To observers of the African socioeconomic landscape, the voracious appetite
of African countries for formal education in the past twenty-one years is a
unique, but puzzling, spectacle. In their determination to make up for decades
of the Rip Van Winkle affliction visited on their hapless continent by British,
French, Portuguese, and Belgian colonial rulers – for whom the education of the
African was not a priority – independent African states have been devouring
Western education with a speed and gusto that makes no allowance for its
healthful digestion in relation to society’s social and economic well-being. Over
the years, education has gobbled up between 10 and 30 percent of national
budgets, the unit cost of primary education in some countries being equivalent
to the per capita income!