|
Key commitments
Africa: The African Union has acknowledged the primary role of education in human development through a series of founding statements. African governments have signed up to the Education for All (EFA) programme of action and have committed to developing costed plans to achieve EFA, supported by the Fast Track Initiative (FTI). The Second Decade of Education for Africa (2006-2015) has built on gaps identified in the first education plan, moving beyond primary school enrolment to a more holistic approach to education.
Development partners: Development partners have made commitments to support the MDG goals of universal primary education and of gender equality in education (see also Promoting gender equality and women's empowerment), as well as the EFA Framework for Action. G8 summits have reiterated commitments to the EFA and members have pledged to meet resource shortfalls faced by the FTI. Development partners have also committed to create an International Task Force “Teachers for EFA” to counteract limited supply of qualified teachers in low-income countries. The 2010 G20 Summit in Seoul reiterated the link between education and labour markets, to increase employment in quality jobs, boost productivity and enhance potential growth. The ECOSOC meeting in 2011 reiterated the potential of education on development in Africa, highlighting quality of educational outputs; equitable access and aligning educational policies to labour market demand.
What has been done to deliver on these commitments?
Africa: Domestic resources across the majority of sub-Saharan African countries have been scaled-up, notwithstanding the food, fuel and financial crises. Some countries have made counter cyclical increases in resource allocation to sustain gains made. During the late 2000s real expenditure on education increased by 4.6% per year and real growth of per capita education spending accelerated to 2% per year. 26 African countries have had their national education plans endorsed by FTI, 2 more than in June 2010.
Development Partners: Aid to basic education in sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the largest EFA financing gap, fell in 2008 in real terms by 4%, or 6% per child in education, factoring in growth of school population. This levelling off does not necessarily signal a new trend, but current aid levels are incompatible with donors’ pledge that no government committed to achieving Education for All by 2015 should falter due to a lack in resources. Commitments on aid effectiveness, through the Paris and Accra declarations, are not being met. The 2010 target of 80% of aid channelled through national budgets still falls short, at 50%.
What results have been achieved?
Net primary education enrolment has risen in all African countries, reaching an average 83% overall in 2009. With an 18% point gain between 1999 and 2009, sub-Saharan Africa has the best record for improvement, followed by Northern Africa which had an 8% point increase during the same period. 16 countries had achieved rates above 90%. The region as a whole is likely to attain its MDG target of enrolment. Increases in primary completion rates have not kept pace and the regional average remains less than 70%. Inequities still constrain progress to higher enrolment and completion rates particularly for refugee children, rural populations, girls and low income groups. Girls in the poorest 20% of households are 3.5 times more likely to be out of school than girls in the highest income groups and 4 times more than boys in the higher income groups.
Gender parity in primary education is likely to be achieved by most countries, with past improvements sustained at the primary level (see also Promoting gender equality and women's empowerment). In sub-Saharan Africa 92 girls, and in North Africa, 95 girls were enrolled for every 100 boys in 2009 demonstrating continuous progress towards the gender parity target of 97-103 girls per 100 boys. Sixteen countries had reached parity.The picture at secondary level is less promising, although improving. Sub-Saharan Africa enrolment ratios have increased, albeit from a low base, by 40% since 1999. Gender parity is also less hopeful than at primary level, with Sub-Saharan gender parity at secondary school regressing from 82 girls in 1999 to 79 in 2009. On the other hand in North Africa, gender parity at secondary level increased from 93 to 98 over the same period. And the continental aggregate exhibits that ten countries had a parity index of more than 0.9.
On literacy rates North Africa chalked up the most progress with increases of 19 percentage points between 1990 and 2009 and sub-Saharan Africa showed significant improvement as well—a rise of 7 percentage points during the same period. Still, sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the lowest youth literacy rate (72% in 2009). In spite of overall progress, 47 million young people lacked basic reading and writing skills in 2009 in sub-Saharan Africa. However, 15 countries had literacy rates above 90 for both men and women. Enrolment in tertiary education has increased slightly in sub-Saharan Africa, from 5% to 6% over 2006-08. Qualified teacher numbers remain well below requirements, with a shortfall estimated around 3 million. In 2009, the aggregate pupil teacher ratios at primary level were above the international norm of 1:40.
What are the future priority actions?
Africa:
• Maintain and scale-up progress in primary education including through increased budgetary allocations to ensure equity in access for vulnerable groups including low income groups, rural dwellers and girls, refugee children and illiterate adults through increased targeting;
• Make quality of primary school graduates a top priority, so as to provide better access to post-primary education and increase “employability” of young primary school leavers;
• Increase investment in post-primary education to address both the quantity and quality of teaching and address the needs of the wider labour market.
Development partners:
• Accelerate progress in education assistance with an increased attention to African priorities, through strengthened quantity and quality of aid to education;
• Support African efforts to improve the quality of education at all levels through the production of qualified teachers for primary and post-primary education;
• Continue to support FTI.
|
