Revitalizing African institutions of higher learning for long term development

Abstract

Higher education in African countries has taken the full brunt of the socioeconomic crisis. The application of structural adjustment programmes in the education sector has also contributed to the contraction of enrolment and programmes, and to a drop in quality in institutions of higher learning. Policies for the development of the education sector have openly advocated for the diversion of resources away from higher education to provide greater support to the basic and primary education sector. ECA has consistently argued forcefully against such policies on the grounds that the issue was not so much either basic or tertiary education, but, given Africa's development priorities and objective needs, rather, basic and tertiary education. This argument is based on the fact that the spread of literacy in society is as important for Africa's development as is the build-up and strengthening of the middle and high-level manpower base. And as basic education is an important vehicle for propagating literacy, so also is higher education the only means of developing middle and high level manpower. Therefore, Africa's development requirement allows no choice between one and the other. If the constraints on according equal priority to this two-pronged attack on problems of development in Africa are financial, then the expenditure switches should not be made within the sector, but rather be made between sectors.