Youth and adult education policy in Angola and South Africa: EJA as inclusive education

Abstract

Using a qualitative approach and critical documentary research method, this article analyzes Youth and Adult Education (YEA) policies in Angola and South Africa from the perspective of YEA as inclusive education, which, even if partially, points to the South African model as a prototype for the Angolan subsystem. The results indicate that both countries have had the level of schooling and literacy of their populations compromised as a consequence of the racial segregation policies imposed by the regimes they experienced. However, while South Africa advanced from a legislative and practical point of view after the fall of apartheid from 1995 onwards, Angola found itself mired in a civil war of almost three decades that frustrated any attempts to implement an effectively functional education and literacy system for the population. On the other hand, despite the slight improvement in school enrollment rates and legislative progress that occurred after the civil war, rampant corruption took hold, and the prioritization of defense and security spending over social sectors, once justified by the state at war, continued in the postwar period and persists to this day. As a consequence of all the aforementioned factors, today the number of public schools in Angola is extremely low and their distribution is uneven, resulting in millions of children outside the education system who quickly become illiterate and uneducated young people and adults – which gives EJA (Youth and Adult Education) the role of inclusive education.