Objectif 2 : Assurer l'éducation primaire pour tous

Most African Countries Likely to Achieve Universal Primary Education Goal

Most African countries are likely to meet this goal by the target date, but some are in danger of not doing so without higher education spending and international help.

However, the rate of primary enrolment is not being matched by the primary school completion rate.

On the subsidiary target that all children, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full primary schooling course, of the 27 countries with data for 1991-2007, seven countries saw a notable improvement of 30 to 50 percentage points, while a further ten improved by 10 to 30 percentage points.

Seven countries showed a very small, insignificant decrease.  However, the Republic of Congo and Equatorial Guinea showed sharp declines.  The former fell to 60% in 2007 from 85% in 1991 while the decrease in the latter was to 70% from a former 98%., caused very low educational spending combined with civil unrest and conflict.

Enrolment is highly correlated to the state’s education budget.  Countries allocating at least 50% of their education budget to primary education reported the fastest progress towards the target.

However, some countries are more than 11 percentage points from the target, and on current trends some 22 countries will fail to reach the target by 2015.  Urgent action in the form of higher primary education spending and international aid is needed.

Although primary completion is not an official MDG indicator, the report notes that the results here are less encouraging than the enrolment rate.

The report also notes the growing importance of private primary education in Africa in reaching the target, even in countries where primary education is free.  Private schools accounted for 41% of primary enrolments in Togo, and for over 30% in Chad and Mali, for instance.

On subsidiary target of youth literacy for 15-24 year olds, progress remains very good.  In 2007, eight countries were fewer than five percentage points from the target, and another four countries fewer than ten percentage points from it.  However, seven of the 28 countries with data were widely short of the target by 28 to 60 points.

On the subsidiary target of gender literacy, the results are mixed.  Literacy rates in seven countries were 10 to 22 percentage points higher for men than for women in 2007, and a further 12 countries showed a gap of between one and 7.5 points.

However, in some countries the position is reversed.  In Liberia, Namibia, Swaziland and Botswana, literacy rates among women were between two and 7.7 percentage points higher for women than for men, possibly due to the low-skilled mining work available to men in South Africa.