As Kader Asmal, the South African Minister of Education, says, We must find African solutions to African educational problems. The continent has made some notable advances. Countries such as Cape Verde, Malawi, Mauritius, South Africa and Zimbabwe have already achieved primary enrolment rates of 90 per cent or more. Uganda more than doubled its enrolment in two years when it introduced a free education scheme. No fewer than thirty of the world s forty-two heavily indebted countries are in Africa.
Some countries have to struggle to even pay the interest on their loans.
The HIV virus has now infected a total of 23 million Africans. Innovative care and support programmes exist, but with 13 million AIDS orphans predicted by the end of 2000, these efforts, along with traditional community care, are likely to be overwhelmed. Drastic measures are needed. However, some 42 million children in Sub-Saharan Africa are still out of school. Up to two thirds of children are not getting an education in countries where there is armed conflict and civil strife.