A look at Education in sub-Saharan Africa: opportunities and challenges in terms of social equity

Abstract

In a diverse context, remarkable progress has been made in basic education development in sub-Saharan Africa over the past years. Despite these significant improvements, many SSA countries are still a long way for achieving education of adequate quality, and progress has been accompanied by increasing inequality. Millions of children, young people and adults are emerging from school each year without having acquired basic literacy and numeracy skills. Furthermore, wealth, gender, ethnicity, language, disability and other markers of disadvantage are fuelling wider processes of social exclusion. Focusing the discussion on the root causes of marginalization, within education and beyond, we´ll try to show how proactive policies should make a difference, especially directed at making education more accessible, affordable and inclusive for disadvantaged groups.