Higher Education in Africa. Crises, Reforms and Transformation

Chapter Four - Waves of Reforms and Recent Innovations

Chapter Four Waves of Reforms and Recent Innovations In part because of the lack of higher education commensurate to the needs articulated by Africans during the colonial era, in post-colonial Africa the emphasis was on increasing supply at all levels, especially higher education. However , early on there was a quest for change, in addition to the simple increase in enrolment. Reforms and innovations have been the major forms of change that have been articulated, formulated, and in some cases implemented, from the 1960s to the present. Following the first wave of post-colonial reforms that were either halted or rendered ineffective by the crises that started in the 1970s, new planned changes were undertaken in African higher education. Before discussing the specific types of reforms and innovations that have taken place, some general and conceptual elements of change are addressed. Conceptualising Educational Change Both reform and innovation are components of the larger set of planned changes. To appropriately address their applications and concrete cases in African higher education, it is useful to recall some of the basic distinctions between the types of reform and innovation that the educational process in Africa has involved. Reforms and innovations have common characteristics as well as differences. All reforms are planned and although most innovations are also planned, some innovations are the result of a fortuitous discovery or of the cumulative effect of minor and non-systematised modifications of various aspects of the education process. Reforms apply to the entire system of education or at least a subsystem, while innovations concern specific elements of the system, such as aspects of the curriculum, textbooks, and method or technology of delivery. According to Altbach (1982:5), the difference is one of scale: Higher Education in Africa: Crises, Reforms, and Transformation 94 University reform and innovation are processes related to planned change in higher education. The term reform usually applies to change of a basic nature: smaller alterations in the curriculum or in the means of instruction are more properly called innovations. It has been argued (Assié-Lumumba 2000) that reform of any social system is planned change that is designed according to an articulated programme with the purpose of promoting new functions and mechanisms of improvement to transform the structure of the system. A fundamental rationale for undertaking a reform or a planned innovation is the assumption or fact that the existing system is unable to achieve previously targeted objectives or is inadequate to advance or support new objectives. The probability of the implementation of reform and planned innovation is influenced by the ‘level of congruence or incongruence between the system of education embodied within the proposed reform and the structure of the social formation significantly’ (Assié-Lumumba 2000:92). Furthermore, it was found in another study (Assié-Lumumba and Lumumba-Kasongo 1991) that, although factors such as monetary resources are important, a reform that clashes with the political system is not likely to be implemented. Indeed, implementation of educational reform is a political, not a technical, matter. Carnoy (1976) argues that historical facts prove that educational reforms are an efficient device that contributes to ‘preserving social order’ and ‘maintaining an inequitable class structure’ rather than fostering equality, even when the agents that initiate reforms genuinely intend to promote positive change. The privileged groups in society can in fact use reform as a direct mechanism of preserving their privileges. This has been the main point articulated by Bourdieu and Passeron (1979) when they argue that the educational system cannot be expected to change social inequality as students enter and exit the system of education according to the social structure and their location in it. Bray et al. (1986) also argue that in Africa, while reforms may be wrapped in progressive language and contain stated objectives of promoting a more egalitarian system, in reality they are: … often resisted by influential sectors of society, for while changes may be very desirable for the majority, they are usually to the detriment of a minority. In this case, we must realize that governments are composed of individuals who are themselves members of a social élite... Indeed, in some cases, socalled reforms are no more than ways in which the élite increase their power rather than the opposite. The stakeholders in African education include, as anywhere else in the world, all the national and local interest groups: students, families, decision-makers, Waves of Reforms and Recent Innovations 95...