The Global Economic Crisis - Setbacks to the Educational Agenda for the Minority in Sub-Saharan Africa - Impact and policy responses

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo

The paper examines how the Global Economic Crisis disrupts education programs serving minority groups in Sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting vulnerability among nomadic and pastoralist communities, slum dwellers, children in war zones, and women. It reviews interventions including mobile schooling, dual shift learning, scholarships, and distance learning, then argues economic constraints will limit progress toward Education For All and MDGs by 2015. It further proposes policy measures to protect these groups and reduce harm to the education sector.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Challenges to Educational Inclusiveness

School feeding programs

Shift learning dilemma

The Global Economic Crisis: Setbacks to the Educational Agenda for the Minority in Sub-Saharan Africa Moses Shiasha Ingubu Moi University This paper captures the impact of the Global Economic Crisis on educational programs serving minority groups in developing countries. It has been established that the most vulnerable groupings include nomadic and pastoralist communities, slum dwellers, children in war zones, and women. Various educational interventions such as mobile schooling, dual shift learning, scholarships, and distance learning have been utilized to mitigate the aggravations these groups experience in an effort to catch up on education. However, this paper predicts that these programs will encounter economic obstacles thereby countering the key efforts of ensuring Education For All by 2015 in developing countries. Finally, the paper proposes policy interventions to help in shielding the vulnerable groups from the harms that the economic crisis will visit on the education sector. Whereas all Education educational efforts and energies are combined to meet the split demands of For All (EFA) by 2015 and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in general, a new dimension of the imminent frustration of these efforts is quickly taking shape: the Global Economic Crisis. It has been estimated that on the global front, the effects of the Economic Crisis have used up funds in the excess of $14.5 trillion, translated as 33 percent of the worth of the world’s companies (Pittman & Ivry, 2009) . Yet this is only in the developed world. The global crisis has typically been approached from a narrowly economic view, leaving educators and policy analysts the task of ascertaining the enormity of the effects of the crisis on the educational programs both in developed and the developing countries. Of particular interest to educators is the magnitude of the crisis on educational programs serving minority or disenfranchised groups in Sub-Saharan Africa. Challenges to Educational Inclusiveness The challenge of school feeding programs In an effort to attain EFA goals, governments, in collaboration with donor funding agencies (especially WFP), set up programs to cater for the provision of a midday meal at school. Pupils commonly refer to these as school feeding programs, such as those arranged by Undugu society for pupils from Nairobi slums in Kenya (Ouma, 2004) and by WFP in schools located in deprived regions (Nzomo et al., 2001) . Studies show that school feeding programs have remarkable positive effects on both access and retention of learners, especially in arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) and for nomadic families (Caillods et al., 2009; Kazianga et al., 2009; Lewis and Lockheed, 2008; Giffard-Lindsay, K, 2008; World Bank, 2008b) . Given that households in such regions are already disenfranchised economically, the ability of such families to sustain themselves is almost nonexistent; thus there is over reliance on donor agencies, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the government for rations to realize the efforts of school feeding (Nzomo et al., 2001). Yet these agencies and the government in particular rely heavily on funds from the wealthy nations both in the form of taxes from citizens and donations from philanthropists. © 2010 Current Issues in Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Current Issues in Comparative Education, Vol. 12(2): 21-30 M. S. Ingubu With the aftershocks of the economic crisis still raw, it is apparent that funds to be channelled to ASALs and nomadic regions to sustain the feeding programs will be limited due to cuts in funds from both government agencies and private companies. Consequently, less funding will have the dual effect of locking out and driving away millions of children from school. Worse still, following closely on the ravaging trail of the global economic crisis is the food crisis and drought that have left many nomadic families fac

FAQs

Which minority groups are most affected by the crisis in the paper?

The paper identifies nomadic and pastoralist communities, slum dwellers, children in war zones, and women as especially vulnerable.

What education interventions does the paper discuss to address exclusion?

It discusses mobile schooling, dual shift learning, scholarships, and distance learning as measures used to help groups catch up in education.

Why does the paper argue that these programs may fail during the economic crisis?

It predicts economic obstacles such as funding cuts that will reduce support for vulnerable regions and limit access and retention, undermining Education For All and MDGs.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo