Education Access and "Learning Poverty" in Seven Southern African Countries

Against the backdrop of the shift in emphasis from the MDGs, with the educational focus on access, to the SDGs with the focus on educational outcomes and equity, this chapter discusses some education issues and policy responses in seven southern African countries. These countries—South Africa and its six neighbours—cover a wide economic development range: Mozambique is a low-income country, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Eswatini lower-middle income, and Namibia, South Africa and Botswana upper-middle income countries. Examples from these countries show little evidence that the focus in policy debates and practice has shifted to the educational goals formulated and propagated by the international community. This may well also be the case in many other developing countries. The continued focus on broadening access needs to be supplemented with steps to reduce “learning poverty”.