Chapter 6: Reaching Educational Quality Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Look at Complementary Education Systems

This chapter explores issues of context, poverty, and cultural practice that continue to limit the attainment of global goals for achieving universal basic education, particularly in Africa. Several countries in sub-Saharan Africa will not achieve international goals set for attaining access, participation, and equity, particularly in areas where there is a high incidence of poverty (Casely-Hayford, 2002b). This chapter considers complementary approaches to education that have improved basic literacy rates and educational quality in deprived areas across sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on Ghana. The study highlights approaches for reaching underserved children in rural, deprived areas in order to close the widening educational quality gap between Africa and the rest of the world. The study assesses the effectiveness of complementary education systems in reaching underserved children and identifies principles and practices that can be transferred to the public education sector.