WHEN President Salva Kiir announced the abolition of secondary school fees in South Sudan in February, he was following several fellow African leaders.
Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Zambia have all announced free secondary education policies in the past five years. Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa were early trendsetters in this regard.
Despite its popularity with policymakers, parents and other stakeholders, the abolition of secondary school fees in resource-constrained contexts is still a subject of debate.
The AU, global NGOs like Human Rights Watch and various UN agencies are in favour. Others are sceptical. They highlight financial sustainability and equity implications, especially at the upper-secondary level. A report by the Malala Fund, a global education NGO, argued that free upper-secondary education “would be regressive in nature” and might…