Why is africa illiterate

Many have not received a decent quality education. They frequently lack detailed information about what their students are expected to learn and how their pupils are performing. Trained to deliver outmoded rote learning classes, they seldom receive the support and advice they need from more experienced teachers and education administrators on how to improve teaching.

And they are often working for poverty-level wages in extremely harsh conditions. Education policies compound the problem. As children from nonliterate homes enter school systems they urgently need help to master the basic literacy and numeracy skills that they will need to progress through the system.

Unfortunately, classroom overcrowding is at its worst in the early grades — and the most qualified teachers are typically deployed at higher grades. Yet these counties receive half as much public spending on a per child basis as wealthier commercial farming counties. The combined effects of restricted access to education and low learning achievement should be sounding alarm bells across Africa.

Economic growth over the past decade has been built in large measure on a boom in exports of unprocessed commodities. Sustaining that growth will require entry into higher value-added areas of production and international trade — and quality education is the entry ticket. Stated bluntly, Africa cannot build economic success on failing education systems. And it will not generate the 45 million additional jobs needed for young people joining the labor force over the next decade if those systems are not fixed.

Daunting as the scale of the crisis in education may be, many of the solutions are within reach. Providing parents with cash transfers and financial incentives to keep children — especially girls — in school can help to mitigate the effects of poverty.

So can early childhood programs and targeted support to marginalized regions. Africa also needs an education paradigm shift. Education planners have to look beyond counting the number of children sitting in classrooms and start to focus on learning. Teacher recruitment, training and support systems need to be overhauled to deliver effective classroom instruction.

The allocation of financial resources and teachers to schools should be geared towards the improvement of standards and equalization of learning outcomes.

And no country in Africa, however poor, can neglect the critical task of building effective national learning assessment systems. Aid donors and the wider international community also have a role to play. Having promised much, they have for the most part delivered little — especially to countries affected by conflict. Development assistance levels for education in Africa have stagnated in recent years. Unlike the health sector, where vaccinations and the global funds for AIDS have mobilized finance and unleashed a wave of innovative public-private partnerships, the education sector continues to attract limited interest.

This could change with a decision by the U. But if the region is to build on the foundations that have been put in place, it has to stop the hemorrhage of skills, talent and human potential caused by the crisis in education. Related Books. Why Africa? Why is Education Important? A Little Bit of Histroy and Statistics. Causes of Illiteracy. Burkina Faso and Sub Saharan Africa. Impact of Literacy. Our Goal: Plan Canada. Home News and blog Our story Stand up Contact. By Richard Kootstra.

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It is encouraging, moreover, that the ITU statistics show that the share of young people 15 to 24 years old who use the internet is almost twice as high as the share of the total population.

However, no one should be left behind, and things look much worse in many rural areas. As countries pursue the Sustainable Development Goals — especially in sub-Saharan Africa — it would make sense to standardise their statistical systems. As more countries strengthen their data agencies, governments will hopefully find a meaningful way to measure literacy. Moreover, they must take into account the needs of the digital economy.

In the long run, the most important criterion for development success is whether those needs are met. Alphonce Shiundu is currently a Chevening scholar studying media and development at the University of Westminster in London. English Deutsch. User menu Log in. Sustainable development requires global awareness and local action. Inhalt Briefings. Children's rights. Children's rights matter - and deserve more attention. Digital technology is changing how we live. Forms and impacts of racism.

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