The African continent just as others forming the globe has
noted some considerable evolution in the field of education in almost all its
countries. From antiquity to recent times, education was provided and dominated
by private organisations or individuals. (Karmokolias, Y &Maas, 1997)
Diversely organised, the private sector had played over ages
forefront positions in the provision of education be it formal or informal to
the African people ranging from family homes to well established learning
settings, this from indigenous systems to present time. Tracing back the
origins of private schools development in some Eastern African countries,
existing literature reveals the impact role played by the pre-colonial
indigenous systems, the pioneering works of the missionaries and post colonial
periods. (Ssekamwa, J& Lugumba, S, 2002)
Far from the idea of developing a thorough review of the
history of education in Africa, this section will focus on recent and ongoing
studies conducted by a wide range of researchers and scholars related to
private schools for the poor in Africa.
Primary education in developing countries have for some time
now been at the centre of many agenda in both national and international
meetings in the world. It is believed that the less a population is literate,
the less chances they would have to achieve acceptable development. Under the
powerful supports of international institutions such as the World Bank, UNESCO,
the IMF, bilateral and multilateral cooperation's, many African states agreed
in the early
2000's to render access to primary schooling free of charge.
However, the exploratory assessment report of Free Primary education in
countries such as Kenya identified so many challenges faced by the government
in the preparation and dissemination of this free education. Among these
challenges were recurrent issues ranging from effective communication
strategies from the Ministry of education poor infrastructures, inadequate
comprehensive educational policies, intensified campaigns against HIV/Aids,
financial resources, teachers training and governments concerns with the
promotion of partnership to ensure sustainable implementation of FPE
etc...(UNESCO 2005: 8-11)
Looking closely into one of the most important of the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it states that «everyone has a
right to education». Further, in its third paragraph, the above mentioned
declaration concludes that: «parents have the prior right to choose the
kind of education that shall be given to their children» (World education
report 2000:16). This particular aspect of the declaration coupled with the
«illusions» engendered by the FPE initiatives in many African
countries are likely to be the main motivation for pupils massive returns to
private schools.
The idea behind private school for the poor in Africa has
been for some time now highly explored and developed in educational literature
of our days. This recurring notion with which so many scholars and researchers
are now familiar takes its source from a series of studies undertaken and
conducted by some British scholars among which the well known pair Tooley and
Dixon. The results of their longitudinal study carried between April 2003 and
June 2005 across India and Africa; reveals a burgeoning activity of private
schools catering for the poor and the poorest especially in the slums and
shanty towns in Makoko, Lagos' state in Nigeria and Ga in Ghana just to name a
few across the continent.
In most cases where they carried out their studies, these
scholars found that in the greatest majority, poor people in the slums and
remote areas in Africa would prefer sending their children in private schools.
In the quest of finding an answer to the trend, several important reasons arose
from parents responses for their choice.
In Lagos state in Nigeria for instance, they found that close
to 70% of schools(355 in number out of total of 540) surrounding the locality
were private and thus having the poor as target population for their provision.
Of these private schools in Lagos state, 233 schools thus 43.1% were
unregistered (Tooley et al 2005:130). This same trend is complemented by other
scholars who have carried out some studies in the same area and they seemed to
agree on one point. In the Lagos state of Nigeria, unapproved schools usually
termed as private do offer schooling opportunities to a good number of children
especially in urban and peri-urban areas. (Adelabu and Rose 2004:2; in Uwakwe
et al, 2008:135)
Investigations of several studies in Sub-Saharan African
countries pinpoint the inadequacy of the public sector (government) to impart
quality education to the overall population (Rose 2002:4-6). In a nutshell,
private schools in Nigeria as well as in many other countries, in the view many
observers play a key role in the provision of education in spite of the fact
that they charge fees and tuitions to the pupils. Even the wage of Free Primary
Education (FPE) which originally was set to provide free and accessible
education especially to the poor in most African states seems not to have had
any major impact on its' development.
In the district of Ga in Ghana where a similar survey on
private school for the poor was
carried in the year 2004, still by Tooley
and his team, the number of private schools catering
for low income people
was out passing the number of public schools presumably destined to
cover the educational provision in the entire district. Out
of the total number of 161,244 reported attending school in the district for
the academic year 2003-2004, only a portion of 35.6% were attending government
schools while a good number making up to 64.4% of children were attending
private schools(both registered and unregistered) (Tooley et al 2007:396).
These figures are extremely significant in the perspective of understanding the
extent to which the phenomenon is widely taking leading positions in the field
of education. It would appear that many parents seem to have found in this form
of provision, the best option in the academic achievement of their offspring.
Here again the reasons advanced correlate with most cases in other countries:
The government school system is likely failing in spite of commendable efforts
to reclaim its leadership over such an important sector in the developmental
process of each country. As noted by Tooley et al 2007:409, the private sector
is certainly a significant provider of education in the district of Ga in
Ghana.
Cameroon on its own has not been left out of the move. This
country located at the heart of the continent contains a portion of population
of close to 40% living in abject poverty according to official estimates from
the National statistical office (Backiny-Yetna and Wodon 2009:168). Although
the latter in their study assume that «the market share of public
government schools is 86 percent in rural areas and 57 percent in urban
areas» their assertion should however and undoubtedly be subject to field
verification with same surveys method used by Tooley and Dixon. Private schools
do exist in the country and mostly functioning clandestinely and are very often
subject to treats from the ministry in charge urging explicitly the eradication
of «clandestine» private schools. (Yufeh 2007).Nonetheless, one major
trend in this country is the remarkable presence of faith-based providers in
primary (Basic) education sector. However, the perception of the existence of
private schools catering for the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa is often diversely
appreciated. Not all scholars seem to look at
this burgeoning sector from the same perspective. The following
paragraph enlightens the critics of the private school for the poor in
Africa.
