Should governments invest in tertiary or basic education?

Even though there is a deficit in tertiary education facilities across Africa, there is a growing academic debate on whether there is a need to invest in facilities for higher education at the expense of primary and secondary education, Mohammed Belhocine, the African Union’s commissioner for education, science, technology and innovation, has said in Accra, Ghana.

Addressing a news conference on the sidelines of the 45th ordinary session of the executive council of the African Union (AU), Belhocine said: “There is a debate questioning if African countries should invest in tertiary academic facilities while we have not yet achieved much by investing in the primary and secondary sector.”

He said figures show that expenditure on education across the continent in primary and secondary education has been very low, adding that UNICEF has identified that, in one country, without mentioning the name, investment was as low as US$16 per year per child.

In addition to the poor investment, Belhocine said, the higher institution facilities that were inherited from the colonial era still exist but have become dilapidated, adding that, in most cases, countries have not been able “to build some new infrastructure to keep pace with the demographic growth of our people”.

Deficit in infrastructure

He was, however, quick to point out that the deficit in the infrastructure development, “is a global problem” as the infrastructure for tertiary education does not follow the same pace as the growth of the population.

Belhocine said that, although the lack of enough facilities was posing a problem, new ways of moving around the deficits have come up. He mentioned the use of virtual learning facilities so that there is no total dependence on structures alone, with the added benefit that these facilities could be used across countries.

He admitted that there is very little data on employment statistics and data to help plan education, adding that the AU recently discussed with UNESCO the issue of data, adding that, “it is the only way to go if you want to have accurate, valid and strong data on which we can plan the development of our education system from early childhood to tertiary”.

In addition, Belhocine said, there is a need for some reforms of the teaching profession, science technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as well as foundation learning, and the teaching of African history.

Technical and vocational education

He said the continent must also take a proper look at technical and vocational education and training (TVET), digital transformation, as well as creating healthy and conducive learning environments, which must be backed by school needs, school feeding, school health, and environmental awareness at school.

“Technical and vocational education and training is very important to the continent, because many of the criticisms that are made to our countries is that we need more of TVET, and we need to give a second chance to those who drop out from schools.

“And you know that we have 500 million children in Africa and, out of these, 100 million are not attending school,” Belhocine added.

“These young people need to get a second chance, and TVET is the way we can give them a second chance. So, in this area of TVET, the department took part in a meeting on bridging innovation and learning in TVET, which is an international meeting which brings together TVET stakeholders from Africa, from Europe and from Asia-Pacific to discuss and try to meet the challenges posed by TVET systems, by technological, social, environmental and professional change,” he said.

Teacher education

Belhocine said improving teaching on the continent meant that the profession must be given its place as a noble one and given its rightful place, adding that, “to neglect teachers is to neglect the future of our countries, nations, societies and the continent as a whole”.

Accordingly, he said countries on the continent are being encouraged to invest in education because, even though it does not have an immediate return, “after 15 years, when you have a new engineer or a new pilot or a new medical doctor, then you are really going to get a return on your investment for the individual, for his family, for his community, for his country, and for society as a whole”.

Belhocine said Africa has put in place measures to develop teacher education on the continent and has currently contributed actively to the 14th UNESCO Policy Dialogue Forum to address the global teacher shortage and dignifying, diversifying and valuing the profession, which is a dialogue that takes place every year.

At a recent ministerial round table focusing on the situation of teachers in Africa, he said the AU highlighted the challenges facing teachers at home and worldwide and their impact on the attractiveness of the teaching profession.

Belhocine said current estimates by UNESCO suggest that Sub-Saharan Africa needs more than 15 million teachers to achieve universal primary coverage and secondary education by 2030.