PROBLEMS WITH AFRICAN EDUCATION:
OBSTACLES, OPPORTUNITIES AND NEW
MODELS FOR CHANGE
Prof. Is-haq O. Oloyede
President, Association of Africa Universities (AAU), &
Vice-Chancellor , University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
www.aau.org
7/17/2016
www.unilorin.edu.ng
vc@unilorin.edu.ng
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

OVERVIEW OF THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND FORMAL
EDUCATION

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CHALLENGES FACING
EDUCATION IN AFRICA

HOW AFRICAN INSTITUTIONS SHOULD ADAPT TO
THE CHANGING EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE

LOOKING AHEAD: FUTURE CHALLENGES
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THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND FORMAL
EDUCATION

Education generally refers to formal training and
instruction leading to acquisition of knowledge
and skills development.

Education broadens one’s horizon and gives a
better understanding of the world around him/her
and how things work.

Africa needs education as it is the basis of
modern civilization.

Education reduces social and economic
disparity, allowing progress to be equally shared.
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FORMAL EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY
CONTD.

Advancements in all fields, including
science and technology are made possible
through education.

Studies indicate that educated people have
longer life expectancies; tend to exercise
more and play more sports; and understand
the implications of diet and lifestyle on their
health enabling them to make healthy
choices.
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FORMAL EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY
CONTD.
 On an average, educated people have jobs
that are more meaningful and interesting than
those held by uneducated people and are
usually in a position to make decisions at
work. This results in higher job satisfaction
that often also contributes to better quality of
life.

The importance of education is emphasized
through these words of US President Barack
Obama:
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FORMAL EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY
CONTD.
“In an economy where knowledge is the most valuable
commodity a person and a country have to offer, the
best jobs will go to the best educated”
(Address to the Department of Education - 25 July, 2009).
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FORMAL EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY
CONTD.

Educated people generally have higher selfesteem; their lives are more planned and thus
they have more direction; and they have better
problems solving skills, and are consequently
better equipped to handle everyday decisions.

Children of educated parents are more likely to
receive an education and have higher cognitive
development, than children of uneducated
parents.
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FORMAL EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY
CONTD.

Educated people are in a better position to
contribute more positively to society and even
towards the planet, as they understand the
implications of their choices and actions.

Education is tied to learning, preparation for
wise leadership and personal achievement,
and opening of the mind to new ideas.
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FORMAL EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY
CONTD.

Undoubtedly, knowledge is a key driver of
growth and development. All countries with
higher skill levels are better equipped to face
new challenges and master technological
discoveries.

Contemporary African HEIs are the result of a
complex mix of past experiences and
influences, from their colonial origins and Arabic
influence, and their continued dependence on
the ideas and practices in higher education in
Europe and North America in the postindependence era.
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FORMAL EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY
CONTD.

“The first universities in Africa were modeled
very closely on European origins where the
overall purpose of these institutions was to
provide the necessary indigenous support staff
for the colonial administration” (Akin Aina
1994:9).

This colonial legacy was characterized by,
among other things, separation and alienation
from the rural majority, and an overemphasis on
the arts and humanities, with little attention for
the sciences, technology, economics and other
professional subjects.
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FORMAL EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY
CONTD.

The European influence left a lasting
impression on universities and other HEIs in
Africa. Legacies from the pre-independence
era still shape the structure and substance of
African educational institutions in important
ways.

After independence, national governments
emphasized the role of universities in in the
development process and africanization of
the civil service.
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FORMAL EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY
CONTD.

Whatever gains were made by African universities in
the post-independence period were seriously
challenged in the late 1970s when most African
countries experienced sustained economic decline,
accompanied in certain areas by drought, famine
and severe ecological degradation, political
instability, wars and conflicts, the debt crisis and the
imposition of structural adjustment programmes.

The last few years have however witnessed renewed
interest in African HEIs after nearly a whole
generation of neglect.
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CHALLENGES FACING EDUCATION
IN AFRICA

The purpose of education should be to empower the
mind and soul to achieve its full potential. Educational
systems in Africa have not fully achieved this purpose.
What are the challenges facing education in Africa?

Generally, the quality of education has fallen with the
phenomenal increases in enrollment at rates of 10-14%
annually or doubling every 5-7 years - Source: UNESCO
Institute for Statistics in EdStats, November 2009).

Low budgetary allocation to education sector leading to
poor infrastructure, low remuneration and brain drain
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



School curricula not responsive to society’s
needs
Corruption, ineptitude and nepotism
Frequent strikes by both staff and students
leading to poor outputs
Social vices and moral decadence
(including cultism)
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
Generally, African HEIs are in a state of
crisis characterized by, inter alia,
diminishing financial resources, stagnation
and deterioration of physical facilities,
declining salaries and the brain-drain,
incessant closure of many HEIs, and poor
quality of teaching, learning and research.
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Increase in Enrollments:
 Creating more universities, technical schools
and developing additional community
colleges that would focus on preparing
students for careers in applied and technical
areas.
 Promoting distance education especially for
lower-income students or those needing to
work while taking HE course work.
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Enhancing HE Systems and the Quality of Education:
 Because skills for the knowledge economy are built
at the tertiary or higher education level, improving
tertiary education systems should be high on Africa’s
development agenda. African HEIs should focus on
revitalizing their institutions by, inter alia, training
almost all academic staff to doctoral levels, recruiting
and retaining quality staff, and establishing Quality
Assurance units that ensure quality training and
research.
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

Increase in Budgetary Allocation: The amount
of money voted for the education sector should be
increased to enhance the quality of education
(improving infrastructure, training and recruitment
of qualified staff, increased remuneration, etc.)
Relevant Competencies: (1) Due to massive
unemployment and production of graduates who
are retrained in order to fit into the workforce of
particular organizations, African HEIs should
endeavour to train students to equip them with
competencies that are demanded by public,
private and NGO institutions.
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Distribution of African University
Graduates by Field of Study, 200
TABLE 1
Field of study
Distribution of
graduates (%)
Agriculture
3
Education
22
Health science
7
Engineering
9
Sciences
9
Social sciences and humanities 47
Other
3
Total
100
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Source: World Bank EdStats
22

Relevant Competencies: (2) In our
increasingly global environment, African
educational institutions should revise their
curricula to ensure that the graduates they
produce must be able to develop and utilize
new technology and adapt it to African
contexts so that the advantages of new
technologies can be meaningfully applied for
the benefit of Africans.
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THE ROLE OF AAU:

In keeping with its mandate of being the
representative voice of HEIs in Africa, AAU
has supported African HEIs in responding to
Africa’s societal problems through its many
programmes and services.

Three examples are in order:
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THE ROLE OF AAU – Contd.
1.
The Mobilizing
Initiative (MRCI)
Regional
Capacity
The MRCI is a Challenge Fund for strengthening
partnerships between the AAU and the main subregional and national bodies representing African
HEIs as part of the drive for sustainable
development of the continent. The goal of the
MRCI Programme is to strengthen African HEIs to
act as catalysts for poverty eradication and
sustainable development.
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THE ROLE OF AAU – continued:
Currently, AAU is funding 20 projects from
various parts of Africa (each up to a ceiling of
£100,000) under the MRCI Programme. These
projects, awarded between 2008 and 2010,
are presently at various stages of completion.
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THE ROLE OF AAU – Contd.
(2)
RESEARCH & EDUCATION NETWORK UNIT
(RENU):
Because the integration of ICT into teaching, learning,
research, information dissemination and management
activities has been a priority issue in African HE for many
years, AAU facilitates national research and education
networking, and supports collective action, especially in
relation to increased access to cheaper connectivity
across Africa through its Research and Education
Networking Unit .
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THE ROLE OF AAU – Contd.
(3) Academic Staff Exchange:
AAU supports HEIs in their core functions of
teaching, learning , research and service to their
communities by the exchange of academic staff (for
teaching, graduate supervision, and collaborative
research), thereby contributing to improvements in
the quality of training and research in African HEIs.
Since inception, more than 400 African academics
have benefited from this programme of AAU.
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THE ROLE OF AAU – Contd.
(3) Small Grants Programme:
The AAU Small Grants ($3,500 for PhD and $2,000
for Masters) for Theses and Dissertations
Programme aims at facilitating the early completion
of research dissertations and theses by graduate
students in African universities, as well as to
improve the quality of research conducted. 83
awards were made during 2006-2009 academic
period.
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
Qualified human capital remains scarce
compared to Africa’s development needs. This
situation hinders growth and undermines the
foundation for sustainable development.
Therefore, Africa’s tertiary education institutions
and policy makers must ensure that the workforce
acquires the necessary skills to compete,
innovate, and respond to complex social,
environmental, and economical situations.
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
Poverty in Africa is pervasive, affecting all
sectors of the economy, including education.
Progress on beating Africa's massive poverty
problems is not happening rapidly enough and
without much greater effort from the global
community it is clear that the Millennium
Development Goals will not be met. More
investments in education will be a challenge
as the following table shows:
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Changes in Public Expenditures on Education
in Low-income Countries, 1990-2003
TABLE 2
Current expenditure on education
As percent of government
resources
Region
Around
2003
18.2
Early 1990s Around
2003
3.1
3.3
Francophone 22.9
17.6
3.3
2.7
Anglophone
21.4
3.0
4.5
Africa
Early
1990s
19.3
As percent of GDP
16.1
Source: World Bank 2008.
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
There will continue to be migration of
education graduates from Africa to the
developed
countries.
The
current
overstretched capacity of many African HEIs
and, at the same time, the significant need
for additional graduate degree holders in
Africa, are likely to constitute stronger push
and pull factors for African students to go
overseas for graduate work.
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
However, many people in the African
Diaspora have significant commitments and
interests to be engaged in African
academic and development affairs.

Therefore, developing effective programs
and policies, at both a national and
institutional level, that provide incentives for
graduates to stay in or return to Africa is
imperative.
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
Elements of these policies should include
working out ways to include African
professors living in the Diaspora to use
their vacations and sabbaticals to teach in
Africa, and developing institutional
partnerships with HEIs where these
professors
could
build
research
relationships with African professors or
graduate students.
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
Formal education is a productive
investment for growing the economy and
incomes of all individuals in a society.
Additionally, Education is key for better
health outcomes, opening opportunities to
disadvantaged groups, alleviating poverty,
improving the environment, fostering good
governance, lowering crime rates and
improving educational attainment for all
levels
of
the
education
system.
Consequently, investing in education is
investing for positive change in Africa.
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I THANK YOU.
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