Education in Sub Saharan Africa

Synthesis: We all want to learn. But how can we make it more engaging both for the teacher and the learner? How to learn better? The best way to do it is through a game. Keep on reading and find out why developing mobile video game can be a solution to provide more access to education in Africa.

This handbook explores the evolution of African education in historical perspectives as well as the development within its three systems–Indigenous, Islamic, and Western education models—and how African societies have maintained and changed their approaches to education within and across these systems. African education continues to find itself at once preserving its knowledge, while integrating Islamic and Western aspects in order to compete within this global reality. Contributors take up issues and themes of the positioning, resistance, accommodation, and transformations of indigenous education in relationship to the introduction of Islamic and later Western education. Issues and themes raised acknowledge the contemporary development and positioning of indigenous education within African societies and provide understanding of how indigenous education works within individual societies and national frameworks as an essential part of African contemporary society.
https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030382766

This is a technical report on education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo about the following topics: (1) Marginalized communities, conflict and education; (2) Teaching (in) national languages; (3) Non-formal TVET; (4) Parents, communities and learning. It reviews government, donor and NGO documents to make concrete recommendations for practitioners. Originally prepared for Save the Children.

What is the role played by private education in South Sudan, specifically in urban and peri-urban Juba? Are there differences between different types of private school? The study investigated the quantity of private schools, and their academic quality relative to government schools and amongst different types of private schools.

Few attempts have looked beyond the effects of witchcraft related stigma to consider the socio-cultural factors that shape the experience of development disorders, particularly for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Common patterns of beliefs about the cause of developmental disorders exist across societies, and illnesses, but accusations of witchcraft do not exist in all regions where these beliefs occur.  Globalisation stressors, such as urbanisation and poverty are known facilitators of stigma,  but context specific constructions and meanings ascribed to individuals also influence the resulting stigma processes; however their interactivity are not fully understood. Conducting this study found that most autism-related stigma literature neglects to sufficiently incorporate understandings of stigma as being embedded in local cultural value systems.  This thesis therefore calls to improve collaborations between social development and heath policy-making to address this gap; specifically to provide culturally relevant policy and health intervention strategies to those in need. Whilst the existing paucity of data make this thesis inadequate for accurately analysing patterns, the significance of this research lies not only in its pioneering interpretations but also its aims to identify areas for further data gathering and analysis.

Learners from several countries in Southern Africa often come to South Africa to continue their high school and/or tertiary education. It is unclear, however, what the high school preparation of these learners entails before they come to study in South Africa. It is worth noting that the high school preparation of these learners contributes to prior knowledge and skills that serve as a foundation for new knowledge construction in the Further Education and Training (FET) Phase of South African institutions. It was, therefore, significant to understand how the high school education, particularly the curricula of the countries from which these learners originate, relate to the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) of South Africa.
Analysing and benchmarking the curricula of high school subjects in Southern African countries against those of comparable South African subjects provide insight into the curricula and hence the prior knowledge and skills required in the high school education of learners. Such insight would be useful to identify possible limitations and/or strengths in the high school education of foreign African learners who want to continue their studies at South African schools. Strengths identified in the various curricula could be drawn on to make recommendations to or advise the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in South Africa and/or equivalent state departments of other countries involved in the study on supporting the enhancement of existing curricula. Moreover, insights gained regarding potential curriculum limitations in certain countries could be used to structure additional support for learners from those countries as part of their preparation for furthering their high school education in South Africa.
Detailed and structured curriculum analyses and benchmarking have been conducted by Umalusi (the South African curriculum “watchdog”) on several subjects in the South African CAPS. The subject Consumer Studies (2014) was originally benchmarked by Umalusi against that of Singapore, British Columbia (Canada), and Kenya, particularly due to these countries’ high rankings in international standardised comparative tests, such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), and the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality (SACMEQ) (Umalusi, 2014:58).
No comparable comprehensive benchmarking and curriculum analyses have been conducted yet in the SADC countries. A gap exists in research on the correspondences (or lack thereof) in the South African CAPS curriculum and those of similar subjects in Southern African countries such as Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. After the publication and dissemination of the Umalusi report on Consumer Studies, various stakeholders in this field suggested that the research be expanded to other Southern African countries – i.e., that similar analyses and benchmarking of the South African curriculum against comparable subjects in those countries be conducted. This suggestion led to the development of the concept for this research project.

In the last 20 years the Ethiopian education system has rapidly expanded, leading to a 500% increase in primary school enrolment. The Ministry of Education (MoE) has sought to address a perceived decline in educational quality through nationally-mandated programmes for school improvement and teachers’ professional development . Such programmes – imported on the advice of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Department for International Development (DfID) and other development partners – are implemented “mechanistically”, without adaptation for societal or organisational cultural contexts. This article reviews empirical research from the last decade, including “grey” literature, in the school improvement (SI) and school effectiveness research (SER) traditions to draw implications for primary school principals in Ethiopia.

African pre-colonial education has been described by certain Africans, authors and educational researchers as a system of education which seemed flawless, unique and particular to the African people. Such descriptions are often followed by staunch criticism of the Western style system of education in Africa. Having reconceptualised such descriptions, several groups across the regions of West Africa (such as the Boko Haram sect of Nigeria, amongst others), have often called for the abandonment of the Western style system of education, and a return to the pre-colonial ways of living and education. Authors and researchers have called for the need for African centered critical educational theory, the need to reclaiming lost African identity, etc. However, before such calls are followed through, should Africans not strive to objectively identify the likely effects of time on certain pre-colonial cultural practices and specific pre-colonial educational practices? Should Africans not consciously analyse the context within which they perceive their past? Hence, this in depth qualitative study explores how West Africans perceive the West African pre-colonial education system through narratives.
Narrative accounts were collected through two different means: (1) through unstructured interviews with three indigenously trained–“retired”– crafts men (2) from “textual source” – also referred to as “implied narrative”. This research utilises the tension which exists between the equilibrium and the conflict paradigm in relation to education and development in Africa as its conceptual framework.
Empirical materials explored implied that: West African pre-colonial education system is been perceived the same way it was perceived during the fight for political independence in West Africa, and the experience of colonialism influence how certain West Africans construct their meanings of the past. Therefore, the said perceptions present a romantic view. Also, what has changed in African education so far is the culture; the conceptual framework is still the same.
This research concludes that, authors, researchers, policy makers and government bodies, and we common citizens of the independent African states needs not only to liberate our minds from the oppressor consciousness, but also seek to broaden our scope of criticism to include certain degrees of objective perception of our history.

High potential has been attached in education as an important tool for cultural transmission. To educate others, there is a need to have a general cultural training background providing an all-encompassing liberal education. By drawing on Kenya, this paper explores the teacher education system, reforms and their reflection in government policies taking into account their initiation factors.

Cette étude contribue à la capitalisation des connaissances concernant les utilisations pédagogiques efficaces des technologies de l’information et de la communication pour le développement de l’éducation de base. Elle cherche principalement à apporter des éléments de réponse à la question suivante : quelles approches stratégiques et opérationnelles d’intervention graduelle, visant l’intégration des NTIC dans les apprentissages, la formation des enseignants et l’alphabétisation numérique des élèves, semblent les plus efficaces, réalisables et finançables dans le contexte des pays en développement et notamment dans les pays les moins avancés (PMA) africains francophones.

Cross-national empirical research consistently suggests that, on average, former British colonies are both more democratic and have more stable democratic transitions. I argue that former British colonies are distinct not because Great Britain was a democracy – so were France and Belgium during the late 19th and early 20th century. Nor were the British more altruistic. However, British colonial elites were more divided and thus more constrained. In particular, religious groups were more independent from state control in British colonies than in historically-Catholic colonies (i.e., colonies of France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Italy). Initially the British restricted missions in their colonies, but Evangelical Protestants forced the British to allow religious liberty in 1813. Protestants were not able to win religious liberty in most other European colonizers during the entire period of colonization.
    Protestant missionaries were central to expanding formal education in the colonies because they wanted people to read the Bible in their own language. Governments wanted a small educated elite that they could control. Other religious groups invested in mass vernacular education primarily when competing with Protestants.
    Missionaries also constrained colonial abuses when they were independent from state control (i.e., chose their own leaders and raised their own funds). If colonial exploitation was extreme, it angered indigenous people against the West and made mission work difficult. Thus missionaries had incentive to fight abuses. Other colonial elites had no incentive to expose their abuses, and indigenous people had little power in the colonizing state. This left missionaries in a unique bridging position. Non-state missionaries also fostered institutions outside state control, institutions that nationalist leaders later used to challenge British colonization and birth political parties.
    Statistical analysis confirms the centrality of missions in expanding education and fostering democracy. Controlling for Protestant missions removes the association between democracy and British colonization, other “Protestant” colonization, percent European, percent Muslim, being an island nation, and being a landlocked nation. Other controls (such as current GDP, and current education enrollments) do not remove the strong positive association between Protestant missions and democracy.

The recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global health pandemic that languish the earth activities. This is undoubtedly the greatest medical emergencies in the recent history of mankind. World Health Organization (WHO) has recently confirmed that COVID-19 is here to stay; therefore, people must learn to live with it. In the midst of this uncertainty, sooner or later academic institutions that were closed as
a result of the lockdown measures must be relaxed or abolished. Therefore, that is why this informative study anticipates key inexhaustible issues associated with COVID-19 pandemic in Sub Saharan Africa with specific reference to Nigeria’s higher institutions. With limited datasets available, this study depended on secondary data in ascertaining the existing containment strategies and their respective level of compliances among the general public are analyzed so as to project both strengths and compensates weaknesses when adopted. Though, recently the Federal Government of Nigeria has given six prerequisites guidelines of opening all institution across the country, however, this study consequentially add crucial information and strategies on essential guiding principles of containment of the pandemic in higher institutions.

Foram analisadas as relações de cooperação internacional e diplomático-econômicas estabelecidas entre Brasil e Moçambique (2004-2015) com o objetivo geral de compreender o caráter pedagógico da inserção brasileira na arena da cooperação internacional. O objetivo específico foi compreender em que medida a cooperação brasileira em Moçambique se relaciona à agenda de reformas do Banco Mundial (considerado um intelectual coletivo) em relação à educação dos funcionários do Estado e da força de trabalho. A pesquisa seguiu o método do materialismo histórico-dialético. Foram centrais os conceitos de “bloco histórico”, “Estado ampliado”, “Estado educador”, a perspectiva da integração desigual das forças produtivas e a formulação sobre o capital -imperialismo. Foram analisados documentos do Banco Mundial, FMI, OCDE, ONU, UNCTAD, PNUD, UNESCO e UNFPA para sistematizar as formulações teóricas e as recomendações de políticas educacionais para Moçambique. Também foram analisados os acordos de cooperação entre Brasil e Moçambique, no período 2004-2015. Identificou-se a existência de acordos relacionados a interesses privados, acordos com o viés de alívio à pobreza e acordos para a reestruturação do Estado moçambicano. Constatou-se que muitos destes acordos promovem a capacitação profissional de funcionários do Estado, alinhada à pedagogia das competências. A materialidade do caráter pedagógico da atuação brasileira é constatada a partir da análise conjugada das expropriações promovidas pelas empresas brasileiras em Moçambique com os acordos de cooperação. A combinação de expropriação e repressão assume um caráter educativo negativo (ensina como não agir), enquanto as ações para o alívio à pobreza e a educação dos funcionários cumprem a função educativa positiva (ensina como agir, difunde hábitos e disposições mentais). Por fim, apresentamos uma reflexão sobre a educação no capital-imperialismo. A integração desigual das forças produtivas pressupõe que as políticas educacionais das nações periféricas assumam um caráter altamente pragmático, visto que, no mercado mundializado, a mercadoria força de trabalho é incorporada ao rol das “vantagens comparativas”, atraindo ou repelindo investidores. Os sistemas educacionais nacionais são reestruturados segundo demandas relacionadas ao modelo de desenvolvimento, ao tipo de capital predominante na região, ao potencial de exploração de recursos naturais e força de trabalho e ao contexto da luta de classes. Nas nações periféricas, torna-se cada vez mais latente a conjugação da função positiva e negativa do Estado educador. As escolas assumem a função de prover o mínimo de educação necessário para que os trabalhadores se adequem às condições instáveis do mercado. Não há limites para a precarização da educação, pois até as escolas mais precárias cumprem a função de fornecer competências, conceder certificados e disciplinar a classe trabalhadora.

The changing educational context and dynamic needs around increasing online learning at all education levels highlight the importance of self-directed learning. In this regard, self-directed learning, which involves both a process and student characteristic, relates to the students taking charge of their learning in terms of setting aims, choosing material or human resources, choosing appropriate learning strategies and evaluating their learning. This chapter involves a systematic literature review that explores research on self-directed learning at school and higher education within the African context. This concept, despite the origins of the scholarship of self-directed learning being from the Global North and the West, is more expansive and, this chapter specifically aims to give an overview of the current discourses around self-directed learning in Africa. This chapter critically examined key literature regarding self-directed learning in this milieu and inductively identified general trends. Despite self-directed learning's focus on the individual, it seems to be a very appropriate learning process towards communal learning utilising cooperative learning strategies that support self-directed learning. Finally, the chapter provides a synthesis of the main trends around self-directed learning in Africa while identifying certain areas for future research.

POUR LA LISTE DES CO-AUTEURS VEUILLEZ VOIR LE RAPPORT SVP
Ce rapport présente les statistiques descriptives et l’analyse préliminaire réalisées suite à la première phase de collecte de données quantitatives et qualitatives dans le cadre du projet de recherches BRiCE en République démocratique du Congo (RDC) et au Niger. La recherche a été menées par l’Institute of Development Studies en partenariat avec Save the Children, avec l’Institut supérieur pédagogique du Bukavu en RDC et avec l’équipe de Save the Children SERA au Niger. L’objectif de cette étude est de mieux comprendre l’éducation dans les contextes fragiles et de zones de conflit, en se concentrant sur quatre questions de recherches centrales : QR1) enquêter afin de déterminer si et comment l’exposition et la confrontation à la violence influencent la qualité et le bien-être dans l’enseignement dans les contextes fragiles et les zones de conflit ; QR2) examiner l’impact des composantes Développement Professionnel des Enseignants (TPD)et Améliorer ensemble les environnements d’apprentissage (Improving Learning Environments Together - ILET) du programme BRiCE sur la qualité et le bien-être des enseignants dans les contextes fragiles ; QR3) examiner comment la qualité et le bien-être dans l’enseignement influencent les acquis cognitifs et non-cognitifs des enfants vivants dans les pays fragiles ou affectés par les conflits ; QR4) étudier comment les savoir-faire acquis par les enseignants dans les contextes des zones de conflit peuvent être utilisées efficacement dans les mesures politiques et la programmation.

An example of school transformation that the author experienced during her first and second visit to Kenya in 2006 and 2007: With the support of the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, the informal school Mathare Community Education and Development Organization (MCEDO) receives a new building -and a new name: MCEDO-Beijing school.

abstract 
Like other cities around the globe where the state organizes exams, Kinshasa's exétat shows the degree to which social difference and urban livelihood are intimately connected. However, despite the assumption that diplômés master book knowledge, recent changes in the practice of the exétat have transformed the meaning of a diplômé, turning that figure into a yankee, i.e., someone who possesses street knowledge that comes from experience with the informal and the illegal. More abstractly, the identity of a diplômé has become a signifier for the opposite of its taken-for-granted signified. Kinois society publicly acclaims the social and cultural capital attached to school degrees; however, most recent diplômés have obtained their degree through bribes and organized cheating.

résumé 
Comme dans toutes les villes où le baccalauréat (ou son équivalent) est organisé par l'État, à Kinshasa la distinction sociale et les modalités de la vie urbaine sont intimement connectées. Néanmoins, malgré l'idée selon laquelle les diplômés maîtrisent des connaissances livresques, des changements récents dans la pratique de l'examen d'État à Kinshasa ont transformé la valeur sociale du diplômé. Aujourd'hui, un diplômé est plutôt considéré comme un « yankee », soit quelqu'un qui a fait l'école de la rue, qui se débrouille dans l'économie informelle et parfois aussi criminelle. Ainsi, l'étiquette de diplômé est devenue un signifiant inverse du signifié habituel. La société kinoise acclame publiquement le capital social et culturel associé au diplôme d'État ; toutefois, la plupart des diplômés récents ont réussi grâce à la fraude et à la tricherie organisée.

The World Bank uses a combination of financial and non-financial aid to influence educational reform in aid-recipient countries. Drawing on an interpretive policy analysis methodology and using Pierre Bourdieu's concept of symbolic power as a 'thinking tool', this article aims to shed light on the Bank's non-financial pathways of policy influence in the Ethiopian higher education policy space. Specifically, it identifies knowledge-based policy regulatory instruments of the Bank, including sector reviews, advisory activities, analytical reports and learning events. The key argument is that in order to understand the full extent of donor power in national education policy fields in sub-Saharan Africa, it is imperative to problematize less visible discursive means of policy imposition.

In order for a country to properly develop, the citizens of the country must have access to a proper education. The development field realized the importance of education and made achieving universal primary education number two on the list Millennium Development Goals. Although this goal was set to be achieved by 2015, with only a month left in that time frame, it does not appear that this is going to be possible. According to UNICEF, in Kenya only about 48.4% of girls ever make it to secondary school. There are many reasons for this, but one of the most disturbing causes for the lack of attendance is a practice called female genital mutilation (FGM), or cutting. In Kenya girls are perceived as sexual beings who need to 'cleaned' through the act of female genital mutilation to control their desires. This traditional practice prevents girls from attending school because of health complications and societal pressures to get married after being cut. How can education be used as a tool to change the perception of girls in Kenyan society and stop this archaic act?

Although several studies have been conducted to summarize the progress of open educational resources (OER) in specific regions, only a limited number of studies summarize OER in Africa. Therefore, this paper presents a systematic literature review to explore trends, themes, and patterns in this emerging area of study, using content and bibliometric analysis. Findings indicated three major strands of OER research in Africa: (1) OER adoption is only limited to specific African countries, calling for more research and collaboration between African countries in this field to ensure educational equity; (2) most of the OER initiatives in Africa have focused on the creation process and neglected other important perspectives, such as dissemination and open educational practices (OEP) using OER; and (3) on top of the typical challenges for OER adoption (e.g., infrastructure), other personal challenges were identified within the African context, including culture, language, and personality. The findings of this study suggest that more initiatives and cross-collaborations with African and non-African countries in the field of OER are needed to facilitate OER adoption in the region. Additionally, it is suggested that researchers and practitioners should consider individual differences, such as language, personality and culture, when promoting and designing OER for different African countries. Finally, the findings can promote social justice by providing insights and future research paths that different stakeholders (e.g., policy makers, educators, practitioners, etc.) should focus on to promote OER in Africa.

With the unfortunate abundance of religious conflicts in the world, it is important that attention is devoted to how students position themselves in relation to religions they do not associate with. On this score, a section of scholarship in social studies education has examined students making meaning  of  religio-historical  and  contemporary  happenings.  Yet, questions  relating  to  students’  representation  of  “other”  religions remain  underexplored.  From  the  Ghanaian  context  where  this  study  is situated, official curriculum mandates teaching about religion, however, little  to  no  evidence  exist  to  support a claim that students’ attitudes change  after  learning  this  curriculum.  To  explore  the  disconnect,  a qualitative study of six Ghanaian elementary schools were conducted for a  three-month  period.  Through  interviews,  observations  focus  groups and  document analysis, students’ representation of “other religions” were examined. Research outcome revealed that, students mediate their lessons  on  religion  through  the  lens  of  their  own  experiences  and metanarratives  of  their  individual  faiths.  Consequently,  they  hold  two forms of knowledge –authentic official knowledge used for examination purposes  and  secularized  cultural  knowledge  used  in  practice.  It  is concluded that, the vestiges of colonialism and emergent imperialism are deeply implicated in students’ discourses around religion. Therefore, the missing link between content knowledge and attitudinal change may be explained  by  the  failure  of  pedagogy  to  acknowledge  the  impact  of contextual  happenings  on  the  realization  of  curriculum  objectives.  A solution  to  this  conundrum  will  be  for  educators  to  connect  academic knowledge to the out-of-school socio-cultural experiences of students.

For co-authors please see inside document.
Ce document de travail analyse d'abord comment les conflits violents peuvent renforcer ou réduire les formes préexistantes de marginalisation puis dans quelle mesure l'émergence de nouvelles formes de marginalisation résulte d'un conflit violent. Pour ce faire, nous nous concentrons sur la province du Tanganyika en RDC, où le conflit violent dit " Twa-Bantou " entraine des perturbations dans le domaine de l'éducation depuis 2012, et secondairement sur la province de l'Ituri, qui a été affectée par des conflits armés répétés depuis les années 1990. Nous utilisons une approche de méthodes mixtes, combinant des méthodes de collecte de données quantitatives et plusieurs mois de travail de terrain qualitatif. L'étude montre que la marginalisation politique des groupes ethno-territoriaux est un point clé pour comprendre la marginalisation éducative dans les contextes de conflits prolongés.

This article reviews the pedagogical constraints imposed by teachers’ limited language proficiency in the medium of instruction in Kenyan primary schools by examining classroom interaction and suggests how an improved understanding of the role language ability on the development of cognitive skills in learners can be accessed. Emerging from these investigations is the need for more specific research pertaining to the causal link between teacher language proficiency and teacher-led approaches in countries that have adopted foreign language policies. Finally, recommendations are made for the introduction of internationally recognised English language assessments and second language programmes for Kenyan primary school educators.

Several scholars and organizations suggest that institutional policy is a key enabling factor for academics to contribute their teaching materials as open educational resources (OER). But given the diversity of institutions comprising the higher education sector—and the administrative and financial challenges facing many institutions in the Global South—it is not always clear which type of policy would work best in a given context. Some policies might act simply as a " hygienic " factor (a necessary but not sufficient variable in promoting OER activity) while others might act as a " motivating " factor (incentivizing OER activity either among individual academics or the institution as a whole). In this paper, we argue that the key determination in whether a policy acts as a hygienic or motivating factor depends on the type of institutional culture into which it is embedded. This means that the success of a proposed OER-related policy intervention is mediated by an institution's existing policy structure, its prevailing social culture and academics' own agency (the three components of what we're calling " institutional culture "). Thus, understanding how structure, culture, and agency interact at an institution offers insights into how OER policy development could proceed there, if at all. Based on our research at three South African universities, each with their distinct institutional cultures, we explore which type of interventions might actually work best for motivating OER activity in these differing institutional contexts.

What is the role played by private education in Liberia, especially amongst the urban poor? Where are the poor sending their children to school? The study reports the results of two major surveys, one of the schools in seven designated slums in Monrovia and the other from households in one of these.

Background/Context The UN Sustainable Development Goals include a renewed commitment to inclusive and equitable education for all and will maintain pressure on governments in low-income countries to ensure this provision. A range of prominent researchers and institutional actors continue to explore and to promote low-fee private schools (LFPSs) as a viable option for achieving universal access to basic education. The emphasis on LFPSs can be seen as part of the push for education policies that attempt to improve educational access and quality not through the strengthening of public education but through the establishment of public–private partnerships. Focus of Study In this paper we explore the Kenyan government's engagement with LFPSs, document and assess the impact of this support on the behavior of LFPS and clarify key actor perspectives and responses within this context. Research Design Through a qualitative case study of two LFPSs in a large urban informal settlement near ...

Few attempts have looked beyond the effects of witchcraft related stigma to consider the socio-cultural factors that shape the experience of development disorders, particularly for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Common patterns of beliefs about the cause of developmental disorders exist across societies, and illnesses, but accusations of witchcraft do not exist in all regions where these beliefs occur.  Globalisation stressors, such as urbanisation and poverty are known facilitators of stigma,  but context specific constructions and meanings ascribed to individuals also influence the resulting stigma processes; however their interactivity are not fully understood. Conducting this study found that most autism-related stigma literature neglects to sufficiently incorporate understandings of stigma as being embedded in local cultural value systems.  This thesis therefore calls to improve collaborations between social development and heath policy-making to address this gap; specifically to provide culturally relevant policy and health intervention strategies to those in need. Whilst the existing paucity of data make this thesis inadequate for accurately analysing patterns, the significance of this research lies not only in its pioneering interpretations but also its aims to identify areas for further data gathering and analysis.

Using an exceptionally rich dataset comprising over 1,800 primary schools and nearly 40,000 students from ten francophone Sub-Saharan African countries, this study analyzes the relationship between teacher gender, student gender, and student achievement in mathematics and reading. Findings indicate that being taught by a female teacher increases academic achievements and that both performance and subject appreciation rise when taught by a same-gender teacher. Traditional academic gender stereotypes are prevalent among both male and female teachers. Our findings suggest that hiring more female teachers in Western and Central Africa can reduce educational gender gaps without hurting boys.

As in many other francophone African countries, there has been increased privatization of the school system in Burkina
Faso since the 1990s, especially in urban areas. Based on a unique retrospective survey conducted in Ouagadougou, this research investigates a largely unexplored issue in Africa: the impact of private schooling on subsequent transition to paid employment. While private schooling accelerates entry into the paid labor market and increases the odds of getting a waged first job, multivariate analyses reveal that this advantage is caused by differentials in the educational attainment and socio-economic origin of school-leavers from private and public schools.

This handbook explores the evolution of African education in historical perspectives as well as the development within its three systems–Indigenous, Islamic, and Western education models—and how African societies have maintained and changed their approaches to education within and across these systems. African education continues to find itself at once preserving its knowledge, while integrating Islamic and Western aspects in order to compete within this global reality. Contributors take up issues and themes of the positioning, resistance, accommodation, and transformations of indigenous education in relationship to the introduction of Islamic and later Western education. Issues and themes raised acknowledge the contemporary development and positioning of indigenous education within African societies and provide understanding of how indigenous education works within individual societies and national frameworks as an essential part of African contemporary society. https://www.palgrav...

Institutions of high learning constitute key sites of knowledge and occupy a significant and powerful position in society, since education is widely acknowledged as vital to development. Yet universities in Africa continue to be censured for being out of step with the continent and its developmental agendas because many of their curricula are closely modelled on those of the former colonial masters and not the indigenous African university that has championed African civilisation in Mali, Timbuktu and Sankore, for instance. This article focuses on the unrelenting conversation on Decolonisation by taking stock of the African university in its current form, the way it has evolved, and its inherent potential. With specific reference to an African university, the article provides a critique of the failure of Africa to change colonial structures which have so far continued to serve as hegemonic devices for colonialism in Africa. This article maintains that the mischance for an African university to disentangle itself from the colonial forms of education is a clear sign that Africa's struggle from colonialism is far from over. This article further postulates that the African university has continued to be marred by serious failure to respond adequately to challenges confronting the continent. 1 This happens in spite of the fanfare witnessed at the beginning of the millennium regarding calls for Africanisation and de-Westernisation, which have since died a slow death. The article deliberately refers to an African university in 1 As it was highlighted during the #FeesMustFall campaign in South Africa and similar crusades elsewhere.