Independence was achieved at different times in the region. Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Mauritius, Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland gained their independence in the 1960s, Angola and Mozambique in 1975, and Zimbabwe in 1980. Namibia became independent in 1990, as did South Africa in 1994. Despite the common challenges, there were huge differences in human resources development. This differentiation among countries in the region obscured the regional power relations that had historically played a role in the unequal and uneven development in the region.
Immediate post-independence educational experiences in the 1960s and mid-1970s took shape in the context of buoyant economies and a broad political vision of social and educational transformation. Educational goals were directed at meeting the needs of an independent society. These included overcoming legacies of racial discrimination and inequality, building national unity, developing human resources at all levels, and diversifying educational provision in order to meet human resource needs .
Generally, all countries with policies in place also attempted to cover all aspects of education, including basic, post-basic and higher education, teacher education, technical, vocational education, and adult education. In practice, policy implementation and resources did not sufficiently focus on providing access to basic education, and it was seen that this priority was missing. In the context of constrained resources, the latter were very thinly spread over all areas without prioritisation. As a result, many countries either became the domain of donors, NGOs, and cooperating agencies for funding, but hardly generated the expected outcomes. At the same time, most countries were forced to keep educational spending down, which was in line with the requirements of structural adjustment, instead of being in line with the actual needs of educational programmes that were expected to be implemented.
In view of the above, all countries emphasised human resources development based on access, equity, quality, efficiency, relevance, and democracy. In addition, some South African policy documents focused on the question of redress as part of the human resource development agenda. It is clear that stable access is considered crucial in all SADC countries. However, it is important to note that enrolment, dropout and repetition rates vary significantly across these 15 countries. For countries such as Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe, access to primary and secondary school was less of an issue than quality. For others, like Mozambique and Malawi, access to basic education was a distant target.
Access to tertiary education, and to educational opportunities for school dropouts, and marginalised or unemployed youth, were also critical as education was not market-driven. Emphases and particular policies to realise these broad objectives thus also varied among countries, which was counterproductive to overall development efforts. For Malawi, free primary education was the principal means of broadening access.
Quality at different levels was also vital to all countries. In this area, there are common patterns, but also vast differences. A major common method of improving quality within the context of severe fiscal constraints in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia, included cutting down the number of teachers through targeted teacher redeployment, and in so doing, attempted to release funds for instructional materials. In Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zambia, pre-service and in-service courses were introduced to reduce the number of untrained teachers as part of the overall strategy to improve the general quality of education. As a result, a generalised quality assurance system was emphasised.
Most countries placed a great deal of emphasis on the achievement of equality. Strategies to achieve greater regional and racial equity commonly included efforts to equalise pupil-teacher ratios. In South Africa, the 1960s saw the apartheid state exert pressure and control over the majority of the black population, and impose poor quality, Bantu education in order to further the goals of white supremacy and domination, so there was also a broad commitment to redress these issues here.
In the majority of countries in the sub-region, males had greater access to schools than their female counterparts. In Botswana, gender parity was partly achieved, while in Lesotho and Swaziland, girls had greater access to education compared to the pre-independence era. Strategies to achieve greater gender equity took a variety of forms. Many countries in the region had specially-constituted gender programmes to deal with gender issues across a range of areas including access to, and the content of, education. Mainstreaming of gender was an important concept, and there was much to be learned from many countries, especially from those with gender policies and programmes already in place.
Decentralisation was seen as a common strategy to achieve greater management and administrative efficiency, and to cut costs. Zambia’s decentralisation of education boards, for example, was a central plank of new policy. In Tanzania, decentralisation was piloted in selected areas with the help of NGOs working with the World Bank. Decentralisation in South Africa had entailed the determination of financial limits, with norms and standards at the centre. Implementation at the provincial level was introduced in many provinces, and school governing bodies were accorded greater autonomy and independence.
*Dr David Namwandi is a PhD holder in Business Administration from Asia e-University, Malaysia. He is a founder of IUM and former minister of education.