The Rapid assessment of primary and secondary schools conducted by the National Education Advisory Board

The Rapid Assessment of Primary and Secondary Education was conducted to determine the state of education in the country in the first term 2009. The survey was conducted in 120 schools in all ten provinces of the country in twenty districts, two per province. 90 of the schools were primary, while 30 were secondary. Data for the 120 schools were compared for 2003, 2006 and 2009. Enrolments in the 90 primary schools had remained fairly stable from 2003 to 2009. However there was an increase in the number of teachers, reducing the teacher pupil ratio from 1:39 in 2003 to 1:35.9 in 2009. In the secondary schools in the sample, enrolments were less stable, with an almost 10% drop between 2006 and 2009. The teacher pupil ratio had shrunk from 1:25.6 in 2003 to 1:23.6 in 2009. From a finance perspective, the lower TP ratios increase the unit cost of education.