Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The case for investing in secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): challenges and opportunities

  • Published:
International Review of Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Over the next two decades, sub-Saharan Africa will face substantial pressure to expand its secondary education system. This is driven by the current low development of secondary education compared to other world regions, continued rapid population growth, the increase in the enrolment and completion rates at the primary education level, and the upsurge in the demand for skills. This paper suggests that in order to help countries respond to these pressures, external partners should now increase their support for secondary education, in terms of academic as well as technical and vocational skills training. Given the attributes of the African economies and the continuing need for foundation skills, this paper argues that in the current situation, particularly the lower secondary level will have to be strengthened, in many cases through a longer basic education cycle for all. The necessary rapid expansion of secondary education will require substantial investments, and this paper discusses how aid allocation can be made more evidence-based and used in a more strategic way to make these investments more effective and sustainable. While aid will continue to have a role to play over the next decade especially in fragile states, in the long run it is African countries’ capacity to achieve sustained economic growth which will be the single most important factor determining their ability to meet the financing needs.

Résumé

Arguments en faveur de l’enseignement secondaire en Afrique subsaharienne : défis et opportunités – Au cours des vingt prochaines années, l’Afrique subsaharienne sera confrontée à une pression considérable d’étendre son système d’enseignement secondaire. Cette contrainte repose sur le développement actuellement faible de l’enseignement secondaire en comparaison des autres régions mondiales, la poursuite d’une croissance démographique rapide, la hausse des taux de scolarisation et d’achèvement dans l’enseignement primaire, et sur une forte augmentation de la demande en compétences. Les auteurs avancent que, pour aider les pays à réagir à ces pressions, les partenaires externes doivent accroître aujourd’hui leur soutien à l’enseignement secondaire, sur le plan de la formation scolaire, technique et professionnelle. En raison des conditions des économies africaines et du besoin continu en compétences de base, les auteurs soutiennent que dans la situation actuelle, l’enseignement secondaire inférieur devra être renforcé en priorité, dans de nombreux cas au moyen d’un cycle prolongé d’enseignement de base pour tous. La nécessité d’une expansion rapide de l’enseignement secondaire exigera d’importants investissements, et les auteurs analysent les moyens de rendre l’affectation de l’aide plus factuelle et son utilisation plus stratégique, afin que ces investissements soient plus efficaces et pérennes. L’aide financière aura un rôle à jouer au cours de la prochaine décennie notamment dans les États fragiles, mais la capacité des pays africains d’atteindre une croissance économique soutenue sera à long terme le facteur primordial qui déterminera leur aptitude à répondre à ces besoins de financement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. See Lewin and Caillods (2001), Psacharopoulos and Patrinos (2002), World Bank (2005), Di Gropello (2006), Verspoor (2008), Mingat et al. (2010).

  2. “At their most elemental, foundation skills include literacy and numeracy skills necessary for getting work that can pay enough to meet daily needs. These skills are also a prerequisite for continuing in education and training, and for acquiring transferable and technical and vocational skills that enhance the prospect of getting good jobs” (UNESCO 2012, p. 14).

  3. See e.g. Helgø (1999) for a review of the debate.

  4. Income and rural/urban residence are closely related and the two factors in many ways measure the same thing.

  5. This “reverse gender gap”, reflecting e.g. greater ease for boys than for girls to find jobs and boys’ disenchantment with school, is also present in richer SSA countries with comparatively higher GERs in secondary education.

  6. Mozambique, one of the fastest-growing SSA countries over the past decade, illustrates well the labour market situation to which education needs to respond. In 2008, only 12 per cent of the labour force was engaged in formal sector wage employment (one-third of this in the public sector). The rest was in the informal farming (79.5 per cent) and non-farming (8.4 per cent) sectors. Louise Fox et al. (2012, p. 46) argue that “With the labour force growing at nearly 3 per cent per annum, wage and salary employment would need to increase by about 20 per cent yearly for the next ten years simply to absorb the majority of new entrants while leaving the existing labour force at their current jobs. This would be eight times faster growth than this type of employment achieved in 2002–03 to 2008–09.”

  7. MGI (2012) divides African economies into four groups, based on the level of diversification of the economy and the per capita export: pre-transition, transition, diversified and oil exporters.

  8. In 1960, the GER in secondary education was 23 per cent in Spain, 35 in Ireland, 46 in France, 51 in Australia, 57 in Norway, 58 in the Netherlands, 66 in the United Kingdom (UK) and 86 in the United States of America (USA) (Briseid and Caillods 2004). Already in 1900, countries such as France, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK had less than 45 per cent of their labour force in the primary sectors, but secondary enrolment was only at 6 students per 1,000 inhabitants in France, 9 in Norway and the Netherlands and 18 in the UK (Kaser 1966). In 2010, SSA had 54 secondary students per 1,000 inhabitants (these figures are based on population and enrolment data in UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2012; UNESCO 2012).

  9. “Median variant” of the 2010 UN population projections. Jean-Pierre Guengant and John May (2013, p. 48) argue that, given the recent slower-than-expected fertility decline in SSA, fertility in many countries might decline more slowly than assumed under the 2010 UN Median variant and in several countries more slowly than even under the “High variant”.

  10. This figure is derived from the enrolment in a basic education cycle covering pre-primary and nine grades of primary and lower secondary education, divided by the population aged 5–14 years. Allowing for repetition, a GER of 100 per cent for the age-group 5–14 in 2030 is consistent with one year of pre-primary education and 80–90 per cent completion of a nine-grade basic education cycle in 2030 (Fredriksen and Kagia 2013).

  11. PISA stands for Programme for International Student Assessment; a triennial worldwide survey of 15-year-old students’ performance in mathematics, science and reading carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

  12. Tanzania, for example, accompanied the abolition of school fees with basic education programmes for out-of-school children aged 11–17, including child labourers. In Uganda, evening schools and mobile schools are part of the Complementary Opportunities for Primary Education (COPE) programme, and a specific relief project has been designed for the urban poor. Liberia is providing a three-year Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP), covering the six-grade primary education curriculum, for ex-combatants and for those who missed out on primary schooling during the during the civil strife (Fredriksen and Kagia 2013).

  13. Of the 45 SSA countries providing data, three have 5 grades, 32 have 6 grades, and 10 have 7 grades (UNESCO 2012, pp. 364–366).

  14. Foster’s book (1965) is often referred to as the starting point of this debate which has been revisited at regular intervals over the past decades, see Lauglo and Lillis (1988) and Lauglo and Maclean (2005).

  15. Similar results have also been detected for Malaysia (see Abdul Latif and Mohamed Yusof 2007).

  16. Parents in DRC have shown remarkable resilience in supporting education despite an almost complete neglect by the Government during most of the 1980s and 1990s. DRC’s GER in primary education declined from 95 per cent in 1970 to 70 per cent in 1990 and to 48 per cent in 1999 and only grew back to its 1970 level in 2010 (94 per cent) (UNESCO 1999, 2012).

  17. The corresponding figures for 2010 were 4.5 per cent and 16.8 per cent for Latin America, 3.3 per cent and 13.7 per cent for East Asia, and 4.4 per cent and 14.1 per cent for South Asia (UNESCO 2012).

  18. Between 1970 and 1997, SSA’s GDP per capita (excluding South Africa) declined by 36 per cent, while South Asia’s increased by 88 per cent, Latin America’s by 55 per cent and East Asia’s by 355 per cent (World Bank 2000).

  19. In other regions primary education is 11 per cent of GDP per capita whereas average secondary spending (average for lower and upper secondary education) is 12 per cent. In SSA (based on a sample of 33 low-income SSA countries), the budget spent on primary education is 11 per cent of GDP per capita, for lower secondary education it is 33 per cent, for upper secondary education 60 per cent and the overall average is 40 per cent (Mingat et al. 2010).

References

  • Abdul Latif, N. W., & Mohamed Yusof, N. Y. (2007). The impact of education on economic growth: The case of Malaysia. In The 5th ASEAN Symposium on Educational Management and Leadership (ASEMAL 5), 18–19 August, Kuala Lumpur, Legend Hotel (unpublished).

  • Adams V. A., Johannson, S., & Razmara, S. (2013). Improving skills development in the informal sector. Strategies for sub-Saharan Africa. Directions in Development: Human Development series. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • Ansu, Y. (2013). Skills development for economic transformation. In The African Transformation Report. Accra: The African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET).

  • Benveniste, L. (2008). Education in Thailand: Improving secondary education. In B. Fredriksen & J. P. Tan (Eds.), An African exploration of the East Asian education experience (pp. 218–286). Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binder, M. (2006). The cost of providing universal secondary education in developing countries. In J. E. Cohen, D. B. Bloom, & M. Malin (Eds.), Educating all children: A global agenda (pp. 35–67). Cambridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Briseid, O., & Caillods, F. (2004). Trends in secondary education in industrialized countries: Are they relevant for African countries? Policies and Strategies for secondary education series. Paris: UNESCO/IIEP.

  • Commission on Growth and Development. (2008). The growth report: Strategies for sustained growth and inclusive development. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Grauwe, A. (2009). Without capacity, there is no development. Paris: UNESCO/IIEP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Gropello, E. (Ed.) (2006). Meeting the challenges of secondary education in Latin America and East Asia: Improving efficiency and resource mobilization. Directions in Development: Human Development series. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • Di John, J. (2010). Taxation, resource mobilisation and state performance. Crisis States Working Paper Series No. 2. Working Paper no. 84. Development as State-making. Crisis States Research Centre and UKaid. London: London School of Economics.

  • Foster, P. (1965). The vocational school fallacy in development planning. In C. A. Anderson & M. J. Bowman (Eds.), Education and economic development (pp. 142–146). Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, L., Lucrecia, S., Nguyen, V., & Pierre, A. (2012). Education reform in Mozambique: Lessons and challenges. Directions in Development: Human Development series. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • Fredriksen, B., & Kagia, R. (2013). Africa 2050: Attaining the 2050 vision for Africa: Breaking the human capital barrier. Washington, DC: The Centennial Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fredriksen, B., & Tan, J. P. (Eds.). (2008). An African exploration of the East Asian education experience. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • FTI (Fast Track Initiative). (2008). Guidelines for capacity development in the education sector within the Education for All Fast Track Initiative framework. Washington, DC: FTI.

  • Gillies, J. (2010). The power of persistence: Education system reform and aid effectiveness. Case studies in long-term education reform. Washington, DC: EQUIP2 and USAID.

  • Guengant, J. P., & May, J. F. (2013). Africa 2050: African demography. Washington, DC: The Centennial Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanushek, E., & Wöβmann, L. (2007). The role of education quality in economic growth. Policy Research Working Paper 4122. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • Helgø, C. T. (1999). Sources of Inequalities within the Chilean secondary education system. PhD thesis submitted for the Degree of Philosophy in Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge.

  • Kaser, M. C. (1966). Education and economic progress: Experiences in industrialized market economies, a preliminary approach to a statistical examination. In E. A. G. Robinson & J. E. Vaizey (Eds.), The economics of education (pp. 89–173). Proceedings of a Conference held by the International Economic Association. London: MacMillan.

  • Kingdon, G., & Söderbom, M. (2007). Education, skills, and labor market outcomes: Evidence from Ghana. Education Working Paper Series 12. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • Lauglo, J. (2001). Engaging with adults: The case for increased support to adult basic education in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa regional educational publications; Africa region human development working paper series. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • Lauglo, J., & Lillis, J. (Eds.). (1988). Vocationalizing education: An international perspective. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lauglo, J., & Maclean, R. (Eds.) (2005). Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited. Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects (series, Vol. 1). Bonn/Dordrecht: UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for TVET/Springer.

  • Lewin, K. (2008). Strategies for sustainable financing of secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa. Prepared under the Secondary Education in Africa Initiative. Working Paper 136, Africa Human Development Series. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • Lewin, K., & Caillods, F. (2001). Financing secondary education in developing countries: Strategies for sustainable growth. Paris: UNESCO/IIEP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Majgaard, K., & Mingat, A. (2012). Education in sub-Saharan Africa: A comparative analysis. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • MGI (McKinsey Global Institute). (2012). Africa at work: Job creation and inclusive growth. New York: McKinsey and Company.

  • Mingat, A., Ledoux, B., & Rakotomalala, R. (2010). Developing post-primary education in sub-Saharan Africa; Assessing the financial sustainability of alternative pathways. Africa Human Development series. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • Mourshed, M., Farrell, D., & Barton, D. (2012). Education to employment: Designing a system that works. New York: McKinsey Center for Government, McKinsey and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nguyen, Q. K., & Nguyen, Q. C. (2008). Education in Vietnam: Development history, challenges, and solutions. In B. Fredriksen & J. P. Tan (Eds.), An African exploration of the East Asian education experience (pp. 109–154). Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen, H. D. (2009). Moving toward free primary education: Policy issues and implementation challenges. A state of the art review. Social and Economic Policy Working Paper. New York: UNICEF.

  • OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). (2010). The high cost of low educational performance. The long-run economic impact of improving PISA outcomes. Programme for International Student Assessment. Paris: OECD.

  • OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). (2012). Better skills, better jobs, better lives: A strategic approach to skills policies. Paris: OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD and DAC (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and Development Assistance Committee). (2013). International Aid Statistics, Creditor Reporting System. Retrieved 10 June 2013 from http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?datasetcode=CRS1.

  • Ohba, A. (2009). Does free secondary education enable the poor to gain access? A study from rural Kenya. Consortium for Research on Education Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE) Pathways to access. Research Monograph No. 21. Brighton: Centre for International Education, University of Sussex.

  • Oxenham, J. (2008). Effective literacy programmes: Options for policy-makers. Fundamentals in Educational Planning series (Vol. 91). Paris: UNESCO/IIEP.

  • Psacharopoulos, G., & Patrinos, H. A. (2002). Returns to investment in education: A further update. Policy Research Working Paper No. WPS2881. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • Tilak, J. (2002). Building human capital in East Asia: What others can learn. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • UIS (UNESCO Institute for Statistics). (2011). Financing education in sub-Saharan Africa; Meeting the challenges of expansion, equity and quality. Montreal: UIS.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • UIS (UNESCO Institute for Statistics). (2012). Opportunities lost: The impact of grade repetition and early school leaving. Montreal: UIS.

    Google Scholar 

  • UIS (UNESCO Institute for Statistics). (2013a). Table 20A Regional sum of enrolment by ISCED level. Retrieved 10 June 2013 from http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=191.

  • UIS (UNESCO Institute for Statistics). (2013b). Table 20D Regional average of enrolment ratios for pre-primary to tertiary education (ISCED 0–6). Retrieved 10 June 2013 from http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=194.

  • UN (United Nations). (2011). World population prospects: The 2010 revision. Volume 1: Comprehensive tables. ST/ESA/SER.A/313. New York: United Nations.

  • UN (United Nations). (2013a). A new global partnership: Eradicate poverty and transform economies through sustainable development. The report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the post-2015 Development Agenda. New York: United Nations.

  • UN (United Nations). (2013b). World population prospects, the 2012 revision. United Nations Population division website. Retrieved 14 June 2013 from http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/unpp/panel_population.htm.

  • UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (1993). Trends and projections of enrolment by level of education, by age and by sex 1960–2025 (as assessed in 1993). CSR-E-63. Paris: UNESCO.

  • UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (1999). Statistical yearbook. Paris: UNESCO.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (2003). Gender and Education for All: The leap to equality. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2003/4. Paris: UNESCO.

  • UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (2005). Literacy for life. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2006. Paris: UNESCO.

  • UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (2007). Education for All by 2015: Will we make it? EFA Global Monitoring Report 2008. Paris: UNESCO.

  • UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (2010). Reaching the marginalized. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010. Paris: UNESCO.

  • UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (2012). Youth and skills: Putting education to work. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2012. Paris: UNESCO.

  • UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (2013a). Education for All is affordable – by 2015 and beyond. EFA GMR Policy Paper 06, February. Paris: UNESCO.

  • UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (2013b). Schooling for millions of children jeopardized by reductions in aid. EFA GMR Policy Paper 09, June. Paris: UNESCO.

  • Verspoor, A. (2008). At the crossroads: Choices for secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa Human Development Series. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • Walther, R. (2005). Financing vocational training: A Europe–Africa comparison. Paris: Agence Française de Développement.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, D. N. (2005). Promise and performance in vocationalised secondary education: Has the baby been thrown out with the bath water? In J. Lauglo & R. Maclean (Eds.), Vocationalisation of secondary education revisited (pp. 71–90). UNEVOC/UNESCO and The World Bank. Dordrecht: Springer.

  • World Bank. (2000). Can Africa claim the 21st century?. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. (2003). The East Asian miracle: Economic growth and public policy. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. (2005). Expanding opportunities and building competencies for young people: A new agenda for secondary education. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. (2007). At the crossroads: Choices for secondary education and training in sub-Saharan Africa. Conference Edition. Africa Human Development Series. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • World Bank. (2010). Sustaining the education and economic momentum in Africa amidst the current global financial crisis. Report on Conference for African Ministers of Finance and on Education. Tunis, July 15–17, organised jointly by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, The African Development Bank, The Fast Track Initiative and the World Bank. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • World Bank. (2011). Learning for All: Investing in people’s knowledge and skills to promote development. Executive Summary. World Bank Group Education Strategy 2020. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

  • World Bank. (2013). The World Development Report 2013: Jobs. Washington, DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Education in the Africa Region of the World Bank, Washington, DC, USA

    Birger Fredriksen

  2. Education Section in the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), Oslo, Norway

    Camilla Helgø Fossberg

Authors
  1. Birger Fredriksen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Camilla Helgø Fossberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Camilla Helgø Fossberg.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fredriksen, B., Fossberg, C.H. The case for investing in secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): challenges and opportunities. Int Rev Educ 60, 235–259 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-014-9407-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-014-9407-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation