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Quality Education and Promotion of Development in Africa

Mbaya J. Kankwenda

April 2013

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Plan of the document

Introduction

1. Current state of education in Africa

2. Education and production of builders of Africa

3. What kind of education for a developmental transformation of the continent?

4. Issues, challenges and problems

Conclusion

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Introduction

I was requested to prepare a paper on the theme “Delivery of quality education to spur

Africa’s development”. I preferred to make this presentation in French, and the French

translation of the theme would read “Promoting quality education to spur Africa’s

development”.

We are, therefore, in search of ways and means of promoting quality education to place

Africa on the path of its development. But why is this question still being asked after

generations of educational reforms in Africa, reforms that are all intended to promote

quality education to spur the development of the continent? This means that the issue

has not been resolved, and is still on the agenda. So we need to review the solutions

proposed so far and their effectiveness or, revisit the issue of quality education for the

development of the continent or address the two issues at the same time.

Based on the title, a plan was proposed to me. After consideration and reflection, and

relying less on the spirit than the letter of the request, and the scope of the occasion of

this tenth anniversary of APRM, I resolved not to follow the said plan as such but rather

to adjust the “already made”. Hence, I thought I could address the same issue, but in a

different approach.

The issue of education in Africa is often addressed in its technical or “technocist”

dimension, even when it is discussed at the level of political institutions. This brings to

the fore the problems of reforms and adaptation of formal education, reception

infrastructure and equipment, financing of education, quality of education, supervision

ratios, methods and teaching aids, adequacy between education/training and

employment, qualifications of teachers, access to formal education for all, productivity

of education systems, given the school dropout rates, etc.

Discussions on education in Africa, particularly among African leaders, and especially

donors that finance this education, and care much about their philosophy on education

philosophy in Africa, have for a long time focused on these issues. This has enlisted and

limited all of us to this approach and this perception of the issue of education in Africa.

For this reason, the relevance of the Western educational institution in Africa is not

questioned. We discuss its different phases and adjustment or adaptation mechanisms,

which have contributed to conceal the ideological problems of Western knowledge and

know-how, with its free-market values conveyed by the educational institution in

Africa. This has also made people forget the political essence and the political

philosophy behind Western education systems in Africa, and the actual strategic role of

education in the institutional mechanisms of neo-colonial social establishments put in

place in Africa, establishments anchored in the values and faith models of the market.

For, education transmits not only knowledge and know-how, even though these are

universal values. It also transmits social values and the dominant ideology, and trains

the actors according to its own program for the purpose of reproducing social systems

and establishments.

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On that basis, this paper will not discuss these issues and problems in their technical

dimension, although we will still bear that in mind. I rather opted to integrate into the

analysis the political essence of the developmental approach, as transformation from a

model and a paradigm to another, and its implications on the educational institution as a

strategic tool in this approach.

The Africa of tomorrow to be built must be defined as a collective dream, with a vision

of this future. The building of this vision of a “renewed” Africa needs its policy-makers

and actors. The (formal and informal) education mission, especially quality education to

spur the developmental transformations of the continent, is to produce the qualified

builders of this new Africa. In that regard, the issue of education cannot be limited to its

technical dimensions. The policy then takes the upper hand.

After this introduction, the rest of the paper is divided into four parts. Part 1 reviews the

current state of education in Africa, from its colonial origins to date. Part 2 examines the

issue of education and quality education in its relationship with the institutional

production of builders of the Africa of tomorrow. Part 3 attempts to answer the

question: what kind of education for the developmental transformation of the continent?

Finally, Part 4 discusses the issues and challenges of promoting quality education in

Africa to spur the development of the continent. The paper ends with a conclusion.

1. Current state of education in Africa

Two modes of education co-exist in “unequal competition” on the African soil. There is

the “traditional” system of education, anchored in culture and civilization, and

functioning as the remnant of traditional African social establishments in their diversity.

The second is the so-called “modern” education system of colonial origin, based on and

drawn upon neo-colonization and values of the market credo, and which is called

“formal education”.

Founded on social establishments and different modes of production, they maintain, not

a relationship of coexistence, but rather competition. This is an unequal relationship,

where the market, as a reference value, dictates its law, and that of values it conveys in

education, including its modes of organization.

Formal education in Africa is, therefore, Western education in Africa. It was introduced

both by the colonial power and the English, French, Portuguese and Spanish evangelical

missions. Its ultimate objectives were: (i) to train aids and assistants of the colonial

machinery (administration and security forces); (ii) to train aids and assistants for

companies and the colonial business world; (iii) to bring to book the colonized people

through acculturation in order to facilitate their insertion into the controllable values of

the liberal West, by combating, by all means, their cultural values and civilization, and

converting them to Christianity.

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Gradually, evangelization and primary schools were established in various places. They

were later followed by higher education and university institutions. Although the

characteristic traits and modes of introduction of formal Western education in Africa

varied from one type of colonization to the other (English, French, Portuguese and

Spanish), the three objectives mentioned above remained the same. With unequal levels

of design and elitist and selective approach, formal education in Africa conveyed the

same Western values of the market paradigm.

With the burden of colonization and later neo-colonization, the enterprise was a success.

Cohorts of young Africans were sent, first by force, to the white man’s school to learn

Western culture. The colonial enterprise, in its public and private sectors needed hands,

and gradually hands with a certain level of qualification or, at least, instruction.

Importing all the skills required for the colonial administration was too expensive,

whereas with a small amount of investment in education, better results could be

achieved at less cost, not to mention the immense benefit from integration of the

colonized person into the Western and liberal cultural values. The system contributed

immensely to “mould” the African to serve the West.

Formal Western education in Africa, which started as a chore imposed on young

Africans, but later affirmed itself as a means of social ascension through the position of

clerks, created abundantly its own demand. Children increasingly constituted the high

social demand for education, even if there were, in some places, pockets of resistance to

Western education and its values, a resistance which some Westerners considered as

backwardness. Many parents rushed to register their children in school.

For various reasons, the system had some congenital limitations. First of all, in line with

its basic philosophy, it had no objective of making education in Africa a tool for the

development of African countries. Africa’s development was brilliantly absent from the

agenda of the colonial adventure. Also the school development enterprise in Africa was

highly expensive in terms of investments. Thirdly, you only needed a few well-placed

pawns, setting the example, full of the new culture and new values introduced, to train

the rest of the African societies and solidly take them on board the ship of the Christian

and liberal West. It was not necessary to send everybody to school, and this created a

selective and elitist education system.

African independence was granted in this context and with this heritage. The school, in

fact, the liberal Western school, in Africa, is a mandatory condition for social

promotion, as Africa itself wanted to follow the path of what it considered as modernity,

i.e. what constituted its model of social establishment and mode of production: the

West. Besides, independence introduced development theories conceived for Africa, all

of which had a common denominator: the gaps theory. According to these theories,

Africa is under-developed because it lacks the capital to invest, the technical skills,

modern equipment, etc. The West must provide it with these resources so that Africa

can use them to fill these gaps.

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Since the society and the economy are a colonial heritage, maintaining them, anchoring

and developing them along this path demand considerable investment in education. It

should be stressed that education in Africa, developed in recent years and during the

post-independence years (of neo-colonies), is Western education in Africa, with all its

cultural problems and societal values.

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Believing firmly in education as a way of filling the vacuum created by the departure of

the (public and private) colonial agents, and preparing the army of builders of the

Western model in Africa, the leaders of independence invested massively in education,

but on the Western model. Two decades of “massification” of the school paved the way

for massive investments in educational infrastructure and in schooling. There has been

an impressive increase in the number of primary, secondary, vocational and higher

education schools on the continent. The number of products or graduates at all levels

has increased tremendously. More remarkable was, and still is, the rate of girls’

education. This rate, which is generally less than that of boys, has increased at a very

rapid pace. It is the same or even higher than that of boys in some African countries.

Social demand for girls’ education is one of the fortunate consequences of massification

of education in Africa.

To mark the Western nature of education in Africa, mechanisms for twining with

Western educational institutions and universities in the former capitals, and/or

sponsorship by them were established and encouraged. Education in Africa, thus

benefitted from support in the transmission of Western knowledge considered as a

model to be attained, and presented as universal knowledge, hence theoretically

detached, but erroneously, from the values it conveys, through notably manuals,

teaching methods, teachers, researchers and equipment.

The phenomenon of massification has created another consequence of the development

of education in Africa. The colonial regime mastered the education system at both the

quantitative and qualitative levels. A whole arsenal of selection and elitism was put in

place and functioned well. This helped to limit the demand for education, which was not

the case after independence. With the educational boom or the phenomenon of

massification, education became an animal that could hardly be controlled by its

promoters, namely African States. Despite the average high rates of school drop-out, the

increasing mass of primary school leavers created a demand and, therefore, pressure to

open the doors of secondary schools wider still, while the huge numbers of secondary

school leavers constituted, in turn, a high social demand for higher education.

The upward pressure, the fact that the finalists of each cycle, certainly educated at

various levels, but without any training or professional aptitude that could be further

developed, had no other option than to proceed to the subsequent cycle, irrespective of

their actual quality and qualification, clearly showed that the educational level was no

longer controlled. This was another dimension of the crisis of education in Africa, over

and above the other dimensions such as disconnection of the content of the programs,

poor adaptation of the system to the realities and hopes of Africa, poor adaptation of the

methodology of getting people to assimilate knowledge and the capacities to produce

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endogenous knowledge, the exorbitant social cost for both the State and the knowledge

seekers, the quality of its products, the reception capacities, the high loss rates, etc.

The pace of massification of education could not be sustained. The productivity of the

systems of education and their effectiveness suffered as a result. The development of the

products suffered from it even more, as African economists got into various crises: raw

materials, oil, indebtedness, slowing of white elephants, public finance, etc. The

structural adjustment programs dealt a fatal blow to the development of education in

Africa, without offering the opportunity for questioning the Western model of this

education.

Whereas education in Africa has so far been basically an enterprise supported directly

or indirectly by the State, the structural adjustment programs of the World Bank

introduced another philosophy and another strategy of education in Africa: privatization

of segments of the educational enterprise, as an approach in the post-massification. The

basic idea or justification principle was reduction of the burdens of the State, which had

initially refilled its coffers to refund the debts of donors, and to that end, ensure the

coupling of African economies with the vessel of globalization. The process of State

withdrawal from the educational sector was thus affirmed, despite the declarations on

budget increase, guarantee of education for all and the legitimate right of children and

people to education.

Private capital initially made a timid entry into the education system in Africa and later

in full swing. Private schools and private universities are flourishing each day like

mushrooms, and are proliferating in Africa today. They meet the high social demand for

education, following the massification of the latter. The educational enterprise has also

become, even more profitable than industrial and agricultural investment or in tradable

services in Africa. But, the plurality of the offer of education was not in line with the

decline in the cost of competing education or improvement in the quality of the

products.

Education in Africa and its academic and non-academic tools is, therefore, an arsenal at

the service of the colonial enterprise. The continuation, if not improvement, of African

economies based on the Western model, and their firm coupling with the vessel of

globalization, also have an impact on the system of education in Africa. Education in

Africa is neo-colonial. It reproduces the values and credos of the liberal Western society

in Africa. And it could not be otherwise. Theoretical and practical arrangements have

been put in place, and constantly consolidated to that end, including at the political,

economic, social and cultural levels. Bilateral and multilateral cooperation policies have

also been put in place and financed by donors of the continent.

Western educational enterprise had undergone some reforms in the years following

African independence. These reforms, aimed at the Africanization of the school and

education in general, were launched almost throughout Africa. First of all, the reforms

were aimed at Africanizing the system in terms of staffing, by appointing Africans to

management positions and functions, and as actors of education. Reforms were then

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undertaken in terms of review of structures of the different cycles, including number of

years of education-training per cycle. Finally, they involved the review of the content of

the programs, not to completely overhaul them, by challenging the canons of faith of the

dominant free-market economy and its implications in the area of education, but rather

to ensure their African coloration, by including here and there an additional lesson or

course on African or national particularities.

It is important to stress here the limit of the reform of the programs in order to

Africanize them. Western education in Africa is considered as universal knowledge,

which the West provided, and continues to provide to Africa. In addition, the

requirements of equivalence and “ratification” of degrees and international

classification internalized by leaders of education in Africa, are based on Western

references. You are well appraised when your school, and generally your education

system, is closer to the Western school of the reference model, especially if it is that of

the former colonial power.

With the limitations of developmental functions of the State in Africa, and its means of

action, the structural adjustment programs came to express a further need for reforms in

the systems of education in Africa. They were implemented basically with the view to

ensuring withdrawal of the State from its vast responsibilities in the area of education,

by limiting public expenditure, and pushing the private sector into the education system

at all levels. But, they were mostly in the spirit of inculcating a new philosophy of

education in Africa: education, a public good, becomes a marketable and, hence,

tradable product. It has its producers, its sellers and its buyers. It is, in fact, the subject

of traded supply and demand.

2. Education and production of builders of Africa

When bilateral and multilateral development cooperation agencies, led by the World

Bank, launched capacity building programs throughout Africa, it was also in the

framework of the theory of gaps: Africa lacks the necessary capacities for promoting

and managing its development. The economic crisis that had led these “benefactors” of

Africa to subject it to structural adjustment programs also showed that education in

Africa had not provided the requisite products: actors and managers of the economy and

development, even in their neo-colonial liberal model.

This can compel Africans - and they expressed it – to call into question the dominant

development model which these colonial and neo-colonial “benefactors” had imposed

on the African continent, and in turn, the education system that conveyed its values, and

trained competencies for its management in the African national segments. Without

reviewing the education system, one simply had to embark on a little more than

cosmetic reforms, and introduce into it non-academic capacity building programs. To

that end, appropriate structures were put in place, and specific programs launched in

higher and university education institutions. The objective was to strengthen the system

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for training leaders, thinkers, theorists and practitioners of development in the dialogical

cast of Africa’s development through Western and liberal values. One could not afford

strengthening the design and management capacities of another economy or another

society with its own reference paradigms and values.

This is where the fundamental issue of education in Africa, whether academic (hence

formal) or not, should be raised: the societal relationship of education, meaning the

school in the case of formal education. Basically, education is not expected to be a

system for acculturation and instruction of the youth and other education seekers. This

is not what Africa needs and is asking for. This unwanted product of Western education

in Africa is the reflection, and the consequence of the dominant systems of education on

the continent. It should be changed. But, on what basis and for which new societal

paradigm?

The real meaning of independence for African peoples was the opportunity to change

their social establishments, with, if not the mode of production in its basic canons, at

least the colonial exploitation economic model, and replacing it with a national

development model, a social project that can guarantee their welfare and well-being in

an inclusive and sustainable manner (Kankwenda, 2005). The aim was to move from an

extrovert economy, negatively integrated into the global economy, to an introvert

economy in its essence, but not inward-looking, and in a fully-participative process and

distributor of the dividends of this new model.

The establishment of another societal development paradigm must be placed within a

vision of the future of Africa of tomorrow, in a self-projection of the continent

(including its national social and economic segments), and based on the strategic

transformations of its economic structures, and its modes of governance. This also

depends on the correct identification of the issues and challenges of the development of

a new Africa.

The needs of the definition, and especially implementation of another vision of Africa

of tomorrow to be built constitute the basis of missions entrusted or to be entrusted to

the educational and scientific system in Africa. For, to build another Africa of today and

especially tomorrow, there is a need not only to define its content and strategy, but also

the type of human capital required by such a huge enterprise, and entrust the mission of

its production and provision to the education-training and scientific research systems. It

is on this basis that the diagnosis of the current situation, the issues and challenges of

education in Africa, and especially the formulation of the necessary strategies and

policies to be put in place to ensure quality education and development in Africa, should

be legitimately founded.

Yet, the education system in Africa was not designed and implemented on these bases.

Education in Africa does not perform a clearly-defined developmental mission, ensuing

from its function in the construction of the new Africa of tomorrow, in the light of the

nature of the continent’s future as projected in a consensual manner, and piloted in a

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participative manner by the political, social, economic and cultural forces of the

continent.

There is, therefore, an initial crucial duty to be performed for the continent: defining the

vision of its future, defining the Africa of tomorrow to be built, defining the self-

projection of the continent on the world scene, and of Africa that the generations of

today intend to leave for future generations. From this definition will emerge a specific

mission for education in Africa, with its academic and non-academic tools, through

formal and non-formal education.

African leaders have launched several initiatives in that regard, the most significant

being the “Monrovia Strategy”, accompanied by its operationalization plan, called

“Lagos Plan of Action or LPA”. (Kankwenda, 2005 and 2007). Unfortunately, they

could not be implemented or even initiated. Besides, education, as a strategic

component, was still perceived in its technical dimension. Although it has a Conference

of African Ministers of Education, the continent is far from achieving that objective.

Consequently, education in Africa should not be an institutional mechanism for

producing continuators and managers of the society and the free-market economy in

Africa inherited from colonization, and enhanced by the neo-colonial mechanisms and

dynamics of globalization. The mission of education in Africa is rather to participate in

the construction of this new Africa, by producing its thinkers, its actors, its builders.

While adopting, within acceptable limits, the liberal theory of human capital, education

in Africa should be the vector of other societal values, and meet, in its production of

builders of the continent of tomorrow, the defined needs in terms of resources and/or

human capital, which the continent needs in the construction of Africa of today, and

especially of tomorrow.

Apart from this approach, which depends on reappropriation of education in Africa, the

political scope of this institutional tool for the construction of another Africa, education

in Africa will continue to be developed to ensure that the continent is more focused on

the values of the liberal West. In the conditions of neo-colonial social establishments,

education in Africa will continue to face quantitative and qualitative crises of

governance and financing, adaptation to the economic and societal dynamics,

productivity and efficiency of the system, with average rates of high school dropout,

producing continually abandoned people, and “structural” unemployed persons. It

continues and will continue to operate without connection with the African society,

without contribution to African responses to the development problems of the continent.

Disconnected from the development problems of Africa, it will continue to produce and

export its best products, just as its residues elsewhere, including the West, which

imposed on it an eccentric education system.

Conceiving and implementing an African education in Africa that meets the

developmental needs of the continent, in general, and development of the necessary

resources and human capital for building a new Africa in particular, is a revolution in

education in Africa. It affects the quantitative and qualitative aspects of this education

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as well as the mission, final functions, the destiny and political and socio-cultural

impact of the education system. It forms an integral part of the reconsideration of the

dominant paradigm and its societal values, and efforts to construct another paradigm on

the basis of other values, to best ensure a different positioning of the Africa of tomorrow

on the world scene.

Such a process cannot be successfully implemented with reforms like those that have

been launched and continue to be corrected with the so-called “africanization” of

education, without reviewing its fundamental principles. But that will not be easy since

the process will be fought by internal forces in Africa and external forces. There are not

many political supporters of such a project, and they will not easily have a say in the

decision-making, much less in the implementation, especially if the political decision is

not taken.

The education system in Africa exists and is functioning well, because there is high

social demand for education-training, and not because the government has made it a tool

for managing the economy and developing the country. In public policies, be they

autonomous or inspired by the GPRSP, the issue of developing the human capital is

generally present. But, it is often drowned in the wider scope of improving the living

conditions of the populations, since education is intimately linked with improvement of

living conditions and poverty reduction, which are yet to be demonstrated. According to

this line of thinking, the quantitative aspect of access to education takes precedence over

the development of the human capital as a strategic component and factor of the

construction of the Africa of tomorrow.

Education reforms in Africa are also based on two objectives: (i) adapting the education

systems and products of education to the development needs of the country and, hence,

the market, in order to ensure adequacy between training and the world of work; and (ii)

guaranteeing access to education for all.

To adapt education to the needs of African countries or the continent, we should first of

all know and/or define these needs, which has not been done. The construction of

another Africa of tomorrow will be done by, and with a certain type of human resources

that should be developed, i.e. produced and harnessed. This is the mission to be

entrusted to the education and training system. In the absence of such a vision, adapting

education and the educational system to the undefined needs of Africa amounts to

refining this education as a tool in the service of the market.

The free-market economy, particularly as practiced by foreign enterprises operating in

Africa, complains about the quality of local competencies, hence the quality of the

products that the education system in place in Africa offers it on the labor market. It

uses this argument to explain the unemployment and under-payment of the management

staff and skilled workers. It requires reforms or adaptation of education to its needs. It

wants the education system to be at its service and produce what it wants or can use. In

reality, this is a false complaint. Africa has trained an enormous number of management

staff in all areas and sectors of development, as well as enterprises. The continent even

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exports a lot of them, and African competencies exported are appreciated and solicited

in other continents, including the developed world.

It is important to make a few remarks in that regard. First of all, if the current education

in Africa produces more trained staff, more technicians of knowledge in several areas

and sectors of activity and not professionals, mastering a trade, it is in line with the

mission entrusted to it: meeting the increasing social demand for education (in whatever

form) and producing small segments of “professionable staff” trained on the job. The

selective and elitist, rather than development-oriented, origins of the education systems

in Africa are still maintained. The free-market economy cannot, therefore, complain.

Also in question are leaders of development policies in Africa, who have maintained

and promoted this type of education. Producing unemployed and abandoned people is

immanent with the intrinsic nature and dynamics of free-market economy. Education in

Africa cannot be an exception as long as it is the product of it and the vector of the

values.

It is also important to stress that the policy of adapting the educational system to the

needs of enterprises in Africa should not be conceived as a professional

functionalization of this system in relation to the labor market. The market changes and

cannot be the referential value of the design and implementation of the education

system on the continent. It should be dynamic and capable of adapting to and meeting

the needs of enterprises, so as not to continually produce abandoned people. But, it

should produce competencies not only for economic governance and development of

the Africa of today, reproducing the current society and economy of unprofitable

coupling of Africa to the vessel of globalization, and limiting itself to meeting the needs

of local enterprises. More specifically, it should manage change and effectively govern

the construction of the future of the continent, and remodel its economy.

Thirdly, capital in any case, the capital does not have to dictate to the continent and

African countries the type of human capital the education/training system should

produce. That should be determined by the needs for the construction of a new Africa of

today and tomorrow, and should be the prerogatives of African political leaders,

particularly those who are not used by the Western free-market economy.

An education that justifies its existence and its social cost merely by its existence, and

even the pressure of social demand for education, because there are children and parents

who demand it, because it helps to occupy the youth, who would otherwise fall victims

to delinquency and crime, because international commitments require it, and because

we should make a good impression. Otherwise it becomes useless, if not counter-

productive.

This counter-productivity clearly explains both the break-downs and slippages and

development crises in Africa. I think it is on the basis of this observation that Ilunga

Kabongo (1980), in a correct and summary judgment, gave the ruling, which may seem

severe to certain people, on the place and role of education, as well as scientific

research, in the economic and social development of Congo. But his analysis and

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conclusions are valid and applicable to the continent as a whole. In fact, he observed

inverse correlations in the relationships between production/training of Congolese

scientists and technicians of knowledge and the regressive trend of the political,

economic and social situation of the country.

He summarized his observations in the following facts (and his analysis can be

expanded): the more the country produced agricultural engineers, the more the

populations experienced under-feeding and malnutrition; the more the civil engineers,

the more the state of road or capital infrastructure deteriorated; the more we produced

doctors, the more the hospitals became places where people are left to die, and the more

past diseases reappeared and were spreading; the more we produced economists and

financial analysts, the more the country’s economy regressed or sank into crisis, while

embezzlements and poor financial management became institutionalized; the more the

university poured out its production of jurists, the less justice the country experienced,

etc., all this to demonstrate the insignificant, useless and even “negative” impact of

education, science and its holders on the improvement of the living conditions of the

Congolese people.

An education disconnected from the African society and its development problems, an

education that does not educate current and future actors, and does not prepare them for

their responsibilities as builders of the new Africa, is not education in Africa, much less

an African education in the service of the renewal of the continent, irrespective of the

level of its quality and theoretical efficiency, or in relation to the needs of the market.

Africa does not need a system of education that is not integrated into the development

functions of the continent, and has not been entrusted with that mission.

Producing knowledge and know-how in the service of Africa’s development is the

responsibility of scientific and technological research, especially the institutional

instrument in charge of producing scientific and technological knowledge in Africa as

elsewhere: its education system. In this regard, that of the African continent should be

questioned. What African populations - but perhaps the political powers - expect from

this system is that it produces policy-makers and development actors, as well as

scientists and technicians who have a role and development power in this society to

improve its governance, and contribute to the economic and social progress of Africa

and African countries.

It should be noted that a society only establishes such education system, and plans the

production of this type of scientists or even scholars if, in the planning of its own future,

it makes do with such social production. Yet, many studies have shown that Africa and

its different systems and educational projects were far from achieving such

performance. (Verhaegen, B., 1978; Gasibirege, R. S., 1981; Tshibangu, Th. T., 1998).

Questioning the African education system, particularly its school system, amounts to

questioning the African society itself. Its education system is only a tool it uses to

produce the builder, the scientist, the scholar or the intellectual it wants to have, and

generally ensure the development of its human resources, and open the range of

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opportunities for its populations. But, it is a dialectical relationship between the society

and its education system.

We should examine how and to what extent the education “weapon”, as an opportunity

for production of science and technology, was put at the service of the Western free-

market economy in Africa, rather than that of progress of African populations.

There is, therefore, a need to question African education and/or education in Africa,

particularly formal or economic education on the continent, as the venue for producing

Western knowledge, on its actual capacities to produce transformative knowledge for

Africa’s development, on its effective capacities to produce actors involved in the

developmental revival of the continent, on its vocation and its mission in this issue.

3. What kind of education for a developmental transformation of the

continent?

Making education an important lever for spurring development in Africa is a noble

objective and it is achievable. The problem of developing human capital through the

education and training system has for a long time retained the attention of African

governments. But they have made it a system for producing managers and actors for the

Western free-market economy in Africa, undoubtedly thinking that African economies

are progressing towards their capitalist development, like the economies of their

Western metropolis, whether old or new.

Without necessarily occupying an important place with a well-defined and integrated

mission in the strategic development strategy, the formal education systems inherited

from colonization were maintained and expanded, especially quantitatively, to continue

to launch on the labor market products that have at times expired, are unused and/or

unfit for consumption.

The development crisis in Africa, the capacity “gap” wrongly or rightly stressed by

various people, openly raises once again the issue of relevance of these education

systems for the future of the African continent. What kind of education and for what

future of Africa?

3.1 First of all, what is this Africa of tomorrow?

Two major scenarios, with various variants, may be imagined. The Africa of tomorrow

may simply be the one that is born out of the major trends of Africa of today.

The first scenario is that of an Africa engaged in the continuation and strengthening of

the political, economic and socio-cultural bases of the current situation, with, where

necessary, some surface reforms to adjust the modes of governance with periods of

crisis and requirements of globalization.

15

An Africa of tomorrow then continues and reproduces, sometimes in an extended

manner, the present conditions on the continent, even if there are a few improvements

here and there. The objective will be to deepen and anchor the situation of the present

African social establishments, dependent on the powers of globalization, swallowed in a

state of backward segments of capitalism, reduced to certain functions in the strategy of

the world system, and solidly attached to the vessel of globalization at the political,

economic, social and cultural levels. In this case, education in Africa is not expected to

disseminate the values of developmental transformation, or produce African

transformers as well as change and development leaders. It is rather expected to create

and improve the conditions for the current African social establishments.

In other words, it is called upon to produce managers and actors of the political,

economic and cultural appendices of the African segments of globalization. Beyond the

mission entrusted to formal education in Africa, special capacity building programs will

be implemented to complete the latter, with a view to “better” managing the

development crises of the continent, and undertake adjustment reforms during periods

of crisis, particularly in case of crisis of the global system itself.

In another scenario, that of reorganization of the African continent, and its dynamic

positioning under the best conditions of development and competitiveness on the world

scene, we should imagine another future, conceive and promote another vision or

another dream for the African continent. Africa’s future and its positioning on the world

scene should not be the project of the strategy of external forces. They should be a

project conceived autonomously and fully owned by the political, economic and social

forces of this continent. For that, we should first of all know how to articulate in a

consensual manner the vision of Africa’s future at the political, social, economic and

developmental levels. The said vision should then be translated into strategies, policies

and operational programs to ensure the realization or construction of this collective

dream.

Such line of thought amounts to initiating a process that covers notably the following

actions and stages:

Planning for the future with an image of the expected future in another

development paradigm, which frees African social establishments from the

current paradigm to make Africa a continent:

in inclusive and sustainable growth,

that has control over its resources, the process and their development,

that has control over its modes of insertion into the world economy, in

accordance with a logic of positioning as beneficiary subject, and not as

a subject of calculations of external strategies,

with stable political institutions capable of reinventing democracy,

governed by a development leadership that is capable of putting African

peoples at the center of the ownership, production and equitable

16

distribution of the dividends of inclusive growth and sustainable

development.

Positioning the Africa of tomorrow in relation to the economy and development

model to be built, with its translation into governance and social relationships to

be institutionalized, for the benefit of the populations.

Defining the nature of the structural transformations to be initiated and

successfully concluded, for implementation of the vision, and with these, the

economic and geographical architecture of the country’s development.

Formulating and implementing the relevant strategies and policies, and knowing

how to translate them into concrete operational programs, to develop the

approach that will lead the continent and African countries from the current

situation to the situation of dream and the Africa of tomorrow, that of economic

and social progress of all Africans.

Involving the driving forces of African nations in a consensual manner in the

entire process, to ensure that they own it, find their interest in it, and are

prepared to accept the ultimate sacrifice for it.

Defining the sequences of implementation of the vision, with their objectives, as

well as the nature of the mode of mobilization of resources required at each

phase.

Defining this vision as a collective dream of the expected future of Africa,

implementing it and involving the driving forces of the continent in this process, is a

proactive dynamic movement, which implies some level of break with the current

dynamics. The Africa of tomorrow cannot be the one which the “others” and their

strategists have defined for their own interests, and on which they base their

functioning, through cooperation programs. It cannot be simply the in-depth continuity

of that of today with its development paradigms.

This new Africa to be invented and revived on other bases requires availability of

resources and human capital, the profile of which should be defined and produced

gradually to meet the needs of this construction and implementation of this vision.

The question of the nature and orientation of the development of human capital, and

more specifically the qualitative and quantitative resources required for a given phase of

the country’s progress towards its future, as well as the human and institutional

competencies to be promoted for that purpose, and the frequency of their production,

are stages of the progress towards the construction of this Africa of tomorrow. And it is

on the basis of the strategic responses given to these questions that clear missions are

entrusted to the formal and informal African education systems. As such, they are

integrated into strategies for the construction of a new Africa according to the collective

17

dream as defined, and they form a strategic component of the dynamics of this

construction.

Since these basic questions have not been asked, and the prior responses formulated, the

education policies and those for building the human capital developed in a fragmented

manner, in response to the pressure of social demand for education, the solicitations of

some enterprises and cooperation programs cannot have the expected impact or

effectiveness. They can only enhance the reproduction of the values and burden of the

African social establishments in place.

3.2 What kind of education for the Africa of tomorrow?

Theories on human capital affirm, backed by equations, that education, particularly

formal education, by equipping people with knowledge and developing the human

capital, contributes to economic growth and development. Human capital - which the

education system produces or is expected to produce – has become an important factor

of growth promotion.

Without going into details at times debatable for lack of demonstration, it is admitted

that by developing human capital, education (i.e. formal education) increases labor

productivity, extends the horizons of human resources, offers them capacities to seize

opportunities open to them, increases their chances on the job market, and, thereby,

enables them to effectively fight against poverty.

The education systems in Africa are based on this belief. They have continued to

produce technicians of knowledge mainly to meet the needs of the government

machinery, taking inspiration from the philosophy of its colonial origins. Education has

produced and continues to produce varied competent graduates for the needs of the

different sectors of the public administration. At one time or the other, nearly all its

products, had the ambition to join the government machinery and occupy the best

professional positions and social visibility.

African education then began to produce jurists, agronomists, doctors, engineers,

chemists, literary men, physicians, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists,

mathematicians, economists, and other high-level technicians of knowledge. It also

produced great numbers of middle and low-level professionals: teachers or school

masters, nurses, laboratory personnel, all kinds of assistants and technicians, whom the

administrative machinery of the State could no longer absorb.

This high production not only had little impact and at times reversed correlations with

the development process, as demonstrated by Ilunga Kabongo (1980), but it was

increasingly affected by unemployment. It is massively exported to other countries

where it believes it can try its luck with greater success, particularly in the northern

hemisphere. What was the purpose of investing massively in this production of

technicians of knowledge, and even at times elites in various scientific disciplines, with

a blind belief that they will contribute to the economic growth and sustainable

18

development of African countries, only to see them at the end of their training join the

cohort of qualified unemployed persons and emigrant competent graduates?

As shown by Kabeya Tshikuku (2007), three types of major problems that hang over the

process of African education and, hence, production of technicians of knowledge:

- the general environment in which management staff and qualified workers are

trained in Africa, which keeps deteriorating from the point of view of

infrastructure, teaching equipment, qualification of the staff, supervision ratio

due to the increasing and rapid massification of education, etc.;

- the philosophy of formal education and schooling, generally not adapted to the

needs of African countries, and not at all prepared to play the role of education,

change and transformation;

- the gap between theoretical receipts and technical competence of graduates of

the education systems in Africa, with some few exceptions.

The current education systems in Africa are based on a colonial and fetishist vision of

knowledge. In this vision, which constitutes its basic philosophical postulate, it is tacitly

admitted that Western science and technology have proved their worth and contributed

to the development and hegemony of Western countries, in the context of market

economy. They constitute universal knowledge. Africa is engaged in this economy. It

only has to transplant them in the strict respect of the contents of the “heritage”, and its

instruction manual.

Scientific and technological knowledge thus comes to Africa with the prestige of its

Western origins. It is not questioned in relation to African realities, or the development

problems of the continent, and expectations of the populations. It is taught as a universal

knowledge, since both teachers and students enjoy enormous prestige as holders of

“universal” Western knowledge, and believe they are on the paths of “knowledge

acquisition”. The system is more of knowledge consumption than knowledge

production, or endogenization of the said universal knowledge.

Furthermore, concerning the teaching methods, the dominant trend is “cramming”,

particularly at the secondary and higher education levels. The outcome is mastery of

doubtful knowledge (Freire 1974). And because of its colonial philosophy, coupled with

the fetishism of knowledge, education in Africa has developed, if not institutionalized,

mandarin practices of selection and elitism, resulting in high rates of school dropout,

separation of knowledge from technical skill or know-how, and low predisposition to

creativity and inventiveness to confront the specific problems of the continent with the

knowledge acquired. Apart from a few sectors, education in Africa produces technicians

of knowledge, educated people, but not necessarily professionals.

In their current sluggishness, education systems in Africa, especially those of formal

education, are alienated, foreign and often bureaucratized systems. And since they are

19

not integrated into a development vision for another future of the continent, and

strategies for implementing this vision, they are a reflection of the nature of the

dominant social establishments in Africa, i.e., social establishments that are politically,

economically and culturally alienated. That is why the latter put up with these systems

of education, and are inspired by them.

It is important to stress two major facts about the belief of African leaders and

heads and technicians of Western educational systems in Africa.

The first is the sense of relationship. If, indeed, education has an impact and

plays an undeniable role in the development of the African continent or any other

continent, notably through its role in promoting economic growth, developing

personality, etc., it is not a one-way relationship. It is rather dialectical.

Economic growth has its exigencies on the education system. It forces it by

requesting it to produce the competent graduates it needs. In return, quality education,

by producing builders of the Africa of tomorrow, contributes to growth or a mode and a

certain orientation of growth. This means that an economy that has no other growth

drivers cannot count on its education system alone.

Secondly, there are political prerequisites for the development of quality

education. The social demand for education from the base, even abundant, is not

adequate, as eloquently illustrated by present experiences. Political demand for

education on the basis of a social project under construction or to be constructed

and the needs in human capital of this construction are determinant. The belief in

education as an institutional opportunity for producing Western educated people

in Africa, and the immense investments made by African governments in

education have unfortunately neglected these facts.

To build the Africa of tomorrow within a new development paradigm, by relying

on quality education, it is necessary, not to tinker with the present education

systems in Africa through reforms dictated by economic adjustment problems,

resource crises, etc., but rather to change their underlying fundamental principles.

Promoting quality education to spur Africa’s development cannot be achieved

through surface reforms or adjustment of the Western systems of education in

Africa, on the basis of liberal parameters imported and poorly integrated into the

requirements for implementing another paradigm of the development of the

African continent of tomorrow.

Indeed, to ensure quality education and developmental transformation of Africa,

it is necessary to initiate a profound, if not radical, transformation of education in

Africa in its basic philosophy, its links with, and missions in relation to the

development and construction of the future of the continent, the content of the

20

programs expected to produce the builders of the Africa of tomorrow, the

teaching methods, etc.

It is under these conditions that the education systems can claim to have the

capacities to accomplish their mission of serving as lever to spur Africa’s

development. To that end, they should:

i) not separate knowledge from know-how and train and produce holders of

the two, i.e. produce experts and valuable professionals;

ii) integrate the assimilation of universal knowledge into the solution of

problems impeding the progress of African societies, and, therefore,

constantly question the relevance and practical usefulness of the

theories learnt in relation to the African context concerned, and the

solution of society problems of African populations;

iii) promote through i) and ii), the fundamental values of creativity,

innovation and inventiveness.

This conception of quality education in Africa to spur the development of the continent

during this century, in a judicious articulation between the three levels, i.e. primary,

secondary and higher education, is in line with what Benoît Verhaegen (1978) presented

as fundamental options for the African university, namely, effectively possessing or

mastering science, knowing thoroughly the African social establishments concerned,

and having a cutting-edge option.

For, as the niche for transmission and assimilation of knowledge, and acquisition of

knowledge and technical skills, formal education in Africa, if it is to be quality

education for the development of the continent, must also be a center for the production

of knowledge and acquisition of technical skills for the transformation of Africa. And it

can only do so by making science or the knowledge and know-how it produces and

transmits a “fighting tool in the struggle (…) aimed at breaking the vicious circle of

dependency and under-development” (Ilunga Kabongo, 1980, p.288; Kankwenda, Mb.,

2007).

4. Issues, challenges and problems

Establishing quality education to spur Africa’s development, with the nature of

transformations it requires, can be achieved by knowing the issues of this education, and

the challenges to be met, given the burden of the current system of education.

Education is a place and an institution for building the future of a country since it

conveys an ideology, and prepares the technicians of knowledge, the elites, the

intelligentsia, intellectuals and the leadership called upon to firmly establish the values

of a system and mode of society. In that regard, transforming the African society and

21

building a new Africa in another vision can be achieved through the transformation of

this school.

The latter is thus a place for unnamed ideological struggles. Moving from one quality

school to colonial or neo-colonial social training to quality education for the liberation

of African social establishments is the first developmental issue in the establishment of

quality education system. It is a political issue, which is at the same time a crucial

challenge.

The second issue concerns the capacities of African school systems and African social

establishments in the service of which they operate, to produce intellectuals, using their

knowledge technicians, and their methods of training to produce them.

Let us be honest about this. A graduate from the Ecole Supérieure or University is not

an intellectual by the mere fact of having this degree. He is simply what in the

appropriate jargon, is called technician of knowledge. Technicians of knowledge, who

assert themselves in their field, even become great experts or 1st class intellectuals, are

part of the elite of a country. As technicians of knowledge or elites, and if they do not

consider themselves as such, they put their knowledge and know-how at the disposal of

anyone who would like to use their services, and, hence, at the service of the different

political regimes and social establishments which they are prepared to serve. They do

not question the use of their knowledge and know-how, which form the basis of their

status as elites.

Africa is really making no progress because its intelligentsia (technicians of knowledge

and elites) has abdicated or has not taken this decisive step, in the sense of the interest

of the people, to become intellectual.

Those responsible for the current education in Africa want to limit it to the production

of technicians of knowledge, with the mission of reproducing and managing the

dependent free-market economy, with the political, legal and cultural superstructures

required for deepening this reproduction. Whilst quality education to spur Africa’s

development would like to and should make it the niche for producing not only

technicians of knowledge with the technical skills for change, but also intellectuals,

technicians of knowledge who can “call into question” the dominant paradigm of

current social establishments, and as thinkers involved in the action for the progress and

transformational development of the continent.

It is true that the social conditions adopted may accelerate the transformation of the

technicians of knowledge produced by the education system into intellectuals. But, the

latter plays an important role as it helps to acquire the technical nature of knowledge

and know-how, and the sense of citizen responsibility.

Indeed, in the current education systems, the technician of knowledge is trained in the

idea and legitimate aspiration of fitting into the structures of the government machinery

and social positioning, by virtue of the method of training he received. He is educated to

22

function as an agent of the system (Kankwenda, Mb., 1978), and continuator of the

colonial project in a neo-colonial context. During the entire cycle of their

education/training, the ideology and sense of the aspirations inculcated in them make

them hope for promotion through formal education. It is, therefore, normal that in their

thought, the technicians of knowledge do not start criticizing structures of the ruling

order, structures in which they want to fit, even if they see or understand that,

obviously, these structures cannot absorb everybody, and that there is an objective limit

to their aspirations.

Making the current education system in Africa a niche for producing potential

intellectuals, thus, becomes a key issue for quality education to spur the development of

the continent.

A third issue concerns the production by African education systems of the development

leadership in general, and development of quality education in particular. Even if the

transformative leadership for Africa’s development is not necessarily a product of

formal education, it is indisputable that the latter plays a significant role in the

preparation for leadership qualities and responsibilities.

The current education in Africa takes joy in producing leaderships for reproduction,

maintenance and consolidation of the systems and values of the neo-colonial social

establishments, without a vision of the continent’s future other than its coupling with

the free-market world economy. This prevents, or at best, impedes development,

economic, scientific and technical progress, and, consequently, the development of

Africa as a future continent in the world of tomorrow. That is another key issue for the

promotion of quality education in Africa, but on a new basis, as analyzed above.

This issue/challenge is associated with the more general issue of development and

affirmation of a development leadership, with a vision of the future of Africa capable of

mobilizing African forces in the construction of this other Africa, and, therefore, in the

dynamics of implementation of this vision. It is the challenge of a leadership, which can

profitably fit into the school system in the development equation, with precise missions

to promote the transformations and progress of the African continent.

There is a fourth set of issues and challenges with political connotation. It is the

commodification of knowledge and the (educational) institution that transmits and

produces it. With the tremendous penetration of capital or its conquering invasion of

education systems in Africa, education is increasingly becoming a commodity, which

has its producers, its sellers and its buyers just like any other commodity on the market.

Those ejected from the system are on the increase due to their inability to afford formal

education, their material poverty, and not necessarily because of their intellectual

incapacity.

Yet, education is a public good and one of the economic and social rights for all African

children. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the State in Africa as elsewhere to provide

this education. The offensive of the markets (Alternatives Sud, 2004) on the education

23

systems, and the limits of sharing the tasks with the public official in a competitive

cohabitation at the philosophical and operational levels, do not promote the

development of education for stimulation or initiation of a sustained dynamic process of

Africa’s development.

The fifth type of issues for quality education and developmental transformation of

Africa concerns the relationship between this education and research for development.

The transmission, dissemination and production of knowledge and know-how – hence,

science and technical or technological skills – form part of quality education in its chain

of three cycles. It is no doubt the last cycle that best prepares people for knowledge

production, notably through the development of scientific and technological research,

whether at the university level or not.

Science and scientific knowledge generally plays a liberating function. Science is

expected to contribute to liberate the populations from the forces and caprices of nature,

such as constraints, deprivations and other excesses from the ruling political, social and

economic order. In that regard, science is expected to contribute to the development of

African countries, and the progress of their populations. It should not only be a

“universal” science, but a science in the service of Africa’s development.

In response to demands from the society, science is surely developing, and, as a result,

promotes the development of technology. But, the relationship is not linear. It is not

only social demand that spurs scientific and technological progress. The latter in turn

promotes and contributes to the political, economic and social progress of African

countries.

It is only when leaders of the society or one of its important segments express their

social demand for science to enable them to resolve the development problems of the

latter that the said dialectic relationship can be promising. Science must indeed question

and help to question the existing situation, to call into question the statu quo, and

indicate new and innovative solutions for the future, i.e. new and innovative avenues for

revival of the African continent.

This is where the issue of education in Africa comes in. For, the main sector where a

society produces science, technology and their expert (technician of knowledge and

know-how), is its education system. Hence, the importance of this challenge on

education in Africa as a niche for promoting research for the liberation and development

of the continent. Yet, many studies have shown that the different systems and projects

on education in Africa were far from achieving such performance (Verhaegen, B., 1978;

Gasibirege, R. S., 1981; Tshibangu, Th. T., 1998).

The sixth issue regarding education in Africa that I would like to stress here is the place

and role of non-formal education in the development of the continent. Western liberal

education in Africa considers this issue as a set of mechanisms for training while

working, on the job training and various apprenticeships. This dimension of non-formal

education should no doubt be taken into account. It should, however, be provided in the

24

perspective of developing human capital to acquire or enhance the technical skills, and

know-how in a non-formal setting.

Concerning quality education to promote or spur Africa’s development, aspects of

traditional African education such as the teaching method and content of the programs,

the trainer/trained relationship, may make a significant contribution to the promotion of

quality education for Africa’s development. This contribution or even its potential is not

taken into account in the current systems of Western education in Africa. By reason of

the philosophy of their colonial origin, they do not consider traditional Africa as making

or capable of making a constructive contribution in that regard.

Moreover, even if that could cross the mind of the designers of Western education

systems in Africa, they could see in it a risk of conveying values that are neither liberal

nor Western. Integrating the values and methods of non-formal education into the

revised systems of education in Africa, to better ensure quality transmission and

production of development knowledge and know-how, has on an indisputable political

dimension. It is a political choice that fits into a social project.

The seventh issue concerns democratization of education in Africa. First of all, it is

understood in terms of gender equity in access to education, particularly for girls.

Promoting girls’ education, notably their formal education at all levels and with the

same duration as boys in the same disciplines, is a key objective in the democratization

of education. It is also understood in terms of socio-professional groups. Children of all

social levels should have the benefit of enjoying this right. Finally, it is understood in

terms of physical, financial and intellectual accessibility.

I would like to limit myself to these seven categories of issues. They all represent

categories of challenges and problems impeding the development of quality education

to spur Africa’s development. There are no doubt a significant number of challenges at

a more technical level: financing education, quality of educators and products, adequacy

between education and labor market, productivity and effectiveness of the education

systems in Africa, including the problem of high school dropout rates, etc., which we

are all aware of and are regularly the subject of seminars and reform programs, but

which I did not want to focus too much on.

I chose to limit myself to what seems capital to me for the promotion of quality

education for another paradigm of development of the Africa of tomorrow. In this

perspective, the political dimension of the development of the continent, and the

education that should produce the appropriate hands and brains to do so seemed to me

the most determining level to focus on in this analysis.

Conclusion: appeal for development leadership

Questioning the education system, particularly the formal education system in Africa in

the search for quality education to spur the development of the continent means

questioning the African social establishments themselves, in their political, economic

25

and socio-cultural parameters. For, their education system is only a tool they develop

themselves for producing the man of science, the scholar and the intellectual they want

to have, and generally for ensuring the development of their human resources and

capital, and opening the range of opportunities for their populations.

As indicated above, qualified researchers have already shown that for a long time and

even until now, lectures in a number of disciplines are nothing other than conceptual

frameworks that are far removed from African realities, poorly preparing the technicians

of knowledge to know their society, and much less to be the agents of transformation.

From that perspective, some have even written that Western formal education in Africa,

particularly the university, was against the development of the continent (Verhaegen,

B., 1978; Bongeli, Y. A., 1983).

The development of Africa or better still its liberation from the political and economic

systems of subjugation in the dynamics of the global economy requires a theory on the

conditions of this liberation, a theory that can reveal and condemn the various subtle

forms of domination, exploitation, predation and alienation of African countries. A

theory that is indeed capable of providing a new model, or at least the elements of a new

model of the African society to be built. Such a theory and its underlying doctrines and

ideologies should come from a system of quality education and developmental

transformation in African countries.

The current education systems in Africa have not yet attained this level, as the paper has

shown. The main reason relates not only to the weight of the colonial heritage of

educational systems in Africa, and problems of the social establishments of the

peripheral capitalism they serve, but also lack of transformative leadership and

development in the majority of African countries. They are more at ease in the role of

decision-makers and actors of reproduction of this model, from which they derive some

dividends, than in that of decision-makers and actors of change from education systems

to a future that seems risky to them.

For science to have a promising place in the equation of Africa’s development in

general, it should become its watchdog, its theoretical and ideological weapon for the

liberation of the continent from the yoke of political and economic systems of

exploitation and impoverishment. It should manage to condemn these systems and

develop a theory for constructing an alternative system in the interest of African

peoples. As such, it should constantly question the epistemological bases of mainstream

knowledge, and on that basis, develop another development science to direct and

enlighten the efforts of the populations and other political, economic and social forces

for “socialization of development” in Africa. To produce knowledge of this vocation,

the education systems need to be supported by a real development leadership.

This is the price to pay for the emergence of quality education to spur Africa’s

development. That is why this paper ends on this urgent appeal for development of

political leadership in Africa.

26

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