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Secondary Education
in Africa: Strategies for Renewal
World Bank
presentations at the December 2001
UNESCO/BREDA-World Bank Regional Workshop in
Mauritius on the Renewal of African Secondary Education
Introduction
Secondary education
holds a privileged position in all education systems. Placed between
primary and tertiary sectors in structure and content, it is at
the hub of all educational reforms. In most African countries, however,
secondary education is facing three common problems: (a) in-adequate
infrastructures, (b) improper equipment, and (c) limited laboratories
and qualified staff. Despite this, society is increasingly demanding
that secondary education prepare students for jobs - that is, produce
school leavers who are functionally - ready for work - and prepare
them for higher edu-cation. To these two missions is added a third
complex one: setting up admission structures for a growing school
population continually emerging from the primary sector. In addition,
the secondary edu-cation sector has to deal with a range of new
issues, including the environment, human rights, drug addiction,
AIDS, poverty, and unemployment issues that are more social problems
than educational concerns.
But, although
it occupies a central position in the educational structure, the
secondary education sector has been overlooked. In recent years,
bilateral and multilateral aid has been directed to other sec-tors
of education, namely primary, tertiary, and non-formal education.
Reports drawn up at the OAU Conference by Ministers of Education
(COMEDAF, Harare 9–15 March, 1999) and the meeting of the Consortium
on Secondary Education organized by UNESCO (Paris 10th–11th
June, 1999) reach the same conclusion: In order to meet the challenges
of the twenty-first century and play its vital role of regulator
in the education system, the secondary education sector must be
reorganized.
Documents delineating
strategies for the medium term (1996–2001), and UNESCO’s
two-year program (2000–2001) indicate that the best approach
is to (a) diversify the structures to expand payment systems for
secondary-level services; (b) renew study pro-grams and pedagogy
to include information tech-nologies; and (c) eradicate inequalities.
COMEDAF and
the World Education Forum at Dakar have set forth the following
priorities for re-organizing the sector: equity, quality, developing
complementary learning methods, reinforcing co-ordination skills,
follow-up and evaluation, and di-versifying
learning methods.
Finally, in
considering secondary education reforms, the role of the informal
sector of the economy - which has a major impact on poverty eradication
and youth employment - must be recognized.
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