Shadow Education in Africa: Private Supplementary Tutoring and its Policy Implications
by Mark Bray, Hong Kong, Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong (in collaboration with Centre for International Research in Supplementary Tutoring [CIRIST], East China Normal University), 2021, 91 pp., US$16 or free download, ISBN 978-988-14241-9-8, https://cerc.edu.hku.hk/books/shadow-education-in-africa-private-supplementary-tutoring-and-its-policy-implications/
Reviewed By Madison Collins mc4925@tc.columbia.edu
Introduction
Mark Bray’s book (2021), Shadow Education in Africa: Private Supplementary Tutoring and its Policy Implications, is the first of its kind as it addresses a topic not often looked at in the region. Most often researched in Asia, a comprehensive look at shadow education in Africa is unique (Bray, 2021, p.viii). Shadow education is a term coined by the author to describe for-profit supplementary tutoring, a topic he has researched extensively (1999; 2003; 2009; 2010; 2017). On a continent where educational development has taken many forms, Bray draws attention to the educational opportunities privileged students in Africa have access to through for-profit tutoring, or shadow education. His analysis draws on the same aspects of African education that pose challenges to educational development in general, such as an unqualified teaching force, unsatisfactory compensation for teachers, assessments, and the rural and urban divide among student achievement. Bray’s book is a warning for what could become of African education with increased shadow education, and a guide on how to combat it with policy recommendations that expand the best practices found already in place in some countries.
The author’s vast scope of all 54 countries in Africa is bold, yet unrealized as only a few countries are found to have significant data to quantify shadow education in the region. However, this scope does provide comparison through what data was found. By comparing the quantity and quality of data for Egypt to that of Burkina Faso or Ethiopia, it is clear some regions on the continent are ahead of others as it relates to considerations of shadow education. To this point, without any uniform procedure for data collection across the continent, the data is scattered, coming from various sources. The data is difficult to compare across countries and regions in Africa as it comes from various studies with differing years, populations and scopes of study. This lack of uniform data is a finding in itself as it highlights a gap and first step toward addressing shadow education in Africa. Although the data is not strong, Bray has made it clear it is not too early to consider shadow education and its effects on the continent of Africa. He has found quantitative and qualitative evidence to show it is present in the region and widening the gap between public and private education.
The chapters of the book are utilized well to organize the information presented by the author as well as lead up to the recommendations he has made for the continent. The first chapter “Introduction” presents shadow education as it relates to the dynamics in the African region. The following chapter “Scope, Definitions and Contexts” could be a useful resource for the reader as they navigate the book by contextualizing all the various meanings of shadow education in the various countries in Africa. Unfortunately, this chanter highlights the differences among countries on the continent creating an unmanageable understanding of shadow education for the rest of the book. The third and fourth chapters, “Mapping the Landscape” and “Demand and Supply” are detailed later in this review. These chapters house the data to support Bray’s argument for increased consideration of shadow education in the African region by identifying its presence and the role of teachers within this increasing dynamic of privatized supplemental education. The fifth chapter, “The Impact of Shadow Education '' illustrates the need for a response to shadow education in Africa through its effects already seen in three areas; academic achievement, ethics and social values, and efficiencies and inefficiencies in the education system (Bray, 2021, p. 40). Bray’s second to last chapter, “Implications for Policy Makers” highlights just that and is detailed later in this review. The author summarizes his findings in the final chapter, “Conclusions” framed as a wake-up call to Africans to identify and address the shadow education happening in their countries.
Supply and Demand: Teachers
Africa’s development has been compared to Asia’s, with Asia as the success story and Africa as the failure (Noman and Stiglitz, 2012). Universal standards for educational development such as the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) presented by the United Nations and the predecessor Education For All (EFA) initiatives create an uneven playing field for the various contexts around the world to achieve simultaneously. Bray argues that these goals have led to an acceleration of shadow education as the result of an increased push for universal access to quality education. Shadow education, through the private sector, can bridge some of the financial gaps and alleviate the overbearing responsibilities of teachers that are created by these global goals.
Many factors, such as the current stage of African educational development, the challenges present across the region, and influence from international actors, combine and contribute to a supply and demand situation in favor of shadow education as a commercial good to increase the competitiveness of schooling on the continent. Bray highlights the commodity of education as a “positional good” (Bray, 2021, p.67). Children’s education is an indication of a families’ ability and willingness to afford additional resources like tutoring.
The economic impact of shadow education becomes clear through the incentives of teachers and families to contribute to this supply and demand. Teachers feel (or claim) that they are unable to teach the entirety of the curriculum during official school hours, and at the same time are underpaid; while parents want their children to get the best quality education they can. Evidence compiled by Bray illuminates this dynamic, leading to an increase in tutoring by teachers after class time exclusively for students able to pay extra money (Bray, 2021, p.11). Parents are willing to endure these costs to provide proper preparation for the national assessments that determine students’ success in education (Bray, 2021, p.7). The burden of global educational standards and families’ need for educated children is left to the teachers by completing the curriculum, providing quality teaching, and supporting individual students’ educational needs. These challenges are often witnessed by those working in African educational development contexts, but Bray’s book identifies these challenges in a unique way as contributing to shadow education. This new view of these challenges should result in increased pressure on organizations and governments to address the challenges at the source.
The Data
Through the use of tables the data is contextualized with details such as the source, year, population, etc. This presentation of data is necessary given the vast differences in data collection and analysis sourced for this study. Unfortunately this also makes it overwhelming for the reader, difficult to compare and hard to understand the meaning of the data. Of the 54 countries included in this study of Africa, only 25 countries are presented in Table 1 which highlights “selected cross-national indicators of shadow education” (Bray, 2021, p. 13). Of these 25 countries the author digs deeper to identify differences within groups of countries such as Arabic-speaking North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa as well as by Francophone, Anglophone and Lusophone (Bray, 2021, p.11). Bray identifies challenges in gathering data from every country in Africa, such as restricted access or the lack of existence of data on this topic for some countries. With less than half of the countries on the continent represented, making generalizations about the entire continent would be unfair and inaccurate. Therefore the author’s approach to present each country individually with the data available through tables helps to contextualize the similarities and differences across the region.
Bray expands his analysis into various areas such as the business sector, as some tutoring is done through centers which contribute to the business sector of development for a country. By examining various elements of shadow education such as in rural versus urban settings, the business climate in various African countries and perceptions of tutoring, Bray is truly “mapping the landscape” as he has titled the chapter in which much of this data is held (2021, p. 13). This comprehensive overview of the data -what little is available- provides an excellent resource for addressing the shadow education situation in the African region. Therefore, after presenting the case of African shadow education, Bray provides policy recommendations to prevent the recurrence of many of the harmful effects of shadow education seen in other parts of the world.
Recommendations
From the data presented in the book it is clear that there is shadow education happening on the continent and that only some students and teachers are benefitting from these practices. Bray outlines what steps governments can take now to prevent a total loss of control of education to the private sector through increased shadow education. The recommendations are categorized into four areas; “securing data and monitoring trends”, “reforming assessment selection and curriculum”, “devising and implementing regulations”, and “developing partnerships”(Bray, 2021, pp. 50-63).
The first section identifies the critiques made in this review that the author assembled a “jigsaw puzzle” of data, but with many missing pieces (see also Bray, 2010, p.3). He notes this as a commonality with shadow education research in general (Bray, 2021, p. 50). Bray addresses the need for a common yardstick to allow for comparison across countries when analyzing the case of Africa in regard to shadow education. Meeting this need should be viewed as furthering the research started through this book and Bray’s other works (1999; 2003; 2009; 2010; 2017) and closing a gap made obvious through Bray’s findings in this book.
The remaining recommendations are accurate and needed, but they are impractical for the scope of this book. With the scope of this analysis as the entire continent, it should be assumed these are policy recommendations for the entire continent as well. How can assessment and curriculum reform be enacted across the African continent while maintaining individuality and diversity among countries? Similarly, how can the same regulations be implemented across the continent while still allowing for economic competition in the region? The author should have spelled out specific recommendations for the various levels of shadow education present in some countries. He assumes all the countries in Africa will eventually succumb to shadow education so therefore these recommendations should be employed across the continent to address and prevent its expansion or presence. Bray does, however, describe practices already used on the continent by some countries to combat the negative effects of shadow education (2021, p. 59). By highlighting current best practices developed by those on the continent a foundation for further recommendations is built. Finally the recommendation of partnerships regarding shadow education draws attention to shadow education for partners already established on the continent and can allow for more effective responses.
Conclusion
The book Shadow Education in Africa: Private Supplementary Tutoring and its Policy Implications by Mark Bray examines a new concern for educational development in the African region. His recommendations for expanded data collection specific to shadow education and across the continent is well warranted and should be put into action. With the data being scattered in this study, the first action of researchers reading this book is to organize a streamlined approach to data collection regarding shadow education in Africa across, and including all, the countries and contexts present on the continent. This can be done through the partnerships presented in Bray’s recommendations, through the international bodies creating the situation in which shadow education is increasing on the continent or national household surveys in which shadow education is considered. This book begins the conversations surrounding shadow education in the African region and provides a foundation for expansion through its open access to the public via online download.
References
Bray, Mark (1999): The Shadow Education System: Private Tutoring and its Implications for Planners. Fundamentals of Educational Planning 61, Paris: UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). http://www.iiep.unesco.org/en/publication/shadow-education-system-private-tutoring-and-its-implications-planners
Bray, Mark (2003): Adverse Effects of Supplementary Private Tutoring: Dimensions, Implications, and Government Responses. Series: ‘Ethics and Corruption in Education’. Paris: UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). https://etico.iiep.unesco.org/en/adverse-effects-Private-supplementary-tutoring-dimensions-implications-and-government-responses
Bray, Mark (2009): Confronting the Shadow Education System: What Government Policies for What Private Tutoring? Paris: UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). http://www.iiep.unesco.org/en/confronting-shadow-education-system-what-government-policies-what-private-tutoring-12159
Bray, Mark (2010): ‘Researching Shadow Education: Methodological Challenges and Directions’, Asia Pacific Education Review, Vol.11, No.1, pp.3-13.
Bray, Mark (2017): ‘Schooling and its Supplements: Changing Global Patterns and Implications for Comparative Education’. Comparative Education Review, Vol.62, No.3, pp.469-491. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/692709
Bray, Mark (2021). Shadow education in Africa: Private supplementary tutoring and its policy implications. Comparative Education Research Centre, Univ of Hong Kong. https://cerc.edu.hku.hk/books/shadow-education-in-africa-private-supplementary-tutoring-and-its-policy-implications/
Noman, A., & Stiglitz, J. E. (2012). Strategies for African development. Good growth and governance in Africa: Rethinking development strategies, Oxford University Press. 3-50.