The Challenges of Universal Primary Education Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Universal Primary Education (UPE) policy in the form of fee abolition has become popular in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for achieving Education for All (EFA) since the mid-1990s (Avenstrup et al. 2004; UNESCO 2008). Among 54 low-income countries, 15 countries have already introduced fee abolition policies and 10 countries are either at the planning stage or have shown interest in adopting fee abolition, among which 11 and seven of the latter countries are in SSA (see table 12.1). Despite its recent rapid expansion, UPE policy has a long history in SSA. Existing literatures indicate that previous attempts to achieve UPE in developing countries faced problems in its supply-driven policies, unclear mechanisms, and low quality of education (Allison 1983; Bray 1986; Prince 1997; Sifuna 2007). The past experiences in countries such as Nigeria and Kenya also show that UPE policy implementation was prone to be affected by economic crisis (Obasi 2000; Sifuna 2007). A number of lessons exist from the past; however, the current UPE policy severely lacks analytical studies on its impacts and challenges beyond school enrollment (Nishimura et al. 2008). Furthermore, some researchers have indicated the recent uniformity of the educational policies that prevail in SSA countries and suggested that there should be studies to examine how these seemingly similar policies are responding to the capacity and needs of each country (Samoff 1999; Foster 2000; Brown et al. 2001; Klees 2001).