Your opinion on this report!

The report acknowledged the tremendous progress Sub-Saharan African countries made towards the EFA goals. While most of the programs were on the enrolment rate, the report failed to mention that it was not progress at all. Indeed, many countries (Benin, Togo, etc.) adopted schooling fee exemption policies which increased enrolment rates in the short term. While in field recently for a study, we were told that most of School Heads rightly forbidden parents’ associations to reach out to parents to enroll their children for two simple reasons: they didn’t want overcrowded classrooms and they didn’t want classrooms without teachers. Most of the children enrolled went back home because of the lack of infrastructure and teachers. The fact is that school fees exemption policies look politically attractive while in reality the required infrastructure is not in place. Besides, most of teachers training institutes have been closed as part of the recommendations of the structural adjustment programs leaving schools with poor quality teachers. As a consequence, the progress mentioned by the report is not progress, unless proper infrastructure and quality teachers are provided. At the same time the IMF is still playing its watch-dog role of public finance in developing countries with a clear option for limiting government spending (especially personnel costs). The 2010 GMR was accurate in mentioning that. But the situation looks very much like one of a trap.
Final remark: everybody seems to be focused on education for all right now, with 2015 at the door. Assuming that every developing countries (or at least the majority of them) by whatever miracle achieve EFA goals; what’s next? It seems that developing countries leaders are accomplices of a plot to focus the continent only on short term goals, while development is more a long term journey…