Secondary schooling crisis in Africa: can NGOs help?

African education policymakers have failed to meet growing demand for secondary schooling. Budgetary provision for secondary education has stalled or declined and fewer pupils are moving from primary to secondary level. Enrolments have been so slow to increase, that the gap between most African countries and other developing countries has widened. Is it realistic for non-governmental and private organisations to fill this gap?

A research project at the University of Sussexreviews the growth of non-government secondary education in South Africa andMalawi and suggests ways of improving access to affordable secondary schoolingacross Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

SouthAfrica hasthe highest secondary enrolment rate in SSA. It has well developed regulatoryframeworks and subsidy systems and is sufficiently wealthy to supportnon-government schooling on a scale unlikely to be possible elsewhere in SSA.Faith-based and elite high-cost non-government schools attract families who wantsocial exclusivity and believe that public schools cannot meet their needs.

In chronically-poor Malawi publicsecondary enrolments have remained very low. Secondary places have increasedbut many are of low quality. Private sector provision has grown rapidly sincethe mid-1990s (mainly small-scale commercial ventures). These schools are oftenunregulated, over-crowded and employ under-qualified casual teachers. They areunaffordable to the majority outside urban areas. These providers are notsubsidised and are unable to reach the poorest families who cannot pay thefees.

Across SSA the number of students completingprimary schooling is increasing more quickly than the number of new secondaryschool places. Secondary schooling is unequally distributed in relation topoverty, and to a lesser extent gender. Non-government schools can only enrollpoorer students if they are subsidised, even after minimising overheads and payingteachers much less than in government schools. What can governments do to reachinternational targets to increase basic education (which generally includeslower secondary)?

The book argues that :

• Most countries in SSA have experienced growth innon-government provision but have yet to develop policies to respond to this.
• Poor parents have littlechoice in schooling because they cannot pay fees.
• Lack of resources to monitorand regulate providers makes information scarce and unreliable: transparency islow and power hierarchies may hide realities of costs and profits.
• More secondary places couldbe offered in many countries with low secondary enrolment through improvedmanagement of public schools.
• Expanded secondary schoolingwill only reach out to the poorest families if fees are abolished.

Not-for-profit organisations are unlikely tooffer secondary schooling to large numbers of young people without national orinternational subsidies. They have a role to play in areas where the statecannot deliver but are unlikely to secure long-term funding. Governments need to work with non-government providers tocomplement each others' efforts and agree regulation methods that encouragemore equal and affordable access.

Governments must:

• establish legal frameworksfor non-government schooling, including terms of employment for teachers
• establish light buteffective regulation to prevent excess profits and ensure accountability
• explore scope for co-operationand exchange of best practice between the private and public sectors
• ensure private schools’admissions policies are not exclusive
• develop mechanisms to assistnon-government providers through subsidies for low-cost schools servingdisadvantaged populations, underwriting loans and offering tax-benefits
• develop data collection andanalysis systems which include non-government providers
• implement strategies toextend access to secondary schooling for the poorest families possibly throughnon-profit providers of proven capability.