Like India, Africa needs to move beyond free education to improve the quality, availability and knowledge of schooling.
 |
| Photo (https://unsplash.com/photos/OIuCXxx08yg) |
In October last year, Malawi Education Minister Bright Saka announced the abolition of fees for secondary schools . The announcement was made in the run-up to the presidential election in Malawi, Africa. After India made education up to VIII free under the Right to Education Act (RTE), India is now considering extending the RTE to the secondary level. Many expert scholars in Africa are arguing that the quality of primary education must be emphasized before such facilities can be made available at the secondary level. This decision taken directly for secondary could further damage the education sector.
The UNESCO report on the five sub-Saharan African countries makes it clear that “free primary education (FPE) alone does not solve the problem. It requires planning, adequate funding and resources. ” The similar is verifiable for secondary education system. Therefore, while there is a need to promote secondary education, a political haste by a country like Malawi in this regard can be worrisome. There is still a lack of education and skills development and a growing population. So they have to take thoughtful steps.
The root cause of the inactive education system in Malawi is the declining quality of primary education. After the implementation of the RTE Act in 2010, India faced some similar problems. It has been almost 7 years since the RTE Act came into force. This made primary education compulsory in India and more and more students were enrolled in schools. But according to researchers, this has reduced the level of knowledge in children and reduced school attendance. However, Malawi has more than 90% government schools (primary and secondary) and 80% of students are enrolled in government secondary schools. This situation is very different from India. Therefore, the government should distribute funds harmoniously for primary and secondary education.
Impact of free primary education on secondary education:
Malawi and Uganda were among the few countries that abolished primary school fees in the 1990's. Which positively resulted in spike in student admission and enrollment. But this increase has had a negative impact on the quality of education. Which also had a detrimental effect on secondary education. Another thing to note is that due to the declining quality of government schools, more children were enrolling in private schools for secondary education. This means that the poor policy planning of the government has deprived the economically weaker sections of children of a good quality secondary education. Another thing is that many people dropped out of school in 9th standard, in which the number of girls was higher.
Therefore, it is now necessary to focus on the secondary education system to sustain the increase in student enrollment due to free primary education. This is because the secondary education system is currently facing low student enrollment, student absenteeism, inadequate teacher-student ratio and inadequate resources. In the case of primary education, it takes 10 to 15 years for any policy to be implemented and put into effect, and so a generation will have to miss out on good quality secondary education, which is inappropriate. While only 10 to 15 per cent of the working class in sub-Saharan Africa do modern jobs, there is a growing demand for vocational skills at the secondary level which will help Malawi grow its much-needed economy.
The funny thing is that practitioners always advise to strengthen it by focusing on elementary education. Malawi increased its spending on education by 17.45 per cent in 2016-17 (20 per cent is the global standard) and invested more in primary education than in secondary education. Regular measures to encourage primary education will widen the gap between primary and secondary education and create a generation of unemployed youth. In addition to increasing the budget for education as a whole, the government should focus on efficient and specific spending, especially to address the socio-cultural challenges facing Malawi society.
In India, as in Malawi, there was a shortage of girls in education. Recognizing the seriousness of this, the Government of India launched a campaign in 2015 called 'Beti Bachao Beti Padao' , which aims to take multi-sectoral action in 100 districts with low gender ratio, which includes social mobilization, dialogue and goal-oriented programs. The construction of toilets in the school has increased the enrollment and participation of girls in the school. Another reason for the increase in student enrollment at the primary level in India is the mid-day meal scheme(Mid-day Meal), which provides nutritious food to every child attending school, most of whom come from economically backward families. After the implementation of this scheme in government schools, there has been a visible improvement in the attendance and health of students .
Like India, Africa currently has a high youth population, which needs to grow positively through upbringing and education. This will only be possible if Africa invests properly through education and health programs for its youth. At this time, there is a great need to enhance the skills of the students - so that they can participate in the building of the nation. It is time to move beyond free education not only in Malawi but in the whole of Africa to improve the quality, availability and knowledge of schooling (not only at the primary level but also at the secondary level).
Post a Comment