Keynote Paper 1: Understanding the education challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa: policy and institutions CABRI EDUCATION DIALOGUE

Structure 2 1.The current state of education in Sub-Saharan Africa Levels of education spending Sources of funding Education attainment 2.Key strategies to improve education provision and quality Increasing access Improving quality Increasing access to secondary and tertiary education 3.Education budgeting and funding Budget structures and procedures Capacity development

Introduction Education is one of the cornerstones of development Reducing poverty Improving health Promoting equity Social and political stability Skills for economic growth

Major achievements Nearing attainment of Universal Primary Education Huge steps in gender parity Continued commitment of governments to education spending Sustained donor funding

Challenges Improving quality Increasing access to secondary and tertiary Continued need to increase funding of education

Education in Sub-Saharan Africa Median GDP, public expenditure on education as a % of government spending and as a % of GNP, 2010

Universal primary education Primary gross intake, gross enrolment, net enrolment and completion, 2009

Indicators 8 Total enrolment in a specific level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the eligible official school-age population corresponding to the same level of education in a given school year. Gross enrolment rate Enrolment of the official age group for a given level of education expressed as a percentage of the corresponding population Net enrolment rate Number of children who reach the final year of primary school as a percentage of the corresponding population age cohort. Primary completion rate Total number of new entrants in the first grade of primary education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population at the official primary school-entrance age. Gross intake rate

Primary school completion rates, 2009

Primary school entry and retention rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, ca. 2009

Secondary and tertiary enrolment 11 Secondary transition, gross enrolment ratio and tertiary gross enrolment ratio, 2009

Sub-Saharan education enrolment and transition

Education attainment and funding in selected Sub-Saharan countries

Change in expenditure per student by region, 1990 to 2006

Donor funding

Quality of education Merely attending primary school in SSA is not translating into achieving even the minimum levels of learning Move from measuring the quality of INPUTS to the quality of OUTPUTS Standardised achievement tests – SACMEQ, PASEC, TIMSS, PISA

Survival to grade 4 with minimum levels of learning

Strategies for improving education provision and quality Basic minimum learning conditions Improving the quality of teaching Increasing access to pre-primary school Reducing costs of education for the poorest Starting school at the correct age Increasing access to secondary and tertiary education Matching curriculum to the needs of the labour market Assessment of educational quality

Basic minimum learning conditions In equally wealthy countries there is little evidence that increasing inputs to education improves quality In poor countries increased inputs are still a determining factor – partly because of the extremely deprived circumstances of many schools and communities – Classroom sizes – Pupil teacher ratios – Textbooks and materials – School feeding

Improving the quality of teaching Commonly identified problems that affect the quality of teaching in SSA include: – Teacher absenteeism, – under-utilisation of teachers, – their deployment and retention in rural and remote areas, – the lack of accurate data on the management of teachers, – and the precarious status of certain categories of teachers Improving the quality of teachers training – Little evidence exists that merely increasing the years of pre-service training improves teacher quality – Quality of pre-service training, in-service training and mentoring Improved management of teachers

Increasing access to pre-primary school Pre-school offers the opportunity to improve children’s health and nutritional status Pre-school correlates positively with improved school performance Some SSA countries have made pre-school compulsory (either for one or two years) Several innovative projects have been developed to promote “early exposure” to school and thus improved grade 1 readiness

Reducing costs of education for the poorest Even compulsory primary school has costs associated with it – Unofficial fees – Books – Transport – Uniforms – Opportunity costs Monitoring unofficial fees Reducing/subsidising costs of uniforms and books Direct cash transfers to pupils Payments of food and fuel Vouchers for private schools?

Starting school at the right age Over-age children enrolling for the first time are more likely to drop out than children who start at the correct age Under-age enrolment of children who are not expected to complete grade 1 is wasteful and demoralising

Increasing access to secondary and tertiary education Funding of secondary and tertiary education has decreased in real terms Massive and growing social demand for post-primary education Economic growth necessitates larger more skilled graduates Increased funding is urgent Improved quality and relevance

Matching curriculum to the needs of the labour market The emphasis from all UN agencies is “skills for job creation” Core curricula still important until lower secondary Diversification of skills training from upper secondary Government needs to lead with a skills framework and quality standards setting Intergovernmental planning necessary Partnerships with business Second chances for unemployed youth

Assessment of educational quality National, regional and international assessment tests – Measure the quality of output earlier on in the system – grade 4, 6, 9 – Evidence based planning – More effective use of limited resources – Remediation of teaching and learning – Accountability

Budget structures and procedures Budget reform MTEF implemented in most SSA education ministries – Have led to greater stability – Most ministries are able to cost medium term education plans and priorities Other budget reform areas are in various stages of development

Budget reform Major problems still lie in: Budget execution Expenditure tracking Monitoring policy targets Management of teachers and salary rolls Leakages of cash transfers to schools Delivery of materials School building roll-out

Budget execution, expenditure tracking and monitoring Reasons for weaknesses in these areas Shortages of skilled staff both in financial and educational management positions Ineffective and duplication of administrative systems – especially in situations of decentralisation Lack of physical facilities Shortages of IT hardware and software Implementation of large IT solutions (such as IFMIS) are often over ambitious and don’t solve the underlying problems with financial and administrative systems

Budget execution, expenditure tracking and monitoring Reasons for weaknesses in these areas cont. Lack of integration of data systems that exist often means duplication of data collection: – Payroll (Ministry of Finance) and human resources (Ministry of Education) – EMIS data collection is often duplicated by textbook provisioning, district teacher management systems, school building and furniture – The implementation of a highly technical integrated data management system will not necessarily solve these problems Programme and performance based budgeting (linked to the MTEF) often revert to line item budgeting in the absence of clearly identifiable and accountable cost centres

Budget execution, expenditure tracking and monitoring Reasons for weaknesses in these areas cont. Different Ministerial priorities for expenditure tracking and auditing often lead to duplications in data collection Demands for indicators by various actors in expenditure tracking and policy implementation monitoring are currently excessive – leading to wastage of effort and collection of masses of data that isn’t used. Decentralisation requires MORE expertise in budget implementation and expenditure tracking Donor funding modalities and expenditure reporting in many countries still require duplicate systems to exist

Capacity development in education planning and budgeting Changes in the planning and budgeting processes, increasing use of data for decision making and new information technology systems mean a greater diversity and depth of skills are needed – both in terms of the individuals and in terms of the organisational processes Priorities for capacity development in education EMIS development and management of an EMIS system ITC and data processing Collecting, processing and analysing education statistics and indicators Policy research, analysis and advice Monitoring and evaluation Payroll and teacher management Inter-ministerial collaboration Increasing the use of data for evidence based planning

Questions for discussion – Is there necessarily a trade-off between quantity and quality of education provided? – What budget reforms have been implemented in your countries’ Ministry of Education and to what extent have they been successful in overcoming the problems outlined above? – How has decentralisation impacted on education budget implementation? – Have any innovations been implemented in your country to ensure funding reaches schools and policy priorities are put into effect? – What are the key successes and impediments to school building programmes that your country has experienced?

Thank you….