World Bank's verdict on Africa's tertiary education

Quality tertiary education is the only avenue through which countries in Sub-Saharan Africa can realize socio-economic growth, a World Bank sponsored report says.

The report says there is an "urgent need" for developing countries to "acquire capabilities that will spawn new industries that create more productive jobs."

It proposes what it calls "well-known changes" towards learning and teaching methods in tertiary institutions.

These include: Interdisciplinary rather than disciplinary perspectives, flexibility in learning, group work instead of lectures, problem solving rather than memorization of facts; practical learning to complement theory and assessment through project work that demonstrates competence.

Similarly, the report passes a harsh verdict on the state of tertiary education, giving an implication of its irrelevance to development goals of the individual countries.

According to the study, tertiary institutions are preoccupied with income generation to an extent that their core duty of training, problem solving and knowledge transfer to support the economy, is relegated to "community service."

Income generation, the October 2008 report noted, has been too limited to lift institutions above financial survival, too little to reduce dependence on government funding and too constrained to have "more than occasional resources" for experimentation and innovation.

The researchers are now calling on tertiary institutions to focus on "nourishing a national economy" rather than churning out half-baked graduates that add to the huge baggage that is unemployment.

Emphasis is being placed on realigning curricula to the national development road-map, in Kenya's case, Vision 2030. The report proposes that governments adopt a sponsorship criterion where only students in "disciplines deemed more critical to future development" are assisted.

In a synopsis of the report "Accelerating Catch-Up: Tertiary Education for Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa" the financial institution raises a red flag over the reducing quality of post-secondary education in developing countries.

"Too rapid an increase in enrolments, as has happened in the recent past, has eroded quality and is undermining the contribution of tertiary education to growth," the study notes.

It casts doubt over the ability of countries achieving the Millennium Development Goals, due to high mortality rates and emigration of professionals to better-paying jobs in Europe, America and parts of Asia.

While releasing the 2007 MDG status report, Planning and National Development Minister Wycliffe Oparanya blamed inadequate funding for the slow realisation of the MDGs, whose deadline is in 2015.

Although he was optimistic that only two of the goals –Universal Primary Education and Fight against malaria and HIV—were achievable, he said little on the all-important goal regarding food security and poverty.

Apparently, "inadequate research funding and insufficient attention to professional development" has led to a huge crisis in academic staffing. Thus, coming against a backdrop of increased tertiary enrolment, this is bound to dilute further the already poor quality of graduates.