Beating the Odds
Providing Education for Women and Girls in Africa
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And there are other problems: many children can’t go to school simply because their parents cannot afford to send them. The situation has been exacerbated by “structural adjustment programs” aimed at reducing loan payments that the governments of sub-Saharan African nations, faced by mounting international debt, began instituting in the mid-1970s; these programs included severe cuts in spending on social service supports in areas such as health and education. Countries began to introduce “cost-sharing” schemes that called for parents to bear much of the financial burden of their children’s education. The rising costs of civil wars and military actions also drained national budgets, leaving little to spend on providing educational opportunities for young children.

In most countries, university education used to be free. Across the continent, admission to public universities was based on highly competitive test scores, but the various educational systems did allow for even those from the poorest families to attend institutions of higher education. Today, however, while at many government-sponsored universities tuition remains free, students must pay for others costs—school fees, books and other materials as well as, increasingly, Internet access—which many families cannot afford, even with government loan programs that have been recently introduced.

Commenting on this dilemma, Narciso Matos, Chair of the Corporation’s International Development Program says, “African governments and societies face very difficult choices: as demand for higher education increases, access falls ever shorter because of a lack of resources. Yet at the same time, there’s general recognition that poverty cannot be alleviated and socioeconomic progress stimulated without an educated population, including a cadre of university-trained women and men.” He goes on to say, “What this means for public universities is that to regain academic quality and social relevance, it seems that there is no alternative to students and parents sharing the costs of education with government.”

It is perhaps ironic, then, that the problems facing public universities such as Makerere and Dar es Salaam are creating opportunities for private universities, which are beginning to be viewed as offering a viable alternative for higher education in ways that they previously were not—at least for those who can afford the fees. Despite the high cost, many are finding ways to take advantage of this new educational opportunity. “I think parents choose us because of the problems at government schools—the overcrowding, the teaching quality, the frequent strikes and general concerns about campus security,” says Frieda Brown, vice chancellor at the United States International University in Nairobi, which is one of the fastest growing private universities in Kenya. “In the past,” she explains, “private universities had a negative image because public universities attracted all the top students. But that’s starting to change.” Taking note of the trend, the Ford Foundation is conducting a study on the growth of private universities in Kenya.

How will public universities fare in this increasingly competitive environment? One answer comes from Consolata Kabonesa of the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University. “The real challenge is for us to continue to build on the progress we’ve made,” she says. “It’s not enough to just increase women’s enrollment. We now have to address issues of retention and also make sure that women can afford to come here.” In July of 2001, with help from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the university launched its first-ever scholarship program for undergraduate women. “With this program,” says Kabonesa, “we hope to bring in about 50 new female students a year.”

Those women who do find a way to continue their education at the university level may find, like Barabara Wakooli, that it has made all the difference in their lives. Wakooli, who comes from a large, extended and polygamous family, defied her mother’s wishes that she submit to an arranged marriage at 15. Instead, she battled to continue her schooling. “For a long time,” she says, “my mother would not let me sleep at home because she said I would be a negative influence on the other children because of my disobedience. But my mother is now very proud of me.” And she reports that her younger sister is also attending secondary school. As for her future, she says, “I see myself becoming a philosopher and perhaps teaching at the university level. I’d also like to write about human rights, particularly addressing women’s rights in society.”

Wakooli is representative of many of her fellow students at Makerere and of those in the Pre-Entry Program for women at the University of Dar es Salaam. For them and other women like them who are blazing this new path, the opportunities that education has opened up cannot be underestimated. Many in the Pre-Entry Program plan to become science teachers. Their success has become a source of pride for their families. And when they complete their studies, each will be the first person in her family to have ever attended and graduated from a university.

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