Between 2008 and 2010 the number of out-of-school children in Sub-Saharan Africa increased by 1.6 million. As national governments and the international community strive to achieve universal primary education by 2015, we need to understand why too many countries’ progress has stalled or gone into reverse. One factor that acts as a significant break on progress and that is the low quality of much of the schooling currently provided. There is a danger of seeing the issues of access to school and education quality as separate. In reality they are intimately linked because without improvements in learning outcomes it will not be possible to achieve 100% access.
The chart below, taken from this year’s UNESCO Global Monitoring Report (GMR), shows that there was rapid progress in getting kids into school between 1999 and around 2004. Since then the decline has been less sharp – and in the last two years almost non-existent.
These global figures mask many national differences. Some countries have continued to make progress. Mozambique, for example, had more than 1 million out-of-school children in 2004, a number it had cut to less than 400,000 by 2010. Tanzania and Rwanda are other examples of countries which continue to chip away at the problem. But more often than not the pattern is more worrying.
In South Africa there were fewer than 400,000 out of school children in 2004, but according to the latest UNESCO figures this has increased to over 650,000. Even countries which have performed well overall in the last decade have started to see ticks up in the last few years—in Ethiopia for example, the data shows 100,000 more children out of school between 2009 and 2010.
The case of Nigeria
The GMR team has highlighted the case of Nigeria. In 2004 there were 7.1 million children out of school, but by 2010 this had increased to a staggering 10.5 million. Demographic changes are part of the explanation here. But they do not appear to be the main factor. Over a slightly longer time period the enrollment rate for primary education has fallen in Nigeria. According to the World Bank it was 65% in 2007 and had fallen to 58% by 2010. This year’s GMR also charted the recent leveling off of aid for education. And a critical issue is that it is harder (and often more expensive) to get some of the most marginalized and deprived children into school (although this does not explain an increase in the number of out-of-school children).
The learning crisis in poor countries
However, it seems increasingly likely that a significant break on progress is the poor and—in some cases declining—quality of the education provided. This learning crisis is increasingly well-documented. One of the latest contributions to the debate came just a few months ago when Kofi Anan’s Africa Progress Panel concluded that “many of the children in school are receiving an education of such abysmal quality that they are learning very little.”
Poor parents often make incredible sacrifices for their children to receive an education, but because of this learning crisis too often they are let down by the low quality of the education their children receive. And when children are not learning, what is the incentive for parents to send their children to school? When pupils fail to master core skills in primary school there is a risk that they will disengage from learning when it get harder in higher grades. As the UN’s special envoy, Gordon Brown has noted, “One of the reasons that so many children drop out of school after the early grades is that they have not mastered the basic reading and numeracy skills that they need to progress to higher levels.”
Not every country is the same
Nigeria is just one example of the potential impact of poor learning outcomes on enrollment rates. According to the African Learning Barometer 58% of Nigerian children were “not learning” by the end of primary school in 2009 and. 66% could not read. This compares poorly with other countries in the region. For example, in Senegal—a country where enrollment rates in primary education have not declined—the number of children “not learning” was just 21% according to this 2009 data.
Exactly how much of the education access challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa is due to the low quality of schooling is difficult to disentangle. It will be a pressing priority for policy makers and researchers to get a fuller understanding of the factors leading to a stalling in progress towards the Education Millennium Development Goal (MDG). This includes the particular challenges in specific countries and for poor and marginalized groups of children.
But a vital part of the mix must surely be the interaction between low levels of learning and stalled progress on access. This is one reason why it is right that there is growing interest in a learning goal as part of the post-2015 successor to the MDGs. But as the world strives to achieve universal primary education, it is also why a focus on school quality, and particularly learning for the most marginalized and poorest children, needs to be a major focus right now.
By Will Paxton
Dear Sir ,
I am more than happy that you take up the cause of these children, it is right. But when you talk of would you send your child to school if there is a 50% chance they will learn nothing, you forgot to mention Special Needs children in some developed countries. Special Needs provision is every bit as lax in some areas. There is a profusion of trite phraseology in developed countries, such as Every disabled child matters, in actuality, in places that is all it is, trite phraseology. I would like to see a name and shame policy from children’s charities and specifically from the United Nations that turns the spotlight back on countries who should be doing better for all children. For a developed country to say Special Needs kids must be a minimum of three years behind their peers before they can even start applying for the two year long process to get additional help is a disgrace. If you are months behind your peers it is hard enough to catch up. If you are five years behind, it is a mountain. Please continue your excellent work, but when you raise your voice for the children in front of you, spare a thought for those behind.
Thanks for this, Will. My question is how we avoid making quality and access enemies. In the fight for Universal Health Coverage, the issue of poor quality healthcare is used to undermine the case for access. It is implied that it is better for a smaller number of people to have better quality services, presumably by being able to pay for them or just being lucky. Of course, as a minister for education, you would have some hard choices to make with an inadequate budget, and getting all children into terrible schools might not be the best option. So somehow, these two goals need to be pursued together, challenging the complacent view but making sure quality indicators exist alongside access. This is something we struggle toreconcile in health and it is interesting to see similar debates in education (much like the private sector debate of course).
Hi Simon,
Thanks for taking the time to look at this blog. Really interesting that similar debates are happening in other service areas. Below I have given some thoughts that your comment provoked on the relationship between access and quality in education – not sure how this would apply to health!
On (a) in a nutshell my view is that in education access definitely needs quality (which was the main point of my initial blog) but quality education, on some people’s definitions, does not necessarily need universal access. In other words you could have what some people would consider an education system that provides “good quality” without achieving universal access – for example because it produced a lot of scientists or people with other higher level skills through more elite institutions. So, in education at least, the key question becomes “what do you mean by an education system that delivers on quality” and why. For me “quality” requires all children having at least a decent minimum level of educational opportunity. In part this is a matter of values, but it is also an instrumental issue to some degree. The evidence suggests that widespread basic skills are most important in achieving equitable and inclusive economic growth. So overall my argument is that both (a) access requires quality AND (b) quality requires access in education. This means that both do go hand in hand. (An issue which is increasingly raising its head in education is whether we should trade off universal primary education/learning with expanded secondary/tertiary education – there are real risks with this! See here for some thoughts http://www.educationforallblog.org/income-inequality/education-and-income-inequality-the-importance-of-basic-education )
Not sure if that is helpful, or how best to apply to health! Health is a little different because the instrumental arguments are perhaps not as clear cut – but on the other hand the moral arguments are perhaps a little more powerful (in the sense of being able to mobilise political action). But really interesting discussions.
Thanks again
Will
It is important to understand that children need education, no matter where they leave. There are countries where the parents can not decide for the children, and this is where the state institutions should assist.
In an emerging access to e-learning, I personally see an opening of a new perspective for all future potential learners, regardless of the fact whether they come from developed or low developed countries. The expenses of this type of learning are lower than traditional one, access to it is far better and more convenient + all other benefits it offers. I have started working on http://www.onlinecutus.com to promote the importance of education for everybody, all over the world, at a level that is convenient and needed to every student and anyone who wants to learn.
Apart from the deseases and hunger fights, rich donors should invest in free education in a form of e-learning. This would be the future progress for all sides concerned
Keep up your good work. Best regards.
Hi – thanks for this. Interesting to think about the potential for distance learning to bypass or help improve poor quality provision. I couldn’t open your link though I’m afraid. Do e-mail me at w.paxton@savethechildren.org.uk if there is a better way of accessing the info on your site
Will
Dear Emmanuel,
I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on my blog.
I totally agree that children should be at school. And you are clearly right that many parents are still sending their children to school even with the low levels of learning which are happening, but my view is that some – perhaps a growing number – are now realising that schools are poor quality and there are many children who will start school, struggle to learn the basics early and then not be able to access the wider curriculum – as a result they disengage and are much more likely to drop out.
Without addressing the quality challenge – and ensuring that children are learning – we will never achieve universal access.
Thanks again
Will
The situation in Uganda is not much better with primary survival rates of 30% (compared to Kenya 84%, Rwanda 82% and Tanzania 78% – Ref. UNESCO). Yes, the lack of quality will have a serious negative impact on (future) access. What I am missing in the whole discussion however is how we define such quality. When will we start considering child protection issues as an integral dimension of such a quality definition? By now we should know that teaching, and even more so, learning is highly dependent on whether children feel emotionally, psychologically and physically safe. And this does not only apply to education in situations of emergencies such as (post) conflict or disaster.
In Uganda a recent MoES-UNICEF study brought to light that 76% of primay school children complain about sexual harassment and abuse in and around school (and 40% of these are boys !). Despite MoE directives to use more positive and constructive methods of classroom and behaviour management, corporal punishment is still used extensively in Ugandan classrooms. Not just in situations of “misbehaviour”, but also when a child comes too late, sleeps in class, does not know the correct answer, “failed” a test, has no clean uniform, etc. Teachers do not ask children why such situations occur, receiving beatings is the normal response. Despite all the teacher workshops, developed manuals for “positive discipline” (whatever that may be) by the MoE and development partners, the situation has not improved, on the contrary. One may wish to find out the root-causes of why there is such a high level of acceptable violence in Uganda society in general, and more specifically against children. Could this maybe also be one of the reasons why children do not want to go to school at some point of time?
And though we need to focus on the most marginalised and difficult to reach, this must go hand in hand with supporting teachers to address difference and diversity in their classrooms better, based on the principles of non-discrimination and equal rights. Very few teachers understand these principles and how they translate into flexible, differentiated, learner-centred teaching (and assessment) methods.
Children who are poor (and look poor) are being teased, learners with a disability are merely present without the support or assistive devices they need to have equal opportunities, in Uganda high enrolment rates represent many over-age and under-age learners, but teachers do not know how to deal with multi-grade and multi-age classrooms etc.
We must invest much more in both teachers and teacher educators, in those who support teacher continuous professional development and inspectors, while changing the very controlling and punitive education system in Uganda to a more positive supportive system, acknowledging and respecting teachers (also in salary and career growth) for what they try to achieve under very difficult circumsances,
It would be too easy to just blame teachers. We expect miracles from them while they have too little (and too theoretical) pre-service training, too little (and not based on individual teacher needs) on-going support and supervision, they often live far from the school they work, and receive a poor salary (often delayed). Could these issues around teachers and their professional development be a factor too when searching for reasons for low learning and high dropout rates?
And last but not least, what are we actually doing by creating two parallel education systems because the rights of the poor seem to differ from the rights of the rich. By allowing private primary schools (even pre-primary) we create different opportunities for the HAVES and the HAVE NOTS and a society divided on the same socio-economic disparity. That is not what was meant by the Convention on the Rights of the Child when stating that all children have the same right to (quality) education – especially at the primary (foundation) level. The poor get poor education in government schools in Uganda, but few policy makers are concerned, as their own children go to private schools. Not only are we challenged by poor learning outcomes and increasing dropout rates, we are also creating more disparity and discrimination of child rights….
It would be interesting to see what happens if countries decide to do away with private primary education. The government system would most likely immediately improve (probably with private sector support for all government schools) as everyone would have a vested interest…….
Dear Els,
I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to my blog in such a thoughtful and interesting way. I am glad that it provoked you into writing your thoughts down. I learnt a few new things, which is great! I know Uganda a little, but had not heard of the evidence about sexual harassment which you quote – shocking. I have seen similar findings in other countries, but nothing on this scale.
What I thought was most interesting about your response was that it had some good thoughts on what we actually do about poor quality education. I couldn’t agree more about teachers being a major focus. Some of the problems has to be about pay, but I also think that – as you say – training, support, opportunities for career progression and other factors are important. In fact I wonder whether the very low quality of much teacher training should be a bigger focus of reform in the future.
To teacher’s I would add a few other factors which are important parts of any response to poor quality schooling: improved accountability, particularly to parents; good learning materials and more focus on the non-school factors which governments can influence – for example pre-school services for the poorest. But I’m sure others will have different lists!
Finally, on private schools unfortunately I would not support trying to ban such provision. I can understand the frustrations that people have when private schools ‘cream skim’ the brightest and wealthiest pupils, but (within some parameters) parents must have the right to decide how their child is educated in my view. The issue is much more how to respond to increase the quality of state funded schooling in a way which makes the need to turn to the private sector less pressing – and how to do this is the big question which you have clearly also been grappling with!
Thanks once again.
Oh, and happy New Year!
Will
Upfront, most parents do not realize that the odds are so high against their children’s achievement in school. In the case I am well aware that my children are in a 50/50 scheme, I will still send them to school because even if they fail, they will gain some knowledge no matter how bad the school is. Moreover, it is up to parents now to get involved in the educational process at the local level so that they can increase their children’s chances to achieve a successful education.
In any case, kids’ place is at school