Educational and Economic Reforms, Gender Equity, and Access to Schooling in Africa

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between economic reforms, particularly the World Bank’s Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPS) and educational policies with regard to gender equity in access to schooling in Africa. Using qualitative, historical, and quantitative methods and based on data from UNESCO and African Development Bank, it analyzes the impact of economic factors, specifically gross domestic investment, public expenditure on education as a percentage of gross national product, public expenditure on education as a percentage of government expenditure, and government deficit/surplus as a percentage of GDP at current prices, on women’s access to higher education. 1. Introduction: Issues and Objectives THIS PAPER IS divided into five major sections including the introduction that presents the issues and objectives. The second part deals with specifications regarding the concepts and methodology. The third section recalls the unequal original distribution of education and the quest for gender equality as articulated in some of the educational reform documents and experiences. The fourth section analyzes the economic crisis, reforms, and especially the structural adjustment programs (SAPs) and the impact of their conditionalities on social services, with focus on the education sector as a whole. The fifth section examines more specifically the structural relation between the economic crisis, the SAPs, and women’s access to higher education. The conclusion addresses some of the issues for future educational development and research direction in the next century. Following the political independence of African countries that started in the 1950s, the next two decades were characterized by high optimism in the possi