Third Spotlight report on Africa: Primary school principals must shift focus from administration to instructional leadership

The third in the Spotlight Series of reports on foundational learning in Africa is being launched today at the ADEA Triennale, in Accra, Ghana. Lead for foundational learning, published by the African Union, the African Center for School Leadership and the GEM Report, highlights that addressing low learning levels on the continent requires school principals and district officials to shift their priorities, moving beyond administrative tasks to focus squarely on instructional leadership.

The 2025 Spotlight report draws on a survey of school principals and parent representatives in some 300 primary schools as well as on interviews with local education authorities in five focus countries: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco and Zimbabwe Detailed analysis looked at school leadership policies in the Kaduna state of Nigeria and in Rwanda. Adding to the bank of evidence available on foundational learning in Africa, case studies covering language of instruction policies in Algeria, learning outcomes in Burundi, the financing of pre-primary education in Cabo Verde, decentralization in Congo and school feeding programmes in Mali fed into the report. Further background research examined national assessment frameworks, community engagement, competency-based curricula and the financing of primary school infrastructure.

Learning levels are lower than previously thought

Learning happens in school, yet 44 million children and youth are reported to be out of school in Africa. Data on out-of-school populations, however, is patchy. For one quarter of African countries, the most recent administrative data are at least 10 years old. Data are also inconsistent between administrative and survey rates, differing by at least 10 percentage points in 10 out of 23 countries. Adding information from humanitarian sources would add another 5 million out of school children, notably from Somalia and Sudan.

Learning levels even when in school continue to require attention. New evidence on learning outcomes is featured in the Spotlight report, including findings from a recent study combining multiple data sources to overcome data gaps. The analysis concludes that learning levels are lower than previously thought: only just 1 in 10 children reach the end of primary school and achieve minimum proficiency learning levels in Africa, a level that is required to continue their education and fulfil their potential. Additional analysis of recently released data from the Early Grade Reading Assessment shows that, by grade 3, most Congolese, Nigerian and Zambian students could not read a single word.

As with data on those out of school, data on learning is still not comprehensive enough to give any trend analysis. The report assesses three countries where change over time can be seen: South Africa, which participated in several round of the TIMSS survey, shows no change in mathematics learning proficiency in 8 years; Tunisia, which participated in the MICs survey shows no substantive change in 5 years; Uganda has carried out a citizen-led assessment since 2010, which shows foundational reading declining over a period of 9 years.

The call for instructional leadership

The 2025 Spotlight report stresses that school leaders are globally credited as a key educational factor in explaining improvements in learning, second only to teachers. Yet, as a result of hierarchical reporting systems, administrative work and teaching tasks often take precedence over critical leadership activities such as class observation, monitoring learning and supporting teachers. School principals in 14 low- and middle-income countries spent 68% of their time on routine management tasks.

Support for principals from pedagogical advisors is also often too focused on discipline and administration, missing chances to advise on pedagogy. Of the five countries studied in the report – Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco and Zimbabwe – only two gave clear, quantifiable learning targets to system leaders. Pedagogical advisors also reported needing more training on school diagnostics, material choice, data use and mentoring.

The finance gap and scarce resources

The challenge is worsened by critical resource shortages. The share of education in national budgets has declined from 17.1% in 2012 to 15% in 2023. Furthermore, official development assistance in the form of grants has fallen by more than half as a source of government revenue, from 1.9% of GDP in 2010 to 0.9% of GDP in 2022 and is projected to go through a period of sharp decline, with cuts projected to hit countries hardest where aid constitutes up to 50% of the education budget (e.g., Central African Republic and the Gambia).

Principals also have to navigate having scarce resources for teaching and learning at their disposal. Textbooks are scarce—in Cameroon, up to 23 students share one textbook on average, although Côte d’Ivoire has managed to ensure the provision of a textbook for each student. Over half of countries still do not develop textbooks in children’s home languages, making early literacy acquisition hard. At best half of public primary schools are defined as being in ‘good’ condition in 7 of the 17 countries with data. Finally, while 81% of countries in Africa provide school meals, they only cover, on average, 43% of primary students.

The report sets out urgent actions to bolster instructional leadership for learning:

Countries must invest in the professionalization of school principals, improving selection, training and support mechanisms. Currently, 35% of countries have stand-alone competency frameworks, which shape selection, training and professional development and only 19% require principals to have prior training before taking on their role.
School leaders must become champions of learning, delegating administration and teaching to focus on higher value tasks that contribute to students’ success, such as monitoring data and developing teachers.
Investment in capacity development is also needed for district education officers and pedagogical advisors to provide vital support to schools with an emphasis on instructional leadership and quality assurance.

Beyond leadership, the report also shows that only 20% of countries have a national assessment framework, meaning that most countries have no clear learning objectives. It calls for countries to use the new Continental Assessment Framework developed by the African Union and the Association for Educational Assessment in Africa, which can help them shape their objectives towards generating robust, reliable data on learning.

A new policy dashboard, under the auspices of the African Union’s LEARN peer learning mechanism, accompanies the Spotlight report’s recommendations and outlines member states’ approaches to a range of policy challenges, from curriculum to school leadership, to promote collaboration and policy dialogue on foundational learning. The indicators in the dashboard cover: