State of Literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa
The International Literacy Day (ILD) is marked each year on 8 September as a day of reflection, re-thinking and re-imagination on matters related to literacy at all levels, global, regional, national, and local. On the occasion of the 2019 ILD, it is important to take stock of the state of literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). As a region, SSA has been saddled with multiple and complex challenges when it comes to the field of literacy.
Sub-Saharan Africa has one-seventh of the world population. Yet it accounts for over a quarter of illiterate adults and nearly half of illiterate youth worldwide. According to the latest available data (2015) SSA is home to 203.4 million adults (15 years and above) who lack basic literacy skills. The data also indicates that SSA had not been part of the impressive improvements in literacy rates recorded by most countries in all other regions between 1990 and 2015. In fact, the number of illiterate adults in SSA rose steadily, increasing from 142 million in 1990 to 166 million in 2000, a 17% increase. By 2015, an additional 37.2 million, a 22.4% increase, had been added to the teeming illiterate population.
Statistics pertaining to youth literacy has been particularly worrisome. Nearly 50% of the illiterate youth worldwide hail from SSA. What is more, the number of young Africans lacking basic literacy skills has been increasing since 1990, the only region in the world saddled with this peculiar affliction. Ironically, the illiterate population in SSA is concentrated in a few countries, including some of the biggest (in terms of population) and richest countries in the region. SSA also lags behind other regions in key indicators pertaining to quality and equity. Disparities based on gender, location and income have been endemic, deep and persistent, with the poor, girls, women and those in remote rural areas being disproportionately disadvantaged. Girls and women account for over two-thirds of the 203 million illiterate adults in SSA. Some countries do no even feature in regional and global data on literacy. These include countries like Djibouti, South Sudan, and Somalia and to some extent Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of the countries in this category are blighted by protracted social strife and violent conflicts.
Economic and Social Cost of Illiteracy
The economic and social cost of illiteracy is huge, corrosive, and immensely debilitating. Its destructive impacts are wide and far-reaching, cutting across all critical sectors of development.
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Economic and Social Cost of Illiteracy
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Economic
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Lost earnings and limited employability
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Lost business productivity
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Lost wealth creation opportunities
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Lower technology skills capacity
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Social
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Poor health, poor quality of life & rising health costs
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Crime, including massive upshot in juvenile delinquency
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Increased & disabling dependency on welfare & charity
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Rapid increase of out-of-school children, drop-outs, gender-based inequality
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Source: World Literacy Foundation (2015)
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Two more recent, ominous and heavily consequential afflictions could also be linked to the high cost of illiteracy: youth radicalization and extremism and the tragic specter of African youth heading to Europe in droves, putting their safety and life in great danger in the perilous journey across the Sahara or in the treacherous waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
The World Literacy Foundation (WLF) estimates the annual cost of illiteracy to the global economy at $1.2 trillion. At the national level, aggregate figures vary greatly, depending on a wide range of factors. A developing country on average looses 0.5% of its GDP yearly due to illiteracy. This will translate to the following estimated annual losses for Angola ($500 million), Sudan ($381 million), Tanzania ($250 million), and Ethiopia ($288 million). Data is not available for Nigeria and D R of Congo. The WLF underscores that these estimates are quite conservative, and the actual cost of illiteracy is likely to be much higher.
Future Prospects
SSA’s prospect for achieving significant gains or a quick turn-around in youth and adult literacy any time soon is equally challenging. African governments have committed themselves to the Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its ambitious and ubiquitous 17 goals. Africa has also adopted its own, region-specific Agenda 2063 the Africa We Want. Both frameworks envisage and promise a radically different future in the coming twelve years, a future free of the epidemic of multiple and lethal afflictions bedeviling the world we live in today. And last year, African leaders secured a three-year $60 billion funding pledge from China for the continent’s development during the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Unfortunately, education, specially adult literacy, does not seem to matter much in the three grand development schemes both in terms of priority hierarchy and actual resource/investment portfolio.
However, given the region’s track record during the Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) era, SSA’s capacity and readiness to meet the 2030 SDG and Agenda 63 literacy targets fully and timely are, at best, limited. According to UNESCO, due to a host of formidable challenges specific to it, Sub-Saharan Africa “cannot be expected to reach universal youth literacy rates by 2030 if current trends continue.” Ensuring that “current trends” do NOT continue is therefore a matter of utmost priority and urgency and an important first step towards a comprehensive review and substantive improvement of the bleak literacy landscape in SSA.
The prospects of any country managing a meaningful, inclusive and sustainable economic takeoff any time soon are flimsy, given the debilitating levels of adult and youth literacy currently afflicting the continent. There is not any definitive historical precedent. This does not mean that the challenges of illiteracy are insurmountable. However, the promise of quality literacy for all Africans will continue to remain elusive if existing development architecture in the continent does not change, soon.
Suggestions for Re-vitalizing the State of Literacy in SSA
Mobilizing higher education assets and capabilities: The potential of higher education institutions in Africa to serve as a critical vehicle for economic and social transformation has been recognized. More importantly, many countries in SSA have huge and well-established higher education systems, including a large number of universities. In some countries, there are myriad higher education institutions in each region, and even at district level. Most are public institutions that receive their funding from state coffers.
The higher education systems in SSA constitute a huge repertoire of assets, capabilities, and networks that could play a critical role in moving the literacy agenda forward. The resources that could be mobilized and deployed in support of adult and youth literacy and basic skills, include the following:
§ Physical infrastructure: lecture rooms, conference halls, theatres, recreational facilities, hostels, prayer facilities.
§ Human Resources: academic staff with a wide range of knowledge and specialized technical expertise, students, alumni.
§ Research: expertise in both basic and applied research, and elaborate research infrastructure, including libraries, teaching hospitals, extension (agriculture) facilities.
§ IT, ICT, Media, and audio-visual facilities: Many higher education institutions, especially open universities, have extensive and expansive communication, media, and audio/visual facilities and networks with capabilities to reach remote rural areas.
§ Libraries and publishing assets.
Higher education institutions also have a great deal of prestige and influence, including, intellectual and cultural capital, political clout, good offices, and extensive network of prominent and influential figures or patrons. These assets bestow on universities an enormous power to mobilize political commitment and financial resources, coupled with a huge potential to influence public opinion and policy debate and dialogue.
Historically this great potential has not been adequately tapped and effectively deployed in connection with the critical issues of youth adult literacy and basic skills. Of course, not all is well with the higher education landscape in SSA. The myriad, persistent and complex challenges confronting the sector are known and well documented. At the same time, it would be a mistake to underestimate, ignore, or dismiss existing opportunities.
Curbing corruption and Embezzlement: The scourge of corruption and embezzlement has robbed African children of their rights and futures. An international cabal comprising internal usurpers and external predators has stolen African resources on an unprecedented scale. The numbers involved are truly staggering. In one country in which I worked, ‘big thieves’ eat up an estimated 60 percent of the education funds allocated annually by the state right away. Another 20 percent is divided among ‘small thieves.’ This means only 20 percent of the yearly education budget goes to the education system. This is however dwarfed by the massive looting by multinational corporations and associated shady networks. The business of plundering domestic resources and at the same time perpetually lobbying and begging for international aid is not sustainable. This must stop. Now. The future of Africa and its teeming youth depend on this.
Harnessing ICT technologies and innovations: With the rapid and profoundly transformative developments and innovations in ICTs, the minimum required literacy threshold could be achieved easier, faster and cheaper than any other time in history. However, this requires enlightened leadership supported by informed policy formulators and committed and competent technical experts. Higher education institutions could play a critical role in this endeavor. There is evidence of some good beginnings in some parts of Africa. It is important to build on these positive developments and move quicker and on a bigger scale if Africa is to achieve the ambitious literacy targets outlined in SDGs and Agenda 2063. Time is NOT on Africa’s side.
Professor Hassan KEYNAN is a former Senior UNESCO Education expert in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) in Hamburg, Germany).