Authors: Alexis Zickafoose, Olawunmi Ilesanmi, Miguel Diaz-Manarique, Anjorin E. Adeyemi, Benard Walumbe, Robert Strong, Gary Wingenbach, Mary T. Rodriguez, Kim Dooley
Site of the publication: MDPI Open Access Journal
Type of publication: Article
Date of publication: March 2024
Funding Constraints
Funding is vital to the quality of education. Its consideration is critical to achieving inclusive and equitable quality education, as stated in the fourth Sustainable Development Goal. Primary and secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) receives less public financing than other developing regions. Additionally, SSA has the highest number of children and youth out of school and is the only region where this number has increased. There has been a rise of 20 million in this population from 2009 to 2021, reaching a total of 98 million people, with teenagers representing the highest proportion of the out-of-school population.
Successful funding interventions in SSA have been designed to tackle factors affecting infrastructure, teachers, and students’ conditions. These interventions range from electrification, building construction and renovation, laboratory development, the provision of furniture, teacher training, teaching aids and pedagogy, to school management. For the students, interventions consist of cash transfers, scholarships, school meals, and subsidies. However, the challenges of resource allocation, resource substitution, the effectiveness of educational spending, and financial inequality are worth investigating as the gap exists beyond funding intervention and economic access to inclusive and quality education and the attainment of SDG 4.
There are three primary sources of funding in the SSA education system: local private funding from households, companies, or individual donors – external aid from international organizations – and public financing primarily from taxes, representing the primary source of education financing in SSA. Considering funding, the fee-free factor necessitates discussion.
Primary and secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) receives less public financing than other developing regions
Since the early 1990s, the international community promoted a free primary education (FPE) movement. The FPE basically aimed to eliminate or reduce school fees making it affordable especially for low-income families. Initiatives such as the “World Declaration on Education for All” or the “United Nations Millennium Development Goals” supported the FPE movement, as well as research findings signaling the fees as barriers to accessing education.
According to UNESCO, the acceptable number of students per classroom is 40 for primary and 25 for secondary school. In SSA, the average student–teacher ratio is 42 for primary school, but in countries like Chad, Ethiopia, Malawi, and the Central African Republic, averages can reach up to more than 60 students per teacher. For secondary education, the acceptable ratio is estimated to be 25 students per teacher, but in the case of SSA, the average rises to 43 students per teacher. Estimates indicate that SSA needs an additional 17 million primary and secondary teachers to achieve universal education by 2030.
However, several countries in SSA do not consider the global recommendation for countries to allocate 4% to 6% of their GDP to education, urging prioritization amidst competing demands. Certain countries such as Rwanda, Zambia, and Sudan, allocate substantial portions of their budgets to debt repayment, diverting resources from education and raising concerns about resource allocation. At the same time, Ghana spent twice as much on debt servicing as it did on education in 2019, underscoring these disparities. Persistent inequality exacerbates financial access to inclusive education.
Access and Inclusion
In SSA, socio-cultural dynamics play conspicuous roles in access to education with regard to by whom, when, where, how, and what kind of education is accessed by the different members of society, especially in rural settings. In addition to funding constraints, issues of access and inclusion are at the heart of quality education disparities across SSA, which affect the enrollment and retention rates of students. Access and inclusion impediments exist because of a disregard for students with disabilities, gender disparities, physical barriers, and irrelevant curriculum.
Students with Disabilities
Disabled persons in developing countries grapple with poorer health, high unemployment, lower earnings, and higher poverty, which exacerbates their vulnerabilities. Children with disabilities are already disadvantaged in terms of school enrollment, educational attainment, and learning. SSA countries have growing educational attainment gaps between able-bodied and children with disabilities. Unable to cope with undue pressure and competition from their able-bodied counterparts, most disabled children either never enroll or drop out of school because of unaffordability, inability to access the school, social stigma, inadequate curriculum, and poorly equipped teachers. Disabled children experience reduced learning outcomes; however, a dearth of inclusive educational programs and learning institutions exacerbates their vulnerabilities.
In SSA, socio-cultural dynamics play conspicuous roles in access to education with regard to by whom, when, where, how, and what kind of education is accessed by the different members of society, especially in rural settings
The concept of “education for all” within the framework of inclusive schooling refers to integrating children with special needs into the educational system alongside their typically developing peers. While there are efforts to include students with disabilities across Africa, these efforts include providing separate classes or separate schools for these students rather than integrating them into the mainstream school system. Providing the most basic assistive devices is insufficient to create an environment where disabled children can participate in education alongside their peers. This disparity highlights the shortcomings of inclusive education and the significant obstacles hindering the achievement of disability equality. In most low-income settings, there is a lack of policies and programs which mandate improving disabled persons’ lives.
Even though 166 nations endorsed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, execution is inconsistent among member countries. Providing equal opportunities for disabled children is challenging, but inclusive education can benefit all children. However, barriers affecting disabled students intersect all students’ experiences.
Inadequate Curriculum
Following independence, African classrooms also had more foreign than native teachers, which led to the curriculum reflecting teachers’ context rather than students’ context. Integrating Indigenous knowledge into curricula could lead to better sustainable development. By including Indigenous knowledge in the curriculum, students can be better prepared to thrive in their environment because of reintegrated local expertise and the preservation of traditional knowledge. While the call for the integration of Indigenous knowledge is resounding at the university level, few efforts exist for primary and secondary education. Integrating Indigenous knowledge in the formal education curriculum could make the curriculum more relevant and better prepare students to address local problems.
Teacher Education
In a region where resources are scarce, competent and trained staff should support the ability to prioritize resource allocation. In this regard, misplaced priorities and a need for more ability to manage the resources represent additional factors impacting education quality. According to UNICEF, in most SSA countries, almost half of the public educational financial resources are dedicated to the most privileged students, while less privileged children do not attend the educational system or withdraw from it. To prevent non attendance and withdrawal, funding allocation in SSA should be guided by a vision of progressive universalism, targeting the most disadvantaged and vulnerable populations as the first recipients of resource allocation.
Research consistently emphasizes the substantial impact of investments in teachers and teaching methods on student performance. However, studies indicate that the quality of teachers, including their subject knowledge and didactic skills, plays a crucial role in influencing student outcomes, especially when teachers lack competency in utilizing teaching and learning aids for effective curriculum delivery. Despite increased enrollment rates in SSA over the past two decades, standardized testing reveals minimal improvements in student learning.
Notably, significant learning gaps persist among secondary school students in SSA, often attributed to a substantial deficit in teacher quality. Factors such as low teacher pay, limited access to technology (e.g., laptops), and challenging working environments, as observed in Rwanda and Nigeria, contribute to the existing disparities.