• by A.D.McKenzie (paris)
• Wednesday, May 18, 2011
• Inter Press Service

Investment in education by sub-Saharan African countries is paying dividends, with more children than ever before now attending school, according to a new report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

But despite increasing their overall spending on education by 6 percent each year since 2000, many of the region’s nations are still far from the U.N.-set goal of quality education for every child, the report says.

'The news is very good overall, but several constraints still exist,' said Hendrik van der Pol, director of UNESCO’s Montreal-based Institute for Statistics, which published the report. 'The positive development is a reflection of increased commitment by sub-Saharan Africa to invest in education.'

From 2000 to 2008, for instance, the number of children in primary schools in the region jumped by 48 percent, rising to 129 million from 87 million.

Enrolment in secondary education, meanwhile, increased 65 percent to 36 million pupils from 22 million; and the number of students in tertiary institutions grew by 80 percent to 4.5 million from 2.5 million.

Van der Pol said the statistics revealed 'tremendous growth' over the past decade. He publicly presented the report in Paris during the current meeting of UNESCO’s Executive Board that ends May 19. The board has put a 'priority focus' on Africa, particularly in the areas of educational and scientific development, he said.

Titled ‘Financing Education in sub-Saharan Africa - Meeting the Challenges of Expansion, Equity and Quality’, the report examines education expenditure in 45 African countries, and gives statistics on areas ranging from the number of students in schools to the salaries of teachers.

Two countries that stand out for their advances are Burundi and Mozambique, where expenditure levels rose 12 percent on average each year, according to the report.

Since 1999, the number of primary school students has tripled in Burundi, as a result of steps the government has taken. These measures include increasing spending on public education to 8.3 percent of GDP, from 3.2 percent; doubling the resources allocated to primary schooling; and abolishing primary school fees in 2005.

As a consequence, the number of children of primary school age who were not attending school in Burundi declined from 723,000 in 1999 to 10,000 in 2009, according to UNESCO statistics.

The report said that out of 26 countries with available data, only one country - the Central African Republic - has reduced expenditure on education since 2000.

'Sub-Saharan African governments have mostly been making a tremendous effort to develop their own countries,' van der Pol told IPS. 'Normally, this is not the story that comes out of Africa, so this report transmits a very positive message.'

He added that the most encouraging aspect was that many countries had made the advances using their own resources rather than depending on official development assistance (ODA).

Although ODA doubled during the decade beginning in 2000, overall it contributes to only 6 percent of total education expenditure, the report says.

'You can’t develop anyone, people have to develop themselves,' van der Pol commented.

The report says that, on average, education accounts for more than 18 percent of all public spending in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to 15 percent in other areas. The region devotes 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to education, second after North America and Europe with 5.3 percent. The world average was 4.7 percent in 2008.

Despite these levels of investment, many children are still being left behind. Thirty-two million children of primary school age are still out of school in the region, according to the report, and that number is expected to increase as the population of those aged 5 to 14 is predicted to grow by more than 34 percent over the next two decades.

Experts say that there will be 77 million more school-age children than in 2010, so governments will have to make strategic decisions on how to educate them all. For instance, resources that go to tertiary students - who 'tend to come from wealthier backgrounds' - may have to be shifted to lower levels of education, the report says.

Citing the case of Lesotho, which spends 50 times more for each tertiary student than per primary pupil, UNESCO recommends a re-allocation of resources.

Concerted efforts will also have to be made to recruit more teachers, as UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics estimates that one million additional primary school teachers are needed to achieve universal primary education by 2015.

But the rush to train teachers may create other problems. Education experts say that while more students may be in school, the quality of their education is not necessarily improving.

Vincent Mwale, a Zambian parliamentarian, told IPS that this assessment might have some truth. He said that Zambia would achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in education but that the country needs to concentrate on improving teacher recruitment.

'We are constructing a good number of schools and we have crash programmes to train teachers, but not everyone agrees that this produces good teachers,' he said on the sidelines of a Global Parliamentarians’ Summit in Paris this week.

Meanwhile, the UNESCO report says that the economic downturn will have a negative impact both on African households’ capacity to fund education and on ODA for education. Governments will thus have to take 'cost-effective approaches' towards improving the quality of education.

Despite these and other 'challenges' - including the impact of wars on education and persistent gender inequality - some African leaders welcomed the report, saying it showed the progress being made on the continent.

'It’s very good news for Africa,' said Angel Mokara Moleila, Equatorial Guinea’s secretary of state for consular and cultural affairs who was in Paris to attend UNESCO’s Executive Board meeting.

'It shows that we’re doing something in spite of the financial crisis,' Moleila told IPS. 'We hope that the international community will support us to make further progress.'

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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