ABSTRACT
Developments in primary education in eastern and southern Africa have been reflected in the massive quantitative expansion of pupil enrolment. In some cases the expansion has been negative, if only in proportion to the explosive enrolment rates in the wake of the universal primary education drive which characterised most of the decade 1970-1980. At the end of the primary education cycle, according to most of the reviewed literature, the majority of children show a level of underachievement, in some cases bordering on illiteracy. Parents have a propensity to send their children to school, and even to pay for their education, when they trust in the school. Teacher training programmes for primary school teachers need serious attention on matters ranging from the selection of candidates to their academic abilities in the subjects in which they will be trained to teach, and the duration of training.
