This document discusses challenges facing education in Africa and priorities for improving the system. It outlines the Millennium Development Goals for Africa, which include achieving universal primary education. Key challenges are an acute shortage of teachers, declining attractiveness of teaching, and the impact of diseases like HIV/AIDS. Rural schools face additional problems like interrupted schooling, low perceived curriculum relevance, and not being a priority. Stakeholders have different views of good schools - communities prioritize access, teachers prioritize working conditions, while the system focuses on exams and resources. Priorities for action include improving teacher performance, using local knowledge, curriculum reform to reflect local needs, and strengthening links between schools, health services, and community support.

1. Educating Africa

6. Millennium Goals for Africa
• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower
women
• Reduce child mortality

7. • Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and
other diseases
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for
development

9. Challenges for education
• Acute teacher shortage (between 2 and
4 million additional teachers needed to
achieve UPE by 2015)
• But attractiveness of teaching career is
declining, making recruitment and
retention increasingly difficult
• HIV, AIDS and other diseases have had
a dramatic impact on teacher supply

10. • Widespread use of untrained teachers,
increasing and becoming more
persistent
• Where teachers are trained,
programmes often inadequate
preparation for reality of schools;
inappropriate structures and
curriculum, poor quality trainers, lack
of basic resources and materials

11. • Lack of coherent policies for
professional training and development
• Insufficient standardization of
accreditation
• Weak links between pre-service and in-
service training
• Lack of career paths and succession
planning

12. In rural areas…..
• Schooling is an interrupted process
• ‘Readiness to learn’ is reduced by non-
school factors
• Poor quality teaching/few materials/no
resources
• Perceived curriculum relevance low
• Not an immediate priority for governments

13. What is a good rural school?
• Community view
• Teachers view
• System view

14. Community perspective
• Access and safety
• School/community relations
• Curriculum that connects with local
cultural and religious beliefs
• A resource to the community
• Accountable to the community

15. Teacher perspective
• Examination results
• Pay and conditions
• Class size
• Student attendance and behaviour
• Support and recognition
• Progression/promotion
• Management not corrupt

16. System perspective
• Examination results
• Follows set curriculum
• Care of resources and school environment
• Extra-curricular activities
• Working relationships
• Community support

17. Priorities for action
• Teacher performance and development-
including position of women teachers
• Fit-for-purpose information systems and
information management
• Local knowledge of school improvement
strategies and approaches

18. • Curriculum reform: reflect local needs and
opportunities
• Links with health services and
programmes
• Effective support- from system
from community
from parents