Schooling for a New Century: Diversity for All, Opportunity for the Few

For a very brief moment during the transition to political independence in Sub-Saharan Africa, clerks and elementary school teachers found themselves chosen to be prime ministers and presidents, cabinet ministers, and directors of large trade establishments. ¹ A subsequent generation of young Africans, much better educated, faced frustrated aspirations for upward mobility because the supply of highly educated personnel far exceeded the demands of the labor market. ² Today, a primary school education offers an African no unique advantages for employment but many years of economic austerity and political upheaval could change that. The new economic and political context in which formal education now evolves may re-establish primary education as an important distinguishing attribute and qualification of new generations of Africans as they seek political and economic participation in society.