Investing in the people? Analysis of education policies in Angola

With the increasing demand for more attention to the people rather than structures to enhance citizen-oriented policy reforms and development in all sectors, most African countries have developed comprehensive and locally driven National Development Strategies (NDS). This has been mainly in response to the perpetual economic, social, and social-political hindrances. Although this is not a new trend, most governments in Africa are hardly doing enough to invest in their people, primarily through improved universal healthcare and education services or when it comes to mobilizing the economic and professional potentials of their population. According to a 2019 World Bank report, three in ten fourth-grade teachers in Africa had hardly mastered the language of the curriculum they were teaching (World Bank 2019, p. 55). The same picture is painted regarding the personnel capacities in health and other critical sectors for human capital development and social protection policies across Africa. The challenge, argues the report, mainly lies with misspending by most governments like “spending more on the politically visible aspects of human capital such as constructing schools and hospitals but much less on intangible aspects—such as the quality and competence of teachers and health workers” (World Bank 2019, p. 54). The clarity of policy outputs or objectives for sectors such as health and education has also been frustrated by political campaigns that give little attention to actual learning levels or stunting rates in the education and related sectors.

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Published in: Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in Africa
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
See article on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003143840-41