Several African countries have abolished secondary school fees in recent years, but there isn’t much evidence on the effectiveness of these initiatives. As of March 2024, 22 out of 47 countries offer fee-free education at the lower secondary level, and 14 at the upper secondary level. Only one country reversed its Free Secondary Education (FSE) policy: Botswana reintroduced fees in 2006. Free Secondary Education (FSE) policies have experienced rapid growth in sub-Saharan Africa, with more than 20 countries abolishing fees for secondary education in the last two decades.
FSE policies have allowed more children, especially those from lower-income backgrounds, to continue their education. Moreover, it has relieved low-income households from the financial burden of paying school fees, enabling them to divert spending to other basic needs. However, enabling free and universal access up to the upper secondary level is estimated to require an additional USD 39 billion per year until 2030. Added to this is the cost of building and staffing new schools, or expanding existing ones, to absorb the expected increase in enrolment. As a result, the cost of free and universal secondary education is very high. The question therefore needs to be asked, is free secondary education sustainable in Africa?
Seven African countries have implemented free secondary education recently, following the trend set by three African Countries in previous years. Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Zambia have all announced free secondary education policies in the last five years. Rwanda and Kenya were early trendsetters in this regard. The last to join free secondary education is South Sudan in February 2023.
Gambia introduced free upper secondary education in 2015, Namibia and Tanzania in 2016, Ghana in 2017, Malawi and Sierra Leone in 2019, Zambia in 2022, and South Sudan in 2023. There thus appears to be a strong momentum towards free education at the lower as well as at the upper secondary level. These ten countries have already achieved free primary education with countries such as South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana having achieved close to universal (>90%) primary school completion.
Most FSE policies do not cover the cost of essential non-fee expenses such as textbooks, school uniforms, meals, transportation, personal hygiene, and boarding. As a result, even nominally ‘free’ secondary education might not be affordable for low-income households. Fee abolition can also lead to overcrowding and lower achievement in schools unless accompanied by adequate school grants to compensate for lost fee income as well as investments in new facilities.
The 10 countries that offer free secondary education in Africa are:
- Kenya
- Rwanda
- Gambia
- Namibia
- Tanzania
- Ghana
- Sierra Leone
- Malawi
- Zambia
- South Sudan
- Kenya
In 2017, Kenya’s education system was rated as the strongest among other forty-three mainland countries on the African continent by the World Economic Forum. In the following year 2018, the World Bank also ranked Kenya as the top African country for education outcomes. The government currently offers universal free primary education (FPE) since 2003 and subsidises secondary education in day schools. Kenya has achieved close to universal (>90%) primary school completion.
Currently, secondary school students learn for four years starting from around the age of fourteen. Free secondary education policy was introduced in 2008 ostensibly to make secondary school education affordable. The policy aimed to enhance access, transition, and student academic performance. Secondary school education especially in public schools is subsidized by the government, with the government paying tuition fees for students attending public secondary school.
Parents are required to pay boarding fees applicable to different categories of schools and locations. For example, boarding school fees for National Schools in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu, Nyeri, Thika, and Eldoret (Category A schools) are required to pay Sh45,000 from parents and the government will pay Sh22,244 (capitation), which leads to a total of Sh67, 244. Parents are also responsible for providing textbooks, uniforms, transportation, and food for their wards.
Day secondary school education is free as the government pays about Sh22,244 which covers a lot including tuition and medical insurance. This policy may not last due to financial challenges. In 2023, Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said the Sh65.4 allocated in the financial year starting July to cater for the 3.93 million students can only take care of 2.93 million learners. Nearly one million learners risk being locked out of free secondary education in 2024 following this budget shortfall.
Additionally, Kenya’s FSE policy, which covered only part of the cost of secondary education, consumed 1.9% of its national budget, almost double that of its free primary education policy.
2. Rwanda
When you think of a country like Rwanda, what comes to mind? A country riddled with political instability? You are right. Rwanda is well known for how the nation’s ethnic Hutu majority massacred an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis, as well as political opponents, in one of the world’s most horrific genocides since World War II.
It is worth noting however that Rwanda has come a long way from then. Kigali is one of the cleanest and safest cities in Africa and has become a technology hub. Although Rwanda is a least developed country, it is also one of the trendsetters when it comes to free secondary education in Africa. Previously in 2003, fees for primary education were abolished as a result, Rwanda has one of the highest elementary school enrolment rates on the continent.
In 2008, the government of Rwanda made history when it signed a new law providing tuition-free secondary education for all high school students in Rwanda. When the Government signed this new law, communities, and parents complemented government efforts by uniting to build new classrooms and schools. This resulted in the construction of over 3,150 new classrooms in just six months, exponentially increasing the amount of infrastructure to support the new policy.
It should be noted that what is termed tuition-free education in Rwanda isn’t truly free. Parents have to pay for items like parent-teacher association (PTA) contributions, mock exam fees, purchasing reams of paper for the school, passport photos for exams, registration fees, and school reports, among others.
Will this program last? As of the 2023 academic year, the Minister of Education announced that although education is free secondary school students will pay Rwf19,500 ($20) for day scholars and Rwf85,000 ($85) for boarding. Is this truly free?
3. The Gambia
The Gambia introduced free education in stages, starting with primary school in 2013, lower secondary school in 2014, and upper secondary school in 2015. The education system in Zambia is three years junior secondary (grades 7-9) and three years senior secondary (grades (10-12). The literacy rate in the Gambia is 63.9% for males and 47.6% for females.
In the free education policy in The Gambia, the government took over the payment of all levies from parents. The government pays school fees for every child and pays for the books and other levies that parents used to pay. This policy is not all-inclusive however as the fees paid by the government do not include uniforms, exercise books, and other stationery. These are to be bought by parents themselves. The problem is that a lack of resources has led to poor quality of education in The Gambia.
Gambia’s FSE policy, which eliminated fees for girls, led to a 5 percentage-point increase in girls’ enrolment rates and a 0.2 increase in their years of schooling. The free secondary education policy in The Gambia faces some challenges such as limited infrastructure (classrooms, learning, and staff) which hinders the government to accommodate the growing number of students.
Furthermore, low performance, especially the learning outcomes is a challenge, which needs collaboration and strategic partnership to create an enabling environment for the kids to go to school. Poor funding is another problem as The Gambian educational sector receives little funding compared to other sectors.
4. Namibia
Education is free and compulsory in Namibia from the ages of 6 to 16. Secondary education stretches over 5 years from Grade 8 to Grade 12. Senior secondary school is 2 years.
The population is relatively small, 2,088,669 and the literacy rate is 85%, one of the highest literacy rates among sub-Saharan African countries. Namibia has the 2nd lowest population density in the world. In all government schools in Namibia, primary education is free since 2013, and secondary education since 2016.
After senior secondary school students write an exam leading to the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) or the Namibian Secondary School Certificate (NSSC). The government already provides free primary education; however, families must pay fees for uniforms, stationery, books, hostels, and school improvements.
Namibia is determined to provide free secondary education as it currently allocates more than 20% of its national budget to education. This represents six to seven percent of Namibia’s total GDP and is one of the three countries with the highest percentage of GDP directed toward education in the world. As a result, primary and lower secondary school completion is close to universal only in Namibia.
Is free senior secondary education sustainable in Namibia? While teachers are seen as generally adequately educated, they lack specialized training. Schools also consistently perform below expectations; failure and dropout rates are high. Only 12% of learners proceed into tertiary education of any kind due to limited places in universities and vocational training. In 2019, free secondary education as a contributing factor led to the number of learners at school increasing to 755,943.
Another problem is that many parents have complained in the past about yearly stationery lists and other financial demands from government schools. The demands from schools are now worse than when parents were paying school fees and parents fear they may fail to meet them as in most cases those demands come with deadlines.
5. Tanzania
In 2016, the government introduced a fee-free education policy for primary and secondary government schools. Whilst most fees are covered, including exam fees, some indirect costs still remain for example: for school and sports uniforms and learning materials such as exercise books and pens.
However, less than 30% of students achieve secondary education partly because of the language barrier. The language of education for primary school is Kiswahili while the language of secondary school is English. Many children have no prior experience with English, and there is typically no free extra or private help available.
Secondary education in Tanzania has two levels. Ordinary Level (O’ Level) is Form 1 through Form 4. Selected students may progress to Advanced Level (A’ Level) education – Forms 5 and 6 – or study for an ordinary diploma in a technical college.
To try and increase secondary education attendance, the government is providing free education for the first four years of secondary school, though the quality at each school varies. One challenge facing the educational sector is that, at the secondary school level, there is a dramatic drop in females’ enrolment due to financial burdens. Despite this, Tanzania has reached gender parity in enrolment.
Tanzania set aside 137bn TZS (approximately 43.8m GBP) to cover the full cost of guaranteeing free secondary education for all. Can it continue to set aside even more funds as student enrolment increases?
6. Ghana
As of 2024, Ghana has achieved close to universal (97.9%) primary school completion as a result of free education in public primary schools since 2005. In September 2017, Ghana achieved a major milestone by implementing the Free Senior High School program. As you may have guessed, this led to an 11% increment in enrolment.
This massive increase in enrolment did not just break the previous year’s record but saw the introduction of the Double Track System. The Double Track System is in two sessions, thus The Green Track and The Gold Track. The Green Track represents the first batch of students who would go to school for a semester and are later followed by the Gold Track students who would continue after students of the Green Track session have vacated on the academic calendar. This system has decreased congestion in the classroom and the boarding house
Ghana’s Free Senior High School policy is the most comprehensive on the continent, covering not only tuition but also registration fees, uniforms, textbooks, school meals, and boarding fees. The adequate supply of these textbooks and uniforms to all students and the quality of food however is another matter.
Research shows that Ghana’s Free SHS policy has been beset by a range of implementation challenges including shortage of infrastructure, delay in the supply of funds, food, and instructional materials, and personnel deficits.
Following the introduction of its Free Senior High School program, Ghana allocated almost half of its non-salary education budget to senior high schools, compared to less than 5% on pre-primary, primary, and junior high schools combined. The government spent GH¢212 million in the first year of implementing the program. The high cost of FSE in Ghana raises concerns about financial sustainability and ‘crowding out’ expenditure on basic education.
7. Sierra Leone
In August 2018, the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) launched a phased Free Quality School Education (FQSE) initiative that provides free admission and tuition to all children in government-approved schools. The programme covers school feeding, uniforms, tuition fees, exercise, and textbooks for pupils in pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools. This policy ensures that nine years of fee-free education are guaranteed for all children.
The government has allocated about 22% of the country’s total annual budget to education. School enrolments are surging, up from 2.0 to 3.1 million students from 2018 to 2021. Increases are largest in primary grades, but Junior Secondary and Senior Secondary enrolments also show a substantial uptick.
Despite free secondary education, 36 percent of secondary school students drop out of school as a result of poverty, gender discrimination, long distances to schools, and some outmoded socio-cultural practices.
Another challenge to free secondary education in Sierra Leone is corruption. Misappropriation of funds is eating away resources meant for educating young Sierra Leoneans. Cumulatively, over US$234 million disappeared between 2019 and 2020 due to embezzlement of state resources within the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE), according to the 2019 and 2020 Auditor-General’s reports. With such huge sums of monies being misappropriated in Sierra Leone’s education sector, the future of free secondary education is bleak.
The corruption is not just monetary it affects donations too. In 2019, the Chinese government donated a total of 30,000 bags of rice to the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education as support for the school feeding component of the FQE. But only 3,000 out of the 30,000 bags were distributed. 90% of the rice disappeared.
8. Malawi
Secondary education in Malawi, is made up of two cycles of two years each, and begins at age 14. In 2019, Malawi abolished secondary school fees with the goal of removing barriers preventing all children accessing secondary education. Previously, in 1994 Malawi introduced free primary education.
Tuition fees, textbook revolving fund, and general-purpose fund fees were abolished in all Government secondary schools effective September 2018 (tuition) and January 2019 (textbooks and general purpose). Malawi’s 2019 fee abolition did not cover boarding fees, which comprise over 90% of the total cost for a boarding student.
Other fees such as examination fees collected by Malawi National Examination Board (MANEB) continue to be collected. Needy students who cannot afford boarding fees are allocated to community day secondary schools by the district education office.
What are the challenges with this policy? Some education experts say free secondary education in Malawi may result in a low standard of education in secondary schools.
9. Zambia
Education is free in Zambia from early childhood to secondary school level in all government-run schools. The free secondary education programme in Zambia began on 10th January 2022. Enrolment at the secondary school level increased drastically from 859,000 to 1.5 million.
Increased enrolment has brought with it challenges, such as a shortage of classrooms, desks, and teachers. Although measures have been put in place by the government to address these difficulties, can it continue to do so in years to come as enrolment continues to increase?
The government of Zambia aims to boost the education sector by allocating K18.1 billion to the education sector in 2022 which is 10.4% of the total budget, making it the largest education budget in the last five years. In 2023 it was further raised to K23.2 billion making it 13.9 % of the total budget.
These funds have been used to employ over 30,000 teachers with plans to continue to hire more teachers in the next five years to improve the high teacher-to-student ratio and thus the quality of education. The government also plans to use some of these funds to build 120 new secondary schools and cover other fees as they scrap Parent Teacher Association fees.
In addition, the Ministry of Education in Zambia has negotiated for additional financing of 120 million U.S. dollars from the World Bank to address some of these challenges such as the construction of more secondary schools and increased teacher recruitment, but is that enough? Does Zambia have the funds to continue to support free secondary education in years to come?
10. South Sudan
Secondary education in South Sudan is four years with English as the primary language of instruction. In 2023, South Sudan directed relevant government ministries to ensure free secondary education for all public schools.
Shockingly, 2.8 million that is about 70% of all school-age children in the country are not attending primary or secondary school. Among teens who are eligible to enroll, total enrollment in secondary school is under 10 percent and the secondary school dropout rate is around 61 percent.
South Sudan’s constitution already guarantees all children free and compulsory primary education and free illiteracy eradication programs. By expanding free education, South Sudan is headed in the right direction, one that improves the country’s prospects for sustainable development.
There are less than 22% of teachers on the government payroll in South Sudan. To sustain free secondary education, the government will have to recruit more teachers as enrolment in these schools increases. Free school meals will also have to be implemented to incentivize families to send their children to school.
Conclusion
Do you think other African countries will introduce free secondary education this year or in years to come? Will countries that have already implemented free secondary education sustain the policy or reintroduce tuition fees?
