A key element in this is language. Most African children receive most of their education in a second language. The general view is that it is important that basic numeracy and litercy skills are developed in their first language before they move on to developing them and capitalising on them in the second langauge. This will prolong the lower primary phase.

Many African countries have quite long primary phases; seven years. This has come about for historical reasons; it was an affordable mechanism for keeping children at their local school as long as possible before secondary education began to become common. This no longer applies.

A key question to consider is at what grade are most children ready to move from foundation work to subject-based work. At what age are they ready to move from the security of working in their own room with a small team of teachers to a system where they may move around between specialist rooms.

The key change at this borderline is the move from a common compulsory curriculum where all children follow (roughly) the same programme to a variety of options based on ability and on career needs.

Another issue is what is the desirable length of each secondary phase to cover the content adequately. Evidence from Namibia, Botswana and South Africa suggests, for example that a three year senior secondary phase may be desirable to achieve the required standard in Grade 12. Botswana and South Africa have both adopted a 6-3-3 structure while Namibia (which has a 7-3-2 system) has resorted, in subjects such as science and mathematics, to effectively begin the upper secondary curriculum in the last year of the lower secondary phase.

The table above shows crucial distinctions between the lower and upper secondary phases. It is almost universally acknowledged in educational structures that teaching the whole ability range in the same class after around the ninth year of education becomes extremely difficult and undesirable. Many (most) systems have some segragation by ability from the beginning of the junior secondary phase.

Equally, it is generally recognised that beyond about the ninth year of education it is undesirable that all learners should be following the same programme as by this time their abilities and needs have diverged considerably.

For these reasons junior secondary programmes tend to be made up of a few compulsory subjects. The sciences are often combined into a single subject, as are the humanities. This limits the number of teachers needed to teach teh curriculum and also reduced the number of examination papers needed.

Upper secondary (or perhaps they are better called 'post-basic' programmes by contrast are characterised by a significant degree of choice to suit needs and abilities and may take place in a variety of types of institution.

Should secondary expansion take place all at once or stepwise?

The junior-senior seconday split allows for an initial expansion towards education for all ending at the junior seconday phase (after 9 or 10 years) with a public examination. With the expansion, the need for a primary leaving examination falls away.

After this a variety of optional programmes could be envisaged, ina variety of institutions, ranging from the traditional academic senior secondary programme to a variety of TVET programmes. A number of African countries have opeted for this model, including South Africa

At a later stage countries may consider developing secondary education for all at upper secondary schools

This is a major decision. The 70-80% or so of students who, under the current system, fail to enter secondary education will almost certainly not thrive in it if they were allowed in. Increasing the entry numbers without revising the structure and the curriculum will lead to increasing numbers of failures or a lowering of quality.

The challenge, therefore, is to design a completely new system for the 70-80% 'new' students

Should this new system be a separate, selective system or should it be integrated with the old one? Most countries opt for separate selective systems. Some countries, most particularly the USA States, Australia and Nordic Europe countries opt for comprehensive systems where all children follow broadly the same curriculum (but maybe at different speeds) under the same roof. Some countries, such as England opt for a compromise. Follow the link onthe right for further discussion of this.

Formal examinations are expensive. This is a significant cost that must be built into the expansion model.

There are ways of reducing the cost. Firstly if the system expands to allow all primary completers to proceed atomatically to the junior secondary phase, then the need for a primary leaving examination falls away. Secondly, the number of subjects in the junior secondary phase can be kept to a minimum by combining subjects (combined science rather than separate sciences) for examination purposes. Thirdly, alternative methods of assessment can be explored which are a normal part of teaching - portfolios, skills assessment, etc. These, in any case, will probably be demanded by the revised curriculum.

Formal public examinations that cater for a wide ability range are significantly different from the more traditional academic examinations typical of most African countries. They are learner-centred, assessing what the learner can do rather than measuring how much of a given amount of subject knowledge has been mastered. Among the most significant differences are:

• They cater for a wide range of ability and understanding
• They attempt to measure and credit achievement (however limited) and will have a wide range of symbols. The concept of pass/fail is not part of the philosophy.
• They tend to test what a learner can do with the knowledge and understanding gained as well as the understanding itself
• They typically use a wider range of assessment tools to test a wider range of abilities and skills
• They are criterion rather than norm-referenced