Reforming Secondary Education in Africa: Opportunities and Prospects for Systems Change

• In Event: Secondary education in Africa and the future of work

Proposal

This presentation will review some of the challenges and opportunities for educational change in Africa, reflecting on political economy of reform and ways in which external actors and national stakeholders can engage in system level development of secondary education. During the presentation the author will reflect on different “theories of change” for educational reform, placing the Secondary Education in Africa report in the context of previous work (including the World Bank’s 2007 Secondary Education in Africa), the World Development Report on Education, and the Report of the Global Commission on Educational Finance. The paper will then draw on a series of country case studies, in order to synthesizing lessons about how change happens, as well as reviewing common barriers and challenges that need to be addressed to overcome quality and equity in secondary education in Africa today.

Author

• Karen Mundy, Toronto University