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African Education Systems: A Comparative Economic Analysis 1
by Alain Mingat and Bruno Suchaut - De Boeck Université Edition
2000
Alain Mingat and Bruno Suchaut's
work is a seminal analysis of
education systems in sub-Saharan
Africa. The authors examine 29
African countries with populations of
over 2 million and per capita GDP less
than US$2,000, comparing their education
systems to those of non-African
countries that have similar levels of
GDP.2
What makes this study original is its
three-fold perspective on the subject
matter. First, it adopts an analytical perspective
based on rigorously compiled
factual data. Second, it takes an economic
approach, studying "the relationship between
the goals of the school system,
which are numerous, and the means,
which are scarce." This is particularly
relevant to African countries, since the
stronger the constraints on the resources
potentially available to the school system,
the more difficult-and the more urgent-
it is to identify the compromises
that must be made and the priorities to
be set. The third noteworthy feature of
this work lies in its comparative perspective,
which not only allows cross-country
comparisons but also helps to
identify possible relationships between
the diverse modes of school organization
in different national contexts and the results
obtained in terms of quantity, quality,
efficiency, and equity.
The book comprises seven chapters,
which address the following topics:
- The quantitative development of
school systems and the resources
mobilized;
- The unit costs of schooling;
- The factors of school system organization
and school quality;
- School careers and the issues of access,
retention, repetition and transition
between cycles;
- Effectiveness of schooling and the
relations between the educational and
productive spheres;
- Equity in education systems;
- Administrative and pedagogical management
of school systems.
The study's main findings concerning
the coverage of education systems, the
quality of schools, and the efficiency of
school systems are summarized below.
School system coverage
Where the quantity of education and the
coverage of school systems are concerned,
the study finds that:
.The French-speaking countries of
West Africa, particularly the Sahel
countries, are lagging behind in
school enrolments.
.The amount of public funding allocated
to education in Africa is roughly
the same as in Asian and Latin American
countries.
.There is little connection between the
overall volume of resources made
available to an education system and
the coverage of this system.
The efficiency with
which resources are used
matters more than the
amount actually appropriated.
In 1993, the French-speaking
countries provided
1.3 years, on average,
of schooling for each
percentage point of GDP
allocated to the education
sector; the English-speaking
African countries provided
2.1 years, on average;
and the less developed
countries in Asia and
the Americas, 3.1 years.
.In the French-speaking
countries (particularly the
Sahel countries), the unit
costs of education are high
at all education levels.
(See Chart on p.19) Compared
to the Asian and
Latin American countries,
unit costs at the primary
level are on average, 25% higher, in
the English-speaking African countries,
75% higher in the French-speaking
countries and 138% higher
in the Sahel countries.
.The high unit costs in the French-speaking
countries are mainly due to
the level of teachers' wages, which
are high both in relative terms (as a
ratio of the country's per capita GDP)
and in comparative terms (with other
countries). High wage scales for
teachers are by far the most important
reason for the low schooling rates
in these countries.
Quality
Where school quality is concerned, the
study highlights the following:
.The performance of pupils is strongly
tied to the country's level of socio-economic
development.
.In contrast, there is little connection
between the level of unit costs and
pupils' average level of learning.
.Educational quality does not require
hiring teachers who have a level of
general education much higher than
the first secondary cycle certificate.
Since their level of educational attainment
determines teachers' salaries,
this finding obviously has important
implications for school unit
costs.
.In-service training develops teaching
skills more effectively than does initial
training.
.The nature of school buildings has no
significant impact on the quality of
schools.
.School feeding programs have a positive
effect on learning.
Efficiency and equity
The study reveals that the French-speaking
countries, particularly in the Sahel,
generally make inefficient use of public
appropriations for the school sector. It
notes that:
.Repetition rates are high (over 20%,
on average) in French-speaking Africa.
This implies that 40% of public
funding for education is "wasted" in
the French-speaking countries (as
against 25% in the English-speaking
countries).
.For reasons of economic and social
efficiency as well as equity, countries
at a level of development comparable
to that of the sub-Saharan African
countries should give priority to investment
in primary education, aiming
for the broadest possible coverage
and passable quality.
.The countries with the highest unit
costs also have the narrowest educational
coverage and the most inequitable
distribution of the public funds
allocated to education; this is particularly
true in the French-speaking
Sahel countries. Similarly, the bias
against girls is significantly greater
in the French-speaking African countries
(and, once again, in the Sahel
countries) than in the English-speaking
countries.
School system management
Since the greatest differences among
schools have more to do with the way
resources are shared out and used than
with the actual amount of resources pro-vided,
the administrative and pedagogical
management of school systems is
important. The authors
recommend
that the role of
school inspectorates
be modified. It also suggests that school
inspectors be trained to keep management
charts of the schools in their districts
in order to improve the management
of resources and results.
The book concludes with recommendations
for new perspectives in educational
policy. Although this cross-country
comparative approach has its limits (limited
availability and quality of data, national
averages that do not reflect sharp
differences within a given country, etc.),
a study of this kind is nonetheless highly
original and useful. It brings a great deal
of data and innovative analyses to bear on
the educational policy decisions that are
needed, while also examining the impact
of budgetary constraints and the maneuvering
room available to policy makers.
1. Exists in French only. Title in French:
Les systèmes éducatifs africains - Une analyse économique comparative.
2. The main data cover 57 countries with over
2 million inhabitants (29 countries in sub-Saharan
Africa and 28 non-African countries for which
the Gross National Product (GNP) per person
was less than US$2000 in 1993.
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