アフリカ諸国における初等教育政策とオーナーシップ : 世界銀行教育政策セミナーを中心として <研究論文>

Primary Education Policy and its Ownership in African Countries <Articles>

Sawamura Nobuhide

国際教育協力論集

Journal of International Cooperation in Education

[PISSN] 1344-2996

[EISSN] 1344-7998

[NCID] AA11281847

Most countries in Africa have invested in education, and its progress has been remarkable since their independence. However, enrolments have recently stagnated and the quality of education has also been eroded. Africa requires external resources through international cooperation. Japan has been one of the major donor countries for Africa. Its aid to the region accounts for 11 to 13 per cent of total Japanese aid. However, the impact of Japanese aid there is often invisible, probably because of little human involvement.

Since 1996 Japan has strongly committed itself to contributing to universal primary education in the aid community. This positive stance may suggest that Japan has a tentative desire to play a leading role in tackling this global issue. Although Japanese aid policy towards education shows an emphasis on basic education and educational management, Japanese current aid to basic education is still biased towards primary school construction projects and hardly deals with capacity building.

Technical assistance in the field of education has different aspects from traditional aid in technological fields. New aid modalities should be developed particularly in Japan. It is essential to analyze the experiences of educational development systematically in one country and make them usable and applicable in the conditions of other countries.

It is noteworthy that the concept of ownership and partnership has been introduced in world-wide aid policy when total aid budgets have been cut in many donor agencies. Ownership of recipient countries is welcome, but actual policy drafted by the countries is certainly influenced by donor policy. Partnership may be a new form of traditional conditionality and the vital element of the new partnership may not be market but morals. Recipient countries have less flexibility in policy options, and the responsibility borne by those countries may become heavier.

What is necessary in exploring education in Africa is to examine critically the factors which have an impact on education systems from historical, ethnical, geographical, economical and political points of view. Interdisciplinary and comparative educational approaches are indispensable to the findings of new modalities in educational aid and cooperation.

Education [ 370 ]

jpn

広島大学教育開発国際協力研究センター

[ISSN] 1344-2996

[NCID] AA11281847