Education

Problems and tasks of African education in the late 20th century

The independent African states faced numerous problems in implementing an educational policy that would encourage economic and social development. Pedagogical problems and economic and political problems intermixed. The difficulties confronting most governments, however, were basically political.

Numerical increases in school enrollments, though occasionally spectacular, failed to correspond to the legitimate aspirations of the people or even, more modestly, to the initial objectives fixed by the governments themselves. The Conference of Nairobi in July 1968 viewed as rather alarming the lack of progress in education and literacy in the context of growing populations. Increasing emphasis was placed on improving and expanding vocational-technical, adult, and nonformal programs of education. There was also concern about the financial difficulties of the different states, the unsuitability of current educational systems to local needs, the waste and duplications in primary and secondary education, and the insufficient liaison between educational policy makers and the planners of economic and social development. In short, an educational crisis developed and ripened in Africa.