Education for whom and what?

Time and time again, studies, reports and conference declarations call for education meeting the needs of all.  This is a big order for African, as the  continent, even within each country, has extreme variation in wealth, poverty, security, livelihood, language, culture and ways to survive and thrive. People live in different worlds of material and cultural environment - traditional subsistence farming, the nomadic and semi-nomadic groups, commercial farms, mining towns, migrant-workers’ home villages, cosmopolitan trading cities, capital city, provincial towns, the slums, refugee settlements, etc.

The variation in geography, climate and natural resources across the continent, the vagaries of economy and weather as well as man-made disasters and opportunities influence patterns of human settlement and migration.  As there are all forms of human settlement, provision of education for all is a difficult task indeed. Although such a complex subject cannot be given adequate coverage in the present context, this section will briefly highlight certain patterns, albeit in a simplified way, pertinent for analysis and formulation of the strategies for reaching the EFA target groups. 

There are, of course, many exceptions to the generalizations made in this section.  The main point is that African population lives in extremely different environments and conditions and, therefore, EFA strategies must be formulated accordingly for the respective target groups.  For each type of human settlement and conditions of existence, it would be necessary to ask education for whom and for what?