Education in Africa: Way Forward

The drastic drop in performance of students who sat for last year’s ordinary secondary level examinations in Tanzania once more raises the debate on the state of education in Africa. Sixty percent of the candidates attained the lowest grade possible, Division Zero. Dr Shukuru Kawambwa, the Education minister, acknowledges that the students performed worse compared to the previous year when 53 percent of the students passed. He attributes the poor performance to various factors including shortage of teachers, lack of laboratories, lack of libraries and shortage of books.

Quality education is imperative if Africa has to generate home-grown solutions to African challenges and participate fully in the global knowledge economy. It is imperative that respective Education ministries in Africa craft measures that will nurture the continent’s young minds and arrest the downward spiral. Breeding a battalion of young people who cannot measure to national and global standards is a recipe for national and global disaster. In the presence of globalization and rapidly changing technologies, the Education ministries must take steps to make education current, able to solve respective  country challenges, able  to connect with the learner,  able to make the learner see the bigger picture and make the learner  to fit in the global economy.