WOW !! MUCH LOVE ! SO WORLD PEACE !
Fond bitcoin pour l'amélioration du site: 1memzGeKS7CB3ECNkzSn2qHwxU6NZoJ8o
  Dogecoin (tips/pourboires): DCLoo9Dd4qECqpMLurdgGnaoqbftj16Nvp


Home | Publier un mémoire | Une page au hasard

 > 

Primary education and entrepreneurship in east Africa: a case study of private schools for the poor in Kibera(Kenya)

( Télécharger le fichier original )
par Keunne Nodem Eric
University of Newcastle Upon-Tyne - Master of Education 2010
  

précédent sommaire suivant

Bitcoin is a swarm of cyber hornets serving the goddess of wisdom, feeding on the fire of truth, exponentially growing ever smarter, faster, and stronger behind a wall of encrypted energy

Chapter Two - Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

This chapter seeks to highlight the different theories, past and ongoing research works on the entrepreneurship and educational development that formed the basis of this study and to discuss related literature on the variables of this study.

For this purpose, a number of books, articles, journals, websites and conference reports have been scrutinized in order to provide the study with consistent and reliable motives for its investigations. A great importance was given to what many scholars have written or said concerning education and development in Africa, the Kenyan case included.

This chapter has a focus of three major aspects. The first part deals with variables on private education in Africa paying attention to the tremendous development which is being noted in this field over the continent. The second part will be dealing with questions related to Free Primary Education (FPE) and private schools for the poor in Africa, followed by a short look at entrepreneurship in Africa as well as the impact it has on the development of the continent. Finally the third part shall look at the aspects surrounding the actions undertaken by private school organisations such as the Kenyan Independent Schools Association (KISA), a Nairobi based group well known for their efforts in improving the quality of their schools in Kenya.

The structure outlined for this chapter was deemed well elaborated and informative enough for a better understanding of our research topic and the motivation behind the whole study. This will certainly bring more light to appraise from an African perspective, the role of private school for the poor in meeting the United Nations Millennium Goals (MDGs) of universal primary education by 2015. (Tooley and Dixon, 2003)

2.2 Private education in Africa

The African continent just as others forming the globe has noted some considerable evolution in the field of education in almost all its countries. From antiquity to recent times, education was provided and dominated by private organisations or individuals. (Karmokolias, Y &Maas, 1997)

Diversely organised, the private sector had played over ages forefront positions in the provision of education be it formal or informal to the African people ranging from family homes to well established learning settings, this from indigenous systems to present time. Tracing back the origins of private schools development in some Eastern African countries, existing literature reveals the impact role played by the pre-colonial indigenous systems, the pioneering works of the missionaries and post colonial periods. (Ssekamwa, J& Lugumba, S, 2002)

Far from the idea of developing a thorough review of the history of education in Africa, this section will focus on recent and ongoing studies conducted by a wide range of researchers and scholars related to private schools for the poor in Africa.

2.2.1 Free Primary Education and Private school for the poor in Sub Saharan Africa

Primary education in developing countries have for some time now been at the centre of many agenda in both national and international meetings in the world. It is believed that the less a population is literate, the less chances they would have to achieve acceptable development. Under the powerful supports of international institutions such as the World Bank, UNESCO, the IMF, bilateral and multilateral cooperation's, many African states agreed in the early 2000's to render access to primary schooling free of charge. However, the exploratory assessment report of Free Primary education in countries such as Kenya identified so many challenges faced by the government in the preparation and dissemination of this free education. Among these challenges were recurrent issues ranging from effective communication strategies from the Ministry of education poor infrastructures, inadequate comprehensive educational policies, intensified campaigns against HIV/Aids, financial resources, teachers training and governments concerns with the promotion of partnership to ensure sustainable implementation of FPE etc...(UNESCO 2005: 8-11)

Looking closely into one of the most important of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it states that «everyone has a right to education». Further, in its third paragraph, the above mentioned declaration concludes that: «parents have the prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children» (World education report 2000:16). This particular aspect of the declaration coupled with the «illusions» engendered by the FPE initiatives in many African countries are likely to be the main motivation for pupils massive returns to private schools.

The idea behind private school for the poor in Africa has been for some time now highly explored and developed in educational literature of our days. This recurring notion with which so many scholars and researchers are now familiar takes its source from a series of studies undertaken and conducted by some British scholars among which the well known pair Tooley and Dixon. The results of their longitudinal study carried between April 2003 and June 2005 across India and Africa; reveals a burgeoning activity of private schools catering for the poor and the poorest especially in the slums and shanty towns in Makoko, Lagos' state in Nigeria and Ga in Ghana just to name a few across the continent.

In most cases where they carried out their studies, these scholars found that in the greatest majority, poor people in the slums and remote areas in Africa would prefer sending their children in private schools. In the quest of finding an answer to the trend, several important reasons arose from parents responses for their choice.

In Lagos state in Nigeria for instance, they found that close to 70% of schools(355 in number out of total of 540) surrounding the locality were private and thus having the poor as target population for their provision. Of these private schools in Lagos state, 233 schools thus 43.1% were unregistered (Tooley et al 2005:130). This same trend is complemented by other scholars who have carried out some studies in the same area and they seemed to agree on one point. In the Lagos state of Nigeria, unapproved schools usually termed as private do offer schooling opportunities to a good number of children especially in urban and peri-urban areas. (Adelabu and Rose 2004:2; in Uwakwe et al, 2008:135)

Investigations of several studies in Sub-Saharan African countries pinpoint the inadequacy of the public sector (government) to impart quality education to the overall population (Rose 2002:4-6). In a nutshell, private schools in Nigeria as well as in many other countries, in the view many observers play a key role in the provision of education in spite of the fact that they charge fees and tuitions to the pupils. Even the wage of Free Primary Education (FPE) which originally was set to provide free and accessible education especially to the poor in most African states seems not to have had any major impact on its' development.

In the district of Ga in Ghana where a similar survey on private school for the poor was carried in the year 2004, still by Tooley and his team, the number of private schools catering for low income people was out passing the number of public schools presumably destined to cover the educational provision in the entire district. Out of the total number of 161,244 reported attending school in the district for the academic year 2003-2004, only a portion of 35.6% were attending government schools while a good number making up to 64.4% of children were attending private schools(both registered and unregistered) (Tooley et al 2007:396). These figures are extremely significant in the perspective of understanding the extent to which the phenomenon is widely taking leading positions in the field of education. It would appear that many parents seem to have found in this form of provision, the best option in the academic achievement of their offspring. Here again the reasons advanced correlate with most cases in other countries: The government school system is likely failing in spite of commendable efforts to reclaim its leadership over such an important sector in the developmental process of each country. As noted by Tooley et al 2007:409, the private sector is certainly a significant provider of education in the district of Ga in Ghana.

Cameroon on its own has not been left out of the move. This country located at the heart of the continent contains a portion of population of close to 40% living in abject poverty according to official estimates from the National statistical office (Backiny-Yetna and Wodon 2009:168). Although the latter in their study assume that «the market share of public government schools is 86 percent in rural areas and 57 percent in urban areas» their assertion should however and undoubtedly be subject to field verification with same surveys method used by Tooley and Dixon. Private schools do exist in the country and mostly functioning clandestinely and are very often subject to treats from the ministry in charge urging explicitly the eradication of «clandestine» private schools. (Yufeh 2007).Nonetheless, one major trend in this country is the remarkable presence of faith-based providers in primary (Basic) education sector. However, the perception of the existence of private schools catering for the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa is often diversely appreciated. Not all scholars seem to look at this burgeoning sector from the same perspective. The following paragraph enlightens the critics of the private school for the poor in Africa.

précédent sommaire suivant






Bitcoin is a swarm of cyber hornets serving the goddess of wisdom, feeding on the fire of truth, exponentially growing ever smarter, faster, and stronger behind a wall of encrypted energy








"Le don sans la technique n'est qu'une maladie"