Impact of Education Quality on Sustainable Development in Africa

Abstract

This chapter investigates the role of education in achieving sustainable development and whether it can reasonably be expected to improve the state of underdevelopment from which Africa suffers. The chapter uses Sudan as a case study for a typical African country. It studies and assesses the Sudanese education system against its ability to meet the objectives of the national development plan of the country using the generic model of Dafa’Alla et al. (Critical review of the education system in the Sudan from independence to date. In Proceedings of 2nd Sudanese Diaspora International Conference, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, 11–12 June, 2015; Int J Sudan Res, 6(1), 2016). Lessons learned are then generalised to the case of Africa, and recommendations for an ‘Action Plan for Education in Africa’ are made. It finds that good-quality education and sustainable development are synonymous. Education drives innovation, which in turn drives economic growth and sustainable development, as has been clearly demonstrated in many emerging economies worldwide. Weak education has been identified as a significant factor in the underdevelopment of Africa, as clearly demonstrated in the case of Sudan. Hence, the paper calls for an African conference on education to address deficiencies in education as the root cause of the state of underdevelopment in Africa and to outline an ‘Action Plan for Education in Africa’ that supports building an ‘innovation-based economy’.