Friday, November 2, 2012

Blog 10 Africa Education

This week’s current event about international education is about Africa’s growth sparks controversial rise of private secondary schools. The Gems education company that is expanding in Africa to meet demands, but concerns about high fees exacerbates inequality.  Due to the lack of state funding a market has been created for private school and all across Africa. The private school company operates in 10 countries, but is doing a major expansion in Africa supported by strong economic growth. The first secondary school was opened in September in Kenya, Africa. More schools are being planned to be built in Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa. The Gems school company is meeting the demand for private education in developing countries because of government underinvestment.  “According to an education for all global monitoring report published by Unesco in October, 71 million adolescents of lower secondary school age were out of school in 2010, with three out of four living in the South and West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.  The last of these regions has doubled the number of students enrolling over the, yet has the world’s lowest total secondary enrollment, at 40% in 2010.”  One of the biggest problems in Africa with the expanding of private schools is inequality. Inequality has climbed greatly with the development agenda. The fees disproportionally FA young people with poor families, which prevents them from enrolling in continuing with secondary education. With the starting fees being that $1700 a term, it will be hard for many families to afford tuition to attend the schools.  “Rwanda introduced a nine year basic education cycle and eliminate fees for lower secondary school, was boosted the number of lower secondary funds by 25% within a year. Kenya has also abolished fees for secondary schools, increase in roller from 1.2 million in 2002 1.4 million in 2008.”  According to Kevin Watkins, a senior fellow at the Centre of Universal Education, did not really believe in the private school system in Africa. He also thinks that Africa can afford decent quality basic education. The biggest problem of the school company is the money constraints.

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