Teachers For Rural Schools: Experiences In Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, And Uganda (africa Human Development Series)

Much is going well with the effort to provide universal primary education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Gross enrollment rates have increased from 78 percent in 1998/99 to 91 percent in 2002/03; sizable investments have greatly improved school infrastructure and access; and large numbers of new teachers have been recruited. But educating the children in remote rural areas continues to be a challenge. Schools in hard-to-reach locations find it difficult to attract and retain teachers. Therefore, the deployment, effectiveness, management, and support of teachers in these areas require special attention and action. Such issues are thoroughly examined in this book, which also includes case studies from Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda. The country studies give rich insights into the potential and drawbacks of specific policy options. 'Teachers for Rural Schools' provides information that will be invaluable in its practicality to policy makers and practitioners responsible for educating rural populations. It will also appeal to anyone interested in Africa, development, education, public policy, and social welfare. Achieving universal primary education and "Education for All" (EFA) is one of the development priorities within the context of the millennium development goals. In many Sub-Saharan African countries, one of the key challenges is to provide good-quality basic education to the 10-20 percent of primary school-age children who are still out of school. Among these out-of-school children, the most difficult to reach are living in rural and remote areas. In recent years, large investments have greatly improved school infrastructure and access, but finding effective ways of supplying teachers to schools in rural and remote areas remains a key policy concern. To examine the issues related to providing teachers for rural schools, five countries-Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda-prepared national case studies and, along with representatives from Zambia, came together for a workshop on "policy, planning, and management of rural primary school teachers" in Lesotho in May 2005. Building on the national reports, this workshop considered the challenges of teacher provision in rural areas and examined the viable policy options Data for recent years show a turnaround in education: the gross enrollment rate in Sub-Saharan Africa increased from 78 percent in 1998 99 to 84 percent in 2000 01 and to 91 percent in 2002 03, reflecting broad-based growth in access not seen since the 1970s. However, key challenges remain, including (a) enrolling the last 10 15 percent of out-ofschool children, including a growing number of HIV/AIDS orphans (one of every 10 African children by 2010); (b) improving learning outcomes; and (c) reducing dropout. Maintaining progress will require continuing the reforms to (a) implement cost-effective methods of enrolling poor and disadvantaged children (for example, lowering the direct and indirect costs of education); (b) improve quality (for example, providing training materials, using improved instructional methods, instituting better planning and management); and (c) extend the provision of secondary education for primary school graduates