Africa is leading in the levels of illiteracy in the world. Many factors are at play here. Some of them include lack of enough investments in the education sector from the governments. Corruption is another problem that contributes to the rising levels of illiteracy. Lack of willpower from governments to fight this vice has seen most resources meant for the education sector to get embezzled without anyone being held accountable. As such, the education is left to reel in losses. The teaching fraternity may also be unqualified to teach some subjects, especially in hardship areas. This affects the quality of education that is needed.
Population increase
Population increase is among the factors that cause illiteracy in Africa. The rising number of young children is inversely proportional to the number of established government schools. Some of the highly populated areas do not have enough schools to cater for the rising number of children. For instance, you might find that a teacher is dealing with a class of more than 80 children, meaning the teacher-student interaction is very limited. Population increase is a problem that has even been highlighted by UNESCO as one of the contributors to illiteracy in Africa.Eradicating Illiteracy in Africa
Poor and inadequate infrastructure
In some parts of Africa, there is poor educational infrastructure and this makes it hard or some people to access education. You will find that some children read under the trees, meaning when there are adverse weather conditions like heavy rains, these children will not go to school. Inadequate infrastructure leads to poor education and, eventually, illiteracy. The accessibility of these facilities is also a problem that would make learning quite hard.
Corruption
In some countries of Africa, corruption is so entrenched that the education sector suffers greatly. The lack of will from the incumbent governments to fight corruption affects the education sector negatively. As such, funds meant for the education sector gets embezzled and diverted to other people’s bank accounts. No one is held accountable for such acts and there is nothing the edition can do but work with the available and scarce resources.
Lack of proper educators
Some teachers are less qualified than others, especially in urban areas, are. The teaching environment also can affect students in some of these teachers who are unqualified. The students are likely to get substandard academic knowledge and this does not add any value to the levels of literacy within the continent.
There is a lot than needs to be done to improving literacy levels in Africa as a whole.
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