Money,
Never the Issue:
Schooling
in Africa
Development is always associated with money. You would imagine that poor
countries are poor because they do not generate enough wealth for everyone.
Well, that is not really like that. However wealthy a country can be, this
might not cascade down to all levels of society. Consider the issues a large
continent like Africa faces. With the highest GINI coefficient in the world,
inequality remains as the biggest challenge. Consider huge regional differences
as well. South-Africa, Western Africa and North Africa are almost entirely
different worlds. Corruption in the government, but also at high business
levels make things even more difficult. Ethnical diversity also poses
integration issues, with millenarian families that still retain chieftains ruling
all levels and aspects of society. But complaining and blaming it on the
government will not make things better.
One wonders sometimes if the authorities really want good things to
happen or not. In my previous article "Akamasoa and the most successful
economic model in the history of mankind"[1]
I described how Father Opeka initially got resistance from the Government in
his good deeds to help the people of Madagascar. Consider now the following
article "The $1-a-week school"[2].
We would assume that public schools are actually free, but it is now so. They
are financed with the money from tax payers. This money goes into a state
budget, that is distributed appropriately. Dividing the total amount of budget
by the population, you can see how much budget for schooling is allocated to
each individual citizen. I am and have always been in favor of public tuition.
In has worked out well for developed nations. However, in countries with high
levels of corruption, how can we make sure that the money actually goes to
those who need it?
The USD 1 a week school shows as
a different alternative, not to collide but to complement the public schooling
system. Consider the following comment: "Education in most of the
developing world is shocking. Half of children in South Asia and a third of
those in Africa who complete four years of schooling cannot read properly. In
India 60% of six- to 14-year-olds cannot read at the level of a child who has
finished two years of schooling.
Most governments have promised to provide universal primary education
and to promote secondary education. But even when public schools exist, they
often fail. In a survey of rural Indian schools, a quarter of teachers were
absent. In Africa the World Bank found teacher-absenteeism rates of 15-25%.
Pakistan recently discovered that it had over 8,000 non-existent state schools,
17% of the total. Sierra Leone spotted 6,000 “ghost” teachers, nearly a fifth
the number on the state payroll."
So, regardless of an existing public schooling system, we can see that
results are very poor in many regions. The establishment of a schooling system
outside the bureaucracy of the government could improve efficiency. Also
specialized schools could be built, by area of interest or focusing. This
schooling system I am referring to is still public to the final customers (the
students and their parents), but privately financed. With the attraction of
capital specific to schooling activity, and private management, it would be
much easier to control that the money is actually being put to productive uses.
As described in the article, the government itself and unions oppose this
system, which has produced fantastic results when applied correctly. Schooling
is the final solution to inequality and poverty. In "Education and the
Knowledge Based Economy"[3] I
describe how the world is moving from industrial societies to knowledge
economies. This must give hope to underdeveloped nations, which with minimal
investment (consider, what is USD 1 a week?? Nothing!!), can provide fantastic
results.
See in the following article "Extreme Poverty Has Dropped in Half Since 1990" [4] how half of the population in Africa has left extreme poverty in the last 15 years. When starting so low, it is very easy to grow at fast pace. We are not speaking here of taking the least developed nations to become developed economies, but of the eradication of extreme poverty worldwide, which is doable in the NeXT 15 years. (see "The world has an astonishing chance to take a billion people out of extreme poverty by 2030") [5]. A more functional schooling system financed by the richest nations (as well as a better healthcare system), is the best way to help Africa with concrete action, by eliminating the middle man. And not make it so that everything depends on the governments, who also pursue their own interests and many times do not offer the long term vision to solve structural issues. Where the government fails, the private sector must ACT. Even if that refers to education, an area usually associated with the public sector.
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