Education policy in sub-Saharan Africa is predicated on human capital assumptions and therefore promotes the expansion of formal education as a way to promote economic growth. As a result, formal education is valued primarily as a private consumer good, a form of cultural capital that allows some to get ahead and stay ahead, rather than as a public good that also benefits the overall society. In the absence of vibrant industrial labor markets, job prospects for school leavers are poor, which places an inflated premium on educational credentials. The collapse of formal economies combined with high population growth rates suggests that higher social rates of return might accrue from more investments in nonformal adult education aimed at improving the skills and labor productivity of rural populations.
Africa Development Report. (2004). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
2.
Africa: The status of children’s/girls’ education—More than 40 million left out. (1999). Women’s International Network News, 25(3), 58.
3.
Ahiwalia, M. (1978). Rural poverty and agricultural performances in India. Journal of Development Studies, 14, 23-24.
4.
Appleton, S., Bigsten, A., & Kalunda Manda, D. (1999). Educational expansion and economic decline: Returns to education in Kenya 1978-1995 (Working Paper 99.6). Retrieved January 23, 2001, from http://www.economics.ox.uk
5.
Association for the Development of Education in Africa. (2004). Challenging non-formal education: Where do we go from here. Retrieved November 29, 2004, from http://www.adeanet.org
6.
Ayittey, G. G. N. (1999). Africa in chaos. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
7.
Berry, S. (1993). Coping with confusion: African farmers’ responses to economic in stability in the 1970s and 1980s. In T. M. Callaghy & J. Ravenhill (Eds.), Hemmed in: Responses to Africa’s economic decline (pp. 248-278). New York: Columbia University Press.
8.
Bevan, D. L., Collier, P., & Gunning, J. (2000). The political economy of poverty: Equity and growth in Nigeria and Indonesia. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
9.
Boli, J., Ramirez, F. O., & Meyer, J. W. (1986). Explaining the origins and expansion of mass education. In P. G. Altbach & G. P. Kelly (Eds.), New approaches to comparative education (pp. 105-130). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
10.
Bratton, M., & van de Walle, N. (1997). Democratic experiments in Africa. Worcester, UK: Arnold.
11.
Caruso, R. (1996). Human resources as social capital. In K. Bradley (Ed.), Human resource management: People and performance (pp. 141-148). Dartmouth, UK: Aldershot.
12.
Cisse, M. (2001, September). Needs and wants of the informal sector and of small firms in terms of vocational skills and knowledge as seen in a developing country in Africa. Paper presented at the International Conference Linking Work, Skills, and Knowledge, Interlaken, Switzerland.
13.
Como, O. (1995). The increasing informality of African economies. The Courier, 151, 75-76.
14.
Coombs, P., & Ahmed, M. (1974). Attacking rural poverty. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
15.
Cornia, G. A. (1999). Policy reform and income inequality. Helsinki, Finland: WIDER.
16.
Darkoh, M. B. K. (1996). Sub-Saharan Africa in crisis and the need for a new domestic order. In Y. Yeung (Ed.), Global change and the Commonwealth (pp. 45-46). Hong Kong, China: Chinese University of Hong Kong.
17.
Datt, G., & Ravallion, M. (1998). Farm productivity and rural poverty in India. Journal of Development Studies, 34, 34-57.
18.
Daun, H. (2000). Primary education in sub-Saharan Africa—A moral issue, an economic matter, or both?Comparative Education, 36(1), 37-53.
19.
Davison, J., & Kanyuka, M. (1992). Girls’ participation in basic education in southern Malawi. Comparative Education Review, 36(4), 446-466.
20.
Delgado, C. (1998). Agricultural growth linkages in sub-Saharan Africa (Research Report 107). Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.
21.
deSoto, H. (2000). The mystery of capital: Why capitalism succeeds in the West and fails everywhere else. New York: Basic Books.
22.
Edwards, M., & Hulme, D. (1998). Too close for comfort? The impact of official aid on non-governmental organizations. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 1(1). Retrieved October 23, 2003, from http://www.tc.columbia.edu/cice/
23.
Fordham, P. E. (1993). Informal, non-formal and formal education programmes. Lifelong learning unit 2. London: YMCA George Williams College.
24.
Gifford, P. (1994). Some recent developments in African Christianity. African Affairs, 93, 520-533.
25.
Glewwe, P. (1999). The economics of school quality investments in developing countries: An empirical study of Ghana. London: Macmillan.
26.
Graham-Brown, S. (1991). Education in the developing world. White Plains, NY: Longman.
27.
Hanushek, E. (1995). Interpreting recent research on schooling in developing countries. The World Bank Research Observer, 10(2), 227-246.
28.
Hughes, R. (1991). Examining the roots of educational demand: The case of supporting rural agrarian development. World Development, 19(2-3), 213-223.
29.
Juma, C., & Ojwang, J. B. (1996). In land we trust: Environment, private property and constitutional change. London: Zed Books.
30.
Kishindo, P. (1993). The case for non-formal vocational education for out-of-school youths in Malawi. Development South Africa, 10(3), 393-400.
31.
Labaree, D. F. (1997). How to succeed in school without really trying: The credentials race in American education. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
32.
Lancaster, C. (1999). Aid to Africa: So much to do, so little done. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
33.
Levin, H., & Kelly, C. (1994). Can education do it alone?Economics of Education Review, 3, 97-108.
34.
Lewis, W. A. (1954). Economic development with unlimited supplies of labor. The Manchester School, 22, 13-46.
35.
Livingstone, I. (1995). Minimum wage policy, rural development and poverty alleviation in rural Malawi. Development and Change, 26, 729-751.
36.
Lloyd, C. B., & Blanc, A. K. (1996). Children’s schooling in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of fathers, mothers and others. Population and Development Review, 22(2), 265-298.
37.
Logan, B. I., & Beoku-Betts, J. A. (1996). Women and education in Africa: An analysis of economic and socio-cultural factors influencing observed trends. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 31(3-4), 217-239.
38.
Mackeracher, D. (2004). Making sense of adult learning (2nd ed.). Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
39.
Mayanja, M. K. (2002, April). Graduate employment: Investing in the service mandate of the African university. Paper presented at the Symposium on the African Universities in the 21st Century, Dakar, Senegal.
40.
Mbaku, J. M. (2000). Governance, wealth creation and development in Africa: The challenges and the prospects. Africa Studies Quarterly, 4(2), 1-18.
41.
McGivney, V., & Murray, F. (1991). Adult education in development. Leicester, UK: National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education.
42.
Michaelowa, K. (2000). Returns to education in low income countries, evidence for Africa. Retrieved October 15, 2003, from http://hwwa.de/projectsRes/RP
43.
Mkandawire, T., & Soludo, C. (2000). Our continent, our future: African perspectives on structural adjustment. Harare, Zimbabwe: Council for the Development of Social Research in Africa.
44.
Nga T, J. (2004). Is higher education a luxury for developing countries in Africa? An economic analysis. Higher Education in Africa. Retrieved October 28, 2004, from http://www.gwu.edu/iar/Joseph_NgaT.html
45.
Njeuma, D. L. (1998). An overview of women’s education in Africa. In J. Nwomonoh (Ed.), Education and development in Africa: A contemporary survey (pp. 93-102). Bethesda, MD: International Scholars Publications.
46.
Psacharopoulos, G. (1994). Returns to investment in education: A global update. World Development, 22, 67-89.
47.
Puplampu, K. P., & Tettey, W. J. (2000). State-NGO relations and globalization: The implications for agricultural development in Africa. Review of African Political Economy, 27(84), 251-272.
48.
Reardon, T., & Crawford, E. (1994). Links between non-farm income and farm investment in African households: Adding the capital market. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 76(5), 1172-1186.
49.
Riddell, R. C. (1990). Manufacturing in Africa: An overview. In R. C. Riddell (Ed.), Manufacturing Africa: Performance and prospects in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 30-45). London: James Curry.
50.
Riddell, R. C. (1993). The future of the manufacturing sector in sub-Saharan Africa. In T. M. Callaghy & J. Ravenhill (Eds.), Hemmed in: Responses to Africa’seconomic decline (pp. 215-247). New York: Columbia University Press.
51.
Sahn, D. E., & Sarris, A. (1994). The evolution of states, markets and civil institutions in rural Africa. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 32(2), 279-303.
52.
Schneider, F. (2002, July). Size and measurement of the informal economy in 110 countries around the world. Canberra: Australian National Tax Centre.
53.
Sivonin, S. (1995). White collar or hoe handle? African education under British colonial policy 1920- 1945. Helsinki, Finland: Suomen Historilinen Suera.
54.
Tripp, A. M. (2001). Non-formal institutions, informal economies, and the politics of inclusion (Discussion Paper No. 2001/108). Washington, DC: World Bank.
55.
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. (1972). Learning to be. Paris: Author.
56.
Weir, S. (1999). The effects of education on farm productivity in rural Ethiopia (Working Paper 99.7). Retrieved January 23, 2001, from http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/CSAworkingpapers/abstracts/9907abs.html
57.
Wiggins, S. (2000). Interpreting changes from the 1970s to the 1980s in African agriculture through village studies. World Development, 28(4), 631-662.
58.
Wolf, A. (2002). Does education matter? Myths about education and economic growth. London: Penguin.
59.
World Bank. (1998). African development indicators, 1998/99. Washington, DC: Author.
60.
Zeleza, T. (1996). The current agrarian crisis in Africa: Its history and future. Journal of Eastern African Research and Development, 16, 151-188.
