Education sector analysis in Africa: limited national control and even less national ownership

• Published in: International journal of educational development Vol. 19; no. 4; pp. 249 - 272
• Main Author: Samoff, Joel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.07.1999; W.I. Ozanne & Associates Ltd
• Subjects: Africa; Aid; Dependence; Education; Sector analysis; Research; Sector analysis; Education; Aid; Africa; Dependence
• ISSN: 0738-0593; 1873-4871
• DOI: 10.1016/S0738-0593(99)00028-0

Numerous and voluminous, the Africa education sector studies undertaken during the early 1990s turn out to be strikingly similar. With few exceptions, they have a common framework, approach, and methodology. African education is in crisis, they report. Governments cannot cope. Quality has deteriorated. Funds are misallocated. Management is poor and administration inefficient. Notwithstanding the diversity of the countries studied, the recommendations too are similar. Education sector analysis is potentially a very powerful tool for supporting and improving education policy and programmes in Africa. Generally undertaken within the context of the aid relationship, it is also an important vehicle for international partnership and development cooperation. To date, however, that cooperation has been accompanied by general frustration with the sector analysis process. Far too often, that process has remained driven by the agendas and procedures of the funding and technical assistance agencies, with constrained national participation, limited national control, and very little sense of national ownership. To shift its center of gravity toward Africa, the process itself requires major restructuring and reorientation, from conception through completion. Most important, what is required is genuine dialogue among partners who not only talk but also listen and hear.