This chapter discusses the relevance of formal education, the “ins and outs” of higher tertiary education—focusing on their various categories and the necessity of creating and maintaining excellent higher institutions—the empowerment that good education offers, formal education’s connection with nation-building and citizenship, and society’s overall benefit from education. It also highlights two crucial issues: technology’s impact and our need to expand opportunities for women . It closes with an overall reflection on the future of higher education.
Investment in Education in Africa: Citizenship, Development, and Nation-Building
Higher education is essential in many ways. Secondary education, on its own, plays a crucial role in developing a nation and its citizens. It comes at a key point in a young person’s life: the transition between early education and either the labor market or advanced studies. In fact, the importance of secondary education is growing rapidly as the demand for skilled workers increases. The challenge of secondary education is to provide skills and knowledge to those students who are hoping to enter the workforce immediately, while also preparing other students to further their education at the tertiary level. Education can bring many positive changes, driving economic growth and development while delivering financial returns to individuals (Faruqui et al. 2017). Unfortunately, secondary education in much of Africa fails at this objective, lacking quality and accessibility for students (Fredriksen and Fossberg 2014). The thorny educational issues facing African countries include a shortage of excellent secondary schools, ill-trained teachers, poor equipment, outdated curriculum, and the high cost of school fees. Poorly prepared students are ending up in universities that have difficulty correcting all of the major gaps in their development.
Much of Africa is under pressure to expand and improve its higher education systems, and that pressure will increase substantially over the coming decades. Higher education development is challenged by rapid population growth, increasing demand for skilled workers, and growing numbers of people enrolling in and completing their primary education. These challenges mean that most African countries must work to expand enrollment in secondary schools, strengthen institutions and the role of educators, and revamp educational programs to benefit all citizens and align with national development goals. In the coming years, higher education in Africa must be transformed to meet the demands of an ever-increasing population and work toward building stronger national economies.
Labor markets in Sub Saharan Africa are evolving and diversifying, but higher education systems in Africa must accommodate these economic changes. Africa’s labor force is transitioning from informal farming jobs to manufacturing and service-sector jobs; they require knowledge and skills provided by accessible, high-quality education. Investing in secondary and tertiary education can improve human capital, or the economic value of a worker’s skill set, laying the foundation for the economic growth that many African countries so desperately need. According to the World Bank, Sub Saharan Africa’s sustained economic growth and its participation in the global economy are unlikely without improving its human capital (ibid.).
Enrollment steadily increases in Africa’s private schools: the current estimate, at 20% of the student population, is expected to increase to one in four by 2021. Increased use of technology, rapid urbanization, and the emergence of an African middle class have advanced the role of private education. The vast majority of African students are still enrolled in public schools, and private education favors students from urban areas with families who can afford school fees. Certain populations face a disadvantage, which will be discussed later. Private schools are also a subject of controversy in countries like Kenya, where private schools are often accused of deepening the country’s inequality (Dahir 2017). However, low-cost private schools have grown dramatically across the continent. They could be ideal for middle-class families seeking more innovative, developed programs.
There is an important need to make education relevant, but it is a complex issue. African countries must ensure that the skills and knowledge acquired in secondary education match the demands of their national labor markets. The challenge of educational relevance has increased since the turn of the century; the workforce demands specialized skills along with behaviors and attitudes that are valued in interdisciplinary environments. Demand for these skills will increase in response to a transforming globalized economy, which includes international trade and integration, technological advances, and demographic change (Fredriksen and Fossberg 2014). Technology is globalizing economic development by making more services tradable, enabling international businesses, call centers, and online companies.
It is estimated that the African continent will be ahead of all other continents by 2025, seeing an increased number of new entrants to the labor force between the ages 15 and 64. However, the continent’s education systems are grossly inadequate to meet the demands of that labor force (Faruqui et al. 2017). African countries must improve their institutional capacity to make sweeping changes in programs, policies, and political investment. The problem in many of these countries is not a lack of technical expertise, but a “low institutional capacity to mobilise, utilize, and retain existing expertise” (Fredriksen and Fossberg 2014, 244).
This capacity problem has led many countries to implement reforms to improve the quality and effectiveness of educators, making sure that secondary education successfully prepares students for their careers or further education. These reforms must adapt institutional abilities to meet labor demands and student needs. They must develop the capacity to address the needs of people both inside and outside of the education system, aligning schools with governance, financing, and management in the labor market. Investment in Africa’s higher education, to expand and diversify a skilled workforce, begins by providing the majority of that workforce with a solid set of basic skills. The low percentages of intake and completion for early education mean that African countries must invest in “second chance programs,” giving students, especially the students who belong to marginalized groups, the basic skills they need to further their education or find a career in a competitive economy (ibid.). These skills include literacy, numeracy, communication, management, and basic technological skills.
Currently, up to 40% of children in Sub Saharan Africa fail to meet basic numeracy and literacy targets (Faruqui et al. 2017). Existing educational models will allow half of all primary school children to reach adolescence without the basic skills they need to lead productive lives (Dahir 2017). This contributes to continued cycles of poverty, marginalization, and poor health that many African countries still struggle to overcome.
The accessibility of higher education is a greater challenge for students disadvantaged by geographical location, gender , and family income. Family income is the most powerful factor driving inequity in education, followed by location, due to the high cost of school fees and the relative shortage of secondary schools in rural areas. These two factors contribute the most to inequity, but it is notable that women are disadvantaged compared to men on all levels, whether the comparison is made by geographic area, income, or level of education. Second chance programs play an important role in improving access to proper education and career preparation for these marginalized groups. It is especially important for girls to have greater access to higher education, in order to combat cycles of poverty and prevent early marriage and pregnancy (Fredriksen and Fossberg 2014).
It should be noted that Sub Saharan African countries have changed the curricula and school testing within their education systems very little since they gained independence from colonial rule in the 1960s. Many of them still retain their colonial legacies . African countries need to adapt and diversify the school curriculum to transform and improve outdated systems of education. They must meet the needs of students who come from different social classes have different career aspirations and different levels of physical ability, and who have a variety of unique skills and interests. Diversifying the primary and secondary education curriculum will allow students with different needs and career paths to apply a variety of relevant skills to their respective careers (ibid.). It is critical to radically improve programs for mathematics, science, and other skills that are practical for the majority of the workforce.
In 2008, the Commission on Growth and Development concluded that “Every country that sustained growth for long periods put substantial effort into schooling its citizens and deepening its human capital” (Fredriksen and Fossberg 2014, 248). Therefore, it is crucial for countries to invest in higher education to develop their economies and improve the lives of their citizens. These investments will address the demands of a global labor market, facilitating economic growth and increasing productivity. Education enhances the ability to promote entrepreneurship and innovation, and it can be adapted to meet the needs of all different kinds of students. African countries face high levels of unemployment and a shortage of workers with critical skills, but higher education can be transformed to address these issues, allowing more and more people to earn skills and find careers that set a strong foundation for economic development .
Tertiary Education
Tertiary education is crucial to overall development, in Africa and in all countries. For many years, the preeminent recommendation for Africa’s transformation was the development of education at all levels. Western education in Africa acts as a source of mobility for those trying to leave farms and rural areas behind since the colonial era. The Western education system, al...