Education, skills development and capacity-building

The SADC Protocol on Education and Training signed in September 1997 highlighted the need to address the educational needs of people who do not have the liberty to attend full-time learning, are past the age of basic education, or whose skills need to be upgraded.

An important indicator for subregional human development in education is the adult

literacy rate. Other key indicators include enrolment ratios and school-completion rates at different levels of the education systems. In the SADC subregion, these indicators are characterized by wide variations.

Governments in the subregion have made considerably higher investments in the educa-tion sector over the past decade. However the level of commitment to educaeduca-tion does not correlate to the size of economic activity. It is generally acknowledged that the declarations and calls for action to ensure “Education for All” made at the world conference in Jom-tien, Thailand, in 1990 and reaffirmed at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in 2000 have been poorly implemented in the subregion. Table 2.5 shows that all SADC countries except Lesotho spent less than 10 per cent of GDP on education, and most spent around 5 to 6 per cent of GDP, or well below this level.

Table 2.5: Public expenditure on education (% of GDP)⁹

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Lesotho 14.5 11.8 11.1 12.1 16.1 13.6 15.1 14.4   13.1    

Notes: Blanks imply data are unavailable. Source: Constructed from World Bank WDI data

As of 2010, literacy levels in the subregion ranged from 56.1 per cent of the relevant popu-lation age group (15 years old and above) in Mozambique to 92.2 per cent in Zimbabwe (figure 2.3). These disparities naturally mean that country-specific solutions have to be sought to bridge the divides. The extent to which subregional policies, protocols and strat-9 The main internationally comparable sources of these data (e.g., WDI, UNESCO, etc.) had not

updated their statistics to 2011 at the time of preparing this report

egies can be relied upon in circumstances of such wide divergences in literacy would have to be looked at very closely. However it is evident that spending on the education sector must be increased if better outcomes are to be attained.

Table 2.6 captures primary enrolment rates (overall and for females) and the primary school completion rate for all SADC countries on average during 1990-2010. The table portrays a similar picture to that shown by Figure 2.3 above. The education outcomes in SADC vary widely, implying that they would require well-tailored national strategies and policies that address the specific national constraints faced by the education systems that are performing more poorly. To achieve this, effective partnerships, which are supported by transformation and renaissance in economics, politics and culture, must be forged within the subregion.

Figure 2.3: Adult literacy rate (% ages 15 years and older)

Source: constructed from World Bank WDI data

Of the member States, nine had period average gross primary-school enrolment rates greater than 100 per cent (and greater than the SADC average), while the rest recorded gross enrolments of less than 100 per cent. It is particularly noted that some of the for-mer conflict countries, especially DRC and Mozambique, had the lowest overall primary school enrolment rates.

Table 2.6 Gross enrolment rates and completion rates in SADC, average rates 1990-201010 Source: constructed from W orld Bank WDI data

Surprisingly Tanzania also recorded relatively low gross enrolment rates during the period despite the relatively stable political and social environments in the country.

For the majority of countries, the female primary enrolment rate is lower than the overall rate, but it is only significantly lower in Angola, DRC and Mozambique. The female rate of completing primary school is generally less than 100 per cent across the SADC subre-gion, except in Seychelles where it is higher than 100 per cent. Again, the observations on DRC and Mozambique are particularly low in the subregion. The average gross secondary enrolment ratio between 2000 and 2010 was significantly lower than the primary school completion rate (Figure 2.4).

10 The main internationally comparable s ources of these data (e.g., WDI, UNESCO, etc.) had not updated their statistics to 2011 at the time of preparing this report.

Figure 2.4: Gross secondary school enrolment ratio, overall and females (% of relevant age group), avg. 2000-201011

Source: Constructed from World Bank WDI data

While many member States acknowledge the importance of education for human devel-opment and have thus ratified the MDGs, achieving Education for All by 2015 is very far from guaranteed in the subregion. Africa has articulated a vision for the development of education through a regional response called the Second Decade of Education for Africa Plan of Action, which was approved by Ministers of Education in 2007 (RETIP 2010).

This plan of action explains who is responsible to coordinate the implementation, which entails brining the regional policy home into existing national policies and strategic plans, establishing structures and systems for implementation and reporting, advocacy, partner-ships, and resource allocation and mobilisation. An example of how the SADC subregion has harmonised practices in the education sector is that SADC Secretariat’s Education and Skills Development Unit has created and established a number of strategic partner-ships. These include partnerships with key institutions and organisations working in the subregion (table 2.7).

11 The main internationally comparable sources of these data (e.g., WDI, UNESCO, etc.) had not updated their statistics to 2011 as of the time of preparing this report

Table 2.7: Institutional collaboration in education and skills development in SADC

Organization/Institution Area of collaboration

Eastern and Southern African Curriculum Organization (ESACO) Curriculum development ADEA Working Group on Education Management and Policy

Support (WGPMS)

EMIS

Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) Higher education Higher Education Quality Management Initiative of Southern Africa

(HEQMISA) Quality assurance in higher education

Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring

Educational Quality (SACMEQ) Monitoring learner performance

UNESCO Institute of Statistics EMIS

UNESCO cluster offices in the subregion TVET, EMIS, culture and HIV/AIDS

UNICEF Gender

MIET Africa HIV/AIDS

Source: adopted from the Progress Report on RETIP (2010). EMIS is Education Management Information System, TVET is Technical Vocational Education and Training,

These strategic partnerships are at different levels of being concretised. The SADC Secre-tariat has a Memorandum of Agreement for collaboration with the United Nations Edu-cational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). UNESCO has made Africa a priority in its Medium-Term Strategy (2008-2013)12. Through this framework, the SADC Secretariat and UNESCO cluster offices - including the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) - are harmonising their activities and sharing resources through joint plan-ning, implementation and monitoring.

What this does for the subregion is to ensure that skills development is not country-specific. A broadened and standardized curriculum in the SADC subregion allows trained individuals to be employable within the subregion and an increased rate of knowledge transfer. The SADC Protocol on Culture, Sports and Information is the current legal policy framework on sport for the subregion (more is said about culture and information in chapters 3 and 4, respectively).