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Issues We Face - Literature
Our literature programs support international literacy projects by providing educational resources to schools in African communities. These resources improve the quality of education that students receive and thereby increase the incentive for families to send their children to school.
Education in developing countries faces a host of challenges, as investments into education do not provide direct, immediate benefits to a household. Instead, the benefits of education accrue to an individual over their lifetime and to society as a whole. Under the constraints of poverty, children are often expected to fulfill basic household roles, including cleaning, cooking and working for an income. Additionally, educational expenses, high student-teacher ratios, educational resource shortages, and bleak educational outlooks, provide few incentives for a family to begin sending their children to school.
However, we all recognize that investments into education are investments into our future. African children are the future of the continent, as their education is key to future economic development, democratic governance, stability and improved standards of living. The current state of education in Africa, however, is plagued by a lack of educational inputs. Consider:
- Pre-primary pupil/teacher ratios are higher in sub-Saharan Africa than in any other region of the world – above 25:1 in more than half the countries in 2004. Such overcrowding makes it nearly impossible to provide the individual care and attention required at this age.
- Sub-Saharan Africa is still home to about half the world’s out-of-school children, with 38 million of them in 2004, 53% of whom were girls. More than two-thirds of the 38 million sub-Saharan African children who are out of school have never been enrolled and may never go to school without additional incentives.
- Disparities in education detrimental to girls remain pervasive in sub-Saharan Africa. Eighty-nine girls were enrolled in primary schools for every hundred boys in 2004, up from eighty-five in 1999. Gender parity in primary education has been achieved in fewer than 30% of the thirty-nine countries with data available.
- Almost 50 percent of African countries may not attain the goal of universal primary education by 2015.
- The gross secondary school enrollment rate is approximately 20 percent across Sub-Saharan Africa, and is below 8 per cent in 10 countries.
From the 2007 Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2007 at www.unesco.org
- There is huge demand for textbooks of all types in Africa where, according to the World Bank, next to a good teacher, “a good textbook is the most effective medium of instruction.”
- Textbooks have been shown to be extremely cost effective with one comprehensive study of approximately 22 Sub-Saharan African countries concluding that “pedagogical resources such as textbooks, teacher guides, wall charts, etc. are relatively low cost inputs with relatively high returns in terms of student achievement” (Association For the Development of Education in Africa).
- Most African textbooks are produced by large publishing houses located off the continent where they can be produced more cheaply due to capitalization of printing processes. African schools therefore must pay the world price for textbooks, where according to the World Bank, the cost of paper alone can account for 50–80% of the cost of a book.
- There is huge demand for English language textbooks in Africa. English is an official language in 18 African countries. With 800 – 2,400 of the world’s languages being spoken on the African continent, and many of these languages local, tribal languages with limited utility beyond their local region, English is often utilized as a unifying language in African countries (The World Factbook).
- Primary school enrollments and literacy rates in Africa are among the lowest in the world.
- Many children cannot afford to go or stay in primary school.
From www.whitehouse.gov
- Although literacy rates have greatly improved in Africa over the last few decades, approximately 40% of Africans over the age of 15, and 50% of women above the age of 25 remain illiterate.
- Due to a lack of education and skills, only 32% of African women, as opposed to 63% of the men, participate in the formal labor force in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: www.idrc.ca International Development Research Center
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