Sub-Saharan African countries have seen total expenditure per pupil drop by fully one
third in US$ terms between 1980 and 1988, with smaller declines in Latin America and
the Caribbean (11%). In other regions expenditure per pupil in US$ has increased - by
as much as 38% in the Arab countries, and by 55% in the developed countries over the
same period. A contrasting picture emerges if expenditure is accounted for in units
based on GNP per capita. These figures indicate that countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
allocate greater proportions of GNP per capita to education than is the case in other
regions. The relative economic burden of increasing access to education in these
countries is therefore greater than elsewhere since a larger proportion of GNP has to be
allocated to enrol additional students. This is a particularly acute issue in those African
countries where GNP growth has been sluggish or negative.
The most recent figures suggest that gross enrolment rates (GERs) at the first level have
fallen in Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole from 77% in 1980, to 71% in 1985 and to 67%
in 1990. In all other regions GERs have increased, though the rate of increase slowed in
the second part of the last decade. Regional GERs also remained below 100 in the Arab
States and in South Asia. GERs actually declined in 16 of the 37 countries which had
GERs of less than 90 in 1986 over the six year period 1980-86 (Colclough with Lewin
1993: Table 2.1). Twelve of these countries were in Sub-Saharan Africa. Analysis of
enrolment growth by level shows a slowing at all levels in all regions during the 1980's,
a consistent tendency for growth rates to be higher at secondary and tertiary, and again
Sub-Saharan Africa experiencing some of the greatest declines in growth (Table 3).
Estimates of the grade 4 survival rates of a cohort entering grade 1 in 1988 indicate that
67% survive in Sub-Saharan Africa, 91% in the Arab States, 78% in East Asia and
Oceania, 55% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 63% in South Asia (UNESCO
1991:31). This illustrates that large numbers fail to complete four grades even in those
regions where mean GERs for primary exceed 100. GERs, it should be remembered,
underestimate net enrolment rates, sometimes very substantially. Where repetition is
high and overage entry common the differences may be 20% or more suggesting that
internal efficiency is low and that many remain unschooled.
Disparities in enrolment rates between girls and boys remain striking. In Sub-Saharan
Africa in 1990 there were 23% more boys than girls at the first level, 35% more at the
second level, 180% more at the third level. The Arab States (24%, 34%, 64%) and
South Asia (34%, 70%, 128%) had similar patterns (UNESCO 1991:53, Table 3.2). All
but one of the countries with a GER of less than 90 in 1986 had smaller female
enrolments at the first level, with an unweighted average value of 68% of male
enrolment (Colclough with Lewin 1993: Table 2.1). The weighted mean for all low
income countries for females as a percentage of total enrolments is 43% (Lockheed and
Verspoor 1990:169).
Table 3 Enrolment Growth Rates by Level of Education 197088 (Percentages) and
GER (First Level)