The critical importance of all young people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) being able to access good quality secondary education is now widely recognised by governments, international aid partners and other key stakeholders. To this end, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.1 has an explicit target that ‘by 2030, all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes’. To date, governments in over 10 countries in SSA have introduced free universal secondary education as a core objective of national educational strategies and plans.

Read more in my working paper number 16