Newsletter Vol.16 No.3 - ADEA

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Secondary Educationconstrained and will remain so for manyyears to come.Many countries have not yet abandonedthe practice of selection in favorof certification. The move from selectingprimary graduates based on norms ratherthan on competence has taken placein Asia and Latin America. Why shouldthe majority of African youth fail theirjunior secondary school exams, whiletheir counterparts in OECD countriessucceed at the rate of over 60 to 70 %?Review the programs,build a new modelWhat are the goals of secondary education,and why is the public investing in it?Stakeholders include not only communitiesand parents, but also enterprises andindustry. NGOs, churches and specialinterest groups representing non-religiouscultural, ethnic and scientificinterests also have a stake in secondaryeducation.Sub-Saharan Africa needs a modelof sustainable primary and junior secondaryeducation. A high-quality juniorsecondary education should includesubjects in four areas of knowledge andskills: science and mathematics; social,life, and “geo-world” skills; ICT and technology;and language and communication.At the senior secondary educationlevel the picture becomes more complex,and a menu of demand-driven provisionsneeds to be established. Lessons fromSouth Korea, Chile, Scotland, Denmark,and the Netherlands can be applied tothe African context. In these countriesvocational and technical education andtraining have merged into flexible pathways,where the student can choose anorientation based on emerging job orprofessional needs and interests. Theconcept of key skills or competenciesis now generally accepted in OECDcountries. These countries have alsoanswered the question of “what degreeof vocational orientation?” Junior secondaryeducation should allow studentsto master general pre-vocational skills.Training for specific jobs should takeplace later and be directed by employersand enterprises. Senior secondary schoolshould be close to the world of work andprepare youngsters for the transition. Butthis is not identical to “job-training.”This debate has just started in Africa,and there is a need to adapt the OECDmodel of secondary education to thespecific needs of the region. Africansecondary schools should begin by makingmore flexible the transitions betweenlevels and by developing structured andrelevant curricula. International trendsindicate the need for vocational andtechnical options, using modern andcost-saving ICT technologies. Thesechanges will have a significant impacton the market for textbooks and learningmaterials and equipment in Africa.Promote nationalconsultations and debateInstituting these reforms will require nationaldebate and training and supportfor teachers, school managers and nonteachingstaff. They will not succeed ifteachers and parents have not boughtinto the change. Africans will need torethink their approach to education anddisconnect from traditional post-colonialsystems. This is no easy task. Forexample, achieving scientific and technologicalliteracy requires more thanunderstanding concepts and processesof science and technology. Studentsneed to gain an understanding of howscience and technology shape theirenvironment and life. This means thatthese subjects should be learned in differentways. Simple memorization andfactual learning do not lead to scientificand technological literacy. The mostcommon approach in OECD countriesis to focus on science- and technologyrelatedsocial and economic problems,such as environmentally sustainablestrategies, healthy lifestyles, HIV/AIDSand disease risks, public resource use,and population growth. This includes ageneral understanding of the nature andhistory of science and technology.The physical school environmentrequires our specific attention as well.Most boarding facilities in Africa’s secondaryschools are neglected. When adolescentslive in undignified conditions,it is unlikely they will gain self-respectand respect for others, develop healthylife styles, and make a smooth transitionto the world of work.There is also a need to institute newteaching and learning mechanisms forthe large proportion of sub-SaharanAfrica’s out-of-school youth, who requirealternative pathways to productive lives.The time has come for sub-SaharanAfrica to renew its secondary educationprograms and to create the critical massof skilled workers and youth necessaryfor the continent’s economic and socialdevelopment. Education for All at theprimary level should remain the priority,but it is not enough. Enlarging the focusto include secondary education willrequire national debates, intensifiedregional cooperation, and a fundamentalrestructuring of current systems. Itwill also require all African countriesto revisit their systems’ cost-efficiency,quality, and relevance of output. Thesereforms will take time, probably no lessthan eight to ten years. Therefore wemust start now and not wait until thenumbers of primary graduates swelleven more.The SEIA study aims to help thisprocess and to stimulate the dialoguebetween African stakeholders and thedonor community. ▼For more information on SEIA:www.worldbank.org/afr/seia6 ADEA Newsletter July - September 2004
New Goals,New Curriculaby Pai Obanya, Education ConsultantWhat is secondary education’s ultimate goal? To prepare studentsfor life? For higher education? Contemporary reality clearly callsfor a complete overhaul of both the objectives and the content.Until now the goal of secondaryeducation has been simplypreparation for tertiary education,which in the minds of most peoplemeans strictly a university education.Even though most of the post-independencereforms of education in Africarecognized the need to move away fromthe grammar school type of secondaryeducation to something more comprehensive,caring for the diversified needsof more learners and supported by a differentiatedcurriculum, not much realchange was effected.Contemporary realities, includingthe on-going focus on primary education(in the context of EFA), the need toprovide secondary education for a greaternumber of adolescents, the changingprofile of the African adolescent population,the dynamic nature of the world ofwork, new demands on higher education,and the exigencies of globalizationcall for a radical redirection of secondaryeducation in Africa, both in its goalsand in the learning opportunities that itoffers to Africa’s youth.Within the overall context of “lifelongand life-wide education,” secondaryeducation in Africa will continue toprepare adolescents for further education.The only difference is that “further”education will no longer be limited toformal university education. Secondaryeducation should address the three “P’s”identified at the first conference on secondaryeducation in Africa (SEIA), heldin Kampala in June 2003.The three Ps are:Personality development; Preparation for life; Preparation for formal tertiaryeducation.These goals are notmutually exclusive. Takentogether they ensure thatadolescents who havebenefited from secondaryeducation can continuethe process of self-developmentand self-directedlearning. They can also be better preparedto adapt to life’s challenges. If theydo continue on, they should becomeprepared for the intellectual and otherdemands of higher education.A new curriculumIn the coming years, with most Africancountries adopting a nine-year basiceducation cycle, there will be the needto devote the lower secondary years toconsolidating the basic life skills so dearto the Jomtien and Dakar EFA declarations.This would require a broad-basedcurriculum, with due emphasis on liferelatedskills and basic competences, inthe following distinct but closely interwovenareas: Intra-personal skills: Self- knowledge,self-awareness, assertiveness and confidence-building;Inter-personal skills: Team spirit, developedthrough group activities as amethod of teaching and learning, nota distinct subject area;Language and communication: Stressingthe communication dimensions ofexisting language programs; Quantitative reasoning: Emphasison the reasoning aspects of existingmathematics programs, with teachingand learning closer to life situations; Technical aptitude development:An awareness-raising program, not atechnical specialization program;The major challenge forthe immediate future ishow best to effect a shift inattitudes—how to ensurethat stakeholders realize theneed for new curricular goalsthat respect today’s realitiesand prepare adolescents forcontemporary and futurechallenges and opportunities. IT-fluency: Familiarity with andinterest in the workings of IT; Social sense: Learning to survivein the social milieu; Scientific literacy: emphasis onthe ways and methods of scientificenquiry, closely related to life situations; Physical development andpersonal health.Upper secondaryschool should continueto reinforce these skillsat the same time as itlays the foundations for“academic” studies. WorldBank-sponsored studiesin Nigeria have drawnattention to the need fornon-academic alternativecurricula to cater to theneeds of students whomay not be academicallyinclined. This does notnecessarily mean a vocationally-orientedcurriculum for “those who cannot.” Itsimply means a judicious combinationof the following: A less overloaded curriculum,in terms of the sheer number of subjectsand topics to be studied; A more integrated and broadlybased curriculum organization; A more active curriculum, interms of the range of activities; An assessment method that emphasizeswhat is most needed today:creativity, adaptability, team spirit,analytical skill, open-mindedness,and communicative competence; A stronger emphasis on developingthe person, through improvedpersonal counseling; Doing away with specializationat the secondary level.Challenges aheadThe major curriculum challenge for theimmediate future is how best to effecta shift in attitudes—how to ensure thatstakeholders realize the need for newcurricular goals that respect today’srealities and prepare adolescents forcontemporary and future challengesand opportunities. Then all stakeholdersshould join forces in translating thenew goals of secondary education intoschool, community, and classroom“ do-ables,” a hard but ultimately arewarding task.▼ADEA Newsletter July - September 20047
Page 1 and 2: Editorial Volume 16, Number 3Second
Page 4 and 5: From the African PressAkintola Fato
Page 8 and 9: Secondary EducationAnticipation and
Page 11 and 12: Statistics forSecondaryEducationby
Page 13 and 14: secondary level. The primary school
Page 15 and 16: Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegala
Page 17 and 18: Table 1. Enrollments in secondary e
Page 19 and 20: ADEA BriefsAd hoc WG on HIV/AIDSADE
Page 21 and 22: Conferences...Conferences...Confere
Page 23 and 24: Technological Infrastructure and Us

Newsletter Vol.16 No.3 - ADEA

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