This book is a comprehensive text for those interested in formal education in sub-Saharan Africa. It provides a thought-provoking overview of the key educational ideas, themes and issues facing schooling in Africa today, by drawing on a wide literature to examine evidence concerning both educational policy and the working realities of primary and secondary schools in Africa. Based on the author¿s forty years of experience in researching and publishing on education in Africa, it takes a balanced but critical approach to analysing education in Africa, and discusses both positive and negative patterns across the region, as well as identifying differences between and within countries. The book examines major questions of educational provision, structure, content and process but does so in a way that raises challenging questions about gender, inequality, violence, authoritarianism and democracy in education as well the fundamental question of whether education is achieving its desired outcomes. It will be of great interest to students and researchers working in the fields of comparative and international education, education and international development, African education, African studies and development studies.

Chapter 1. Goals for Education.- Chapter 2. Educational Policy in Africa.- Chapter 3. Who Goes to School in Africa?.- Chapter 4. Human and Material Resources: Teachers, Finance and Physical Resources.- Chapter 5. Teacher Education.- Chapter 6. Curriculum and Assessment.- Chapter 7. Classroom Teaching Methods.- Chapter 8. Educational Management, Decentralisation and Privatisation.- Chapter 9. Violence in Schools.- Chapter 10. Special Educational Needs and Inclusion.- Chapter 11. Educational Outcomes.- Chapter 12. Contextual Differences in Schooling: Three Country Case Studies.- Chapter 13. Conclusion: Educational Patterns in Africa.

Clive Harber is Emeritus Professor of International Education at the University of Birmingham, UK, and was previously Head of the School of Education at the then University of Natal, now KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. He has carried out research in many different African countries and has published widely on education in Africa and on education and development.