Many visitors in poor, sub-Saharan African countries are struck by
how schools outnumber factories. The large number of schools is due
partly to the success of one of the Millennium Development Goals – that primary education should be available to all children.
According to the World Bank,
the proportion of boys finishing primary school in sub-Saharan Africa
increased from 58% to 73% between 1999 and 2012. In the same period, the
proportion of girls finishing primary school climbed from 48% to 66%.
But what are these newly educated young people doing? In urban areas,
many are hawking goods in the street, sitting around in small stalls
and finding somewhere as comfortable as possible to sleep.
Jobs haven’t materialised
The idea is that education should enable youth to have better jobs of
the sort you might find in factories and new businesses. Despite the
number of schools and higher education levels, the jobs for these young
people haven’t materialised.
Yet as so many young people seem to have so little to do, could they
be working out of sight? The data suggests the answer to that question
is no. Factories employ only tiny numbers of these young people.
The figure below shows why we care a lot about the earnings
opportunities which arise at different levels of education in
sub-Saharan Africa. The extent of the investment in education has
dramatically changed the skill composition of Africa’s population.
The figure also shows that, in 1960, some 90% of Africa’s adult population had no education, meaning that they had failed to complete primary level.
By 2010, the proportion with no education had roughly halved: nearly
40% of the population aged 15 and above had now completed primary
education.
