits, the need to finance the development of inclusive education infrastructure became obvious. During the 1980s, the IFIs encouraged government investment in education—and especially in universal primary education—while concurrently setting new loan conditions to include better public management benchmarks. In an evaluation of the impact of structural adjustment programs on the employment and training of teachers, the International Labor Organization (ILO) found reductions in overall public spending were strongly correlated with reduced budget allocation for the education sector. The report noted that because “most countries spend much of their government budgets on schooling and a very high fraction of educational spending goes for teachers’ salaries, these cuts in public spending had major implications for education and teachers.”22 Though access to education had improved by the 1980s as a result of these programs and increased financing, the quality of education remained poor. At the primary level, systematic assessment of student achievement was rare, and the assessments that existed were not encouraging.

Establishing global consensus on the importance of education to development

In 1990, the World Conference on Education for All (EFA) launched a “global commitment to provide quality basic education for children, youth and adults.”23 At a conference held in Jomtien, Thailand

that was sponsored by UNESCO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and the World Bank, delegates from the governments of 155 developing countries and 150 different nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) convened in an effort to build consensus on the importance of education for development. Conference participants affirmed the World Declaration on Education for All through which they intended to make primary school education universally available to school-aged children and to drastically reduce illiteracy by the year 2000. This goal was not achieved, but the declaration was reaffirmed at the World Education Forum held in Dakar in 2000, in which 164 government representatives pledged to target six predetermined education goals. The Dakar Framework for Action, as it became known, was a comprehensive effort to address a variety of different levels of education, from early childhood development to adult literacy. The goals included a focus on early childhood development, empowerment of marginalized children, and the monitoring and evaluation of education quality to ensure that learning outcomes were met. The framework mandated UNESCO to coordinate global efforts to meet these goals.

Quantifying the consensus through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Just a few months after the Dakar Education for All conference, a total of 189 countries from around the world committed to a set of eight goals aimed at reducing extreme poverty and addressing poverty-related human rights issues such as health, security, and shelter. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were the first time-bound goals adopted by the international community and world governments, with quantifiable outputs and definitive deadlines for implementation, rather than just guiding principles for the development community. The MDGs largely eclipsed the EFA goals, and in effect folded the six targets set out in the EFA goals into two substantially reduced goals spanning education (MDG 2) and gender (MDG 3). The quality of education has historically been measured primarily by evaluating inputs (for example, the amount of money governments spend on schools), or sometimes outputs (for example, the number of girls who graduate from primary school), but it has seldom been focused on outcomes (for example, what the girls who graduate from primary school have learned). Criticism of the MDGs for

22 International Labour Office, Impact of Structural Adjustment on the Employment and Training of Teachers (Sectoral Activities Programme: Geneva, 1996), ISBN 92-2-109763-3. 23 “Education,” UNESCO, accessed July 24, 2017, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-internationalagenda/education-for-all.

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE education has centered on the way in which the UN proposed to measure whether the goals had been achieved. The metrics that have been used to describe the status of primary education in Africa have largely measured the inputs to education and not what those inputs have achieved. One aspect of MDG 2, known as target 2A, was to ensure that girls and boys everywhere were able to access a complete primary school education—but what was to be achieved during that period of education was not specified. MDG 2 narrowed the focus of the EFA goals, and focused its measurement of the goal’s objectives strictly on the indicators available through preexisting surveys conducted by UNICEF and the ILO. In many regards, MDG 2 has been considered an MDG triumph—primary school enrollment has increased dramatically, narrowing the proportion of Africa’s children who remain out of school. Key factors in achieving increased primary enrollment include widespread abolishment of primary school fees and the introduction of incentives, such as cash transfers or food subsidies, that have led to increased demand for education.24 However, as before, this success in primary school enrollment has not been matched by equally improved access for minority groups or coupled with a steady increase in education quality. In fact, the focus on increasing enrollment may have exacerbated the poor quality of education in some places where the growing demand for education has not been accompanied by the appropriate increase in the number of qualified teachers in schools, and learning environments remain critically under-resourced.

Quality and equity: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Fifteen years after the formulation of the MDGs, the international community took stock of progress made and reassessed development priorities in light of recent scholarship and experience with promoting the global development agenda

summarized in the MDGs. In contrast to the formation of the MDGs, there was special emphasis on a people-centered approach to developing the SDGs, leading to a global consultation that engaged UN member governments, civil society, citizens, academics, scientists, and the private sector. Given the ongoing education crisis in the developing world, and accounting for the oversights of the MDGs, the SDGs contained an expanded education goal under the title of “quality education.” The goal admitted that despite positive progress, the universal enrollment component of MDG 2 had still not been met. In addition, the goal admitted that the previous development agenda had failed to appropriately emphasize the need for education equity or to delineate the meaning of quality education. Although both these elements are important, Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) also expanded the vision of education for all to include promoting “lifelong learning opportunities for all”—a phrase that obfuscates the exact intention of the goal and makes it more difficult to measure. The idea of “lifelong learning opportunities” is difficult to define, and thus hard to measure in any quantifiable sense. In relative terms, Africa has made spectacular leaps in primary education enrollment. Between 1990 and 2011, for example, net enrollment rates in sub-Saharan Africa increased by 24 percent.25 In fact, since the MDGs were established, subSaharan Africa’s improvement in primary education enrollment is the most significant of all the regions in the developing world.26 From 2000 to 2015, the net enrollment rate increased by 20 percentage points, while between 1990 and 2000 the rate only increased by 8 percentage points.27 However, Africa still has significant numbers of out-ofschool children, and most African countries still did not meet the international education standards regarding coverage and content of primary education programs.

24 UNESCO, Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR) (Paris: UNESCO, 2015), 77, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ images/0023/002322/232205e.pdf. 25 As an example, according to the Ministry of Education (2013), Ghana improved its net enrollment rate by 81.7 percent in 2012 through a productive focus on pre-primary education, and mandatory primary school expansion. 26 Tosin Sulaiman, “More Children are Going to School in African Countries, but There are Still 30 Million Who Are Not,” Quartz, April 9, 2015, https://qz.com/379709/more-children-are-going-to-school-in-african-countries-but-there-are-still-30-million-whonever-will/. 27 SDG Blog Series, “Know Your SDGS,” Chemonics, United Nations Statistics Division, September 25, 2015, http://blog.chemonics. com/know-your-sdgs:-your-guide-to-what-the-un-is-doing-this-weekend.

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE

Performance: The Current State of Primary Education in Africa

frica is facing what has been described as a “twin deficit” in education: not enough children are in school, and those who are in school are not learning enough.28 Since the adoption of the MDGs, most African nations have made major improvements in gross primary school enrollment rates. Although this progress is to be commended, the continent’s education systems are still in crisis—the number of out-ofschool children remains unacceptably high, and the increase in enrollment has not been accompanied by an improvement in the quality of education. Between 2000 and 2015, the number of outof-school primary school age children in Africa decreased by more than ten million.29 However, subSaharan Africa is the region with the most out-ofschool children in the world—the African continent is home to 52 percent of the overall total of outof-school children, approximately 31 million children are currently not in school. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) categorizes the total estimated number of out-of-school children into three groups: children who will never attend school, children who have enrolled in school at some point and then dropped out, and those who will eventually enroll in school at some point in the future. Of the out-of-school children in sub-Saharan Africa, 45 percent are expected never to enroll, 18 percent have enrolled but later dropped out, and 38 percent are expected to enroll in school late. Globally, the five countries with the highest percentage of outof-school children are in Africa—these are Liberia (62), Eritrea (59), Sudan (45), Djibouti (43), and Equatorial Guinea (42).30 It is well established that a child’s presence in the classroom does not necessarily reflect learning. In order for human capital investments in primary

education to reap their anticipated benefits, there are several other important conditions that must be met. One such condition is that children who are enrolled in the education system actually acquire the numeracy and literacy skills required for them to continue to secondary education. Microeconomic literature is clear that the correlation between the positive externalities (e.g., improved health) created by primary education is directly linked to acquired cognitive skills and not merely school attendance. Justin van Fleet, in a Brookings Institution report, asserts that of Africa’s ninety-seven million children who enter school on time, thirty-seven million will learn so little in school that they will not be much better off than those who do not attend school.31 While very few quantifiable indicators exist, the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) has provided some insight into the level of learning achieved by primary school learners in its sixteen member states.32 SACMEQ assessments found that only 28 percent of Tanzanian grade-six students are reading at the appropriate grade level.33 The situation is more dire in Kenya where only 19 percent of grade-six students read at grade level, and even worse in Uganda where this number is less than 10 percent.34 Within nations, of course, access to and the quality of education can vary widely according to several factors: poverty, geographic location, and gender are three major determinants of variation in access to and the quality of education.

Poverty

There is a correlation between the wealth of the population and the education levels of its children. Despite the fact that education is widely

28 Justin W. van Fleet, “Africa’s Education Crisis: In School but Not Learning,” Brookings, September 17, 2012, https://www. brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2012/09/17/africas-education-crisis-in-school-but-not-learning/. 29 Van Fleet, “Africa’s Education Crisis.” 30 UNESCO, “Global Education Monitoring Report, Education for people and planet: Creating Sustainable Futures for All,” 2016, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002457/245752e.pdf, 222-236. 31 Van Fleet, “Africa’s Education Crisis.” 32 SACMEQ, “Accounting for Variations in the Quality of Primary School Education,” 2011, http://microdata.worldbank.org/index. php/catalog/1246/download/22688. 33 Germano Mwabu and Xanthe Ackerman, “Education Plus Development: Focusing on Quality Education in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Brookings Institute, May 28, 2013, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2013/05/28/focusing-onquality-education-in-sub-saharan-africa/. 34 Mwabu and Ackerman, “Education Plus Development.”

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Children raise their hands to answer a class question at the St. Louis Primary School in Kinshasa, DRC. Photo credit: World Bank/Dominic Chavez.

acknowledged to be a basic human right, when it comes to schooling, some children clearly face greater disadvantages than others. Opportunities for education in sub-Saharan Africa are marked by deep inequalities linked to wealth, gender, and other social divisions.35 A 2011 study of the relationship between education and poverty in Kenya concluded: The direction of causality between poverty and education linkages has been shown to flow both ways. On one hand, poverty acts as a factor preventing people from getting access to education. On the other hand, those with education are considered to be at less risk of poverty. Overall, the effects of education on

the probability of being poor were found to be very strong.36 School enrollment and household income have been found to have a significant correlation in many African countries. A 2010 case study in Uganda illustrates this point.37 The researchers designed the study to investigate the relationship between parents’ educational level, income level, and occupations, as well as the primary school students’ grades in their preliminary school leaving exams. The study revealed a positive correlation between these three factors and a pupil’s educational performance.38

35 Kevin Watkins, Justin W. van Fleet, and Lauren Greubel, “Africa Learning Barometer,” The Brookings Institute, September 12, 2012, http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/events/2012/9/17-africa-learning/africa-learning-barometerfinal.pdf. 36 Mayo K. Julius and Jyoti Bawane, “Education and Poverty, Relationship and Concerns. A Case for Kenya,” Problems of Education in the 21st Century, Vol.32(2011), http://www.scientiasocialis.lt/pec/files/pdf/vol32/72-85.Julius_Vol.32.pdf. 37 Robert Onzima, “Parents’ Socio-Economic Status and Pupils Educational Attainment: A Case Study of St. Jude Primary School in Malaba Town Council, Uganda,” http://www.academia.edu/407935/PARENTS_SOCIO-ECONOMIC_STATUS_AND_PUPILS_ EDUCATIONAL_ATTAINMENT_CASE_STUDY_OF_ST._JUDE_PRIMARY_SCHOOL_IN_MALABATOWN_COUNCIL-UGANDA. For a more general look at this subject, see Raja Kattan and Nicholas Burnett, “User Fees in Primary Education,” World Bank, 2004, http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1099079877269/547664-1099079993288/EFAcase_ userfees.pdf. 38 See also Kakuru Doris Muhwezi, “The Effect of Universal Primary Education on the Gender Gap in Education in Uganda: A Case of Kumi and Kapchorwa Districts,” 2002; Debroah Kasente, “Gender and Education in Uganda,” Education for All Global

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“Children who live in rural areas are twice as likely to be out of school as children who live in urban areas.” Poor nutrition, often correlated with poverty, continues to threaten Africa’s chance of improved primary school education. Hunger is often overlooked in international efforts to improve primary education, despite well-documented evidence that children who do not have good nutrition in their pre-primary years suffer many irreversible developmental setbacks that limit their ability to learn once they are attending school. In 2013, 40 percent of African primary school children began their education without being able to meet their daily nutritional needs.39 The effects of malnutrition on cognitive ability eventually translate to reduced earnings—the World Bank estimates that malnutrition can result in 10 percent lower earnings later in life.40

Disparities between rural and urban communities

The offering of basic services differs in rural and urban areas in Africa. Urban areas have lower poverty rates and better access to basic amenities including education compared to rural areas. Children who live in rural areas are twice as likely to be out of school as children who live in urban areas. This is largely due to the broader implications of proximity to urban areas, such as the level of education obtained by parents, labor market conditions, and household income.41

The African continent is rapidly urbanizing at a rate topped only by Asia; however, despite this level of growth, sub-Saharan Africa is still forecasted to be the least urbanized region of the world by 2050.42 Currently, 63 percent of the population of subSaharan Africa reside in the rural areas. Africa’s poverty is concentrated in non-urban areas—more than 70 percent of the continent’s poor population live in rural areas.43 Whether a child lives in a rural or urban area, primary education improves their opportunity to join the global workforce. Education is positively correlated with increased agricultural productivity, and Individuals who have completed a primary education are better equipped to take up formal employment if they move to an urban area than if they had no education at all. There are many factors that contribute to the disparity in primary education access and quality between rural and urban areas. The opportunity cost for rural children to attend school is often higher than that faced by urban children. In rural areas, children play an important role in agricultural labor and food production and attending school takes them away from helping their parents in the fields. Due to the structure of the academic year, school terms may overlap with planting and harvesting season, two periods of the year during which all able-bodied members of the community, including children, are engaged in farming.44 Often, parents in subsistence-level rural communities prefer to equip their children with subsistence farming skills rather than sending them to school for formal education.45 Furthermore, the homes of the rural poor generally lack electricity, which can make studying exceptionally difficult.

Monitoring Report, 2003, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/cfbe/7a9cb08b989b36e22ba5933952676a0bca77.pdf; Martina Bjorkman, “Income Shocks and Gender Gaps in Education: Evidence from Uganda,” Center for Global Development, 2005, https://www.cgdev.org/doc/event%20docs/Job%20market%20paper%20M%20Bjorkman.pdf; Joseph Bugembe, “Children in Abject Poverty in Uganda,” UNESCO, 2005, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001414/141482e.pdf; Muhammed A. Yinusa and Akanle O. Basil, “Socio-Economic Factors Influencing Students Academic Performance in Nigeria: Some Explanation from a Local Survey,” Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, Vol 5, No 4, 2008, http://docsdrive.com/pdfs/ medwelljournals/pjssci/2008/319-323.pdf; Harriet Nannyonjo, “Education Inputs in Uganda: An Analysis of Factors Influencing Learning Achievement in Grade Six,” World Bank Working Paper No. 98, 2007, http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/ en/445131468310730593/pdf/405290UG0Educa101OFFICIAL0USE0ONLY1.pdf; and Ibrahim Mike Okumu et al, “Socioeconomic Determinants of Primary School Dropout: The Logistic Model Analysis,” 2008, http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/93855. 39 Clignet and Foster, “French and British Colonial Education in Africa.” 40 World Bank, Repositioning Nutrition as Central to Development: A strategy for large scale action, 2006, as cited in Save the Children, “Food for Thought: Tackling child malnutrition to unlock potential and boost prosperity,” 2013, http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/images/Food_for_Thought_UK.pdf. 41 Joseph Nkurunziza, Annelet Broekhuis, and Pieter Hooimeijer, “Free Education in Rwanda: Just One Step towards Reducing Gender and Sibling Inequalities,” Education Research International, Volume 2012 (2012), https://www.hindawi.com/journals/edri/2012/396019/. 42 “Foresight Africa: Top priorities for the continent in 2016,” Brookings Institute, January 5, 2016, https://www.brookings.edu/ research/foresight-africa-top-priorities-for-the-continent-in-2016-2/. 43 “Rural Poverty in Africa,” Rural Poverty Portal, http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/region/home/tags/africa. 44 Aidan Milkeen and Dandan Chen, Teachers for Rural Schools: Experiences in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda, (Washington: The World Bank, 2008), PDF, http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTAFRREGTOPEDUCATION/ Resources/444659-1212165766431/ED_Teachers_rural_schools_L_M_M_T_U.pdf. 45 Nkurunziza et al, “Free Education in Rwanda.”

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE Primary school curricula often have little relevance to the occupations of parents and what they may perceive as beneficial to the future prospects for their children. The basic literacy and numeracy learned in the classroom may not appear to translate into skills that can be easily transferred into the informal-sector work environment that these children will probably enter.46 Parents with low levels of education are unable to assist their children with homework or to provide any value-added supplemental teaching to assist their children in school achievement. Though many parents prize education, other parents may feel threatened or embarrassed by their children’s exposure to topics or concepts with which they have little or no familiarity. In 2011, a Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality (SACMEQ) study identified school location as a common contributor to the variation in student performance across fifteen primary schools in sub-Saharan Africa.47 Unsurprisingly, students in primary schools located in urban areas outperformed students in schools located in rural areas. Schools in rural areas are also often less concentrated, resulting in children having to walk long distances to get to class. Research unequivocally shows that the proximity of a school to school-age children has a direct impact on enrollment. According to Serge Theunynck:

Evidence from African countries suggests that enrollment and retention decline significantly beyond a distance of one to two kilometers, or a 30-minute walk, particularly for younger children.48

Gender

The gender gap in out-of-school rates in sub-Saharan Africa is significant: 23 percent of all girls are out of school compared to 19 percent of all boys. Fifteen million girls of primary school age will never learn to read in primary school, compared to approximately 10 million boys.49 Socioeconomic class also has a heavy impact on girls’ school attendance: Studies have shown that the wealth of a girl’s family is a key determinant to whether a girl completes primary school. World Bank research using data from twenty-four low-income countries shows that while 72 percent of girls in the richest quintile of homes complete primary school, only 34 percent of their counterparts in the poorest quintile do.50 Girls are also adversely affected when it comes to learning outcomes. In Malawi, 52 percent of girls do not finish primary school with basic competencies in literacy and numeracy by the end of primary school, compared to 44 percent of boys.51

46 Ibid. 47 Njora Hungi, Accounting for the Variations of Quality on Primary School Education, SACMEQ, Working Paper 7, September 2011, http://www.sacmeq.org/sites/default/files/sacmeq/publications/07_multivariate_final.pdf. 48 Serge Theunynck, School Construction Strategies for Universal Primary Education in Africa: Should Communities Be Empowered to Build Their Skills? (Washington: The World Bank, 2009), https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/ handle/10986/2637/488980PUB0prim101Official0Use0Only1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. 49 Theunynck, School Construction Strategies for Universal Primary Education in Africa. 50 The World Bank, “Girls’ Education-Overview,” 2016, http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/girlseducation/overview#1. 51 Germano Mwabu and Xanthe Ackerman, “Focusing on Quality Education in sub-Saharan Africa,” Brookings Institute, May 28,

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Key Challenges

overty, disparities of wealth, the concentration of resources in urban areas, and gender discrimination are problems that can be mitigated partially through educational initiatives, but require the intervention of broader economic development programs to fully address them. Within the educational sphere, however, other key challenges arise. The topics listed here are by no means comprehensive—the diversity and vastness of the continent renders a generalized or exhaustive list an impossible task.

The proliferation of private schools

Education should be accessible to all children irrespective of wealth or social status. Africa’s embattled education systems struggle to cope with surging demand, so private for-profit companies have stepped into the gap to provide education to those that have the money to pay for it. While attractive private sector salaries have drawn more education experts to the for-profit education field, NGOs and education activists have expressed concern about the implications of burgeoning private schools for low-income populations who cannot afford an alternative to the public system. In his report to the secretary general, for example, the UN special rapporteur on the right to education observed that the increase in private schools is often correlated with a government’s lack of sufficient provision of education and underperforming public schools.52 The 2015 Education for All Global Monitoring Report identified two main problems with the increased reliance on the private sector for the provision of education services: firstly, access to private education implies paying fees, which is simply not possible for many of the poorest members of society; secondly, for-profit private schools rarely locate to rural areas, and thus access is restricted to better-off families living in urban areas.53

Private schools are not a homogenous category and speaking about them in generalized terms can be unhelpful. There are a wide variety of non-state actors involved in the provision of basic education, and many of them play an important role in “making the best” of a persistent “bad situation.” In rural areas where the state fails to establish schools, community initiatives do what they can to provide educational opportunity to children in these areas. In many countries, well-established networks of faithbased schools provide better quality education than many of the public options that are concurrently available. Most controversial is, of course, the trend of affluent, urban parents seeking out elite private schools for their children, which often leads them to opt out of advocacy efforts to improve the public education system. Without the support of these private organizations, primary education would be worse off.

Shrinking international support

At the Education for All conference hosted in Dakar, Senegal in April 2000, international donors agreed that no government seriously committed to ensuring universal primary education for its children should have this objective thwarted due to lack of finances.54 However, despite a commitment to funding universal primary education as a priority, many international donors have reduced funding for basic schooling to favor funding of health and higher education programs and therefore bear some responsibility for impeding the progress of obtaining quality universal primary education on the African continent.55 A study conducted by Steer and Baudienville of the Overseas Development Institute in 2010 noted that the main obstacles to greater funding of basic education programs include donor priorities, a lack of evidence of the positive impact of funding basic education programs, and a dearth of innovative approaches to raising and delivering financing.56

2013, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2013/05/28/focusing-on-quality-education-in-sub-saharanafrica/. 52 Kishore Singh, “Right to Education (A/69/402),” United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 2014, https:// documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N14/546/82/PDF/N1454682.pdf?OpenElement. 53 UNESCO, Education for All Global Monitoring Report, Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges (Paris: UNESCO, 2015), http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002322/232205e.pdf. 54 A World at School, “The Evidence is Clear: Financing for Education in Inadequate,” Global Campaign for Education United States, April 17, 2015, http://campaignforeducationusa.org/blog/detail/the-evidence-is-clear-financing-for-education-is-inadequate. 55 Joel Samoff, “Everyone Has the Right to Education,” African Studies Review 51, no. 1 (2008). 56 Liesbet Steer and Geraldine Baudienville, “What drives donor financing of basic education?” Overseas Development Institute, Project Briefing No. 39, February 2010. https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/5838.pdf.

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE A World at School’s 2015 “Donor Scorecard” showed a dramatic decrease in donor investment in basic education and called on world leaders to reverse the decline in funds allocated to the education sector in the developing world.57 The World Bank’s International Development Allocation (IDA) funding for basic education remained the same in 2015 as it was in 2002. While many donors cite shrinking aid budgets and a lackluster global economy to justify the limited availability of education financing, it is clear that such reductions have not been made across the board. Donor funding for health has risen 58 percent since 2008, while education financing has decreased by 19 percent.58 This is perhaps indicative of the increasing concern that infectious diseases will spread beyond the developing world and pose a threat to developed countries. In reality, while the spread of infectious disease (especially in the wake of the Ebola crisis) is a major threat to international security and stability, an uneducated population in the world’s poorest continent poses an arguably greater long-term threat to regional and global stability. In addition, the impact of health funding is much easier to quantify, making the benefits of the aid more visible and thus more politically palatable to donor nations. Evaluation mechanisms are more frequently built into the design of health programs than into education interventions, primarily because measuring the effectiveness of aid for education is a highly problematic endeavor: education serves a multiplicity of purposes and its outcomes are often contingent on factors outside of the classroom.59 In a highly competitive aid environment, education innovations requiring an increase in funding would do well to emulate the success of health sector projects in documenting impact and tracking outcomes. The extent to which international donors are supportive of country-led efforts at education reform is mixed. For example, the quality education agenda in Ethiopia has been led by the government, and yet donors have been slow to support all elements of the reform, partially because of concerns about democratic freedoms. Donors rejected the program’s civic education provision for being “too political” and were uncomfortable with

the government’s proposed information technology strategy.60

Ineffective public education spending

African governments invest substantially in education. Overall, sub-Saharan Africa spends $1.5 trillion, approximately 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), on education. This percentage is virtually on par with North American and Europe’s public education expenditure of 5.3 percent of GDP,61 and above the global average of 4.7 percent. According to the Africa-America Institute’s 2015 report on education in Africa: “African countries have allocated the largest share of government expenditure to education at 18.4 percent.”62 In addition to this state expenditure, donors, nongovernmental organizations, and private businesses also help to finance some of the cost of primary education in Africa. Nongovernment funding in the region accounts for about 5.6 percent of spending on education, with the exception of countries such as Guinea and Mali in which almost 50 percent of the government’s education budget is development aid.63 The single largest nongovernmental funder of education in Africa is individual households, which, according to a UNESCO survey of sixteen nations, contribute about 25 percent of the total national education expenditure.64 Quantity does not equal quality. Though public spending on education is increasing in a majority of African countries, in one-third of sub-Saharan African countries, 50 percent of all children will not finish primary school. This is partially due to demographics: Governments have not kept up with the rapidly increasing number of children eligible to attend primary school. But there is a need for smarter spending, too. African governments must be realistic about the most pressing areas for investments that will reap long-term benefits and should foster innovations that will accelerate the process of building a skilled and educated workforce. 65

57 A World at School, “The Evidence is Clear.” 58 Ibid. 59 Abby Riddell and Miguel Nino-Zarazua, “The effectiveness of foreign aid to education: what can be learned?” International Journal of Educational Development, Vol 48, May 2016, 23-26. 60 Chris Berry and Solomon Shiferaw Bogale, “Quality Education Reform and Aid Effectiveness: Reflections from Ethiopia,” International Education, Vol 40, Spring 2011, 85. 61 The Africa-America Institute, “State of Education in Africa Report,” 2015, http://www.aaionline.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ AAI-SOE-report-2015-final.pdf. 62 Ibid. 63 Ibid. 64 UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “Financing Education in sub-Saharan Africa—Meeting the Challenges of Expansion, Equity and Quality,” http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001921/192186e.pdf. 65 “Education in Africa: Where does the money go?” Guardian, April 27, 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/ apr/27/africa-education-spending-aid-data.

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are one way to accomplish this, and have the potential to supplement insufficient public education budgets and contribute to improving the overall education system.66 However, while PPPs offer many opportunities for positive collaboration between the public and private sectors, the exact nature of this joint approach must be carefully designed to ensure that the right of every child to access quality education is kept as the central goal of the PPP. There are a variety of different models of PPPs. In some cases, the government guides policy and provides financing for education, while private sector delivers the service to students; in other arrangements, the government contracts a private organization to design a curriculum and train teachers, while continuing to deliver services directly to students. PPPs can create competition in the education services market, encouraging improved efficacy among providers. In many cases, PPP contracts are more flexible than government contracts, allowing for more responsive hiring processes for teachers, which can also lead to an increase in risk sharing between private and public sectors that, in turn, can help to improve efficiency in the delivery of services. Despite the many benefits of PPPs for education, they can lead to increased privatization and thus a decrease in government control over what has long been established as a public good. This reduced government control is in turn likely to lead to an increase in socioeconomic segregation, with poorer students being left behind in belowaverage public schools.67 If African governments are to benefit from the innovations and improved efficiency of education service delivery offered by the private sector, a delicate balance must be struck between encouraging private sector investment while maintaining unrestricted access for the most vulnerable children.

Competing priorities: funding primary, secondary, and tertiary education

As they strive to keep pace with global development, African governments are acknowledging the need to place greater priority on investing in secondary and tertiary education.68 In sub-Saharan Africa, university enrollment rates are some of the lowest

in the world, exacerbating worries about the region’s economic competitiveness. There is clear evidence that returns to investment in higher education have positive dividends for Africa; in fact, the 21 percent rate of return is among the highest of its kind in the world. However, many African economies are not creating the kind of jobs suited for college graduates, and even more importantly, the quality of primary education on the continent is not adequately preparing students to progress to higher levels of education.69 There is a need for increased support for education at all levels, even in this time of dwindling resources, especially from the international donor community. While secondary and tertiary education plays an important role, the most effective way to raise the average education level of low-income countries is to expand primary education, which provides the necessary foundation for students to succeed at a secondary and tertiary level. Adequate funding for all levels of education, therefore, must be prioritized simultaneously. In previous years, analysis has shown that investment in primary education resulted in higher individual benefits than did equal investment in university education. However, this trend has now been reversed: a dollar spent on university education returns more than a dollar spent supporting primary schools. World Bank economist Harry Patrinos argues that this may be due, in part, to the growing prevalence of primary education access, or perhaps more plausibly to the lower quality of primary education that has resulted from increased primary enrollment, which is not matched by consistent improvements in quality. Poor quality primary education in turn restricts access to secondary and tertiary education, increasing the rate of return for more advanced levels of education and exacerbating inequality levels.70

Corruption

According to a 2013 Transparency International Report, corruption in education in Africa and other parts of the world is a serious problem. Transparency International observes that education systems are especially susceptible to corruption, due in part to the nature of government structures. Education budgets in developing countries are often a significant portion of the gross budget allocation,

66 The Africa-American Institute, “State of Education in Africa Report.” 67 Harry Anthony Patrinos, Felipe Barrera-Osorio, and Juliana Guaqueta, The Role and Impact of Public-Private Partnerships in Education, The World Bank, March 30, 2009, http://www.ungei.org/resources/files/Role_Impact_PPP_Education.pdf. 68 Geraldine Simonnet and Jacob Bregman, “What’s next: How to Cope with the Success of Primary Education for All? Secondary Education in Africa (SEIA): Engine for Economic and Social Growth,” The World Bank, November 2004, http://siteresources. worldbank.org/INTAFRREGTOPSEIA/Resources/whats_next.pdf. 69 The Africa-American Institute, “State of Education in Africa Report.” 70 Patrinos, “Trends in returns to schooling.”

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Students in an Ethiopian classroom. Photo credit: United Nations.

and these resources are disbursed through multilayered administrative processes. Because of the large swathes of rural areas in many countries, governments do not have adequate measures in place to monitor the passage of funds from central governments to schools in far-flung rural districts.71 The impact of corruption in schools affects a broad range of functions, from construction procurement to “ghost teachers” and nepotism in teacher appointments. In 2010, Transparency International conducted a study to map transparency, accountability, and integrity in primary schools in South Africa and Cameroon. The study identified main governance challenges through administering a survey to school

administrators, head teachers, parents, and parent leaders across representative school districts. In both countries, the embezzlement of education funds was overwhelmingly listed as a significant challenge facing the effectiveness of primary education. A lack of timeliness and transparency in budget allocation, along with teacher absenteeism were also major concerns. Essential corruption can be construed as an “added tax on the poor, who are frequently plagued by demands for bribes, particularly when they are trying to access basic services such as education.”72 Corruption reduces resources for the implementation of quality primary education programs and erodes the confidence of parents and community leaders in the education system.73

71 Transparency International (TI), “Global corruption report: Education,” 2013, http://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/publication/ global_corruption_report_education. 72 Transparency International, “Global Corruption Report,” 21. 73 Ibid.

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Key Strategies for Providing Effective Primary Education

n the post-MDG era, the focus on education has dramatically shifted from access to quality, and education experts consistently emphasize the need to “get back to basics.” While getting children into school is a necessary first step, it does not guarantee effective learning. Earlier this year, Brooking’s Africa Learning Barometer released some staggering statistics concerning the number of school-going children who are simply not learning. Of the twenty-eight sub-Saharan countries surveyed, 40 percent of children do not reach the minimum standard of learning by grades four and five. Analysis of the barometer’s results show that if current trends persist uninterrupted, sixty-one million children (or half of Africa’s sub-Saharan population of primary school-aged children) will reach adolescence without the basic skills they need to enter the workforce.74 Given the vast number of challenges facing primary education in Africa, combined with the continent’s diverse socioeconomic and geopolitical contexts, it is impossible to construct an exhaustive list of strategies for accessible quality education. However, education researchers and policy makers agree that several determinants stand out, and these are summarized below. Four case studies of innovative education interventions in Africa then illustrate how these elements have been combined to address specific contextual constraints.

Back to basics: reading, writing, and mathematics

A 2011 Brookings Institution report deplored the quality and effectiveness of primary education in Africa and highlighted the importance of developing literacy and numeracy skills at the primary school level. The report noted the following: Often, those who are in school do not master the foundational skills, including literacy

and numeracy, that would enable them to successfully continue in school. Only 24 percent of young people in Africa continue to secondary levels of education.75 Investments in secondary education do not have adequate impact if children have not acquired basic literacy and numeracy skills in the early grades.76 Giving greater priority to early-grade literacy and numeracy can involve a number of strategies, which include recruiting or reassigning effective teachers to the early grades rather than later grades, as well as teacher-training initiatives that focus on improving students’ acquisition of reading and mathematics skills. Students who master the foundational skills are also less likely to become discouraged in the upper grades when the content becomes more complex, and therefore more likely to continue with more advanced secondary and tertiary studies.

Teach in the mother tongue

Despite wide acceptance of the benefits of mothertongue instruction (UNESCO first appealed for mother-tongue primary instruction in 1953),77 at least 40 percent of the world’s population does not have access to education in a language they understand.78 This problem remains particularly pronounced in Africa. As African countries tend to favor the colonial language for government, business, and higher education, dominant language instruction remains widespread. However, primary-level instruction in a dominant language, which is unfamiliar to a primary learner impedes the apprehension of basic numeracy and literacy, the core objectives of primary education. The introduction to core concepts in the child’s mother tongue should precede the introduction of a second language. These concepts will then be well established for the child before the introduction of an additional language. Once the medium of instruction

74 Justin W. van Fleet, “Africa’s Education Crisis: In School but Not Learning,” Brookings Institute, September 17, 2012, https://www. brookings.edu/2012/09/17/africas-education-crisis-in-school-but-not-learning/. 75 Rebecca Winthrop, “Education in Africa—The Story Isn’t Over,” Current History (2011), vol. 110, https://www.brookings.edu/wpcontent/uploads/2016/06/05_current_history_winthrop.pdf. 76 Ibid. 77 “Children Learn Better in Their Mother Tongue: Advancing research on mother tongue-based multilingual education Global Partnership for Education,” Global Partnership for Education, February 21, 2014, http://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/childrenlearn-better-their-mother-tongue. 78 UNESCO, “Global Education Monitoring Report Policy Paper 24: If you don’t understand, how can you learn?,” February 2016, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002437/243713E.pdf.

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE is expanded to include an additional language, then children can learn the terminology to describe the concepts they have already understood.79 Empirical studies validate the importance of mothertongue primary learning. Children instructed in a bilingual or multilingual setting that includes their mother tongue are more likely to enroll and remain in school.80 Parents are more likely to take an active role in their children’s education when conducted in their mother tongue. In addition, a child who first attains fluency and literacy in their mother tongue benefits from a solid foundation for acquiring a second language later in life.81 Dominant language instruction, on the other hand, tends to exacerbate inequalities in access to education. Mother-tongue education is more inclusive of disadvantaged groups, including rural children, girls, and children of indigenous ethnic groups, who tend to suffer from less exposure to official languages.82 A child’s transition from home to the classroom is a significant adjustment in and of itself. The stress induced by this transition is exacerbated when children are forced to move to an environment in which they do not understand the language of instruction. When children are unfamiliar with the language of instruction, they are unable to interact with their teachers and classmates in a way that is conducive to the development of critical thinking skills.

Invest in teacher training, motivation, and professional fulfillment

As the focus of the discussion on education in Africa has shifted from access to quality, so has the recognition of the importance of competent, committed teachers. The dramatic increase in primary school enrollment rates on the continent since the MDGs has not been mirrored by a comparative rate of qualified teachers being recruited and retained in the system. This shortage of qualified teachers remains a key cause of Africa’s education crisis.

The shortfall in the number of primary teachers remains a global problem. In 2011, the Education for All Initiative called for a focus on teachers to be the number one priority for improving education in the developing world. In 2014, global estimates showed that an additional four million teachers would be needed to achieve the MDG’s universal primary enrollment target by 2015, the year that the MDGs aimed to be completed. That goal was not met, and current estimates suggest that an additional 28.5 million teachers must be recruited in order to meet the goal by the SDGs target year, 2030. The teacher shortage remains most acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where the pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools is 42:1.83 However, simply increasing the number of teachers in the education system is not enough to improve education quality. Teachers need to be well-trained, motivated, and willing to remain in their posts. In many rural areas, teachers in primary schools do not have teaching qualifications. This is due, in part, to the fact that many skilled teachers do not want to relocate outside of urban centers. Salaries currently offered to teachers are very low, and in some cases, teachers are forced to live below the poverty line.84 Many African governments have established a policy to provide rural hardship allowances for the teachers in rural areas, but rural teacher recruitment and retention remains problematic due to the following reasons: 85 •

Difficulty in finding accommodation

•

The distance from public services, in general, and health services, in particular

•

Poor quality of the working environment, including the lack of textbooks and other teaching materials, along with overcrowded classes

•

Limited opportunities for upgrading professional skills

•

Difficulty with local languages

•

Limited opportunities for supplementing income

79 UNESCO, “Global Education Monitoring Report.” 80 Jessica Ball, “Enhancing Learning of Children from Diverse Language backgrounds: Mother tongue-based bilingual or multilingual education in early childhood and early primary school years,” UNESCO, 2011, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ images/0021/002122/212270e.pdf. 81 Ball, “Enhancing learning of children from diverse language backgrounds.” 82 Ibid. 83 “Pupil-teacher ratio in primary education (headcount basis),” The World Bank, last accessed June 29, 2017, http://data.worldbank. org/indicator/SE.PRM.ENRL.TC.ZS. 84 Teachers generally prefer urban to rural schools because urban areas offer greater opportunities and higher incomes. There is also a better quality of life in urban areas, with better access to good infrastructure, other services (such as healthcare) and general public goods. 85 UNESCO, “Universal Primary Education in Africa: The Teacher Challenge,” 2009, http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ documents/universal-primary-education-in-africa-the-teacher-challenge-en.pdf.

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Students in Mabanga Primary School in Bungoma, Kenya use laptops that integrate public health curriculum with IT skills. Photo credit: STARS/Kristian Buus.

Demand good governance and transparency

Resources allocated to the education sector should be managed efficiently and effectively, with a special focus on ensuring transparency at every level. African education systems remain susceptible to corruption at the national level, but also at the district level. In recent years, many countries have adopted a decentralized approach to education management with the purpose of increasing efficiency and local accountability, shifting the proximity of resource decision making closer to implementation sites. While this is a necessary reform, it has not generally been accompanied by financial and administrative capacity building for staff at the sub-national level.86 Thus, staff at the sub-national level struggle to correctly implement educational programs. Transparent budget allocations, as well as capacity building for staff who are responsible for managing

these budgets, are essential for ensuring that school resources reach their intended beneficiaries. The increased participation of parents in the school governance system could also serve a watch-dog role in budget allocation and spending. In some cases, school staff may be unfamiliar with the rules and procedures governing resource allocation, and these guidelines should be communicated in a clear and concise manner so they are accessible for those who intend to implement them, as well as for those independent community members holding them to account.

Use information technology as a teaching and analysis tool

If correctly introduced, information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching and learning at the primary school level can assist teachers to deliver curriculum more effectively and thus improve the quality of education received by children in the classroom.87 However, in developing

86 Transparency International, “Africa Education Watch: Good Governance Lessons from Primary Education,” 2010, http://image. guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2010/02/23/AfricaEducationWatch.pdf. 87 Moira Bladergroen et al., “Educator Discourses on ICT in Education: A Critical Analysis,” International Journal of Education and

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE countries in Africa, large-scale integration of information technology remains elusive due to severe infrastructure and resource constraints.88 It is difficult to identify the extent to which ICT is currently being used in African primary schools. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) found that the “most significant obstacle in measuring ICT in education in sub-Saharan Africa is the lack of systematic data collection,” noting that a number of nations (including Somalia, Benin, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo) reported that there was no systematic data collection at all in their countries.89 A review of available data on the subject reveals inconsistencies and missing data, even for recent years. UIS states that the existence of a data collection effort related to this topic often correlates with whether ICT use in education is considered a priority area of policy and investment interest in a country and that, generally speaking, “ICT use in education is at a particularly embryonic stage in the majority of countries in sub-Saharan Africa.”90 What is clear, however, is that internet connectivity in African primary schools remains uneven. Figures below 5 percent (and sometimes effectively 0 percent) in places like Niger and Liberia contrast with situations found in Botswana and Mauritius, where virtually all schools are connected.91 Policy makers agree that ICT can play an important role in equipping people to compete in a global economy through the development of skills necessary to facilitate social mobility. They emphasize that ICT in education can have what is described as a “multiplier effect” 92 throughout the education system by: •

enhancing learning and providing students with new sets of skills;

•

reaching students with poor or no access (especially those in rural and remote regions);

•

facilitating and teachers; and

improving

the

training

•

minimizing costs associated with the delivery of traditional instruction.93

However, it is important not to overemphasize the realistic impact of ICT in African primary school education. To date, there exist very few rigorous evaluations on the impact of technology on educational outcomes. Further, in the near future, ICT implementation will remain problematic in the many African contexts lacking regular access to electricity. 94 As is too often the case with technology, ICT should not be considered an educational panacea in Africa. ICT alone will not likely improve educational outcomes. Instead, ICT should complement a strong pedagogical foundation, and technology should be tailored to fit and assist the existing educational structure. Instructors should be adequately trained on both teaching and the introduction of the technology. Without strong existing education structures, it is unlikely that the implementation of ICT will dramatically or sustainably improve primary educational outcomes.

Involve parents, guardians, and community leaders in primary education

Studies widely recognize the importance of parental involvement in primary education, both in industrialized and developing countries.95 Parental involvement is a key determinant of the effectiveness of a primary education program. Parental involvement in a child’s education leads to improved school attendance and appreciation for the value of education. Teachers report that increased parental involvement is highly beneficial for parent-teacher relationships and the overall morale of school employees. When parents are more involved in their children’s education they tend to be more confident in their own parenting,

Development Using Information and Communication Technology, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2012), http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1084168.pdf. 88 Ibid. 89 UNESO Institute for Statistics, “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: A comparative analysis of basic e-readiness in schools,” 2015, http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/information-andcommunication-technology-ict-in-education-in-sub-saharan-africa-2015-en.pdf. 90 Michael Trucano, 2015, “Surveying ICT Use in Education in Africa,” http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/surveying-ict-useeducation-africa. 91 According to Trucano 2015, even when schools are connected, slow bandwidth speeds tend to impede internet access. 92 Abdelrahman Ahmed and Alkoud Oman, “Managing Information and Communication Technology in Sudanese Secondary School,” 2015, http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1083485.pdf 93 These policy recommendations are taken from Peter Wallet (2015), Measuring ICT in Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Call for Action, http://www.uis.unesco.org/Communication/Documents/report_elar15-3_update.pdf. 94 Peter Wallet, “Measuring ICT in Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Call for Action,” 2015, http://www.uis.unesco.org/ Communication/Documents/report_elar15-3_update.pdf. 95 Chuck Dervarics and Eileen O’Brien, “Back to School: How Parent Involvement Affects Student Achievement,” Center for Public Education, http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Public-education/Parent-Involvement/Parent-Involvement.html.

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE and also place a higher emphasis on continuing or beginning their own education.96 Finally, effective primary education in the schools is assisted by a three-way partnership among educators, parents, and the community.97 Traditional community leaders play a pivotal role in shaping community life and ordaining and enforcing unwritten rules among their constituents.98 Including community leaders in the life of the

school, an institution that serves as an important pillar of society, promotes local appreciation for the importance of education and helps instill a sense of local ownership of education. Several preliminary studies show that an increase in community participation and accountability, coupled with increased transparency, has a positive effect on learning outcomes and can drastically reduce the number of children who do not complete primary school.99

96 Garry Hornby and Chrystal Witte, “Parent Involvement in Inclusive Primary Schools in New Zealand: Implications for Improving Practice and for Teacher Education,” International Journal of Whole Schooling 6, no. 1 (2010). 97 James Poon Teng Fatt, “Innovative Curricula: Involving the Community in Novel Ways,” Journal of Instructional Psychology (1999) 26, no. 3. 98 Carolyn Logan, “Traditional Leaders in Modern Africa: Can Democracy and the Chief Co-Exist?” Afrobarometer Working Paper No. 93, Cape Town, http://www.gsdrc.org/document-library/traditional-leaders-in-modern-africa-can-democracy-and-the-chiefco-exist/. 99 UNICEF “The Investment Case for Education and Equity,” http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Investment_Case_for_ Education_and_Equity_FINAL.pdf.

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Conclusion

rimary education systems on the African continent face a multiplicity of challenges. Already scarce resources are stretched to the breaking point in an effort to ensure that all African children have access to primary education, while public institutions simultaneously grapple with maintaining an acceptable quality of the content imparted in the classroom. Educational equity is a major challenge: girls are less likely than boys to be in school, children from minority groups or extremely poor families/areas are less likely to have access to a primary education, and rural schools are at a disadvantage compared to schools in urban areas. When governments fail to provide adequate educational opportunities, private schools— unaffordable to most—fill the gaps. International financial support for education is dwindling, and even governments that spend a significant portion of their budget on education are not reaping the desired results. Additionally, primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions are forced to compete constantly for government resources. Amid these challenges, the case studies in this report highlight examples of countries across the continent that are proving that sustainable progress in primary education is possible. The Medersat.com schools in Morocco have shown what can be done when a “back to basics” approach is combined with technological innovation. Prioritization of mothertongue instruction has given many Amazigh

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children the opportunity to gain a solid educational foundation in their primary school years, while having access to languages such as Mandarin through ICT curriculum delivery. In Botswana, government spending on education has an impressive impact on educational outcomes. Teachers are trained and retained in the public system, and transparency and accountability in the public education system helps ensure that resources are distributed equitably. In Somalia, Tangerine software and hardy tablet devices equip teachers to better evaluate the quality of their students’ education. Early identification of reading difficulties gives students the opportunity to have their needs addressed and their skills consolidated before they progress to high school. In the Central African Republic, curriculum is specifically adapted to meet the needs of some of Africa’s most vulnerable children, like those housed in the SOS Children’s Villages. Embracing a “back to basics” approach with integrated innovations in primary education can help to ensure that Africa’s children have equal access to quality basic education that will serve as a solid foundation for further tiers of study, and better equip them to thrive in their local contexts and beyond. The recommendations included in this report are a cursory offering for policy makers seeking to better understand reform priorities for primary education in Africa.

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Case Studies

our case studies are presented in this report to illustrate quality primary education programs in which the strategies for promoting effective primary education outlined above have been effectively implemented. The case studies were also selected to highlight the following factors and elements of primary education: location (rural versus urban); school funders and managers (public and private schools); environment (conflict versus non-conflict); curriculum emphasis (e.g. mother-tongue instruction); use of technology; and an indication of a positive impact on the children (generally given by internal assessments).

Medersat.Com Schools: Morocco Background Medersat.com100 was established by the BMCE Bank Foundation to address the persistent underperformance in primary education in the rural areas of the Kingdom of Morocco. Working with the Moroccan Ministry of National Education, the program has assisted 22,000 students (more than 50 percent of whom are female), of which nearly 12,000 are in high school or have begun their university studies. Today, the foundation has sixtytwo schools located in disadvantaged rural regions across the country, from Nador to Dakhla. The model has also been scaled up to address underserved communities in Senegal, Mali, Congo-Brazzaville, and forthcoming in Rwanda.101 Created in 1995, the BMCE Bank Foundation for Education and Environment concentrated its educational interventions on preschool and elementary school in village regions where education is minimal or nonexistent and fragility prevails. Through the foundation’s Medersat.com program, children from these communities receive instruction for preschool education in their native tongue of either Arabic, Amazigh, or French.102

By elementary school, children learn simultaneously in three languages: Arabic, Amazigh, and French. The vision for Medersat.com is “to give children and adults in rural areas a chance to reach a level of education that will enable them to become positive forces for development and to be able to contribute to an environment of openness and tolerance in their own communities.”103 The modern and functional architectural designs of the schools have been used to produce buildings well suited to the milieu by using local materials.

Program description Medersat.com schools are run through a publicprivate partnership between BMCE Bank Foundation and the Moroccan Ministry of National Education. Despite this, the pedagogical approach and curriculum are different from that in most government schools. The differences are not only that instruction is given in the mother tongue, but also in the advanced program content, which includes reading, mathematics, languages, and logic. In some schools, children are taught Mandarin in addition to instruction in Arabic, Amazigh, and French. Notably, Moroccan primary school-age children are taught reading and mathematics in their mother tongue in a school facility located walking distance from their homes. The children also receive education about their cultural heritage. The schools employ capable, well-trained teachers and school managers, and are well equipped with school furniture, information technology equipment, textbooks, and libraries. One of the biggest challenges of the program is the availability of a sufficient number of teachers who meet specific academic, occupational, and social criteria and who are willing to work in villages.104 Medersat.com

100 Medersat.com, the name chosen by BMCE Bank Foundation for its network of rural community schools, is rich in associations. The term medersatkoum means “our school” in Arabic. Medersat.com also evokes the medersa, the place of learning in traditional Arab society; the Mediterranean locale; connection to satellites and new communications technologies, hence the dot.com; and the assets shared by the village community. “Medersat.com Brings Schools and Community Development to Rural Morocco,” Synergos, 2004, http://www.synergos.org/globalgivingmatters/features/0403medersat.htm. 101 “Medersat.com,” Wise Qatar, http://www.wise-qatar.org/medersat-morocco. 102 “Medersat.com Brings Schools and Community Development to Rural Morocco,” http://www.synergos.org/globalgivingmatters/ features/0403medersat.htm. 103 “Medersat.com,” Wise Qatar. 104 Fatima Achour, “Medersat.com: Elevating the Amazigh Language and Its Speakers,” trans. by Anthony Goode, Al-Monitor, November 5, 2013, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/culture/2013/11/moroccan-amazigh-education-project.html.

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A student at the Medersat.com school system in Morocco practices Arabic. The innovative public-private partnership between BMCE Bank Foundation and the Moroccan Ministry of National Education seeks to overcome the divide in performance between rural and urban students. Photo credit: BMCE Bank Foundation.

has supplied housing and other incentives to these teachers. One of the program priorities is to engage and retain all children in the program. There is particular interest in ensuring that the girls in the community come to school and complete their studies. The parents and other members of the community are not only encouraged by the school in sharing their ideas, but they also participate in their own reading, writing, mathematics, computer literacy, and financial literacy programs. In some communities, Medersat.com, through a partnership with the Tawada Association, has established microfinance programs that support the small businesses of parents and others. The association provides parents and guardians of students in the schools with opportunities to improve their quality of life, for example, with microloans and a program that offers them activities to supplement their income and projects to fight illiteracy.

Before creating any schools in the Medersat.com network, an educational map study is carried out to assess the areas that are in greatest need. Once a place has been identified, residents are contacted to discuss the most appropriate place to build a school and to include them in its administration after it has been built.105 Importantly, the Medersat.com program emphasizes reconciling the school with its environment using an architectural design that is harmonious with the local heritage and its cultural environment. The Moroccan Ministry of National Education tasked Medersat.com with expanding its preschool program to other public schools. In response, the BMCE Bank Foundation built and eqipped 112 preschool units within existing public schools. Medersat.com trained additional teachers to staff these schools, resulting in an additional 10,000 children with access to preschool education.

105 Fatima Achour, “Medersat.com: Elevating the Amazigh Language and Its Speakers.”

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE Medersat.com teachers also have had the opportunity to interact with the broader community in which they are situated—reaching approximately 3,400 mothers and girls who were previously out of school.106

examination written by students at the end of the seven-year primary school program. The exam results measure a learner’s proficiency in important knowledge and skills within the primary education program.110

Medersat.com won one of the World Innovation Summit for Education awards in September 2013. There, the BMCE Bank Foundation was recognized for its outstanding quality and its innovation in the teaching of language Arabic, Amazigh, French, and Mandarin.107

Program Description

Public Primary Schools: Botswana Background The Botswana Ministry of Education’s primary school system has demonstrated a strong commitment to universal primary education, taking steps to address both access and quality constraints. As of 2015, there were 812 public and private primary schools in Botswana, of which 800 are public schools. The United National Economic Commission for Africa highlighted Botswana’s admirable primary education progress.108 In 2013, 93.1 percent of school-age children (seven to thirteen years old) were in school in 2013. The teacher-to-pupil ratio in primary schools was 1:23 between 2012 and 2013, and the gender parity index is 0.97 in primary schools.109 Botswana’s successful provision of free basic education has hinged on a few key policies, including the adoption of an inclusive education policy in 2011 and adequate public expenditure on education. Botswana participates in a regional comparative study known as Southern African Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality (SACMEQ). Findings of the study indicate that while Botswana’s performance in the SACMEQ tests is average, the country’s participants perform better than most of Southern Africa in Mathematics and Science. Botswana’s Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is a seven-subject criterion referenced

Since Botswana’s independence from Britain in 1965, education has been consistently prioritized in national budget allocations. Discovered in 1967, diamond resources have transformed Botswana’s economy and rendered the country both able and inclined to invest in education.111 Education in Botswana is free for the first ten years, of which the first seven years are at primary school level where the pupil-teacher ratio is approximately 13:1.112 The language of education is Setswana for the first four years, thereafter English. Even though Botswana has made great strides, the primary schools in particular still lack resources (especially books). In 2007, Botswana began working with the African Library Project. Now, more than one third of the primary schools have libraries. Over 80 percent of children who start primary school are likely to reach grade five. In Botswana, 11 percent of children of official primary school age are out of school. The Botswana Ministry of Education and Skills is the official government body responsible for public education. The vision of the Ministry is that “all children and youth of Botswana have a right to education regardless of disability, gender, social class, or ethnic group.”113 Of Botswana’s 805 primary schools, 745 are public and a mere 60 are private schools, commonly called English Medium schools (largely limited to urban or peri-urban areas).114 Twenty-seven of the 745 public schools in remote areas are boarding schools, specifically aimed at providing education for children who live in areas that are far from urban centers or difficult to reach due to poor infrastructure.115 The responsibilities for the public education system are split between the Ministry of Education and Skills

106 Fatima Achour, “Medersat.com: Elevating the Amazigh Language and Its Speakers.” 107 “Wise Awards 2014,” WISE Qatar, http://www.wise-qatar.org/sites/default/files/2014_wise_awards_brochure_0.pdf. 108 “Botswana Country Profile,” United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, http://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/uploadeddocuments/CoM/com2016/Country-Profiles/botswana_eng_final.pdf. 109 United Nations Development Program, “Pupil-Teacher Ratio, Primary School,” Human Development Reports, http://hdr.undp.org/ en/indicators/46206; Work Bank, “School Enrollment, Primary (Gross), Gender Parity Index (GPI),” 2014, https://data.worldbank. org/indicator/SE.ENR.PRIM.FM.ZS?locations=BW. 110 Botswana Examinations Council, “Summary of Results,” 2015, http://www.bec.co.bw/2015-psle-summary-of-results. 111 Rodrick Mukumbira, “Report Card: Botswana a model for Africa?,” 2005, Africa Files, http://www.africafiles.org/article. asp?ID=8379. 112 Ibid. 113 African Library Project, “Library Partner - Botswana Ministry of Education,” 2016, https://www.africanlibraryproject.org/ourafrican-libraries/library-partners-in-africa/31-african-libraries-overview/african-library-pages/139-library-partner-botswanaministry-of-education. 114 Nkobi Pansiri and Philip Buwara, “Parents’ Participation in Public Primary Schools in Botswana: Perceptions and Experiences of Headteachers,” International Education Studies, (2013) Vol. 6 No. 5, http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1068400.pdf. 115 Ibid.

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Students at Therisanyo Primary School in Gaborone, Botswana welcome George W. Bush, former president of the United States, for a 2017 visit. Botswana has made commendable progress in getting more children into its public school system, keeping its student-to-teacher ratio low, and striving for gender parity in education. Photo credit: Paul Morse for the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

Development and the Ministry of Local Government. Local Government is responsible for everything to do with infrastructure from school feeding to the provision of stationery. The Ministry of Education develops curriculum, handles teacher’s salaries and professional training, and provides textbooks to schools. The public education system in Botswana relies on the following principles for its success:116 •

Well-Built Classrooms: Botswana’s education officials believe that classroom accommodation is central to learning, because it shields students’ learning experience from the external environment (weather and events in the community) and facilitates the organization and effective use of learning tools such as chalkboards, teaching aids, and furniture.

•

Basic Learning Materials: Pupils should have sole use of a textbook (especially for the core subjects, such as English, Setswana, mathematics, and science).

•

Academically Approved Textbooks and Learning Materials: Before any teaching-learning materials and textbooks can be published or used in schools in Botswana, they have to be evaluated and approved by a Textbook Evaluation Committee comprised of teachers, education officers, and trade union members.

•

Qualified Teachers: Through the European Union Human Resource Development support program, the Ministry has committed to improving the quality of education by upgrading the minimum qualifications of teachers from certificate to diploma. The target performance indicator set in the agreement with the European Union was to increase the number of teachers at diploma level by 2 percent annually from a baseline of 75 percent in 2013.

116 “Universal Primary Education,” Government of Botswana, http://www.gov.bw/en/Ministries--Authorities/Ministries/Ministry-ofAgriculture1/Teachers/Universal-Primary-Education/.

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SOS Children’s Villages supports hundreds of students in the Central African Republic capital of Bangui, where prolonged conflict has made children—especially those who have been orphaned or displaced—especially vulnerable. Photo credit: SOS Children’s Villages International.

SOS Children’s Villages: Central African Republic

SOS Villages in the Central African Republic has as its primary mission to provide homes, health care centers, playgrounds, and importantly, schools for children living in conflict-torn communities. SOS has established children’s programs in 134 countries around the world with its program founded in the Central African Republic (CAR) in the 1990s. As of the last report, the program was serving over 800 children in primary school in the capitol of Bangui.

Background Children have been orphaned, abandoned, and are vulnerable for many reasons during and after wars and conflicts around the world. That is what led Hermann Gmeiner, in 1949, in Austria to found a children’s charity, the SOS Children’s Villages. SOS has established children’s programs in 134 countries around the world; its program was established in

the Central African Republic (CAR) in the 1990s. During prolonged recent conflicts in CAR beginning in 2012, more than 625,000 people had been displaced because of the fighting—most of them women and children. At least 6,000 children have been recruited into armed groups. More than half (62 percent) of the citizens of the CAR are living on less than $1.00 a day. In 2015, GDP per capita (in current US$) in the country was $323.117 According to the Global Partnership for Education,118 30 percent of primary school-age children (six to eleven years old) in CAR have never been to school, and the pupil to teacher ratio is 89:1. Before the crisis, 40 percent of teachers were unqualified. SOS Schools follow the local curriculum and employ teachers from the region—who are familiar with the local culture—to deliver the curriculum. The underlying philosophy of the SOS primary schools is that the schools are child-centered; SOS believes

117 World Bank, GDP Per Capita (Current US$) Central African Republic, February 5, 2017, http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=CF. 118 Global Partnership for Education “Central African Republic,” 2015, http://www.globalpartnership.org/country/central-african-republic.

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE that “Education policies, curricula, and schools must respond appropriately and in the best interest of the individual child to her/his emotional, intellectual, physical, social, and spiritual development.”119 The work of SOS Children’s Villages focuses on children who have lost or are at risk of losing parental care. Resources must be directed to this same target group, as well as to children whose rights to education are being violated. Below is detailed information about the SOS primary school in Bangui.120

The ultimate goal is to provide equal experiences of education that address the needs of all children. Recognizing the challenges presented by a childcentered approach, SOS Children’s Villages offers support to teachers in the form of continuing professional development. As part of this training, teachers should develop an understanding of the social context of their work.

The SOS primary school is near the capitol, based about six kilometers away from the center of Bangui, in the Gbangouma district. The school has over 800 students, divided into two groups, with over 400 coming in the afternoon from the SOS community programs. The education system is based on the French system with adjustments incorporated into the curriculum based on local needs. There is a particular emphasis on including more classes in Sango. Students sit for the Certificat d‘Études Fondamentales 1 at the end of grade six. A high standard of learning is maintained at the school, exemplified by the 100 percent “Primary School Diploma” pass rate (compared to the national average of 86 percent).

Concern Worldwide Early Grade Reading Assessments: Somalia

The educational philosophy that guides the SOS village primary schools includes the following principles:121

Although a semblance of government has been restored, the Somali people still suffer from widespread poverty, a lack of safe drinking water and sanitation, and a low enrollment in school, especially for girls. The Somali terrorist group alShabaab menaces large swathes of the country, making internal displacement the norm for many school-age children. The resettlement of Somali refugees from neighboring Kenya, moreover, means that an increasing number of children living in Somalia have experienced some kind of disruption in their education.

•

Education enables children to strengthen their capacities, to enrich their lives through knowledge, and to develop a set of ethics and values. Education then means guiding curiosity, creating individual learning options, and allowing children to experiment.

•

Educational curriculum should be determined by context, economy, and culture.

•

One of the most efficient ways of acquiring literacy is to start by reading and writing in your own language (mother tongue).

•

What counts as relevant is everything that is not limited by gender, faith, ethnicity, or economic situation. Relevant is what expands thinking and learning beyond today’s knowledge and beyond taboos.

•

Teachers have to respond to their students’ diversity and vary the curriculum accordingly— the content, the delivery method, and the way in which performance is assessed and recorded.

Background Somalia has been a source of instability in the Horn of Africa for nearly three decades; after the fall of dictator Siad Barre’s regime in 1991, Somalia entered a chaotic, violent political vacuum. Although attempts at governance and peacekeeping existed through interim governments and United Nation’s peacekeeping missions, Somalia was essentially ungoverned until very recently. Even now, the nascent Federal Government of Somalia exerts control of only the limited territory around Mogadishu and parts of the Somali coast.

Program Description In collaboration with the Somali Ministry of Education, Concern Worldwide conducted an Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) in five Mogadishu schools in 2013.122 The assessment aimed to draw attention to early grade literacy levels in Somalia and to measure change affected from an early literacy intervention. Behind its creation was the idea that if practitioners had measurable data on students’ reading abilities, they could give teachers feedback on how to improve instruction. Somalia’s insecurity and displacement issues greatly affect the ability

119 SOS Kinderdorf International, “Learning for Life: Formal Education Policy,” 2008, http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/what-wedo/education/going-to-school. 120 “Central African Republic — SOS Schools,” SOS Children’s Villages, http://www.sos-schools.org/africa/centralafricanrepublic. 121 SOS Children’s Villages, “What Type of Education?,” Forum (2010), 7, January 31, 2017, https://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/ getmedia/46aa7021-34e0-45ac-8813-6dded20304c6/100903-Forum-en-web.pdf?ext=.pdf. 122 Concern Worldwide, “Conducting an EGRA in a Complex Conflict Environment: Is it Worth it? Lessons from Somalia,” http:// www.uis.unesco.org/StatisticalCapacityBuilding/Workshop%20Documents/Education%20workshop%20dox/Montreal%20 2014/19.Conducting%20EGRA%20in%20a%20complex%20conflict%20environment_EN.pdf.

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE of children to become literate even at the most basic levels. Recognizing a lack of data on student’s progress in literacy and a need to improve literacy instruction, Concern Worldwide implemented the EGRA to better inform teachers on how to intervene early where there are gaps in a child’s literacy. It targeted Somali medium schools and a group of children unlikely to attend school without the support of nongovernmental organizations due to extreme poverty and an inability to pay school fees in grades two, three, and four. The assessment has since continued, becoming an annual process after its roll out in 2013. Somalia’s education ministry is extremely limited in scope and size, supporting only thirteen schools, all of which lie within Mogadishu. This means that most schools are run by UN agencies, private institutions, or NGOs. A lack of consistency, because of the multiple actors involved in education, means there are not standard curricula or exams. The elimination of phonics from the national Somali curriculum means that most teachers did not learn to read using phonics, and this continues for current students. Concern Worldwide overcame these challenges in insufficient data and instructor knowledge gaps by training teachers in phonics and implementing the use of tablets and a software platform, Tangerine, that allowed for better data analysis and provided a digital version of the EGRA.123

The EGRA is written in Somali and consists of four subtasks designed to assess children’s reading abilities. These subtasks connect to different skills related to reading acquisition. Although results of the EGRA conducted in Mogadishu schools were low due to a number of factors, the EGRA successfully identified literacy gaps, informed Concern and other stakeholders of where to offer teachers in-classroom support and how to better train teachers to design interventions, and introduced reading materials into the curriculum that were more relevant for children learning how to read. Because of the many challenges Somali children face, including displacement and short-term migration, inconsistent living situations, and overall poverty, the EGRA better informs teachers, principals, and policy makers how to make education more responsive and flexible. This encompasses successful characteristics seen in education programs elsewhere, including mothertongue instruction, a focus on quality teacher training, using technology as a tool to support instruction rather than replace it, and providing relevant curriculum based on students’ needs and environments.124

123 Concern Worldwide, “Conducting an EGRA in a Complex Conflict Environment.” 124 Concern Worldwide, “Lost for Words,” An Analysis of Early Grade Reading Assessments in the Most Vulnerable Communities in Five of the World’s Poorest Countries from 2012-2014, September 15, 2014, https://www.concern.net/sites/default/files/media/ resource/g2569_lost_for_words_report_final_2.pdf.

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EQUIPPING AFRICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS FOR THE FUTURE

About the Author Constance Berry Newman is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. Newman currently serves as special counsel for African affairs at the Carmen Group and in 2016 served as the interim president of the US African Development Foundation where she had been for the previous four years as an advisor on Somalia. She is best known for her work in addressing issues related to poverty and civil and human rights, as well as advancing democracy around the world. From 2004 to 2005, Newman served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs. From 2001 to 2004, as the assistant administrator for Africa at the US Agency for International Development, she oversaw the US government’s economic development in Africa and was a key participant in the launching of the African Education Initiative to expand children’s access to basic education and increase the number of teachers, especially at the primary school level, across the continent. From 2002 to 2005, Newman acted as President Bush’s G8 personal representative on Africa. Throughout her career, Newman has held seven presidential appointments, five confirmed by the Senate, in both Republican and Democratic administrations. Newman holds an undergraduate degree in political science from Bates College and a law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School. In 2012, Government Executive magazine selected Newman as one of the twenty all-time greatest civil servants. The author is grateful to then-Africa Center Visiting Fellow Chloë McGrath for her contributions to this study.

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Atlantic Council Board of Directors INTERIM CHAIRMAN *James L. Jones, Jr. CHAIRMAN EMERITUS, INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD Brent Scowcroft CHAIRMAN, INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD David McCormick PRESIDENT AND CEO *Frederick Kempe EXECUTIVE VICE CHAIRS *Adrienne Arsht *Stephen J. Hadley VICE CHAIRS *Robert J. Abernethy *Richard W. Edelman *C. Boyden Gray *George Lund *Virginia A. Mulberger *W. DeVier Pierson *John J. Studzinski TREASURER *Brian C. McK. Henderson SECRETARY *Walter B. Slocombe DIRECTORS Stéphane Abrial Odeh Aburdene *Peter Ackerman Timothy D. Adams Bertrand-Marc Allen *Michael Andersson David D. Aufhauser Matthew C. Bernstein *Rafic A. Bizri Dennis C. Blair *Thomas L. Blair Philip M. Breedlove Reuben E. Brigety II Myron Brilliant *Esther Brimmer Reza Bundy

R. Nicholas Burns *Richard R. Burt Michael Calvey James E. Cartwright John E. Chapoton Ahmed Charai Melanie Chen Michael Chertoff George Chopivsky Wesley K. Clark David W. Craig *Ralph D. Crosby, Jr. Nelson W. Cunningham Ivo H. Daalder Ankit N. Desai *Paula J. Dobriansky Christopher J. Dodd Conrado Dornier Thomas J. Egan, Jr. *Stuart E. Eizenstat Thomas R. Eldridge Julie Finley Lawrence P. Fisher, II *Alan H. Fleischmann *Ronald M. Freeman Laurie S. Fulton Courtney Geduldig *Robert S. Gelbard Gianni Di Giovanni Thomas H. Glocer Murathan Gunal Sherri W. Goodman Ian Hague Amir A. Handjani John D. Harris, II Frank Haun Michael V. Hayden Annette Heuser Ed Holland *Karl V. Hopkins Robert D. Hormats Miroslav Hornak *Mary L. Howell Wolfgang F. Ischinger Deborah Lee James Reuben Jeffery, III

Joia M. Johnson Stephen R. Kappes *Maria Pica Karp Andre Kelleners *Zalmay M. Khalilzad Robert M. Kimmitt Henry A. Kissinger Franklin D. Kramer Richard L. Lawson *Jan M. Lodal *Jane Holl Lute William J. Lynn Wendy W. Makins Zaza Mamulaishvili Mian M. Mansha Gerardo Mato William E. Mayer T. Allan McArtor John M. McHugh Eric D.K. Melby Franklin C. Miller James N. Miller Judith A. Miller *Alexander V. Mirtchev Susan Molinari Michael J. Morell Richard Morningstar Georgette Mosbacher Edward J. Newberry Thomas R. Nides Victoria J. Nuland Franco Nuschese Joseph S. Nye Hilda OchoaBrillembourg Sean C. O’Keefe Ahmet M. Oren Sally A. Painter *Ana I. Palacio Carlos Pascual Alan Pellegrini David H. Petraeus Thomas R. Pickering Daniel B. Poneman Arnold L. Punaro Robert Rangel

Thomas J. Ridge Charles O. Rossotti Robert O. Rowland Harry Sachinis Rajiv Shah Stephen Shapiro Kris Singh James G. Stavridis Richard J.A. Steele Paula Stern Robert J. Stevens Robert L. Stout, Jr. *Ellen O. Tauscher Nathan D. Tibbits Frances M. Townsend Clyde C. Tuggle Melanne Verveer Charles F. Wald Michael F. Walsh Maciej Witucki Neal S. Wolin Mary C. Yates Dov S. Zakheim HONORARY DIRECTORS David C. Acheson Madeleine K. Albright James A. Baker, III Harold Brown Frank C. Carlucci, III Ashton B. Carter Robert M. Gates Michael G. Mullen Leon E. Panetta William J. Perry Colin L. Powell Condoleezza Rice Edward L. Rowny George P. Shultz Horst Teltschik John W. Warner William H. Webster *Executive Committee Members List as of November 6, 2017

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