Education A Twin Education Crisis is Holding Back Africa Millions are not at school, millions more are failing to learn POLICY PAPER September 2012 Africa Progress Report 2012 POLICY PAPER ABOUT THE AFRICA PROGRESS PANEL The Africa Progress Panel (APP) consists of ten distinguished individuals from the private and public sector, who advocate on global issues of importance to Africa and the world. Mr Kofi Annan, former Secretary- General of the United Nations and Nobel laureate, chairs the APP and is closely involved in its day-to-day work. The other Panel members are Michel Camdessus, Peter Eigen, Bob Geldof, Graça Machel, Olusegun Obasanjo, Linah Mohohlo, Robert Rubin, Tidjane Thiam and Muhammad Yunus. Kofi Annan Michel Camdessus Peter Eigen Bob Geldof Graça Machel Olusegun Obasanjo Linah Mohohlo Robert Rubin Tidjane Thiam Muhammad Yunus ABOUT THE AFRICA PROGRESS REPORT The Africa Progress Report, the Africa Progress Panel’s flagship annual publication, draws on the best research and analysis available on Africa and compiles it in a refreshing and provocative manner. Through the report, the Panel recommends policy choices and actions for African policy makers, international partners and civil society organisations. This policy paper is drawn from the Africa Progress Report 2012, whose preparation and research was led by Caroline Kende-Robb (Africa Progress Panel), Kevin Watkins (Brookings Institution), Peter da Costa (Africa Progress Panel) and Richard Manning (Oxford University). Andrew Johnston (Consultant) edited the paper. Contact the Africa Progress Panel For media requests or more information, please contact: [email protected]. Website: www.africaprogresspanel.org The APP would like to acknowledge the generous support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). 2 A Twin Education Crisis is Holding Africa Back TABLE OF CONTENTS It’s not just how many children go to school - it’s what they learn there 4 Why skills matter - for young people and for their countries 4 It’s time for African governments to take action 4 Some impressive progress has been made... 5 ...but millions of children are still not in school... 5 ...because many groups face stark disadvantage 5 Reaching the marginalized: the greatest education challenge 5 In Africa’s school, millions are failing 8 Skills deficit among Africa’s youth 8 Education inequalities in global perspective 8 An agenda for addressing Africa’s Education crisis 8 The early years are crucial for future learning 8 Access and learning - delivering on the MDG promise 9 Aligning education, skills development and employment 10 The key role of aid donors 10 Guiding principles 11 Selected policy actions 11 Education has the capacity to break the intergenerational “ cycle of poverty. Go to any poor rural village or urban slum and you will find Africans who share that view. – Graça Machel ” 3 POLICY PAPER IT’S NOT JUST HOW MANY CHILDREN GO TO SCHOOL – IT’S WHAT THEY LEARN THERE Learning drives economic growth, fuels innovation Left unattended, this imbalance in priorities will have and creates jobs. It equips countries – and people damaging consequences for Africa’s future. In an – with the skills they need to escape poverty and increasingly interconnected and knowledge-based build prosperity. And it gives people the power to global economy, today’s disparities in education build more secure livelihoods, enjoy better health are tomorrow’s inequalities in income, trade and and participate in political processes that affect investment. More than ever, the prosperity of nations their lives. For all of these reasons, Africa’s ongoing hinges less on what countries have (their natural education crisis demands the urgent attention of resource capital) than on what their citizens are political leaders and aid partners. able to learn (their human capital). And what is true for countries is also true for people. Those denied We do not use the word “crisis” lightly. In education, an opportunity to develop their potential through as in other areas, much has been achieved over the education face the prospect of marginalisation, past decade. Enrolment levels have soared. More poverty and insecure employment. children are making it through primary education into secondary school. Gender gaps have It’s time for African governments to narrowed. Many countries have registered a pace take action of advance that would have been inconceivable when the Millennium Development Goals were Education has the potential to transform Africa’s established. social and economic development. Unlocking that potential will require governments to act with urgency Yet, on current trends, the target of universal on three fronts. primary education by 2015 will be missed by a wide margin, leaving millions of children out of school First, every government needs to redouble its efforts to – and there are worrying indications that progress ensure that all children are in school by 2015. may be slowing. Meanwhile, many of the children in school are receiving an education of such abysmal Second, far greater attention must be directed quality that they are learning very little. Far from towards the quality of education and learning accumulating “21st century skills”, millions of Africa’s achievement. Africa needs to embrace what children are emerging from primary school lacking researchers at the Brookings Institution have described basic literacy and numeracy. as a “global compact on learning” – a compact that puts a premium on results. Shortly after Ghana’s Why skills matter – for young people independence, its first president, Kwame Nkrumah, and for their countries said: “We shall measure progress by the number of children in school, and by the quality of their The twin education deficits in access to school and education.”1 Too many governments – and donors – learning in school have far-reaching consequences. have forgotten the quality part of the equation. They are undermining the potential of a whole generation of children and young people, reinforcing The third priority goes to the heart of the wider social divisions and damaging prospects for sustained agenda for jobs, justice and equity. Both in access and shared economic growth. and education quality, Africa has some of the world’s most glaring education inequalities. Most countries’ Africa’s governments have placed considerable constitutions enshrine the right of all citizens to an emphasis over the past 10 years on putting in place education, without regard to their circumstances. the macroeconomic policies needed to support Yet all too often, being born into a poor family, growth – and rightly so. But the kind of broad-based living in a rural area, being female or coming from growth that Africa needs is simply not possible if its a conflict-affected region means suffering extreme people lack the necessary skills and capabilities on disadvantage in education. These inequalities are which dynamic and broad-based growth depend. slowing down progress towards the MDGs, reinforcing 1 Nkrumah, K. n.d. quotes from Kwame Nkrumah. Pan African Perspective. Accessed on 20 April, 2012. Available from http://www.panafrican perspective.com/nkrumahquotes.html 4 A Twin Education Crisis is Holding Africa Back wider social disparities and undermining economic In Niger and Chad, over 30 per cent of young girls growth. That is why governments need to put equity are married before the age of 15, and for a far wider at the centre of their education strategies. group of countries – including Mali, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso – over half marry by 18.4 Some impressive progress has been made… Africa’s education deficits do not end with primary education. There are 19 million adolescents out of Measured by the number of children sitting in school, many of them making the transition to work classrooms, Africa has registered some remarkable without having completed a basic education.5 achievements. The net enrolment rate, which Stated bluntly, Africa’s human capital foundations measures the proportion of primary-school-age are too weak to sustain dynamic economic growth children registered for school, increased from 60 per and shared prosperity. cent in 2000 to 76 per cent in 2009. Over the same period, out-of-school numbers fell from 42 million …because many groups face stark to 30 million.2 Given that Africa has the world’s disadvantage fastest-growing primary-school-age population, these outcomes are even more impressive than the Behind the statistics that measure average progress headline data suggest. Gender disparities have also across Africa lie deep inequalities in access to declined. And there has been a marked increase in education. The poor, women, ethnic minorities, rural secondary school participation, with the enrolment children and other marginalised groups suffer from rate increasing from 24 to 34 per cent. discrimination and disadvantage that create social fault-lines running through the region’s education When the MDG commitments were made in 2000, few systems. observers would have predicted the achievements registered by many countries. Tanzania had over As countries have moved closer to universal access, 3 million children out of school and enrolment was the challenge of combating these disparities has declining. Today the country is within touching been brought into sharper focus. Continued progress distance of universal primary enrolment. From Burkina towards the goal of universal primary education by Faso to Ethiopia, Mozambique, Senegal and Zambia, 2015 will require interventions that reach those who one country after another has made a breakthrough have been left behind. in enrolment. Gender inequalities remain endemic. While the …but millions of children are still not disparities are narrowing, girls still account for a in school… disproportionate share of out-of-school children. There are just 8 girls for every 10 boys in secondary school.6 Impressive as the growth in school participation may be, Africa is not on track to achieve the MDG targets.