The Role of Universal Primary Education in Development

Abstract

It is has become universally mandatory that every child of school age – irrespective of gender – should go to school and receive at least a primary education. This article discusses strategies for implementing meaningful and sustainable Universal
Primary Education (UPE). It postulates that successful UPE should conduct proper diagnosis of the present and future populations of pupils, the demand for teachers at all levels, and the number of secondary and tertiary institutions necessary to absorb primary and secondary school graduates respectively. Effective implementation of the UPE requires builtin employment strategies in the industrial, commercial and continued education sectors, with suffi cient capacity to absorb the UPE graduates, thereby minimising the problem of unemployment and its associated social and economic vices that has a negative effect on national development.

Africa Insight Vol. 37 (4) 2008 pp. 137-147