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Obstacles to progress

Challenges

Current standards of educational achievement across Africa are such that they handicap any

government's ability to develop their countries.
Even if all the educational resources are present the wide diversity of spoken African

languages adds a fundamental complication. There are an estimated 50 million children of
primary and lower secondary school-going age--almost a quarter of all children in that age
group-- who are not in school at all or who have dropped out of school. And about 40 percent

of out-of-school children are concentrated in three of the region's most populous countries:
Ethiopia, Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo

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Teacher absenteeism is high, and teachers lack adequate knowledge and skills as well as
conducive workplaces to be effective in their work. “
"Facing Forward: Schooling for Learning in Africa," (2018) 187
Bashir, Sajitha, Marlaine Lockheed, Elizabeth Ninan, and Jee-Peng Tan

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“ Even in countries where female primary attendance is over 80%, such as Tanzania, Burundi,
Uganda, and Rwanda, female secondary attendance falls to 25% or less. Across all these
countries, female enrolment ratios never reach even 50%.

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The high school completion rate among the male population up to age 21 is under 15% in
Burundi, Niger, Madagascar, Burkino Faso, Mozambique, the Central African Republic, Gabon,

Zimbabwe, Mali, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Senegal. It is under 25% in, among others, Rwanda,
Congo, Uganda, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. In South Africa and Kenya, who are among Africa's
leaders, it is 44%.”

"Africa 2050: Demographic Truth and Consequences." 83
Hoover Institution.

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Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget's theories on cognitive development 188 have heavily influenced the delivery of
education. His theory stated that intelligence developed in four different stages.

• sensorimotor stage from birth to 2 years old,
• preoperational state from 2 years old to 7 years old,
• concrete operational stage from 7 years old to 10 years old
• formal operational stage from 11 years old and up

Piaget believed that learning was directly linked to and restricted by a child's cognitive

development.