Educational development in Africa

bloguerouniversal

· 17 Apr 2022

Educational development in Africa

#educacin Since time immemorial, Africa has aroused the curiosity of other cultures and civilizations and has aroused the interest of societies and human groups of all kinds: financial, religious, philanthropic or scientific. But curiosities and interests have not always been accompanied by noble intentions, and even though they have, the results, too often, have been, at least, questionable.

After the sometimes painful processes of decolonization - in many cases, the unmitigated abandonment of colonies - most acutely during the last two decades of the last century and the first years of the 21st century, some regions of the continent have been transformed into great spiritual nurseries for fundamentalist groups of various kinds, in a an unprecedented source of income for warlords - independent or subcontracted by government agencies - and in a wide and fertile food reserve for the emerging powers, which, exercising a more subtle and refined form of colonialism, are redistributing African soil.

Africa has thus mutated into a large geographical region with human development indices that are significantly below the poverty line, significantly below the world average and, once again, considerably far from the hallmark of the old metropolises, the standards of the Social State of Right.

Africa is a reality of realities full of nuances, contrasts and setbacks, one of the few geographical areas where all the eras through which humanity has gone through survive and are condensed. It houses, like no other continent, a considerable variety of cultures and civilizations, worldviews and lifestyles — not all equally respectable; some, even, refractory to the international covenant for human rights. It has abundant natural resources and large and fertile tracts of land that, cultivated wisely, could supply the entire population. And it has unparalleled human potential, with individuals and groups of people with energy and enthusiasm, willing to run after the promise of the impossible and the possibility of the implausible: A future at hand, fairer, freer and more supportive.

Good testimonies of the latter are, among others, the thousands of people who, every day, stealthily and humbly, struggle for Africa to raise its ceiling of possibilities and aspirations and take over a promising future. So are African politicians, intellectuals and activists of various kinds, for example, who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the past half century.

All of them share, in addition to the reason for which they were recognized, for giving education and culture a privileged place in any program that seeks to transform the world and make it more livable. Wangari Maathai said that “it is important to bring new ideas and initiatives that can make Africa better”. Nelson Mandela, for his part, was convinced that education “is the most powerful weapon to change the world” and that it is through it “how a daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, the son of a miner can become the head of the mine, or the son of agricultural workers can become president of a great nation”. Julius Nyerere was convinced that “education is not a way to escape poverty, but to combat it”.

Edward Fiske believes that “without schools, the future of most countries in sub-Saharan Africa is in the air”. And Graça Machel has most emphatically stated that the “most important decision humanity could make today is to transform the Declaration of the Rights of the Child into a universal reality”.

Africa, despite the interest shown by international organizations and organizations and despite global awareness campaigns, continues to be, to some extent, particularly education, a mystery to be solved, an enigma to unravel that has been given little space and little time in scientific forums and specialized publications in the field of pedagogy.

Thus, it seems appropriate to take time for reflection, to open space for dialogue and scientific communication, to continue with the arduous but necessary task of continuing to unravel what education in Africa has been, is and can become; also what education has done and can make of it.

What role did education systems play during colonial times? To what extent did they contribute to making the continent what it is today?

What survives in metropolitan education systems? What are the avenues of international funding for the development of education?

What role do families play in the socialization and education of young generations?

Where is the right to a differentiated education for ethnic minorities?

What are the contributions of NGOs and what role
play in the promotion of development through education?

What effects does war have on childhood? What are the challenges, limits and possibilities of the African continent in terms of education?

These are the issues that have motivated the Education and Development Pedagogy Symposium in Africa