Education in French controlled West Africa during the late 1800s and early 1900s was

different from the nationally uniform compulsory education of France in the 1880s.
"Adapted education" was organized in 1903 and used the French curriculum as a basis,
replacing information relevant to France with "comparable information drawn from the
African context." For example, French lessons of morality were coupled with many
references to African history and local folklore. The French language was also taught as an
integral part of adapted education.

Africa has more than 40 million children. According to UNESCO's Regional overview on sub-
Saharan Africa, in 2000 only 58% of children were enrolled in primary schools, the lowest
enrollment rate of any region. The USAID Center reports as of 2005, forty percent of school-
aged children in Africa do not attend primary school.

Recent world-wide trends

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World map indicating Education Index (2007/2008 Human Development Report)

0.950 and over

0.900–0.949

0.850–0.899

0.800–0.849

0.750–0.799

0.700–0.749

0.650–0.699

0.600–0.649

0.550–0.599

0.500–0.549

0.450–0.499

0.400–0.449

0.350–0.399

under 0.350

not available
Today, there is some form of compulsory education in most countries. Due to population
growth and the proliferation of compulsory education, UNESCO has calculated that in the
next 30 years more people will receive formal education than in all of human history thus
far.

Illiteracy and the percentage of populations without any schooling have decreased in the
past several decades. For example, the percentage of population without any schooling
decreased from 36% in 1960 to 25% in 2000.

Among developing countries, illiteracy and percentages without schooling in 2000 stood at
about half the 1970 figures. Among developed countries, figures about illiteracy rates differ
widely. Often it is said that they decreased from 6% to 1%. Illiteracy rates in less
economically developed countries (LEDCs) surpassed those of more economically developed
countries (MEDCs) by a factor of 10 in 1970, and by a factor of about 20 in 2000. Illiteracy
decreased greatly in LEDCs, and virtually disappeared in MEDCs. Percentages without any
schooling showed similar patterns.

Percentages of the population with no schooling varied greatly among LEDCs in 2000, from
less than 10% to over 65%. MEDCs had much less variation, ranging from less than 2% to
17%.

Since the mid-20th century, societies around the globe have undergone an accelerating pace
of change in economy and technology. Its effects on the workplace, and thus on the
demands on the educational system preparing students for the workforce, have been
significant. Beginning in the 1980s, government, educators, and major employers issued a
series of reports identifying key skills and implementation strategies to steer students and
workers towards meeting the demands of the changing and increasingly digital workplace
and society. 21st century skills are a series of higher-order skills, abilities, and learning
dispositions that have been identified as being required for success in 21st century society
and workplaces by educators, business leaders, academics, and governmental agencies.
Many of these skills are also associated with deeper learning, including analytic reasoning,
complex problem solving, and teamwork, compared to traditional knowledge-based
academic skills.

Education's global synchronization

Summary: Global synchronization raised in the Renaissance and experienced three peaks of
expansion: Colonial Era, The World War and After The Cold War. And global synchronization
is still growing and processing nowadays. The linguistic obstacles, cultural dictatorship,
inequality and cultural racisms have been eliminating from 500 years ago to today.
Disappearance of those unfavorable factors has been promoting education become more
and more globally.[100]
The start: Renaissance

Art work during the Renaissance

Before the Renaissance, education is focusing on art and ritual related with Christianity. And
also Christianity controlled education system and decided who can accept education. During
the Renaissance, education systems was changed. Many private schools were raised.
Therefore, more and more people accepted education and people in Europe had
opportunities to choose what they want to study. Arts and knowledges were spreading from
the Florence to whole Europe. People in every corners of Europe spread their culture and
thoughts to each others. Trades between different countries and regions raised more
frequently in Europe. During business activities, languages, artworks and literatures from
different culture groups mixed and influenced each others.[101]

First peak: Colonial Era

During the Colonial Era, Education's global synchronization was promoted by three reasons:
business, suzerains' policy and weak countries' policies. Both three points make eductions in
different regions to be assimilate. For business, business men come from suzerains rarely
educated workers who come form colonies. For suzerains, suzerains educated people in
colonies to speak suzerains' language and accepted suzerains' culture because suzerains
want to assimilate native people in colonies (Make suzerains control colonies easily)(FE:
What France did in its colonies). For weak countries, they imitated suzerains and studied
how suzerain make themselves strong because they wanted to become strong countries and
avoid fortunes which is becoming colonies . So weak countries educate citizens as how
suzerains educated citizens and absorb suzerains' culture.[102]