Mahmud Yunus defined Education as efforts that are deliberately chosen to influence and assist children to improve their knowledge, physical and morals that can gradually deliver the child to the highest goal.
Over the years, education in Africa has made substantial progress but there are still major issues yet to be addressed. Let's take a look at some of the issues facing the Education System in Africa.
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| Photo of Children from Tsion Academy, Ile-Ife |
1. Lack of Proper Learning Infrastructure
The quality of school facilities affects both the students and the teachers. The lack of facilities limits the ability of a student to achieve various learning and extracurricular activities. Additionally, the lack of facilities reduces teachers' job satisfaction, which undermines their motivation to teach.
The classrooms, classroom equipment, laboratories, examination halls, libraries and office furniture are in a terrible state across many schools in Africa, some schools do not have most of these facilities and this has contributed to poor academic performance.
Most windows are out of use, thereby causing hazards to life, while fluorescent tubes for providing electricity are out of place. This leads to POOR LEARNING OUTCOME, which is the second issue facing the Education system in Africa.
2. Poor Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes describe the measurable skills, abilities, knowledge or values that students should be able to demonstrate as a result of completing a course.
After each session, a student should have learned and should be able to demonstrate or solve questions about some topics, practicals etc, but presently, students progress to the next class without fully understanding what they are meant to learn in the previous class due to lack of proper learning infrastructure, wrong teaching methodologies, outdated curricula, class size, parents’ involvement, relationship with peers among many other factors.
POOR TEACHER PERFORMANCE is another factor that causes poor learning outcomes and this is the third issue facing the Education system in Africa.
3. Poor Teacher Performance
Going back to the definition of Education by Mahmud Yunus, "Education is an effort that is deliberately chosen to influence and assist children to improve their knowledge, physical and moral that can gradually deliver the child to the highest goal".
The assistance and influencing role in this definition is done by the teachers and parents, peers, etc. But, we are focusing on the teachers here.
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
Effective teaching is a critical component of high-quality education. Low-quality teachers will have an impact on various things, including achievement and the learning process for students. Because teachers play an important role in regulating the learning environment that makes students active in learning activities.
4. Insufficient Government Funding
The bulk of the responsibility lies with the government.
The government has a role to play in supplying infrastructure which in turn reduces poor learning outcomes. They have a role in screening before employing teachers as well as paying teachers salaries and giving incentives on time which will lead to better teacher performance.
These days, the education system in Africa is deteriorating due to poor funding, the attention given to education is low, and investment in education is low, our educational policies are outdated, outdated curricula.
The quality of education in any country is one of the major keys to national development. If a country fails to invest in education then the future of the country is doubtful.