[Icaeaeducationdevp2015] [19 ] Limbani Eliya Nsapato

[Cecilia Fernández]

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ICAE Virtual Seminar

“Adult Education and Development: Post 2015”

 

Arica Education challenges an POST 2015 Agenda

By Limbani Eliya Nsapato 

ANCEFA Regional Coordinator

 

I present my reflections on Africa’s Education challenges and post 2015
agenda after having followed consultations and debates facilitated or
jointly organised by Africa Network Campaign for Education for All (ANCEFA)
since September 2011.  For some of our readers who would be reading about
ANCEFA for the first time, ANCEFA was founded after 2000 Dakar EFA forum
with a mission is to promote, enable and build the capacity of African Civil
Society to advocate and campaign for access to free quality and relevant
education for all. The network is working on this mission with National
Education Coalitions (NECs) in 35 countries across Africa including 10 NECs
in the Southern Africa Region. ANCEFA recently signed a memorandum of
understanding with the African Union commission and is a key partner within
the UNESCO led EFA Steering Committee and the Coordination Group of the
Collective Consultation on Nongovernmental Organisations on EFA (CCNGO/EFA).
ANCEFA is thus a key voice on the continental and global education policy
issues in general and post 2015 agenda in particular. 

 

The debates on post 2015 agenda continue to rage on in the count down to
2015 when it is expected that a new strategy for education and development
will be agreed at the United Nations General Assembly. African voices mean a
lot to the development of the global framework for education after 2015.
Why?  The major reason would be that given the centrality of education in
the fight against poverty, global development cannot take place without
addressing Africa’s concerns. In fact Africa is host to the majority of out-
of- school children and has a significant number of the illiterate adult
population.  The second reason is that although across the world education
is taken as a fundamental human right, the people of Africa gaze at
education with another lens in line with the African Union (AU) vision.  The
vision of the AU is that of “an integrated, peaceful, prosperous Africa,
driven by its own people to take its rightful place in the global community
and the knowledge economy” (AU Second Education Decade: 2006, 1). In this
regard, the AU Second Education Decade for Africa (2006-2015) to which
African member- states are party, underlines that education is a critical
sector in Africa since it is a major means by which Africa’s citizenry would
be prepared to achieve this vision (Ibid).  

 

Furthermore, Africa has a number of challenges socially, politically,
economically, demographically among others and any discussion of post 2015
agenda should consider addressing such challenges. For instance, Africa’s
has myriad education as pointed out in numerous analytical work by United
Nations agencies (UNESCO for instance), civil society organisations,
research institutions, development partners and the African Union in
reviewing the progress on EFA.  Some of these challenges are related to
access and quality, management and financing.  

 

According to the UNESCO 2013/14 Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring
Report (GMR) , out of the world’s 57 million out- of- school children, half
of them lived in conflict-affected countries and most of these are in
Africa.  The report estimated that in 2011 around 22% of the region’s
children were still out of school. The report also cited that in sub-Saharan
Africa, only 23% of poor girls in rural areas were completing primary
education.  Furthermore, in sub-Saharan Africa, the number of illiterate
adults increased by 37% since 1990, mainly due to population growth,
reaching 182 million in 2011. By 2015, the report estimated that 26% of all
illiterate adults would live in sub-Saharan Africa, up from 15% in 1990
(UNESCO, GMR, 2013/14-Summary: 10).  In 2012 UNESCO projected that at least
31 countries in Africa were to miss the EFA goals in 2015 (UNESCO BREDA
case-lets of Countries, 2012).  

 

As far as education quality is concerned most countries in Africa face huge
challenges. Globally, it is estimated that at least 250 million children
cannot read or count, even if they have spent four years in school (GMR
2013/14). In Africa recent studies by Southern Africa Consortium for
Monitoring Education Quality (SACMEQ)  and West Africa Senior School
Certificate Examination (WASSCE) have demonstrated that pupil performance in
reading and mathematics is not good in many countries in Africa. SACMQEC
study results in 2010 showed that the majority of pupils tested across 15
SACMEQ countries in reading and writing could not achieve a minimum score in
the reading and mathematics skills. In addition, WASSCE studies have shown
that in 2011 for example in Sierra Leone around 40 per cent of candidates
failed to obtain a credit in any subject and only 10 per cent obtained four
credits or more, while 5 per cent obtain five credits or more translating
into 2,486 students (UNESCO BREDA, 2013:). There is therefore an urgent
need for better quality and improved leraning outcomes in educatiion systems
across Africa. 

 

Most countries in Africa need to recruit qualified teachers, procure and
distribute succficient teachinhg and leraning reosurces, develop
infrastructure and ensure effective managment and governance of their
systems. However, for these to be adressed, another major challnge crops up
and is linked to funding gaps.  The UNESCO GMR 2013/14 observed that the
global finance gap to achieve good quality basic education for all by 2015
reached US$26 billion, putting the goal of getting every child into school
far out of reach. Most of these shortfalls are in Africa. Recent studies
have shown that there is a funding gap in education of about US$11 billion
mainly because most Sub Saharan African countries were not allocating the 6%
of GDP until 2005 and 9% of GDP thereafter or 20% of annual national budget
required to achieve the EFA Goals. The education funding gap is also
exacerbated by most development partners failing to honour their commitments
to finance education especially due to the global financial crisis of 2008,
as well as the Euro-zone crisis of 2010 (ANCEFA, Report of EFA status in
Zambia and Sierra Leone, 2012). These two crises have reduced the amount of
resources that donor agencies and cooperating partners receive from their
financiers, as the financiers have to deal with their own internal financial
problems caused by the crises before they can extend aid to African
countries. UIS 2013 estimated that global aid to education declined by 7%
between 2010 and 2011 (ibid). 

 

Against the facts and figures stated above, it is clear that Africa post
2015 education and development dreams cannot come true if the challenges
cited are not tackled. In addition, given that EFA is a pipe dream in most
countries on the continent, the post 2015 agenda goals, sub-goals and
objectives as well as targets need to consider that EFA is an unfinished
agenda in Africa.

 

Consequently, stakeholders in Africa including members of the civil society
and representatives of the member states of the Africa Union have considered
the need to have a holistic picture of education.  ANCEFA for instance at
its general assembly held in Dakar in 2012 adopted a policy motion that
should looked at priorities in six areas. These areas include 1)inclusive
expanded basic education; 2) Early Childhood Care and Education; 3) Expanded
equitable access for secondary education, 4)Technical Vocational Education
and Training (TVET) and Higher education; 5) Quality education for all;
6)Strengthened youth and adult education and learning; and 7)Investment in
Information, Communication Technologies (ICTs) and skills development for
employability.

 

In February 2013, a stakeholders’ conference on post 2015 convened jointly
by African Union, Save the Children and ANCEFA considered an overarching
goal of achieving equitable access to Education. Such a goal should have a
focus on marginalized populations including pastoralists, girls, ethnic
minorities, communities in hard to reach areas, in emergencies, and children
with disabilities. The conference participants therefore proposed three
critical priorities and sub-goals. The first priority aiming for quality
education with focus on attainment of learning outcomes at all levels (early
childhood development (ECD), primary, secondary, technical and vocational
training (TVET), and tertiary education). The second priority aimed at
achieving equitable and inclusive access at basic, secondary, and tertiary
levels; and equitable provisions to reach the most excluded and
marginalized. Lastly, the third priority aimed at literacy, numeracy and
skills development – focus to address illiteracy and skills development
amongst those who have missed out. (African Union, Stakeholder Position
Paper, Addis Ababa, 27-28 February 2013).

 

In January 2014, the African Union Heads of State summit in Addis Ababa
adopted an overall post 2015 position based on a report by Her excellency
Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia and
Chairperson of the High level committee on the post-2015 Development Agenda.
The report featured education as key for development in pillar 3 of the six
pillars of development considered by the summit.

 

According to the report, Pillar 3 focuses on People-centred development
which should include Eradicating poverty; Education for developing human
capital ; Providing universal, equitable access to quality healthcare;
Gender equality and empowering women ;Responding to population dynamics and
development ;Harnessing the strengths of Africa’s youth and Expanding access
to sustainable human settlements (African Union, 2014: Common Position on
Post 2015). 

 

Furthermore, under education, the position considers as its priority focus,
the need to achieve excellence in human resources capacity development
through an improvement in the quality of education and training by:
investing in learning infrastructures; increasing the use of ICT; ensuring
higher completion rates; promoting pre-schooling, integrated adult education
and tertiary education; and improving the quality and conditions of service
of educators and trainers (ibid). The position also aims at enhancing equity
and strengthening curricula. 

 

In relation to financing Africa’s post 2015 education there is a shift in
perception towards increasing domestic financing and moving away from donor
or aid dependency which has been a big factor over the 50 years in post
independent Africa. While not ruling out aid, there is a general
understanding that aid is not a solution to the continent’s financial
sustainability of its development initiatives. There is also the need to
tackle corruption and promote transparency, accountability and good
governance. 

 

As we can see from the above discussion the needs and aspirations of Africa
post 2015are many. While some of the themes can reverberate in consultations
in other regions like Asia and Latin America, the needs of Africa are unique
and need to be integrated into the overall global agenda being developed by
various agencies including UNESCO and the UNDP. Thus it is important to
underline that as observed by the AU common position on post 2015, it will
be critical for African citizens to “actively participate in the global
debate on how to provide a fresh impetus to the MDGs and to examine and
devises strategies to address key emerging development issues on the
continent in the coming years” (African Union, January 2014). 

 



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