Education Is Important: How Africa Is Making Progress In Offering Quality Education

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Recently African leaders met at the Sub-Saharan African Education Conference in Kigali to talk about their combined vision regarding education for 2015 and beyond. The conference was planned by UNESCO and its associates in the EFA (Education For All) movement. It aims to offer a platform to reflect and consider the development attained in accomplishing the EFA objectives, which were set back in 2000, and the present challenges.

Africa Is Making Progress

In the last 2 decades, sub-Saharan Africa has gained impressive momentum in education. Governments of different African nations have used their political will to make combined positive efforts so that more students would attend schools and receive quality education. The advantages of making investments in education across the territory have become clear with tangible outcomes.

Adequate investment in education in Rwanda has significantly decreased the amount of primary school aged children who were not attending schools. The number reduced to 1.3 per cent in 2012 from 14.6 per cent in 2002. Specific funds were developed to make sure that orphaned kids also received equal learning opportunities.

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 Growing Volume Of Students

Moreover, Rwanda extended lower secondary schooling and the enrolment ratio reached around 37 per cent in 2012, which was thrice the volume in 1999. As the 9 year basic education cycle was introduced and fees for lower secondary school was removed, the volume of lower secondary students increased by 63 per cent from 2008 to 2010. Currently the government is focussed on offering 12 years of free education to all learners.

This can be considered as substantial progress and you can find many other similar success stories. However, the scenario seems vulnerable throughout the continent and the fact remains that the pace gained in the last few years have come to a stop in several regions. This is why need to restart the movement and make sure that all the progress that was achieved does not get lost.

According to data from UNESCO, around 30 million out-of-school primary age children of the 58 million in the world reside in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Even though several efforts were taken, girls still do not receive equal opportunities. There are 84 girls enrolled in secondary education and 92 girls enrolled in primary education for enrolment of every 100 boys. But why? Well there are a number of reasons for this.

Need For Facing Challenges

The population of school age children in the region is growing much faster than other regions; it has increased by 29 per cent from 2000, as per statistics revealed by UNESCO. This means that there are an additional 49 million children and can be compared to a 10 per cent drop in the rest of the globe. Although the federal governments are making numerous attempts, the challenge is simply too great for them to face alone.

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Another challenge to quality education is conflict across the region. Among the 33 nations affected by conflict in 2012, 13 regions were identified in sub-Saharan Africa. Pursuing education can increase the threats for young children as often they are kidnapped, forced in to slavery or hired as child soldiers, such as the mass kidnappings of schoolgirls in Nigeria last year.

The Bottom Line

These are raw and real facts that are affecting the development of education in the region. But the fact remains that education is essential for progress, a basic human right and an excellent investment for national development. Hence we need to take more effective steps to ensure that our children receive the education they deserve, not only for their own well-being but also for social development.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Feel free to share your views with us by commenting below. We would love to hear from you.

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