A Study On The Evolution Of Japan’s Education Aid Policy To Africa(1954-2015)

Around the 1960s,most African countries became independent successively,which expected to develop production and improve the national economy and people’s lives after independence.However,given that Africa had been colonized by Europe for a long time,African countries’ production was backward.Moreover,owing to the lack of domestic talents and the lack of construction foundation,they had to rely on the aid of the United Nations,the United States and other international agencies and developed countries.Japan also provided educational aid to Africa at this time.Japan began to provide educational aid to Africa in the early 1960 s,and it has been more than 60 years now.Both the scale and influence of the aid are at the forefront of the international community.In addition,there is a lack of relevant research on the historical combing of Japan’s education aid policy to Africa at home and abroad.Therefore,studying the evolution of Japan’s educational aid policy in Africa is expected to enrich theoretical research on Japan’s educational aid to Africa in China on the one hand,and guide China to further carry out education aid to Africa in the future on the other hand.Japan’s education aid policy for Africa can be divided into four stages,namely,the initial stage,the expansion stage,the transition stage,and the new development stage.In the initial stage,after the beginning of the Cold War,the trend of international aid also began.Based on the technical aid program in the Middle East and Near East Africa,Japan carried out technical aid to Africa.In the expansion stage,because of the criticism of Japan’s aid by the international community,Japan began to re-examine its education aid.The Economic Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a report on the promotion of education aid in our country.Based on this report,Japan has implemented Technical aid that integrates curriculum learning,skill training,and scientific research,and free financial aid that combines school building construction and equipment provision.Compared with the previous stage,this stage has increased a lot of free financial aid.At the transition stage,World conference on education for all was held in 1990.The international aid trend began to shift to the field of basic education.Japan also began to explore new educational aid paths.On the basis of the "Report of the Development and Education Sub-field Aid Research Association," it vigorously carried out basic education aid to Africa.In the new stage of development,in order to achieve Millennium development goals,Japan published the "Basic education for growth initiative " specifically aimed at basic education aid.Around 2005,the international community began to re-examine the importance of vocational and technical education and higher education.During the development stage,Japan not only increased its basic education aid to Africa,but also increased its vocational and technical education aid and higher education aid to Africa.At the initial stage,Japan mainly provided educational aid to Africa for the purpose of economic development.Educational aid was a means to obtain resources from Africa,develop production,and expand the market;at the expansion stage,Japan expanded its education aid to Africa mainly for the purpose of ensuring its own security.Education aid is a means to ensure resources,ensure Japan’s economic security,and improve Japan’s international image;at the transitional stage,Japan provided basic education aid to Africa mainly for the purpose of seeking the status of a political power.Education aid is Japan’s development of friendly relations with Africa,The means to achieve "entry into the permanent";in the new stage of development,education has become education,and education has begun to pay attention to human development.Japan has implemented basic education,vocational and technical education,and higher education aid to Africa.After more than 60 years of development,Japan’s aid system to Africa has been very complete.However,Japan’s foreign aid also has some shortcomings.Conflicts of interest between ministries and agencies have led to power struggles.In addition,although recipient countries are also allowed to participate in project evaluation,the subject of evaluation is still Japanese nationals,and it is difficult for recipient countries to participate in the core evaluation.