Peace Kabunga is not happy with the quality of government-run schools in Uganda. She is going to make sure her kids get the best, even if it means paying for it. “Teachers are not paid well. They are not good. They are not happy and I cannot entrust such people with my children. So I am looking for quality education in private schools.” ?
Education is a traditional middle- class concern around the world, so it is no surprise that African middle-class families are following suit. With the focus on education come issues of demographics, but also politics.Educating children costs money, but families often give up on battling the state for an improvement in public schools, choosing rather to take the economic hit of paying privately.
Across the continent, middle- class parents feel that government schools cannot give their children the education that has become a priority for them from nursery to university. “Right now, I can’t tell what their potential is, whether they will end up in business or music. But I am looking at university as the minimum qualification,” says Peace.
For her husband, Dennis, paying for education runs in the family: “I would like my children to have a good education. My father was able to do that [send his children to school] because although he had 10 children, he had farms and every month they would sell a cow to pay tuition fees. Our father would not struggle with school fees,” he says.
The focus on education and, more broadly, the extra resources that middle-class families have for their offspring, leads to stark choices. “We have two and we are expecting the third,” says Dennis. “After that, I stop. I want to have children that I can manage to raise within this economy.”
Data from Kenya’s Consumer Insight show that there is a correlation between education levels and income levels. The lower-, middle- and upper-middle classes rate the influence of education in their own lives to be very strong – five times as important when compared with poor and emerging households.
The politics of parenting?
Consumer Insight surveys reveal that interest in politics also rises with incomes. However, if middle-class parents have an interest in politics but put their children in fee-paying private schools, will there ever be a time when these parents start to pressure governments to improve educational facilities??
Middle-class aspirations can change education in other ways rather than taking government head on. The growth of private schools can increase pressure on government-run schools to improve themselves. The more parents there are who want to send their children to school, the more educational institutions have to expand capacity to meet demand. Not everyone can study abroad, so the growth of the middle classes means that more money and manpower has to be devoted to improving local schools and universities.
An interest in politics does not always lead to increased political participation. “I am not a member of any party because I hate politics,” says Dennis. “I don’t want to have this stressful kind of life… please!” Some observers may see this as cowardly, but Peace Kabunga does not believe she can entrust her children’s future to the government: “Of course I pay taxes, but I can see where the government is going.”
“They keep mentioning that government sponsorship at university will stop at some point,” worries Peace. “My first child is about five years old now. By the time she is 18, I don’t think there will be government sponsorship. I must plan without government in my plans.”
This article was first published in the August-September 2010 edition of The Africa Report.
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