ABSTRACT
The principal reason for the outcomes has been the weak political commitment to human development, reflected in the poor prioritization of education in the profile of government expenditure. A major constraint to the delivery of quality education by the system is the protection accorded to teachers by politicians owing to their role as polling agents during elections and the weak accountability systems that facilitate the blackmailing of governments by powerful teachers’ unions if they try to open proceedings against those guilty of rampant absenteeism. Study after study has demonstrated conclusively that better-quality education is being provided by private schools at a significantly lower cost than that which the government spends to educate a child in its own schools. Education is generally viewed as a public good that produces a wide variety of benefits for its consumers who in turn confer a part of the gains onto those not acquiring it directly themselves.
