UNU_RevitalizingHigherEducation

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91 Mozambique team

Innoation in Teacer Training in Sb-Saaran AricaBy Dr. Zacarias Alexandre Ombe, Mr. Jaime Alipio and Mr. Arnaldo Nhavoto (Pedagogical University o Mozambique)

I. INTRODUCTION

II. THE NEED FOR INNOVATION IN TEACHER EDUCATION

III. TEACHER TRAINING STRATEGY IN SSA

IV. EDUCATION PROBLEMS IN MOZAMBIQUE

V. SUCCESS STORIES IN TEACHER TRAINING IN SSA

VI. CONCLUDING REMARKS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

REFERENCES

105 Senegal team

A Strategic Paper By Hamidou Nacuzon Sall, Baye Dara Ndiaye, Bakary Diarra and Mouhamadoune Seck

(UNESCO Chair in Education, Facult des Sciences et Technologies de lEducation et de la Formation(FASTEF), Universit Cheikh Anta Diop, DakarSenegal)

I. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES OR CURRICULA

II. SPECIFIC PROGRAMMES

III. PEDAGOGY AND METHODS

IV. TEACHING TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

112 Conclsion

LIST OF BOXES AND TABLES

In: Innoation and Reitaliation o Edcation in Sb-Saaran Arica

Box 1: Conception and management o curriculum reorms

Box 2: Implementation o the Tenyear Education Development Plan/PPDE. Frameork o Guidelines or Curricula.

Box 3: Liaison Nesletter o La Main la pte special international supplement o issue 30, February 2005.

Box 4: UNOCI launches education or peace or young people in Cte dIvoire

Box 5: Subregional Seminar on the Diagnosis and Elaboration o Reerence Documents or Education on HIV/AIDS in the School Systems

o CEMAC Countries plus the Democratic Republic o Congo

Box 6: Education et Pauvret, Le cas de lArique

Box 7: Tenyear Programme or Education and Training (PDEF). Economic and Financial Report 2005. Provisional Report

Box 8a and 8b: ICT and Education

In: Innoation in Teacer Training in Sb-Saaran Arica

Table 1. The challenges o education or sustainable development in Mozambique,

and the need or innovation in education practices and policies

Table 2. The impact o age ceilings in Malai, Mozambique and Sierra Leone

Box 1: Tanzania. Accelerated teacher training

Box 2: Ethiopia. Postgraduate diploma in distance education

Table 3. Teachers ith and ithout pedagogical training in public schools by province and sex

Table 4. Number o trained and untrained teachers bet een 19932002

Table 5. Components o the Crescer programmes

Box 3: Japan. The Japanese example


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REVITALIZING HIGHER EDUCATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA2

Introdction

Achieving the objectives set by the international

community in the ield o education is a permanent

challenge or most Arican countries. The education sector

is in a particularly diicult situation in sub-Saharan Arica

where poverty and its consequences, including hunger,

illiteracy, uncontrolled population growth, a deteriorating

environment, pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and

TB, are part o peoples daily lives.

At the primary level, the enrolment rate increased rom

57 per cent in 1999 to 70 per cent in 2005, although in

many countries children rom the poorer amilies remain

excluded. Some 33 million children o primary school age

were not accessing education as o 2007. Furthermore, the

school-lie expectancy o children in Arica remains very

low compared with other regions o the world. Gender

equity also is under question: or every 100 boys attending

school and completing the cycle, 89 girls obtain some

education, while 76 women are literate or every 100 men.

Illiteracy and poverty are interrelated, the irst paving the

way to the second.

As ar as quality is concerned, inadequate mastery oeducation programmes, the application o rigid teaching

practices, the lack o teaching materials and insuicient

teaching time are some o the actors hindering

achievement o the objective o quality. Among the reasons

that could explain the inadequate learning outcomes

in the region are the shortages o teachers, resulting in

overcrowded classes with pupil-teacher ratios that can

be as high as 70:1 or even 100:1; it is estimated that at the

primary level, the pupil-teacher ratio was at 45:1 in 2005

(worsened rom 41:1 six years earlier). In addition to the

shortage o teachers, the poor standard o qualiication oteachers and the poor quality o training urther qualiy the

situation. HIV/AIDS also is having disastrous eects, not

only or teaching sta but also or school children and their

parents and amilies. (School adult literacy programmes

are one o the most eective weapons to counter the

pandemic.)

When considering the secondary school level, the

enrolment rate amounts to 48 per cent in the irst cycle

and 23 per cent in the second cycle, compared with an

average o 58 per cent or all developing countries. Some

Arican countries have very marginal access, below 20

per cent, while others have almost achieved universal

primary education at 80 per cent. Drop-out and repeat rates

remain high, especially in the lowest income countries.

The shortcomings noted at the primary level persist at the

secondary level, with overcrowded classrooms, in particular

in urban areas, unsuitable training programmes, lack o

quality education materials, and shortall in quantity and

quality o teaching sta.

Pedagogical methods give priority to approaches centred

on memorization and restitution. Few schools ocus

on teaching that encourages children to develop their

intelligence and creativity, instilling a good sense o

innovation and training or research activities. Major social

issues (in particular, civic instruction, health and ethical

values) are not given suicient consideration, and there is

a lack o linkage between education and working lie. The

special needs o persons with disabilities, those with lower

incomes, or those located in more isolated areas are rarely

taken into account. Although technical and vocational

education (TVE) can enable younger citizens to access

quality post-basic education, ew students are suicientlyprepared to cope with new trends in a rapidly changing

world, or with job markets that require people to improve

their qualiications and constantly renew knowledge while

engaging in a lielong learning process.

In higher education, the situation relects that prevailing

at other levels o the education system. Although the

system developed considerably in terms o quantity

starting rom the 1990s, the studying conditions are not

keeping track with the increasing number o students.

Lecture halls are overcrowded, while laboratories and

library acilities are insuicient and the living conditions

precarious. In act, because o the shortcoming observed

at the basic and general and technical secondary

levels, students are not suiciently prepared or higher

education. Higher education is marked by a low internal

and external eiciency that contributes insuiciently to

the development o the country, poverty reduction and

improvement o other levels o the education system.

The use o inormation and communication technologies

continues to be relatively low.


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INTRODU C TION 3

Faced with inadequate training and research conditions

and low scholarly incentives, there is a strong temptation

or many among the brightest students and teaching

sta to seek better living conditions in other countries or

regions. The dramatic situation prevailing in Arica will

not be reversed unless we ind solutions to reduce the

deterioration o the education system in the region. It is,

thereore, urgent to seek or answers to the key questions

that arise when analysing the situation o the education

systems in Arica. All eorts have to be mobilized to

help turn education into a development lever that brings

solutions to problems aecting society, taking into

account the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs). The

solutions urther lie within the Arican higher education

system itsel, in particular through the increased accent on

improvement o research and innovation.

Four ields o actions are taken into account in order to

increase the quality and the relevance o the education

system: policy and reorm o the education system in

Arica; the programmes, pedagogy and teaching tools; the

training o teachers; and research in education.

Four universities were selected rom the main sub-regions

and the dierent linguistic zones to build pilot teams

able to prepare working documents on the situation in

each o the our domains selected. These our universities

in Botswana, Ghana, Senegal and Mozambique are

expected to move towards orming pilot resource and

innovating centres to serve as think-tanks, and to submit

constructive proposals to decision makers and institutions

in Arica. The indings they highlight should contribute

to bridging the gaps o the level o knowledge between the

academics and political communities.

A SummARy OF ThE CONTRIBuTIONS

Policies and reforms of educational systems in Africa

(Botswana team)

This contribution emphasizes what policies should be

adopted to acilitate implementation o the Education or

All goals, in particular to:

improvetheachievementrateattheprimarylevel,

improveeducationalqualityandgenderequity,and

takeintoaccounttheproblemofHIV/AIDS,national

languages and cultural dimension, and the role

that education can play to attain the Millennium

Development Goals.

Programmes, pedagogy and teaching tools

(Senegal team)

This relection ocuses on the ollowing topics:

adoptionofprogrammesinkeepingwithnational

realities;

organizationofteachingbasedonproblem-solvingand

coherence between theory and practice;

renewalofteachingmethodsandpractices;

incorporationofnewinformationandcommunication

technologies into education;

transmissionofthefundamentalvaluesofsociety;

problemsrelatedtoHIV/AIDS;

theteachingofscienceandtechnology;

problemsofeducationinemergencysituations,andfor

the beneit o excluded populations; and

relationshipbetweencultureandeducation.

Research in the field of education in Africa(Ghana team)

The document investigates the ollowing areas:

thepoliciestobeadoptedtoensureaneffective

contribution to research on the development o

education in Arica;

successfulinitiativesintheareaofresearchand

innovation;

developmentofhumanresourcesandthemotivationof

researchers;

financingofresearchoneducationinAfrica;and

definitionofprioritiesintermsofthecontributiono research to the development o education: poverty

reduction, impact o HIV/AIDS, improved eiciency

and quality, and the impact o technologies on the

results o education.

Training of teachers in Africa (Mozambique team)

This paper takes the ollowing priorities into consideration:

developmentofnationalpoliciesinthefieldofteacher

training;

promotionofateachingsystemcentredonthestudent;

developmentofthequalitiesofinitiativeandautonomy;


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encouragementofateamspirit

fosteringofaninterestinresearch

useofavailableresourcestoacquireself-training

capacities;

developmentofacapacitytoproduceteachingtools;

useofnewinformationandcommunication

technologies;

thepracticeofinter-disciplinarity;

trainingofteachersasnationaldevelopmentagents;

and

South-SouthandNorth-Southco-operationinthefield

o teacher training.

Strategic innovations (Senegal team)

This paper oers recommendations or innovating

educational programmes, pedagogy, teaching methods,

teaching tools and technology.

Acknowledgeents

Proessor Francisco Komlavi Seddoh, Adviser to

the Rector on Arican Issues, UNU, as the

coordinator o the project and team leader o this

report. Soisik Maubec, Programme Oicer in the

Oice o the Rector, UNU, assisted ith the

preparation and coordination o the report.

Acknoledgments are also due to Pierre Kouraogo,

Associate Proessor o Applied Linguistics at thetraining and research unit (UFRLAC) o the

University o Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, or his

valuable advice and contributions to the editing o

the report. Nieves Claxton, UNU Oice at

UNESCO (Paris, France) provided support or the

translation o documents.

The UNU Oice o Communications managed

copy editing and overall coordination o the

design, production, and printing o the report, ith

the support and assistance o Mori Design Inc.

(and, most speciically, Haruki Mori).


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BOT SwA NA TE A M 5

Botswana team

Policies and Reors oEdcational Sstes in Arica:

A Reiew o te Crrent SitationBy Dr. Theophilus Mooko, Pro. Richard Tabulaa, Dr. Tonic Maruatona

and Dr. Anthony Koosimile (University o Botsana)


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I. INTRODuCTION

This paper oers an exploration o polices and reorms o

educational systems in Arica within the context o both

Education or All and the Millennium Development Goals.

Specically, the paper seeks to address the question o:

What policies should be adopted to acilitate the

implementation o the Education or All goals: in

particular, to improve the achievement rate at the primary

level, improve educational quality and gender equity, and

take into account the problem o HIV/AIDS, nationallanguages and cultural dimension, and the role that

education can play to attain the Millennium Development

Goals?

The paper is divided into three sections:

SectionIIprovidesaconceptualunderstandingof

Education or All and the Millennium Development

Goals.

SectionIIIthenshowcasessomeoftheinnovative

approaches that have been developed in Arica. The

presentation demonstrates that Arica has the potential

not only to conront the challenges it aces, but also to

overcome them, and unearths some o the innovations

that Arican states have embarked upon. It is hoped

that those countries still struggling with some o

these challenges can learn rom the success stories

documented here. These stories illustrate the act that

success is a product o a complex interaction o various

actors; whereas countries do not need to replicate what

others have done, they nonetheless can learn rom them

and develop strategies that could work or them.

SectionIVbrieysummarizessomeoftheeducational

policy priorities that Arica needs to consider as itendeavours to attain the ideals o Education or All

and the Millennium Development Goals. These

identied policy priorities have been set within the

context o the identied educational challenges

prevailing in Sub-Saharan Arica.

II. CONCEPTuALIzATION OF EDuCATIONFOR ALL AND ThE mILLENNIumDEvELOPmENT GOALS

II-1. Education or All Origins andsubsequent developments

Education or All (EFA) represents the worlds

commitment to provide education to all who are eligible.

EFA encompasses pre-primary, primary, secondary,

tertiary and adult education. It is a multi-aceted challengerequiring simultaneous attention to access, equity, quality

and relevance. Quite oten, however, some o these acets

mayconict(forexample,itiscommonthatwhenaccess

to schooling improves, quality declines).

The worlds commitment to the provision o education to

all has a long history. The rst such commitment was in

1948, when the Universal Declaration o Human Rights

(UDHR) was published. In that declaration, education

was recognized as a undamental human right or the

multiaceted development o individuals and o society.

In particular, it was declared that elementary education

should be ree and compulsory and that the higher levels

o education should be accessible to all on the basis o

merit(UnitedNations,1948,Article26).

Two routes have been used to realize the commitments

o the UDHR: (1) the use o treaties as instruments and

(2) the use o declarations o conerences convened by

theUnitedNationstosecurehumanrightsobservance.

An example o the ormer is the International Bill o

Human Rights (constituted by instruments such as the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic,

Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)). The conventions

provide or compulsory and ree primary education.

The Convention on the Elimination o all Forms o

Discrimination against Women (1979) and the Convention

on the Rights o the Child (1989) the two most recent

conventions have very strong guarantees o childrens

right to education. The use o the second route (conerence

declarations)cameintheformofUN-organized

conerences, such as the 1990 Jomtien World Conerence

on Education and the 2000 Dakar Framework or Action,

and the Millennium Declaration. All these instruments


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BOT SwA NA TE A M 7

restated the commitment to universal primary education,

with the Millennium Declaration going urther by setting

time-bound targets.

II-2. The role o education

But why was education made such a critical ocal point o

the socio-economic and political development o nations in

the rst place? A number o reasons can be adduced.

The rst was the horror o World War II. In emerging

rom the devastation o that war, the world was eager

to usher in a new world order. It was envisaged that

education would have a role to play in the evolution o that

new order. Education became an important tool or the

ormation o citizenship. The world would become a better

place i people, all around the world, developed to their

ull potential, it was thought. It was the task o education

to inculcate this civic responsibility, with the ultimate

objective being inculcation o a democratic ethos.

Second, the post-World War II egalitarian Welare State

obligated the state to provide or the citizen in exchangeor improved productivity. Under this contract, services

such as education, housing and health were to be provided

by the state, ree o charge; that is, they were public

goods.Notethatthisresonateswiththespiritofthe1948

Universal Declaration o Human Rights. In short, the

Welare State was conceived as the best vehicle or the

delivery o the envisaged new world order based on the

ideology o respect or human rights.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the view o education as a public

good was given impetus by the evolution o human capitaltheory, which in turn led to a new eld o study: Economics

o Education. Studies by the likes o Gary Schultz and

George Psacharopoulos purported to have established a

positive relationship between schooling and economic

growth. They argued that both the individual and society

beneted rom an educated populace i.e., that investing

in education had both private and social rates o return.

The argument was that a more educated society may

translate into higher rates o innovation, higher overall

productivity through rms ability to introduce new and

better production methods, and a aster introduction o

new technology (EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2005, p.

41). The social rates o return to education were stressed.

I it was society at large that beneted rom investments in

education, then it was the obligation o the state to provide

ree education to its citizens. With egalitarianism as a

guiding philosophy, most countries in the West provided

ree or highly subsidized education in the 1960s and 1970s.

Human capital theory did not escape the attention o world

bodies such as the World Bank. Impressed by studies

carried out by economists o education, the World Bank

endorsed the view that, indeed, education (in particular,

primary/basic education) had an impact on economic

growth. In the view o the Bank, this was particularly

true in the case o developing countries. In the 1970s, the

World Bank championed and unded basic education in

developing countries. It argued that the provision o basic

education in developing countries would boost productivity

and technological transer, leading to improved economic

growth. In other words, investment in basic education

yielded higher social rates o return. Thereore, it was

imperative that developing countries provide basic

education. These arguments were a boost or universal

primary education.

In2000,theUnitedNationsGeneralAssemblyadopted

the Millennium Declaration. In devising a plan or

achieving the objectives o the Declaration, the Secretary

General, with the help o the World Bank, the International

Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation or Economic

Cooperation and Development (OECD), came up with 8

goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators that collectively came to

be known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The MDGs are a set o time-bound and measurable goals

and targets designed to decrease poverty, hunger, disease,

illiteracy, environmental devastation and discrimination

against women (Wagner, 2007:2). The MDGs represent

probably the rst-ever eort on a global scale to have all

countries committing themselves to solve world problems.

All governments are obliged to have in place programmes

and strategies that will ensure achievement o the MDGs

by 2015.

How, then, have these developments aected the

provision o education in Arica? As has been observed

in the introduction, Education or All as a concept is

all-encompassing, as it includes pre-primary, primary,


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secondary, tertiary and adult education. Also encompassed

by EFA is Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Basic

Education (BE). These two concepts, in act, orm the

general education component o education systems

in Arica. These are the aspects o EFA that are best

developed, as they are the only ones that could be said

to be closest to oering education or all. The secondary

and tertiary sub-sectors are grossly under-developed in

Arica, to the extent that it would not be realistic to talk o

achieving education or all at these sub-sectors in the near

uture in Arica.

For this reason, discussion o EFA in this report connes

itsel largely to the provision o universal primary

education and basic education. Other sub-sectors are

mentioned only where relevant. For ease o reerence,

we adopt the term Universal Basic Education (UBE,

instead o UPE and BE separately) as it encompasses both

UPE and BE. Some countries or example, Botswana

oer basic education that is not conned to the primary

education stratum, as is the case in most Arican countries

that purport to oer some sort o basic education. In

Botswana, basic education comprises the rst 10 yearso a childs ormal education (i.e., 7 years o primary and

the rst 3 years o a ve-year secondary education) as

well as the non-ormal education sub-sector, whereas in

other countries it is only basic primary education that is

universal.

II-3. Universal basic education in Arica

The developments sketched above had tremendous impact

on basic primary education provision in Arica as a whole.

The public-good view o education prevalent in the 1960sand 1970s ound its way into the education policies o most

Arican countries. Two major orces were at work here.

First was the need or an educated/literate population to

propel the development agenda at independence. When

many Arican countries attained independence in the late

1950s and 1960s, they had very serious human resources

constraints that impeded the bourgeoning o the modern

sector hence, the development o manpower planning

strategies in third-world countries such as Botswana.

Theneedtodevelopthoseresourceswasimmense.(Note

that Aricas independence coincided with the rise o the

human capital theory.)

Second, the emergence o the Arican nation-state rom

the various edoms and kingdoms required that robust

nation-states be built. Education was viewed as the glue

that could hold together the various kingdoms and

ethnicities into nation-states. Developing basic primary

education, thereore, became a priority or the emerging

governments. However, although the will was there

to provide basic primary education to all, this was not

realized because o resources constraints. For this reason,

education remained a privilege or only the ew who could

aord it. By 1990, only a handul o Arican countries

could claim major strides in the provision o basic primary

education. The Jomtien Conerence, however, gave

impetus to the development o primary education in the

continent.

Onemayask:Whybasiceducation?Here,theinuence

o the World Bank and the OECD is obvious. These bodies

believed that rates o return or education in developing

countries were highest at the primary school levels simply

because o its (educations) scarcity. Thereore, it made

sense to invest more in basic education. Conversely, the

rates o return or education were lower at the seniorsecondary and tertiary levels, requiring less investment

in inrastructure at these levels. I basic education

sufced in equipping students with skills that made them

economically productive, it only made sense to invest more

in that. With this view now legitimated by the World Bank

and the OECD, it soon became dogma around the world.

Subsequently appropriated by bilateral aid agencies, the

dogma became an important aspect o these agencies

educational discourse. Through policy advice, these

agencies ensured that the discourse permeated education

thinking in developing countries, in the process reshaping

educational priorities in avour o the basic education

stratum.

An important external actor is the growing importance

o knowledge or the global economy and its centrality in

nations readiness or global competitiveness. The rise

o the so-called Knowledge Economy demands a highly

educated population with technical skills essential or

increased productivity. In this regard, basic education no

longer sufces. Rates o return or basic education have

diminished. The Bank o Botswana recently reported that

a very high percentage o school leavers are unemployed


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BOT SwA NA TE A M 9

in Botswana. This attests to the diminished value o basic

education. These developments are calling or attention

to be shited to areas that hitherto were neglected: the

senior secondary and tertiary education strata. Most

countries have developed tertiary education policies that

seek to modernize higher education so that it can ace up

to the challenges o producing people who can generate

knowledge that can be technically exploited to boost those

countries global economic competitiveness.

O course, progress in the provision o universal basic

education in Arica diers rom one country to another.

Countries such as Mauritius, South Arica, Botswana and

Uganda have made the greatest strides, attaining almost

100 per cent universal basic education. Riddell (2003)

observes that the rst year o ree primary education in

Malawi saw enrolment increasing by over 50 per cent,

rom 1.9 million in 1993/4 to about 3.2 million in 1994/5.

In Kenya, the announcement o the introduction o ree

primary education in 2002 saw enrolments surge rom 6.0

million to 7.2 million in 2003. In Zambia, the rst year o

ree primary education (2002) saw enrolment growing by 7

per cent, compared with only 2 per cent in 2001.

But this phenomenal growth in primary education

enrolment across all countries has put a strain on the

quality o education. For example, as a result o primary

education population surges, teacherpupil ratios have

worsened. Mozambique, in its endeavour to increase

access to primary education, encountered problems related

to a lack o teachers as well as a lack o resources, such

as insufcient classrooms, desks and chairs or children.

In Tanzania, it was reported in 2005 that at one school,

there were 2,300 pupils who were taught by only 50teachers(Nkosi,2005).Thiscameaboutasaresultofthe

introduction o ree primary education, unded mainly by

externaldonors.NkosisassessmentisthatwhileTanzania

isonthewaytowardsattainingtheUNMillennium

Development Goal o ree primary education, the quality o

that education has been compromised in the process.

The introduction o basic education in Arica was largely

unplanned. It was a sudden process, seen by some as a

political stunt. There were no prior considerations o the

likely impact o such improvements on the capacity o the

system to handle the massive increase in the number o

students entering the education system. The underlying

act seems to be that the Arican education system does

not have the capacity to handle some o the reorms due to

resource constraints, and probably also because o a lack o

creativity. But Arica cannot wait until those resources are

procured. In terms o policy, what is needed are innovative

approaches that while ensuring access to ree primary

education do not, on the other hand, lead to a decline in

the quality o education.

As already mentioned, some countries in Sub-Saharan

Arica have achieved the goal o providing universal basic

education and are now moving towards providing universal

secondary education. Botswana has set itsel the target o

achieving universal secondary education by 2016. Uganda

also has started its implementation o this target. The

main hurdle that has been encountered so ar in Uganda

has been a shortall in the number o teachers required to

teach at this level. Although some countries have achieved

the broader MDG 2 (that o access to Universal Primary

Education), challenges remain. The picture becomes less

rosy when we zero-in on the individual targets o the MDG

2, namely retention and quality education. For example,when it comes to retention, it is reported that 17 per cent o

school-age children are missing rom school in Botswana.

With regard to quality and relevance, it generally is agreed

that more needs to be done. It is one thing to achieve

100 per cent access, but another to provide high-quality,

relevant education. Issues o retention and quality remain

big challenges, and should orm part o any proposal

to improve education in Sub-Saharan Arica. The issue

o retention could be addressed by making education,

particularly primary education, compulsory.

II-4. Quality issues in education

On the quality ront, policies need to be developed that will

ensure improvement o the quality o education provided.

It is generally accepted in the literature that the concept

o quality is a contested one, primarily because it is a

relative (as opposed to absolute) concept. What might be

considered as quality education today may not be quality

education tomorrow. For this reason, it is pointless to

search or a xed denition o quality education. Rather,

it is conventional to describe quality in education in terms


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o such indicators as the percentage o trained teachers,

pupiltextbook ratios and pupilteacher ratios.

Denitions o quality education vary rom those that

look at technical indicators to those that view it is as an

indication o the outcomes o a concerted progressive

process. For example, Hawes and Stephens (1990) dene

it as a process that requires efciency in meeting the set

goals, relevance to human and developmental needs and

conditions, something more in relation to the pursuit o

excellence and human betterment (p. 11). In a similar

vein, Bandary (2005) states that it encompasses a range o

elements including the level o student achievement; the

ability and qualication o sta; the standard o acilities

and equipment; the eectiveness o teaching, planning and

administrative processes; and the relevance o programmes

to the needs o students and the nation in an emerging

global knowledge economy (p. 185).

However, others view quality as both a process and a

critical indicator o expected outcomes. Schaeer (1992)

asserts that quality education involves how people are

mobilized and empowered through the provision oknowledge and skills to enable them to participate in the

democratic structures o their societies. What is paramount

is that quality should be dened in terms o tness or

purpose i.e., whether the education provided is o

good or poor quality depends on the degree to which it

(education) measures up to the stated ideals, goals and

objectives (purpose).

In spite o the variations in categorical denitions, there

is a clear consensus that the provision o education is

not only a quantitative process, but is also unashamedlyqualitative. The Dakar Framework or Action in 2000

recognized the quality o education as a primary

determinant o whether or not Education or All is

achieved. The second o the six goals o the Framework

committed signatory nations to the provision o primary

education o good quality, while the sixth goal implored

nations to make a commitment to improve all aspects o

education so that everyone can achieve better learning

outcomes. The process o teaching and learning thus has

to invariably uphold the ideal o a child-centred education.

The 2005 Global Monitoring ReportofUNESCO(2004)

notes that it seems the achievement o universal

participation in education will be undamentally dependent

upon the quality o education available. Expanding access

to education alone is not sufcient or it to contribute

ully to the development o the individual and society.

The Dakar Framework or Action declared that access to

quality education was the right o every child, and that

quality should be placed at the heart o education since

its a undamental determinant o enrolment, retention

and achievement. The process will be based on how well

pupils are taught and how much they learn, which in turn

willinuencehowlongtheystayinschoolortheregularity

o their attendance. Furthermore, whether parents

continue to send their children to school will depend on

their inormed judgements about the quality o teaching

and learning. Education, thereore, is viewed as a set o

processes and outcomes that are dened qualitatively.

Thus, it is imperative that any attempt to engage in the

reormation o educational policy in Arica be premised on

addressing issues o quality.

Closely tied to quality is the issue o relevance. Qualitymaybeareectionofrelevance,oritsderivative.Quality

education must be relevant to the needs o its recipients;

irrelevant education, no matter how well articulated and

aligned its various components may be, is poor-quality

education. Such education has implications or efciency

o the system, retention, repetition, attainment and drop-

out rates. Good examination results, as long as they do not

measure these stated qualities, can never be indicative o

quality education.

The challenge acing Arican nations, thereore, is the

need to set clearly articulated institutional missions that

stipulate, in no vague terms, the kind o person that they

wish their education systems could produce. Once this has

been done, then ways o going about producing this ideal

character can be ormulated with clear articulation and

alignment amongst pedagogy, assessment and curriculum.

An area with great research potential is whether Arican

nations have well-articulated and -aligned missions, goals

and objectives against which quality could be measured.


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BOT SwA NA TE A M 11

III. EmERGING INNOvATIvE APPROAChES

In this section, we will examine some o the emerging

innovative approaches. These innovations have been

explored in relation to some o the prevalent educational

challenges with which Sub-Saharan Arica has to contend.

Some o the recurring themes in this regard are issues

such as access, equity, quality and relevance.

III-1. Early childhood care and education

One o the Education or All goals has been articulated as

expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood

care and education, especially or the most vulnerable

and disadvantaged children. Access to early childhood

education is an important determinant o perormance at

the primary school level. Thus, early childhood care and

education (ECCE) serves a vital role o initiating children

into the school culture. Children who have gone through

such initial education are better equipped to cope with

the demands o primary education, as they would have

been introduced to some basic literacy elements prior to

enrolling in primary school.

This benet does not preclude the act that children

develop at dierent paces; hence, the provision o ECCE

does not automatically coner equal benets upon all

children. It is nonetheless a truism that ECCE can

contribute towards the provision o quality education. This

can occur when ECCE provides the learners with an early

start, enabling primary school teachers to take the students

to another level.

Access to early childhood education is still limited inSub-Saharan countries; ewer than 5 per cent o eligible

children are enrolled in any orm o early learning

programme. For example, Botswana had only 27 per cent

o children aged 3 to 6 years receiving such instruction in

1997. The majority (54.6 per cent) o those who beneted

rom this education resided in urban centres. Pre-school

education is not ree in Botswana; consequently, access is

limited not only because there are ew providers, but also

because o aordability.

The situation in Botswana mirrors that which prevails

in most Sub-Saharan countries. The typical eature is

that there is better access to ECCE in urban areas than

in rural areas. In addition, it is children rom the richer

amilies who have access to such education. Government

involvement also is generally limited; most governments

provide no nancial backing or such education, and it

oten is let to private providers. It is interesting to note

that whereas commendable strides are being made with

respect to the provision o primary education, provision or

ECCE is still lagging behind. There are, nonetheless, some

innovative experiences that can be presented here.

Mauritius and the Seychelles provide some o the success

stories in Arica in the provision o early childhood

education. Currently (2007), Mauritius provides early

childhood education to 94 per cent o children aged

between 3 and 5 years. By 2004, Seychelles was able to

provide this level o education to 85 per cent o children

aged 3.5 to 5 years. The strides that Mauritius has made

in this area can be attributed to three actors: (1) the

utilization o classroom space in some primary schools or

ECCE; (2) nancial assistance to private providers throughsot loans, which has enabled these providers to improve

their acilities; and (3) the construction o a pre-primary

school in primary school acilities. As or the Seychelles,

the gains are a result o the provision o ree pre-school

education by the government in addition to that provided

by private providers. Also, the pre-schools are located close

to the district primary schools (Purvis, 2004).

The experiences o these two countries demonstrate

the importance o government involvement in the

provision o ECCE. Governments need to appreciate the

value o investing in this area, even in instances where

most o the services are provided by non-governmental

organizations.Inaddition,thesecasestudiesreect

the need or countries to be creative when approaching

challenges in the educational sector. The utilization o

some underutilized school inrastructure or the purposes

o oering ECCE is one such innovation that is worth

mentioning. This not only assists in the optimal utilization

o available resources but also widens the use o the

acilities to meet the diverse educational needs o the

nation. In the process, the provision o education becomes


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more cost eective an essential actor in Sub-Saharan

Arica where resources are limited.

III-2. Enhancing primary school enrolmentrates by providing ree education

The 2007 Millennium Development Goals Reportnotes that

some progress has been made by Sub-Saharan countries

in their quest to achieve universal enrolment (though a lot

remains to be done). It is reported that Although sub-

Saharan Arica has made signicant progress over the last

ew years, it still trails behind other regions, with 30 per

cent o its children o primary school age out o school

(UnitedNations,2007:11).

MostcountriesinSub-SaharanAfricahavereportedaNet

IntakeRate(NIR)ofaround30percentorlower;atthe

otherextreme,afewcountrieshaveattainedanNIRof

above 95 per cent. These countries apparently have put into

practiceapolicyofuniversalprimaryeducation(UNESCO,

2000:38). Primary school ees have been abolished in

several Sub-Saharan Arican countries; Botswana did so in

1980.

According to the 2007 report, some o the countries

that have recorded a surge in primary school enrolment

include Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and the United Republic

o Tanzania. The gains demonstrate the act that ree

schooling has a signicant impact on school enrolment,

and it is crucial or the attainment o the EFA goal o

achieving universal primary education.

III-3. Tackling indirect educational costs

The provision o ree education is not sufcient on its own,

as very oten there are other indirect costs that amilies

have to incur. Indirect educational costs, such as uniorm

ees, textbook ees or transport levies, can seriously impede

access to education. There are some noteworthy innovative

approaches, however, that some countries have pursued in

their quest to deal with such indirect costs that may limit

childrens access to ree education.

Ghana oers a good example on how this problem can be

tackled. The government o Ghana has introduced:

... Free Bus Riding or School Children in uniorm rom

kindergarten to JSS level. Reports indicate that over 100,000

pupils enjoyed the MMT [Metro Mass Transit] Free Bus

Riding System within one week ater introduction in Accra

alone. It is expected that about 25, 000 pupils will ride ree

to and rom school every day throughout the country under

this scheme.

(http://.moep.gov.gh/documents/LoanMassTransport.pd)

Such a scheme is essential in supporting ree education,

as it assists in cutting down education-related costs that

amilies have to incur even in instances where ree primary

education is available. The provision o ree transport

also assists in dealing with the distance problem, which

in some instances has made it difcult or children to

access education. This arrangement also will go a long

way towards assisting Ghana to realize its goal o oering

compulsory ree basic education.

Prior to the introduction o the ree bus scheme, Ghana

had abolished all school levies (in 2004). The results o thisintervention have been summed as ollows:

The results were immediate and stunning. Over two

academic years, enrolment in public basic schools surged

rom 4.2 million to 5.4 million. The gross enrolment ratio

in primary schools reached an all-time high o 92.7%.

Children rom some o the poorest amilies and most remote

communities poured into school or their rst opportunity

to learn. In one amily, as soon as the news about the levies

spread, a mother rushed out to bring home her 10-year-old

daughter, whom she had reluctantly sent away to work and

earn income or the amily. In one industrial area whichemploys a large number o apprentices in auto mechanical

engineering between the ages o 11 and 20, schools suddenly

became over-enrolled. These trainees now go to school in the

morning and learn their trade in the aternoon.

(BBC Nes, Friday, 14 July 2006;

http://nes.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_nes/education/5181852.stm)

In order to compensate or the lost income resulting

rom the abolishment o school levies, the government o

Ghana had to explore other means o generating revenue

or schools. To replace the lost revenue, the government

introduced capitation grants paid directly to the schools

(ibid).


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Some o the strategies that have been adopted to

circumvent the problem o indirect educational costs

include doing away with the requirement or school

uniorms. This has been implemented in Malawi, Tanzania

and Zambia, or example. In all these countries, a school

uniorm is not compulsory (Riddell, 2003). Although

the abolishment o school uniorms has both merits and

demerits, the underlying philosophy guiding the adoption

o such a policy is the need to lessen the nancial burden

that parents have to contend with. As will be noted later,

Botswana has not eliminated the requirement or school

uniorms at either the primary or secondary school level.

What has been done is that the government provides

orphans with the needed school uniorm. In this manner,

orphans are cushioned against the nancial costs related to

the need to wear a school uniorm.

III-4. Provision o ree textbooks

Learners need to have access to learning materials, such as

textbooks. Access to textbooks is an important actor in the

provision o quality education. In some countries, however,

children still have to buy such materials.

In Botswana and Gambia, school children are provided

with ree textbooks. Burkina Faso also has launched a

campaign o massive distribution o textbooks as part

o its newly adopted ree basic education or all policy.

The provision o ree textbooks to all children transers

the burden o such costs rom parents to the state. This

not only contributes to quality education in terms o the

availability o textbooks or learners, but also acilitates

equity in access to education or children rom diverse

backgrounds. In Botswana, the textbooks belong to theschools; the learners are expected to return them to the

school at the end o the year so that they can be reissued to

the next group o students.

III-5. Introduction o compulsory educationThe provision o ree education, as presented above, clearly

demonstrates that ree schooling can enable countries

to move closer to realizing this goal. Unortunately,

however, ree education will not always result in increased

enrolments. There also is a need to make the education

compulsory in order to meet the second EFA goal,

which is aimed at Ensuring that by 2015 all children,

particularly girls, children in difcult circumstances and

those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and

complete, ree and compulsory primary education o good

quality.

Making education compulsory will compel parents to

send their children to school. There is, nonetheless, a

need to create an environment that is conducive or the

implementation o such a policy. One such strategy is

the elimination o indirect educational costs. The case o

Ghana, already cited above, illustrates that a concerted

eort by the government can enable the country to do that.

Uganda also has ventured into the provision o compulsory

education amongst some o its vulnerable citizens.

Reuters reported in September 2007 that the country was

introducing compulsory education in the trouble-torn area

o Karamoja (http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/

L18789335.htm). The government will build boarding

schools or the children, and it is hoped that the provision

o such acilities will assist in encouraging parents to

send children to school. The approach adopted by Ugandaillustrates the act that governments need to tailor their

eorts to meet the unique circumstances prevailing in

their countries. The provision o boarding acilities will

result in increased educational expenditure, but this is an

investment that needs to be made in order to transorm

the lives o the people living in this trouble-torn region.

Ugandas approach also should serve as an example or

othernationsthathavetocontendwithconictsituations.

III-6. Gender equity

One o the most strategic indicators o policy reorm in

education is eorts by nations to address gender equity

through enhancing the participation o girls and women in

all orms o education. The 1990 Declaration on Education

For All was reiterated when all nations at the World

Education Forum agreed and noted that there should be

a delivery o quality education or girls and women. They

also made a unanimous commitment to make eorts to

remove all orms o barriers and stereotyping that could

hinder the active participation o girls and women in

education(UNESCO,2000).


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In 2000, close to two-thirds o all illiterate people were

emale, representing 240 million more emale illiterates

than males. The most pronounced gender inequity exists

intheSouthandWestAsia,Sub-SaharanAfrica,North

Arica and the Arab States. The gender gap, unortunately,

correlates with poverty, as it both causes and is a direct

consequence o it (ICAE, 2003). Arica was a signatory

to the Dakar Framework or Action, one o the six goals

o which is geared towards ensuring that the learning

needs o all young people and adults are met through

equitable access to appropriate learning and lie skills. The

Framework also called or a 50 per cent improvement in

the levels o adult literacy, especially or women, by 2015.

This requires that a major policy reorm be undertaken

with a ocus on how Arica ensures that its provisions

address gender equity.

Problems o access to education are varied and complex.

Boys still participate actively as a labour resource in the

traditional cattle-herding economy, the main subsistence

economic activity in the rural hinterland. Similarly,

some emales are not yet relieved o such socio-cultural

obligations as marrying at a young age or taking careo siblings and the sick in the amily. These actors

complicate the question o access to education. Also,

some schools in Botswana, or example, are inaccessible

to school-age children due to the location relative to

their homesteads. Travelling long distances to school is a

disincentive or all ages.

There is an interesting trend that points to the act that

eorts geared towards redressing gender equity are

beginning to yield ruit in a ew countries in Arica.

For example, the gender gap observed in Zambia wasdramatically reduced by the year 2000. Gender parity

has been observed in a number o countries in southern

Arica, such as Botswana Lesotho, South Arica and

Zambia (ICAE, 2003). A report by the International

Council o Adult Education (ICAE) indicates that to retain

a gender balance, there is need or literacy programmes

to address the specic needs o women and to enhance

their participation in literacy. Also, programmes should

recognize their cultural specicity and creativity, and

acknowledge their experiences in the planning and

execution o literacy education. Countries need to develop

responsive content, use participatory methodologies, and

adjust timetables and other resources and logistics to

respond to the peculiar circumstances o their stakeholders

(ICAE, 2003). Even among the countries listed above,

there still is a need to address these aspects to increase the

enrolment and retention o women and girls in literacy

and basic education programmes.

According to the 2005 Global Monitoring Report,

worldwide the enrolment o girls in primary schools

improved in the 1990s. The gross enrolment ratio (GER)

or girls increased by more than 3 per cent, rom 93.1

per cent in 1990 to 96.5 per cent in 1999, while over the

same period the GER or boys ell rom 105.5 per cent to

104percent(UNESCO,2004).Thegenderparityindex

improved in all regions and in nearly two-thirds o the

92 countries or which data was available. Asia, the Arab

world and Arica ace the greatest challenges in terms o

meeting the Dakar goals by 2015. The report argues that

the provision o education in Arica should, o necessity, be

made an obligation o governments, and that it should be

mandatory that Arican leaders translate their international

commitments into national legislative instruments against

which citizens could have legal recourse in case o genderviolations or whatever might predispose them to violation.

In Botswana, there are clear variations with respect to the

representation o both boys and girls at the dierent levels

o the education system. For example, enrolment data or

2005 indicates that more boys than girls enrol in lower

classes. Whereas the system is able to retain girls at the

primary school level, the opposite is true at secondary and

tertiary levels. In the process, this trend upsets the gains

attained at primary school level in terms o gender equity.

In spite o commendable eorts to attain gender parity,

the number o boys in the upper primary school classes

declines as the pupils progress with their education.

There are more boys dropping out o the primary school

system in Botswana than girls. In 2003, 62 per cent o the

pupils who dropped out at primary school level were boys.

One o the reasons used to account or this phenomenon

is the practice o child labour taking place in some cattle

posts and arms. In terms o repetition, there were more

boys (63 per cent) in Botswana who repeated a class than

girls. Girls seem to be making more progress than boys

in terms o completion rates at primary school level.


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There is still, nonetheless, a need to undertake detailed

investigationstodeterminethefactorsthathaveinuenced

this trend.

The secondary school level saw a dierent trend in terms

o the drop-out rates. At this level, there are more emale

students dropping out o school than boys. In 2005, 63.1

per cent o the students who dropped out at secondary

school level were girls. Pregnancy remains the main

contributory actor. The high drop-out rate or girls at the

secondaryschoollevelreectsareversalofthegainsmade

at the primary school level. The government has put in

place a policy that allows girls to re-enter the school system

ater giving birth, though they are expected to go to a

dierent school.

In Botswana, there are clear variations in terms o the

educational perormance o boys and girls. Girls tend

to outnumber and outperorm boys in primary school

leaving examinations. According to the Ministry o

Education (2006), a total o 42,532 candidates sat or

the 2006 Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE).

O this number, 21,822 were emales while 20,710 weremales (p. 2). The report urther states that, as in previous

years girls perormed better than boys across the ve

subjects (Setswana, English, Mathematics, Science and

Social Studies). They obtained an overall pass o 84.8%

at Grades A-C compared to 74.2% or the boys... 13.3% o

the girls were awarded overall Grade A compared to 9.7%

or the boys (p. 13). For the rst time in the history o

the University o Botswana, more than 50 per cent o the

cohort that graduated in 2006 was emale.

III-7. The HIV/AIDS challengeOneoftheUNMillenniumDevelopmentGoals(6)focuses

on the need to halt and reverse the spread o HIV/AIDS.

The 2007 Millennium Development Goals Report notes

that although the prevalence o HIV/AIDS has levelled

o in general, the opposite trend persists in Sub-Saharan

Arica, where deaths rom AIDS continue to rise. By the

end o 2006, an estimated 39.5 million people worldwide

were living with HIV (up rom 32.9 million in 2001),

mostlyinsub-SaharanAfrica(UnitedNations,2007:18).

The educational sector serves as one o the strategic points

o intervention. It is strategically positioned in many

respects. First, it can serve as a vehicle or enlightening

people about the pandemic. In addition, the uture

generation o leaders are mostly ound in the schools, and

any hope o an AIDS-ree generation depends very much

on the ability to empower these children. Countries in

Sub-Saharan Arica have realized the need to introduce

some changes in the education sector in response to the

challenge o the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The direct impact o HIV/AIDS on the school drop-out

rate has not been conrmed, but some girls are said to

be dropping out at the secondary school level due to this

problem. Increased drop-out rates by girls at the secondary

school level result in gender disparities that do not avour

emales at the secondary school and, subsequently, tertiary

levels.

Females are generally expected to undertake some

household chores, such as taking care o amily members.

As a result o the HIV/AIDS problem, some girls end

up missing the opportunity o staying on at school. Thechallenge o the HIV/AIDS pandemic, in relation to the

education o girls, was aptly stated by the ormer Secretary

GeneraloftheUnitedNations,KoAnnan(2004):

As AIDS orces girls to drop out o school whether they

are orced to take care o a sick relative, run the household, or

help support the amily they all deeper into poverty. Their

own children in turn are less likely to attend school and

more likely to become inected. Thus, society pays many times

over the deadly price o the impact on women o AIDS.

The challenge o HIV/AIDS threatens to reverse the gainsthat countries have realized in the education o girls. This

isclearlysummedupbytheUNAIDSreportof2004,

which notes that:

Southern Arica has been a regional leader in achieving

girls enrolment in school, with rates as high as and

sometimes higher than those or boys. Now the challenge is

to keep them there. Though more hard data is still needed,

anecdotal evidence suggests that girls are being pulled out

o school in growing numbers to care or the sick, when

they are orphaned, or as a result o the economic impact o

HIV/AIDS on their amilies.(p. 10)


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The HIV/AIDS problem has the potential to disrupt the

provision o education. The difculty o gauging its direct

eects emanates rom the act that HIV/AIDS carries a lot

o stigma and, hence, deaths and other problems related to

it are oten concealed. It has been suggested that:

The high level o prevalence o HIV/AIDS in a growing

number o developing countries, especially sub-Saharan

Arica, is a major actor inluencing teacher absenteeism and

lack o eectiveness, sometimes leading to high teaching-sta

attrition rates.(EFA Global Monitoring Report, 2005:112)

The impact o HIV/AIDS is also likely to maniest itsel in

the ollowing ways:

Impactondemand:HIV/AIDSaectsagrowing

number o children. The groups most strongly aected

are HIV/AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children,

as well as girls (who are more oten inected by the virus

than boys).

Impactonprovision:TheimpactofHIV/AIDSon

teachersisreectedinarisingmortalityrateandlower

productivity due to absenteeism.

Impactonquality:Qualityissueringasaresultofthe

deterioration o educational provision and o educationsystems, the psychological conditions aced by both

teachers and students, and declining capacity or

planningandmanagement.(ADEANewsletter,April-

September, 2003:14)

The president o Zambia is quoted as having stated in

2004 that over 40 per cent o teachers in Zambia were HIV

positive(UNESCO,2005).Thisisaclearillustrationofthe

magnitude o the problem that the education sector has

to contend with. It is a huge challenge or Sub-Saharan

Arican countries, especially given that the number oteachers is insufcient to cope with the number o children

entering the system.

In view o the challenges such as the ones already cited, it

has been suggested that systems must be developed or

keeping the increasing number o orphans in schools, and

solutions ound or their long-term care and development

(UNESCO,2000:24).Thisisthechallengeandagendathat

should be pursued in earnest.

III-8. Innovative approaches or tacklingHIV/AIDS in SubSaharan Arica

The importance o the education sector in combating the

HIV/AIDS problem is aptly captured by Rosen (2001:6-7),

who states that:

[We] should not lose sight o the act that Education or All

is a major policy to reduce the spread o HIV/AIDS. There

is a well-established positive correlation between educational

attainment and saer sexual behaviour, which will translate

into lower rates o new inection. Further, schools arean important point or providing inormation on HIV

prevention.

Having enumerated some o the problems that arise due to

the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the sections that ollow showcase

some o the interventions that have been implemented

in selected countries in an attempt to halt the spread and

impact o the HIV/AIDS pandemic. As the presentation

will reveal, there is a need to adopt diverse strategies in

dealing with this problem. Overall, the general approach

to address the implications o HIV/AIDS to EFA and the

MDGs has been to restructure traditional educationaldelivery systems; this happens amid concerns that it

is difcult to discern rom research how the education

vaccine works (Hepburn, 2001:9).

III-9. Health sector interventions

The health sector is an obvious ocus area or dealing with

any disease. This sector needs to have eective response

strategies that will enable it to support other sectors.

Outside the school system, a major policy decision taken

within the health sector that has assisted in cushioningthe impact o the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Botswana is the

provision o ree Anti-Retroviral Therapy to all citizens.

This has assisted in curtailing the problem o teacher

absenteeism and teacher mortality associated with the

AIDS problem. Tackling teacher absenteeism and mortality

is a crucial strategy in the quest to attain quality in

education; there is a need to ensure that qualied teachers

are retained. The provision o ree Anti-Retroviral Therapy

has helped Botswana to preserve its teaching orce.


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In 2002, Bennell, Hyde and Swainson (2002) projected that

by 2010 the mortality rates amongst teachers in Botswana

would rise by 5.6 per cent or primary school teachers and

by 7.6 per cent or secondary school teachers. Yet in their

report, Bennell and Molwane (2007), reveal that, contrary

to what was projected, mortality rates have declined

signicantly. The mortality rate amongst teachers at both

the primary and secondary schools levels, arising rom

all causes, is now only 0.18 per cent. The huge nancial

investment that Botswana has put in the provision o

Anti-Retroviral Therapy has assisted in saving lives and

sustaining the critical workorce needed to support the

economy. The Government o Botswanas expenditure on

HIV/AIDS is very high, standing at P1.14 billion, or 7 per

cent o the total government expenditure in 2005 (Bank o

Botswana, 2006).

Nonetheless,theeducationsystemhasexperiencedsome

setbacks as a result o the decision to invest huge unds in

ghting HIV/AIDS. The 7 per cent o its total expenditure

that the Government o Botswana has spent on the ght

against the HIV/AIDS pandemic could have been devoted

to building more senior secondary schools. Consequently,access to senior secondary school could not be increased.

The experience o Botswana can provide a good lesson

or other countries in Sub-Saharan Arica where the

teaching population continues to be decimated by AIDS.

It is equally true that not many countries in Sub-Saharan

Arica can aord to provide ree Anti-Retroviral Therapy to

their citizens. As a result, there is a need to pursue other

options.

III-10. Curriculum reorms

The Ministry o Education in Botswana has, over the

years, come up with several interventions geared towards

ghting this problem. One such innovation was the

ormulation o a policy on HIV/AIDS education in 1998

(Ministry o Education, 1998). A major thrust o the

policy was inusion/integration o HIV/AIDS education

into the curriculum. This has been made mandatory or

all education levels, primary to tertiary. The inusion o

issues dealing with sexual reproductive health into the

curriculum represents a major innovation in the education

system, given that the discussion o such issues has

always been a taboo in Arican culture. The policy also

prescribed the incorporation o guidance and counselling

into the teacher training programmes. The policy urther

discouraged discrimination against those children and

teachers inected or aected by the disease; they are to be

allowed to stay in the school regardless o their status.

The curriculum reorms also ushered in the introduction

o an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign at the primary

school level. The campaign continues in lower secondary

schools, where pupils are in their early teens. However,

awareness about human sexuality and reproduction,

with an emphasis on birth control and reducing teenage

pregnancy, has always been part o the wider intervention

programme to retain emales or longer in the education

system.

Another signicant curriculum reorm in Botswana has

been the shit in emphasis rom religious education to

moral education. This reorm came about as part o the

realizationthatinordertoinuencebehaviouralchange,

moral education was more relevant than the study o

dierent religions.

Some countries already have realized the need to develop

a relevant curriculum, one geared towards enabling the

recipients to unction eectively in their societies. This is

exemplied by countries such as Lesotho, South Arica

and Zambia, where a lie skills curriculum and learning

and teaching materials have been developed to enable

learners to deal with the HIV/AIDS challenge. It has been

suggested that the curricula developed in Zambia and

South Arica generally aim at equipping learners with

skills such as decision-making, problem-solving, eective

communication,assertiveness,andconictresolution(Coombe, 2002:15). In these countries, the imparting o lie

skills has been made a priority in the curriculum.

The major challenge now lies in the extent to which

teachers are adequately prepared to handle the lie

skills curriculum. There is a need or teacher training

institutions to assist teachers to develop the skills and

competencies to teach such a curriculum. The provision

o lie skills training or teachers should become a policy

priority guiding teacher education.


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III-11. Providing support to orphans

Apart rom the emotional stress that may impede their

success at school, orphans participation in education may

be halted by educational costs such as school ees, uniorm

costs, transport costs and any other levies that a school

may have in place. Given that the orphans may be let

with care-givers who lack the economic means to care or

them, there is an urgent need or governments to develop

strategies that will provide the necessary support or these

children to continue with their education.

In Botswana, orphaned children are provided with

ood every month by the government. In addition, the

government pays or their uniorm as well as transport to

and rom school. This is an expensive venture, but equally

important in ensuring that the orphans do not miss out on

the opportunity to go to school.

III-12. Community participation

Beyond the school exists the community that the learners

come rom and return to ater school. The community hasbeen identied as a major player in education, including

in the ght against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. According to

Rosen (2001) community schooling is:

popular in many Aids-aected areas, including Malawi,

Mali, Uganda, and Zambia. Community schools are

low-cost, use local leaders as teachers (oten as volunteers),

and do not charge tuition. Community schools are less

expensive per pupil than government schools, but they

depend on in-kind community contributions. Research

suggests that community schools increase access and have

the lexibility to accommodate non-traditional students...Potential drawbacks o community schooling include: low

quality o education due to poorly trained teachers and lack

o curriculum oversight; the isolation o children based on

their orphan status; increased dependence on donor inputs;

and the relatively high demand it places on community

resources.(p. 9)

Although the efcacy o community participation in

education is still to be evaluated urther, it is nonetheless

one o the ways o promoting a link between the school

and society. It provides a collective approach towards

addressing issues such as HIV/AIDS, taking into

consideration the local context rom which the learners

come.

III-13. Exploitation o inormationcommunication technologies

Arica still lags behind in terms o the availability o a

well-developed inormation communication technology

(ICT)infrastructure.Nonetheless,eortsarebeingmade

by some countries to harness the available resources to

address local needs. One o the creative means o reaching

out to people is the use o the media. For example, Zambia

has adopted radio education that embraces the use o

Interactive Radio Learning Centres or out-o-school youth

in Zambia (Rosen, 2001:1314).

The Ministry o Education in Botswana has an interactive

television programme dubbed Talk Back. The Talk

Back programme is part o the Teacher Capacity Building

Programme (TCB), an initiative that involves the Arican

Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships (ACHAP),

the Ministry o Education, Botswana Television (BTV)

andtheUnitedNationsDevelopmentProgramme.Theprogramme has been described as ollows:

The TCB project is an interactive teacher education

programme which targets Botswanas teachers with

inormation about HIV/AIDS in an efort to build their

capacity to efectively address HIV/AIDS issues in the

classroom. The direct beneciaries o TCB are 21,782

teachers in schools including tertiary institutions o

education. Indirectly, TCB potentially reaches 469,938

students in 974 educational institutions. Each o these

institutions has been equipped with a television set, video

cassette recorder, satellite dish and decoder. Started in 2003,a weekly live television education programme (Talk Back)

has been implemented through BTV. In their respective

schools, teachers view the recorded live programmes and

discuss the programme content with a view to share

experiences that enhance individuals teaching on HIV/

AIDS. TCB is aimed at advancing the school systems

capacity to reduce stigma and break the silence surrounding

HIV/AIDS.(http://.achap.org/programmes/central.html)

One o the innovative aspects o this programme is the

use o sign language in addition to the usual modes


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o communication. This is a vital development, as the

programme is made accessible in this manner to the

dea. This is a clear testimony o the implementation o

inclusive education: the dea also are aected by HIV/

AIDS and, hence, they need access to inormation on

this pandemic. The dea are one o the vulnerable groups

that are prone to being marginalized in the provision

o education. Consequently, the mode o delivery that

has been adopted in the presentation o the Talk Back

programmereectsapositivesteptowardsaddressingthis

problem, and it is an eort that is worth celebrating.

III-14. School eeding programmes

As has already been indicated, poverty is one o the

challenges that Sub-Saharan Arica has to contend with.

Some children are not able to get a meal beore they go

to school. As a result, such children attend school on

an empty stomach, a actor that is bound to aect their

perormance at school. School eeding programmes have

been introduced in several countries to deal with this

problem.

Through the assistance o Japan and the United

Nations,Angolawasabletointroduceaschoolfeeding

programme at primary schools in 2005. This project has

been implemented in primary schools in the provinces

o Huambo and Kuanza Sul in the Republic o Angola,

areas that were severely aected by civil war and which

are characterized by high levels o poverty. It is hoped

that this scheme help to improve school attendance rates

(http://www.moa.go.jp/announce/announce/2005/5/0518.

html). Japan has also been supporting a school eeding

programme in Cte dIvoire targeting primary schoolchildren in rural areas (http://www.relieweb.int/ rw/

rwb.nsf/AllDocsByUNID/dd76f2e2bb01bdc485256dd3

0067366).

The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP),

which targets reaching 1,500,000 students by 2010, was

introduced in 2006; it seeks to provide hot meals or

pre-primary and primary school children. One o the

unique eatures o the GSFP is that the ood is sourced

rom within Ghana; thus, the project supports the local

economy while at the same time addressing a need within

the educational sector. The programme was reported in

one o the local papers, The Statesman (20 October 2006),

to have perormed beyond expectation in 2006, the same

year it was introduced. Part o the success was attributable

to the involvement o local armers, local business people,

parents and community leaders.

School eeding programmes also have served a wider

unction in Botswana. Primary schools in Botswana

have always oered continuity in basic social welare

programmes in which pre-school children, as part o

measures to reduce poverty and improve national nutrition

levels, get ood rations and related ood supplements

rom clinics/health posts. Beyond the age o 6 years,

children enrol in primary schools that now constitute part

o an extensive and elaborate network o social welare

centres. The added benet o enrolling in schools is that

o identiying children rom under-privileged amilies

who continue to get due assistance and privileges rom

the government through their respective local authorities.

In this case, primary schools in Botswana are part o the

governments multi-pronged social welare intervention

strategy or poverty alleviation, ensuring that most under-

privileged children get the necessary education andmaterial assistance rom government. The government

provides tuition-ree education and stationery to all

children. In remote rural areas with low population

densities, the government provides boarding acilities to

school-age children so that a primary school in the locality

can be unctional and sustainable.

III-15. Provision o basic literacyin SubSaharan Arica

The provision o basic literacy in Arica is primarily viewedas a public good. It is seen by nation-states as an aspect o

a strategy that could enable them to propel development.

The ollowing sections look at what has been done in the

provision o literacy in Arica.

Literacy is a dynamic concept that dees simple

denitional categorization. At times, it is understood as

entailing just reading, writing and basic numeracy. Some

have enlarged the concept to include a whole range o

more complex and diverse skills and understandings

(Lonsdale & McCurry, 2004:50). For example, the recent

Global Monitoring Report(2006) denes literacy as a


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contextually bound continuum o reading, writing and

numeracy skills developed through the process o learning

and application, in school and in other settings appropriate

toyouthandadults(UNESCO,2006:30).Assuch,it

is seen as an autonomous skill and an indispensable

component o social and economic development in

society. Alternatively it can be viewed as applied, practiced

and utilized according to the social and cultural context

in which it is organized (Gee, 1996; Street, 1995). In

the ormer approach, literacy is seen as a neutral skill

necessary or the survival o its recipients. When viewed

as a practice (Street, 1995), literacy ocuses on the social

context o the learners, the dierent uses they make o

literacy, and the meanings they attach to it.

III-16. Challenges or literacy provision inSubSaharan Arica

While the provision o literacy is a right and an entitlement

o all citizens, there are nagging problems that need to

be addressed beore the right to literacy can be enjoyed

by the majority o the Aricans. First, there is a lack o

inormation and resources. In addition, literacy tends tobe a peripheral part o educational policy; it is over-looked,

under-unded and given a very low priority. These actors

have a negative impact on the quality o delivery. There is

a need or investment to be spread reasonably between the

schools and non-ormal education programmes, projects

and campaigns.

III-17. Exemplary practices o literacydelivery in Arica

Next,weassessexemplarypracticesthatcouldbeadoptedand selectively applied across contexts, highlighting eorts

in dierent Arican countries to improve the quality o

literacy delivery. These include ensuring eorts to support

literacy, establishing and nurturing good relationships with

non-governmental organizations, training o teachers and

decentralizing o literacy education.

III-18. Ensuring support or literacy

Given that Arica has a problem o lack o resources, there

is need or a comprehensive policy on the shared use o

resources. There also is a need to ne tune policies in

order to ensure that literacy is not overlooked. In Rwanda,

there is a separate policy or basic education and literacy;

this makes it difcult or literacy to be overlooked in

budgetary allocations. Others countries, such as Botswana,

have incorporated literacy into the broader educational

policy, which makes it less o a priority. Some Arican

nations, such as Kenya, have demonstrated a commitment

to succeed by ensuring that literacy policy is given

increased political attention. It is part o strategic planning

and monitoring, and it is given adequate unding.

Literacy delivery in Arica can be improved. In Senegal,

the use o publicprivate partnerships to deliver literacy

has had an impact on literacy rates, and the state has

increased the share o the education budget allocated to

literacy as a sign o its commitment to attain the EFA

goals (Maruatona, 2005). Some countries, such as Burkina

Faso,Botswana,Kenya,Namibia,SouthAfrica,Senegal

and Uganda, are making eorts to link literacy to other

national development strategies and education.

III-19. Literacy campaignsApart rom policy ormulations, some governments have

embarked upon practical steps geared towards delivering

a literacy programme. In their eorts to meet EFA goals,

nations have organized campaigns, programmes or

projects. A literacy campaign is a massive eort that seeks

to involve all sections o society in the eorts to provide

reading, writing and numeracy skills to illiterate men,

women and youth. It is provided within a set period o

time, and it is expected to lead to changes in the economic,

social, cultural and political status o service recipients.

Some Arican nations, such as Ethiopia, Guinea Bissau,

Mozambique and Tanzania, chose the socialist route to

development and have resorted to the use o campaigns

to address illiteracy or to provide literacy opportunities to

their citizens who had missed schooling during the period

o colonialism. Lately, campaigns have assisted nations to

address the EFA goals. The campaigns in Algeria, Ethiopia,

Mozambique, Somalia and Tanzania helped the leadership

to raise the conscientiousness o the people, and helped in

the struggle or independence and during the transition to

nationhood ater independence. For example, Mozambique

organized our campaigns rom 19781982; but while in


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the rst two some 500,000 people participated, there were

ar ewer in the last two campaigns (Lind, 1988; cited in

UNESCO,2006).

Campaigns assist nations to provide education or all

across various sections o their population. South Arica

recently launched a literacy campaign aimed at reducing

illiteracy by 2012 among the 4.7 million illiterates who were

denied access to education and training under apartheid.

The campaign addresses the critical challenge o achieving

the goals o Education or All (Republic o South Arica,

2007).

III-20. Literacy programmes

A programme is a nationwide, large-scale literacy

provision eort mounted by a state to address the

problem o illiteracy. The programme is viewed as part

o a human right, and also seeks to enable recipients to

acquire economic and other lie skills. The state uses

it to make its presence elt and to promote its presence

and legitimacy in the population (Lind and Johnston,

1990). In most countries, programmes that have recordedimpressive increases in literacy have been built in as part

o a broader national planning ramework and articulated

inNationalDevelopmentandDistrictDevelopmentPlans

or decrees. Both primary education and adult learning in

these cases are almost exclusively planned and sponsored

by governments and treated as part o the national

development eort (Youngman, 2002).

The provision o large-scale adult literacy programmes in

Botswana, Burkina Faso, Kenya and Zimbabwe sought to

gradually provide literacy as part o national developmentplans and human rights initiatives. People engage in

learning with the hope o nding employment, getting a

promotion or changing careers (Lind and Johnston, 1990).

This has been an essential tool in national eorts to meet

the goals o Education or All, as stipulated in the Jomtien

Declaration and revised at the World Education Forum

held in Dakar, Senegal, in 2000.

III-21. Literacy projects

Bhola (1995) argues that projects tend to be small scale and

less bureaucratic, with more capacity to respond adequately

and with stratied and clearly dened objectives restricted

to a small group o people. In Mali, the use o proje

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