By Pierre Gouëdard, GEM Report
What does it take for learning to happen? In many African countries, students are expected to learn under some of the harshest conditions imaginable, schools without walls, without seats, without sanitation and, in some cases, without teachers. When instructional support is scarce and classrooms are overcrowded, structuring learning depends even more strongly on the available pedagogical materials, namely textbooks.
Research in the psychology of learning consistently shows that the quality of teacher–learner interaction is paramount. Effective learning depends on teachers’ ability to design and deliver meaningful instruction, such as setting clear learning objectives, presenting content, and providing guidance throughout the learning process. These practices require specific competences and adequate professional preparation. Yet in sub-Saharan Africa, there were on average 55 students for every trained teacher in 2022. In this context, where many teachers lack formal training, textbooks take on a heightened role: they become the primary, and often the only, vehicle for delivering the curriculum, as well as a crucial source of both content and pedagogical guidance.
This is why the Spotlight report series on foundational leaning in Africa has included providing every child with a textbook as its top among eight recommendations. Exposure to words through books expands vocabulary, and improved access to reading materials in schools enhances reading fluency and comprehension. Conversely, a lack of textbooks undermines opportunities to learn: data from the African regional PASEC and SACMEQ learning assessments show that owning a textbook alone can raise a child’s literacy scores by up to 20%. The World Bank has similarly argued that chronic shortages of affordable, high-quality textbooks impede learning progress, and that addressing textbook scarcity may represent one of the most cost-effective ways to improve education quality in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Yet quantifying textbook shortages is not straightforward. There is neither a clear methodology nor standardized data collection processes that allow countries to report robust and comparable data over time and across countries. Data provided by countries are not very reliable.
The 2025 Spotlight continental report, the third in the series, focused on leadership in education but, as part of a survey of 60 primary schools across four districts in its five focus countries, it also examined textbook availability. While the sample was not designed to be nationally representative, it was stratified by location, with two urban and two rural districts selected in each country. The survey comprised three components:
- A questionnaire for school principals to gather information on their background and on instructional leadership practices.
- A questionnaire for representatives of the school’s parents or community to contextualize and triangulate school information.
- A questionnaire for teachers in grades 1 to 3, which also served as an observation tool to collect information on basic classroom conditions and available pedagogical resources.
Across Spotlight countries, classroom observations have revealed wide variation in textbook availability. On average, Côte d’Ivoire and Morocco approximately have one textbook per student. By contrast, there are more than two students per textbook in Kenya, more than three in Cameroon, and more than five in Zimbabwe (Figure 1). No systematic differences in availability were observed across the sampled grades, nor between reading and mathematics textbooks.
However, the way student–textbook ratios are reported has important implications. The ratio is calculated by dividing the total number of students by the total number of available textbooks, or by dividing the average number of students in the classroom by the average number of textbooks. These aggregate measures tend to smooth out variation and can conceal what is happening in reality. A well-documented, but often misused, study from Sierra Leone illustrates this problem: although textbooks were distributed to schools, as a precautionary measure, many remained in storage rather than being issued to students, which means official figures overstated effective availability.
Average number of students and textbooks per classroom, selected African countries, 2025
Source: 2025 Spotlight report on foundational learning in Africa.
An alternative approach is to compute the student–textbook ratio at the classroom level and then aggregate these ratios to produce a national average. This makes possible to examine the full distribution of ratios and to better characterize the extent and severity of textbook shortages within a country. Following this approach, classrooms were classified by textbook availability: no shortage, when there were at most 2 students per textbook; mild shortage, when there were between 2 and 5 students per textbook; severe shortage, when there were 5 to 10 students per textbook; and extreme shortage, when there were more than 10 students per textbook.
This approach reveals that textbook availability in Cameroon and Zimbabwe is far lower than the simple average suggested. In both countries, around 40% of surveyed classrooms experience an extreme shortage of textbooks. While in Zimbabwe, there is no marked difference between urban and rural classrooms, the phenomenon is largely driven by overcrowded urban schools In Cameroon: 75% of classrooms facing extreme shortages are located in urban areas, most of them counting more than 90 students.
Level of textbook shortages, selected African countries, 2025
Source: 2025 Spotlight report on foundational learning in Africa.
By contrast, Côte d’Ivoire appears to have effectively addressed textbook availability. Between 2020 and 2023, the Projet d’amélioration de la gouvernance pour la délivrance de services de base aux citoyens (PAGDS), an initiative supported by the World Bank, distributed 8.5 million reading and mathematics textbooks free of charge to students in grades 1 to 4 in public primary schools. In the 2023/24 school year, 95% of grade 1 and grade 2 students received textbooks. This textbook distribution component has since been institutionalized under the Programme national d’amélioration des premiers apprentissages scolaires (PNAPAS).
Two main messages emerge from this analysis. First, Côte d’Ivoire shows that textbook shortages are not inevitable. With strong political will and sustained investment, rapid progress is possible. In less than five years, nearly all children in the early grades received a textbook. That said, books alone will not transform learning. To make a difference, textbooks must be relevant, up to date, aligned with the curriculum, delivered on time, and available in the language of instruction. They also work best when teachers are supported to use them effectively, through broader efforts to strengthen teaching capacity.
Second, how we measure textbook availability matters. Aggregate student–textbook ratios can give a reassuring picture while masking severe shortages in real classrooms. In Cameroon and Zimbabwe, national averages hide situations where many classrooms face extreme scarcity. When data systems are weak and routine reporting is limited, relying on a single indicator is risky. Triangulating data sources and visiting classrooms is often the only way to grasp the reality students and teachers face.
The real question is therefore not about how many textbooks are printed, but how many are indeed opened in classrooms.
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