Kids, schools & learning : African success stories -- a retrospective study of USAID support to basic education in sub-Saharan Africa

The case studies provide detailed treatment of: school reform in the transition from chaos to democracy in Uganda; education reform in the context of economic and political reform in Guinea and Benin, respectively; building consensus around school reform in Mali; the growth of education system self-sufficiency in Swaziland; and the transformation of the entire education system in post-apartheid South Africa. While the studies focus primarily on education reform, they also provide general insights into the interplay between sector development (e.g., education) and macroeconomic and political reform and, though sometimes technical, provide an account of the seldom-featured "good side" of events in Africa. A first chapter gives an overview of the progress that sub-Saharan African countries are making, particularly in education, while the last summarizes USAID"s insights from its work in the basic education reform, and presents strategies that are beginning to bear results. Key lessons learned are that: primary education is essential (though not sufficient) for development; providing universal primary education is a challenge of the highest order, especially in Africa, where the fact that most teachers are civil servants makes education intensely political; the high cost of primary education for both governments and families poses a particular difficulty for African countries, most of which are deeply in debt; education is a cultural process that cannot be readily installed with brick and mortar; and the teachers themselves receive little support from the community, are paid irregularly, and have to teach in uncongenial and overcrowded surroundings. On the positive side, governments have given top priority to building effective schools for all children and have launched systemic reforms in the interlocked systems of instruction, management, and governance. Finally, education and schools are becoming the organs of the people they serve rather than the products of remote bureaucrats.