Background
Nearly all countries in Sub Saharan Africa have implemented policies to ensure free universal primary education of acceptable quality. Rising primary enrollment and completion rates, as a result of these policies, have brought increased demand for access to post-primary education.
Some countries are now declaring free universal secondary education. While the social and economic rationale for expanding learning opportunities beyond primary education is clear, the challenges are daunting, and the task of developing sustainable secondary education strategies is complex.
For example, African countries must deal with issues of financing, quality and relevance of teaching and learning, curriculum & assessment, science & technology education, teacher training and management, and equity and access.
And they must create secondary education systems that promote economic growth and competitiveness, and produce graduates with skills demanded by the local labor markets.
As they seek to address these issues, countries are looking to the Bank to share its knowledge and provide technical assistance and financing.
The SEIA Program
The Africa Human Development Department of the World Bank has responded with the Secondary Education in Africa (SEIA) initiative.
Since its inception in 2003, SEIA has delivered eight thematic studies on secondary education in Africa, a review of trends in secondary education in industrialized countries, and three regional conferences on secondary education and training (Kampala 2003, Dakar 2004, and Accra 2007).
The findings and recommendations of these studies and conferences have been incorporated into the SEIA Synthesis Report. This discussion paper is meant to promote dialogue within and between African countries and the broader international donor community on the choices available for sustainable expansion of secondary education and training systems.
Program Objectives
(a) Development and improvement of national strategies for secondary education and training (within the overall post-primary strategy of individual countries)
(b) Dissemination of the results and recommendations of the SEIA Synthesis Report and the eight thematic studies
(c) Building partnerships for post-primary education between African countries and development partners, and helping country task teams to expand and improve quality of post-primary education IDA portfolios
SEIA Financing
The World Bank, international donor agencies, and African countries have provided financing for the SEIA Initiative. In particular, we acknowledge the contributions from the Norwegian and Irish Education Trust Funds.
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