Education
Aug 24th, 2008 by Brock Boddie UNDP CAR
The Central African Republic’s (CAR) education system is in a state of crisis. Only half of the children in CAR are enrolled in primary school. The other half do not have an opportunity to receive even the most basic education because of violence, poverty, or simply because there are no teachers, facilities or materials with which to operate a school.
The statistics paint a grim picture of a system in a shambles: there is one teacher for every 92 children at the primary level and nearly half of all teachers in CAR are parents with either very basic training or none at all. Net primary school enrolment rates have nearly stagnated for the past 15 years at 55%; and only 31% of children end up completing primary school. However, even these numbers do not truly reflect the gravity of the situation: in Haute Kotto prefecture, for example, there are only 14 trained teachers for over 29,000 children in need of primary education.
This lack of quality instruction, enrolment and completion is reflected in the adult literacy rate in CAR, which hovers around 48% (it is nearly 60% for Sub-Saharan Africa). The youth literacy rate (which covers students aged 15 – 24) is slightly higher at 58% but there are major divisions by gender: for every ten men that can read, there are only six women. In a sad twist, although studies have shown that poverty declines with higher education levels elsewhere, in CAR poverty is still a serious issue even amongst households whose head is university-educated.
From this standpoint, it seems very unlikely that the Millennium Development Goals for education can be achieved in CAR. Reaching universal primary school enrolment alone would require an immense effort, much less getting every child to complete a full course of primary schooling. Particularly with the ongoing violence in northern CAR, many of the almost 200,000 internally displaced people (IDP) have trouble accessing educational services at all, much less completing primary school. In spite of these obstacles, IDPs still identify education as a priority.
The issues surrounding education are not being ignored by the Central African Government, although much more can be done, particularly in the area of funding. The government only allocates about 1.45% of GDP to education (compared to the average in Africa of 3.7%). 
In response to this shortfall, humanitarian and development organisations have stepped in, working in tandem with the Ministry of Education: in one case, helping to put 67,000 children back into school in the north. This has raised attendance levels substantially.
With its Poverty Reduction Strategy, the Central African government has announced several goals that are intended to focus efforts in the education sector. These are principally achieving universal primary education, improving the quality of education in general, developing literacy programmes, developing short professional training courses and professionalizing higher education. The obstacles are many, but the past has shown that humanitarian organisations working in tandem with the government can achieve positive results.
For further information on education in CAR, please read:
