Education reform in southern Africa since the 1960s: what progress has been made?

Abstract

The investigation reported in this paper centred on the socially relevant question of whether a number of countries in Southern Africa, particularly their education systems, had not only succeeded to shrug off their pre-independent past and heritage, but also whether they have made significant strides in terms of the education reform that form part of their broad socio-political restructuring. After having stipulated a number of input, throughput and output criteria, the researchers examined a purposive sample of eight systems. Their educational initiatives during the past fifty years were surveyed. These include expansion of education supply, examination reforms, curriculum reforms, teaching methods, higher education, vocational education, higher education expansion and the eradication of adult illiteracy. The researchers found evidence of improvement in the systems through the greater availability of education but not so much of improvement in the quality of the education systems in question. The paper ends with a number of recommendations for addressing shortcomings in this regard.