Botswana sets Good Example for Education in Africa

Eric Cressey / 4-25-08 3:35pm / Education

http://allafrica.com/stories/200804250230.html

While most of the semester I have focused on the improvements that African nations are being urged to make by UNICEF and other international organizations, I ran across this article about the success of Botswana's education and how it is being held up as an example to other African nations of a successful program and I thought that it would be a great addition to the collection of articles I already have. Although the article itself is kind of short, it is packed with good information.

Botswana has an emphasis on educating its citizens that many other African nations do not share. Those from Botswana are citing their successful educational program as telling proof that the increased amount of money the country put into its education was not wasted and in fact was valuable for building the country up. Botswana remains as one of the few African nations with high literacy rates. A professor at a university in Botswana stressed the importance of Botswana using its graduates in businesses in their home country rather than looking outside for potential workers.

I liked this article because I think it is a nice contrast to the other articles I've blogged about that detail how miserable the education is in Africa and chronicle the efforts of UNICEF to make things better. It was nice finding proof that the African nations who are putting money into education are reaping benefits and are glad that they did so.