Getting textbooks to every child in Sub-Saharan Africa : strategies for addressing the high cost and low availability problem

Abstract: Reports that data on textbook availability in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain patchy and often difficult to compare across countries. Even when textbooks physically exist in a school, they may not prove available for students to use. A 2008 survey of 19 SSA countries found (1) all but one country suffered from severe textbook shortages, (2) availability proved best for language and math, but very poor in noncore subjects; and (3) availability proved much worse in rural areas. The much higher growth in domestic and external education funding since 2000 has eased some public budget constraints on textbook provision, but this shift has also facilitated a strong (and welcomed) increase in enrollments and, thus, a sharp increase in the need for textbooks. To both cater to this rapid enrollment increase and to remedy the past low book provision necessitated a sharp increase in textbook provision, but most SSA countries did not respond adequately. (World Bank)