Challenges and Prospects in African Education System: The general idea this book is trying to disseminate is to inform readers about the compelling challenges and prospects in African system of education. As we all know, when issues of Africa educational system is raised, the first set of thoughts that come to mind is decline in standard, deterioration of facilities, examination malpractices, cult crises or school-based violence, shortage of teachers, underqualified teachers, and poor teachers' performance, which results in poor learning standards, lack of classroom discipline that is exacerbated by insufficient resources and inadequate infrastructure, failure of appropriate inspection and monitoring, and confusion caused by changing curricula without proper communication and training. All these have led to massive demoralization and disillusionment among teachers and a negative and worsening perception of African system of education. This, therefore, calls for in-depth analysis aimed at tutoring every stakeholder in education on how their action and inactions have individually and collectively contributed to the collapsing state of education in Africa. However, the prospect is that Africa's recovery and sustainable development can only be guaranteed through expansion and sustenance of both quantitative and qualitative-of the continent's stock of human capital through education. In order for education to realize its key role in development, it must be provided to the younger segments of African society as quickly as human and financial resources permit, with the ultimate goal of developing a comprehensive, meaningful and sustainable system of education at all levels and for all age groups. This is the message that this book puts across in the six knitted sections.

A collection of essays which critically examines education in the African context and presents possible courses of action to reinvent its future.

"This book comes at a time when Africa is attempting to reinvigorate itself, putting itself on a path for continued stability and economic growth. These reformations have been more pronounced in the educational system, as educational institutions in Africa try to find new ways of making themselves more relevant and repositioning themselves to respond to numerous problems confronting the continent. The book tackles wide-ranging and topical issues that include the decolonisation of education, the implications of COVID-19 on institutions of higher learning, pandemic discourse and education in Africa, gender issues in education, indigenous knowledge systems, transnational education (TNE) partnerships and distance learning issues. This book is a timely contribution that includes views from seasoned scholars from different parts of the continent, such as Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya, as well as the African Diaspora such as Germany and the United Kingdom. The book will be a useful resource for educators, policymakers and students in various sub-fields related to education"--

This book addresses major sociological issues in sub-Saharan African education today. Its fourteen contributors present a thoroughly African world-view within a sociology of education theoretical framework, allowing the reader to see where that theory is relevant to the African context and where it is not. Several of the chapters bring a much-needed cultural nuance and critical theoretical perspective to the issues at hand. The sixteen chapters thus aim to be of interest internationally, to those who work in such fields as social and political foundations of comparative and international education, and development studies, including university professors, teacher educators, researchers, school teachers, tertiary education students, consultants and policy makers.

This title makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the many risks and vulnerability faced by orphans and the ameliorating role played by the actions of governments and donors.

The quality of education is pivotal for the production of human capital and this cannot be compromised by failing to refocus on the quality of education offered in schools. The inputs in the system such as trained and motivated teachers, buildings and classrooms including sanitation, clean water, instructional material such as textbooks, as well as strong leadership with vision to steer the winds of change are important in providing the desired outcomes. The chapters in this volume are broadly divided into three subsections as follows: learner related issues, (farm and rural schools, poverty and schooling, school violence, and students rights); teacher related issues,(teacher morale and motivation, teachers for all schools, management needs of school principals); and administrative/policy related issues (inclusive education, and school community relations). The social demand for better schools, effective principals, qualified and committed teachers and better opportunities for all place a huge challenge to provinces and the state to protect the rights of all citizens. This volume sets out the challenges facing the education system in South Africa, such as poor school infrastructure, poor learning conditions, and a lack of learning materials and provides recommendations on how some of these can be overcome.

This book is organised into 16 chapters written by different authors concerning diverse themes on education in Lesotho, ranging from early childhood development to tertiary education. As narrated in the book, formal education started in 1838 in Lesotho after the arrival of the first group of missionaries the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society in 1833, followed by the Roman Catholic Church in 1862 and the Anglican Church in 1876. From the time they arrived, the three pioneer churches engaged in fierce competition and scrambled to establish their missions and schools across the country in order to expand their denominational territory. As a result, to this day, these mainstream churches operate the majority of schools in partnership with the state, which regulates and coordinates education. Lesothos educational arrangement is unique in the sense that the government runs public schools on private property; a situation that occasionally causes tensions between the two over the control of schools. Despite Lesothos long history of education, not much has been written on the education of the country. Therefore, this book attempts to fill that gap by chronicling the history of education, and the philosophical and sociocultural context within which education is provided. It explores the structure, organisation and management of education at different levels, educational policies and curriculum aspects. It also looks at early childhood development, which is not directly funded by the government, but has increasingly been recognised as a critical phase that readies the child for school and improves educational efficiency. The book also highlights that Lesotho is a low-income country, with unacceptably high levels of unemployment and poverty. Partly because of these and the skewed government priorities, the standard of facilities, and the quality of teachers and learning conditions in rural schools are generally poor compared to those of urban schools. These socioeconomic inequalities are manifested by the stark differences in achievement between the urban and rural schools, with the rural students generally falling behind their urban counterparts in the national examinations. In order to tackle this problem and provide educational access for all children, the government introduced Free Primary Education in 2000. However, this takeover by the government appears to have somehow diminished parental involvement and accountability in education. The book further acknowledges that Lesotho has experienced political tensions since its independence in 1966, and advocates the introduction of democratic education in schools in order to interrupt a cycle of social and political violence by nurturing a democratic culture from an early age. At the higher education level, the challenges revolve around low state funding that render higher education institutions unviable and uncompetitive and trigger brain drain, poor educational quality and a curriculum not aligned to the needs of the country and the labour market. Finally, although Lesotho is used as a context for this book, the style of discussion is scholarly and ultimately makes it relevant to an international audience.

This research handbook provides meaningful coverage on current trends in the dynamic education systems of Africa. It presents the main findings on current issues in the education systems from different African countries. Specifically, it examines education policies and what can be done differently by African nations to strengthen these policies. The objective is to highlight African nations’ capacity to address issues of social justice to generate ideas that can help translate the increasing strengths of the continent into achieving sustainable development.

This volume of the International Perspectives on Education and Society series investigates the challenges and prospects for higher education in Africa, especially issues of development, expansion, internationalization, equity, and divergence.

The policy of the World Bank has been to focus on universal primary education, rather than supporting adult literacy programmes. But slow progress in Sub-Saharan Africa has convinced the Bank that adult literacy, especially amongst women, is a key factor in promoting economic and social development. This study of programmes in Uganda shows that adult literacy programmes can be more effective than was previously thought; that government run programmes can be as effective as those run by non-governmental organisations and that there is a large, unsatisfied demand among Ugandan adults for more education.