This seminar will provide a short history of the education sector in Kenya, highlighting major events such as the introduction of Free Primary Education, post-election violence in 2008, the Horn of Africa Drought Crisis, and promulgation of the new constitution and Education Act in 2013. It will discuss ways in which Development Partners are working with the government, while also highlighting some tensions and challenges. The discussion will include focus on political and financial issues which are relevant to the wider EFA agenda in Africa and beyond.
Suguru Mizunoya has recently joined the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Programme of Global Political Economy), having previously worked for UNICEF and Chaired the Education Development Partner Group in Kenya. He has also worked in UNICEF’s regional office in Bangkok, and for the World Bank and ILO. His research includes financing and planning of education systems, impact evaluation, and cost-benefit analysis of education policies.
Published by Comparative Education Research Centre (CERC) in collaboration with the Southern African Comparative and History of Education Society (SACHES)
The book’s contributing authors raise questions about the false expectations of target-setters, the failures of international development aid processes to assist the achievement of the MDGs, the denial of local context and history in the target-setting processes, the arbitrary selection of targets, the choice of definitions that enable manipulation of data to show they have been achieved, and the inability of individual countries to sustain reforms initiated with development aid without aid.
Here is a rich set of reflections on development thought and practice at the start of the twentieth century, representing the cumulative wisdom and judgement of scholars who have made an indelible mark on educational thought. They present a formidable set of conceptual, practical and political challenges for consideration by the development world in its target-setting processes, especially in the field of education.
Linda Chisholm is a Director in the Education, Science and Skills Development research programme at the Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria. Graeme Bloch is Education Specialist at the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Brahm Fleisch is a Professor of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Table of Contents
Preface (Linda Chisholm)
Lessons from the past two decades: Investment choices for education and growth (Martin Carnoy)
Aid agency support for education: Gaps between intention and action (Christopher Colclough)
Why some Education for All and Millennium Development Goals will not be met: Difficulties with goals and targets (Keith Lewin)
Education, skills, sustainability and growth: Complex relations (Kenneth King)
The developmental state in Africa (Dani W. Nabudere)
Every three years the Ministers of Education and senior officials of the 54 Commonwealth countries convene to share experiences and advance on common agendas.
The 18th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) was held in Mauritius from 28 to 31 August 2012. It focused on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education for All (EFA) goals.
Mark Bray and Trey Menefee were contracted by the Commonwealth Secretariat to produce the lead statistical document containing country ‘report cards’, which they presented during the opening session of the Ministers’ meeting. In this seminar they will share observations both on their report (which can be downloaded from www.educationinthecommonwealth.com), on the nature of the Ministers’ meeting, and on the wider agenda concerning new goals beyond 2015.
