Malawi and Uganda
Moving beyond user payments
In the mid-1990s, Malawi replaced a system of user payments with free
primary education. Although government spending on primary education
rose sharply, quality declined as school enrollment surged by 60 percent
(1 million new students), leading to overcrowding and a shortage of teachers.
A delay in donor funding contributed to the country's failure to prepare
adequately for increased enrollment. Teacher performance also appears
to have deteriorated, because parents, relieved of the financial burden,
felt less compelled to monitor the teachers. On the other hand, parents
were still expected to contribute labor and materials to school construction
and to buy school supplies and clothes; this, together with the opportunity
cost of forgone child labor, left total costs high for some parents.
The result was a rise in dropout rates. By 1999, the primary completion
rate was only 50 percent. Gender biases persisted as well. Uganda moved
most of the way toward free universal primary education in 1997, when
it waived tuition for up to four children per household. Families remained
responsible for school supplies and contributions to construction, as
in Malawi, and had to purchase uniforms and pay final examination fees
as well. Uganda did better than Malawi, however, in preparing for the
influx of new students. The government doubled the share of recurrent
government spending targeted to primary education and used external aid
to train new teachers, build classrooms, and purchase teaching materials.
Even so, educational quality has fallen, with high pupil-teacher and
pupil-classroom ratios and inadequate materials, and net enrollment has
declined, from 85 percent in 1997 to 77 percent in 2000. Gender biases
are still reported, as in Malawi.
The experiences of these two countries demonstrate that universal
public education cannot be achieved simply by abolishing fees
and opening classroom doors. Obstacles arise on both the demand
and the supply sides. Education can still be costly for the poor,
thus discouraging enrollment, especially when maintaining quality
is a problem. Maintaining quality, in turn, is not just a matter
of increasing spending; good planning, implementation, and monitoring
are also necessary. Achieving the goal of universal school attendance
in both countries will require measures to relieve poor parents
of all education-related costs, perhaps through a system of income
transfers.
This is the article I want to share. I think that people in Cameroon need help with their schools and education. I think that they have the most problems(see the pictures). Their needs are simple, but they will make their school all the better.
"This project will provide a total of four primary schools and will also include the refurbishment of the local medical centre and the provision of solar-pumped clean drinking water for villages. This is a major project, which will be spread over two years, and will greatly enhance the lives of thousands of subsistence farming families in the NW Province of Cameroon." Schools in the villages of Africa need stable schools. Villages such as Dzeng and Bamdzeng have unstable schools. The schools have a horrible learning environments. One desk is filled with four to five people. The roof also effects thier learning. If they go to school on a rainy day or something, they will not be able to learn. The roof is not made well and has many holes going through it. There is not even enough space for everyone to sit down in some of these schools. The schools need help.
