Education in Africa

Analysis of library education in Africa has shown that in Africa library education organized in three ways:

1. different courses, departments at universities, institutes;

2. courses at such institutions as the national or the country’s largest library, library service or the Ministry;

3. independent educational institution to train library professionals.

But we can not ignore the training of personnel for African libraries and abroad, as well as with the assistance of various international organizations and institutions. However, teaching students in developed countries of African nations seen as a forced measure of a temporary nature, since it was very expensive, especially, when  it is a question of western countries and the USA. Compared with the training on the continent, in the UK training librarians are three times more expensive, in the U.S. - four. By the way, the residents of the United States to visit some cities in Africa, such as Ghana, need a Ghana visa.

Nevertheless, these countries have shown great interest and support in training national personnel for African countries. In the U.S. thousands of African students trained. Several US Funds finance programs in education, sending its experts for training African personnel, replenishing institutions with literature.

In problem-solving of library education of Africa international development funds take direct part such as: German (FRG) - in Botswana, the Norwegian - in Kenya, Canada - Mauritius. Membership of French-speaking African countries in the International Association of Schools of Informatics prejudges training senior professionals in Canada, France and Belgium.

The International Association for the Advancement of librarianship in Africa plays an important role in the teaching process of librarians (MARBA - Association Internationale du Developpement des Bibliotheques en Afrique, AIDBA), based on Sept. 13, 1957 in St. Louis (Senegal).

UNESCO, IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations), IDF (International Documentation Federation) provide some assistance (to a large extent - financial) in vocational training in Africa.

Thus, in the formation of library education Uganda, Kenya, Senegal enjoyed the support of UNESCO.

The lack of qualified librarians is disturbing library workers of all countries, thats’s why UNESCO has launched the development and implementation of several projects, which are believed by experts to improve the situation in developing countries.

Except subsequent support of two regional centres for training of librarians in Africa (in Uganda - to English-speaking countries and in Senegal - for the French-speaking), UNESCO is organizing seminars on African library schools.

As is well known, the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) established several regional levels, in particular, the African Federation of Library Associations (AFLA). In IFLA materials that reflect the trends of its regional activities in their own dedicated section “IFLA and countries of the Third World” focuses on education and training of personnel for library services. During the last sessions of the IFLA (August, 2001) a number of reports of leading specialists in the area of professional library education in developing countries were made.

Among the 55 countries, training of foreign students in the early 1980’s, the Soviet Union occupied the third place.

In this regard, facts of the St. Petersburg University of Art and Culture (former LGIK) are of interest. Education students from developing countries began at the Institute of Culture in 1960. During this period about 80 students from 20 countries received the degree of library faculty, of which about 50 are representatives of 12 African states. More than 20 graduate students from developing countries have successfully defended their Ph.D. dissertations on library and bibliographical subjects, about half were specialists from Africa.

Analysing the process of training of specialists for libraries in the national institutions and regional centres, it is possible to trace the evolution of the system of vocational education in Africa. First, the system followed the European and American traditions. When creating schools is heavily influenced by beliefs and attitudes of the founders, who studied in Western countries and are the representatives of the various systems of libraries, the concepts of information, bibliographical activities.