{"id":1489,"date":"2016-03-02T12:42:38","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T11:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=1489"},"modified":"2016-10-26T16:30:09","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T15:30:09","slug":"education-in-africa-a-pillar-of-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2016\/03\/02\/education-in-africa-a-pillar-of-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Education in Africa: A Pillar of Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Graduation
Graduation day at Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last weekend I saw a great documentary: \u201cJourney to school<\/a>.\u201d I strongly recommend it. It\u2019s about four real stories of kids that undergo tremendous difficulties and dangers on a daily basis to go to school<\/strong>. One of the stories is that of Jackson, 11 and his younger sister<\/strong>. Everyday, they walk for 2 hours back and forth, and cover 15 km.<\/strong> of the Kenyan savanna. They have to watch over elephants that may appear on their way. The other stories are as amazing as this one \u2013 or even more! The reality is that any country willing to grow and prosper needs to support educational efforts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Education is one of the engines and pillars of any country<\/strong>. It\u2019s included in the Declaration of Human Rights<\/a><\/strong>. At the very least, primary education should be freely<\/strong> available<\/strong> to everyone. This doesn\u2019t mean than the State should have total control of educational offers. Rather, the State should establish the mechanisms so that everybody \u2013 not just rich families \u2013 can chose the type of education<\/strong> they want for their children.<\/p>\n

Euromonitor<\/a> reports that 77 % of global growth in consumer expenditure on education in 2015 is generated in 1150 cities<\/strong>. That\u2019s quite concentrated. No wonder Jackson and other kids have to undertake risky journeys to go to school!<\/p>\n

African cities (in regions other than Northern Africa) contributing to that growth include:<\/p>\n

\"Africa<\/p>\n

Of notice: Kisumu and Emalahleni are not capital cities<\/strong>. Kenya is undergoing a \u201cdevolution\u201d process. This means that power and budgets are being decentralized<\/strong>, and returned to the counties. I don\u2019t mean to imply a causal relationship necessarily but there seems to be some correlation here. Also, Kenya includes education and training as part of the social pillar of its Vision 2030<\/a> strategic program<\/strong>. The program aims at creating \u201ca globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life by 2030.\u201d Indeed, a high-level education is necessary to achieve this goal.<\/p>\n

Anyone familiar with South Africa willing to comment?<\/p>\n

Related posts:<\/p>\n