Education in Africa
[8] Some common skills that people in precolonial Africa had to learn include dancing, farming, fishing, winemaking, cooking (mostly for females), hunting, and in some cases, how to practice herbal medicine, and how to carve stools, masks, and other furniture.
[10] Dipo, a rite of passage, is one example and is used to teach young girls – usually adolescents – about cooking, motherhood, and other necessary skills and values before they marry (engage in sexually related activities).
Because the primary focus of colonization was reaping benefits from commercial colonial economies, cash crop production, and extraction of raw materials, other physically laborious tasks were prioritized.
The collaboration of donor agencies and Western demand pushes for the development of African education, and the building of human capital dominated global conversation.
Although children and adults may learn from their families and community, a sense of individuality has also developed that drives ingenuity and creates separation between groups and cultural traditions.
Only a limited number of families were permitted to send their children to school, which fit with the underlying goal of creating an exclusive class of native-born Moroccans who would serve as a sort of liaison between white colonial officials and the masses.
Programs begun under the new committee were aimed at increasing the "self-sufficiency" of village economies and providing community incentives to counteract flight into big cities.
In his essay British Colonial Education in Africa: Policy and Practice in the Era of Trusteeship, Aaron Windel of Bowdoin College describes it as such: "Typical lessons in a village school operating on adapted principles focused on hygiene, vernacular word building, drill, and basic local geography.
One geography lesson used a bicycle pump, a pail of water, and a small gourd to simulate a ship carrying sugar from India and caught in a monsoon.
[20][21] Most British officials (including Lord Lugard) believed that trusteeship would continue for many generations to come, and the goals of 'civilizing' the native population began to take precedence.
Twenty-one African countries have been identified as the highest spenders of gross domestic product on military globally compared with the amount directed toward education.
[50] Adult education in Africa, having experienced a comeback following the independence and increasing prosperity of many African nations, poses specific requirements on policymakers and planners to consider indigenous cultural traits and characteristics.
Expectations, attitudes, and biases in communities and families, economic costs, social traditions, and religious and cultural beliefs limit girls' educational opportunities.
[71] Additionally, in most African societies, women are seen as the collectors, managers, and guardians of water, especially within the domestic sphere, which includes household chores, cooking, washing, and child-rearing.
[75] Whatever the underlying reason(s) are, having large numbers of girls outside the formal schooling system brings developmental challenges to current and future generations.
[77] Until equal numbers of girls and boys are in school, it will be impossible to build the knowledge necessary to eradicate poverty and hunger, combat disease, and ensure environmental sustainability.
[82] It is estimated that some low-income countries in Africa would need up to $23.8 billion annually to achieve the Millennium Development Goal focused on promoting gender equality and empowering women by 2015.
[86] Ranging from teachers to prime ministers, academics to policymakers, non-governmental bodies to the heads of major international organizations, they adopted the Dakar Framework for Action, Education for All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments (EFA).
[88] Findings from the research will be used to inform FAWE's advocacy work and help redress gender inequities that hinder women's fulfillment of their right to education and meaningful participation in Africa's social and economic advancement.
A joint study by the World Bank and the French Development Agency[89] carried out by Alain Mingat, Blandine Ledoux and Ramahatra Rakotomalala sought to anticipate the pressures that would be brought to bear on post-primary teaching.
Only a few countries are falling seriously behind in education at the same time as having to address a steady growth in their school-age population: Niger, Eritrea, Burundi, Guinea-Bissau, Uganda and to a lesser extent Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal and Malawi are particularly affected by this dual constraint.
The Education for All (EFA) 2012 report highlights great disparities between the sub-Saharan African countries: the percentage of children excluded from primary school is only 7% in Gabon and 14% in Congo compared to over 55% in Burkina Faso and Niger.
[92] Those countries affected by armed conflict, such as Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are furthest from meeting the EFA goals and contain the majority of the unschooled inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in North Kivu, a region particularly affected by conflicts, for example, the likelihood of young people aged between 17 and 22 having had only two years of schooling was twice the national average.
Though it has a smaller presence in sub-Saharan Africa than the OLPC project, Classmate PC has enabled laptop computers to be delivered to primary schools in the Seychelles and Kenya, particularly in rural areas.
As part of the Bridge-IT program in Tanzania, short educational videos, also available on mobile phones, are broadcast on classroom television so that all the pupils can participate collectively.
In these infrastructures, dedicated to technology and set up within the universities, the AUF offers access to over 80 first and master's degrees entirely through distance learning, about 30 of which are awarded by African institutions and created with its support.
However, proponents argue that a strong foundation in a student's mother tongue fosters deeper learning and cultural identity, ultimately leading to a more well-rounded and competitive graduate.
Limited infrastructure, as highlighted in a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) report,[104] means schools are often far away, and children, especially girls facing safety concerns, may struggle to attend.
Overcrowded classrooms with limited resources hinder effective teaching [105] Inadequate funding translates to a lack of textbooks, qualified teachers, and proper learning materials.
