Effective Schools for Sub-Saharan Africa

After a brief review of the literature on the effectiveness of schools, the presentation focuses on the characteristics of effective schools in Africa. Citing Ward Heneveld's study based on experiences in Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda, this summary sets out the problems involved in making African schools more effective, emphasizing the central importance of teachers and of the process at work at the local level. However, the impact of these factors is over-determined by institutional factors, in which the management and leadership of schools systems, and of individual schools, play a crucial role. The content and language of instruction, factors often neglected by studies of effective schools, are also invoked, as are decentralization and community participation.