Getting Textbooks to Every Child in Sub-Saharan Africa: Strategies for Addressing the High Cost and Low Availability Problem

Abstract

Even as African countries work toward achieving better learning outcomes for children through systemic reform, the affordability and availability of textbooks remains a persistent challenge across the continent. Although development partners, including the World Bank Group, have provided extensive technical support and funding for textbooks, shortages continue to hamper learning. While textbooks are not the only factor influencing student learning outcomes, their unavailability deprives students of an additional learning resource and of the opportunity to develop good reading habits. The lack of textbooks also deprives teachers of much-needed teaching support. The scale of the problem is worsened because of rapid student population growth. The supply of textbooks is simply unable to keep up with demand, and costs can be prohibitive for low-income families. This study aims to generate discussion among policy makers, development partners, and other stakeholders in Africa on the policy options that can help reduce textbook costs and increase their supply. It explores, in depth, the cost and financial barriers that restrict textbook availability in schools across much of the region. It also examines policies adopted in India, the Philippines, and Vietnam that have helped these countries make textbooks affordable and available for all children. Finally, the study provides a thorough assessment of the pros and cons of digital teaching and learning materials and cautions against the assumption that they can immediately replace printed textbooks. On a personal basis, as secretary of education of Rio de Janeiro, I found it helpful to have both: textbooks and digital classes, including online reading materials, such as e-books. The breadth of information and analysis in the study is both practical and relevant, because there is no quick fix to the mounting problem of textbook scarcity. To achieve the goal of each child having access to textbooks, countries need to make well-informed policy choices within the prevailing country context. These choices then need to be supported by a time-bound action plan for methodical capacity building within national education systems as well as by strategic partnerships with the private sector to ensure that the teaching and learning materials are designed to support student learning and can be produced at costs that make them widely available. While good policies can ensure sustained funding and improved efficiency and reverse the damage done by decades x

A Collaborative Approach to OER Policy and Guidelines Development in the Commonwealth: The Case of Botswana, Cameroon, and Sri Lanka

“…According to UNESCO, Botswana is the only country in Sub-Saharan Africa to have adequate provision of textbooks close to a 1:1 ratio for all subjects and all secondary grades (UNESCO, 2016). However, the average cost for a set of textbooks from grades 9 to 11 is USD 99.60 and the government needs a budget equivalent to 1.8% of the Gross National Product (GNP) to maintain this level of access (Fredriksen, Brar, & Trucano, 2015). Given this scenario, adopting OER would enable students and teachers to access a larger pool of quality resources for use as supplementary content to prescribed textbooks.…”

“…Efforts to supply schools in Cameroon with textbooks and course books are constantly challenged with the recurrent economic downturn due to the falling prices of raw materials in the world market. A 2015 World Bank report shows that the average course book-to-learner ratio in Cameroon is 1:12 (Fredriksen et al, 2015). Disparities are greater in the three northern regions of Cameroon where accessibility to some areas over the last three years has been jeopardized by terrorist attacks.…”

“…Disparities are greater in the three northern regions of Cameroon where accessibility to some areas over the last three years has been jeopardized by terrorist attacks. Only 11% of learners in these areas have access to at least one textbook, while 17% of classrooms operate without a (Fredriksen et al, 2015) also noted that the price of course books is very high and undoubtedly hinders a vast majority of parents from purchasing textbooks for their children.…”

“…However, Fredriksen, Brar, and Trucano (2015) highlight that many developing countries do not have the resources to provide sufficient access to learning materials in the general education sector.…”

Re-Kindling Learning: eReaders in Lagos

“…The first of these two mechanisms can help compensate for the inadequate or poor quality of school inputs. This might be especially crucial in developing country contexts where textbook shortages remain acute (Fredriksen, Brar, and Trucano 2015), 3 teacher knowledge and/or effort are far from optimal (Bold et al 2017) or text book materials and/or instruction is too advanced for most pupils (Glewwe, Kremer, and Moulin 2009;Banerjee et al 2007;Beatty and Pritchett 2012).…”