**1. Introduction**

As the 21st-century gradually shifts from a manufacturing-based economy to a knowledge-based information economy, higher education is increasingly gaining significance ([1], pp. 6–7). Contemporary societies have high expectations of their higher education system. The practical benefits they anticipate harnessing from higher education include economic, health, and civic engagement. It is claimed that higher education reduces unemployment, offers job security that reduces financial stressors, and a citizenry that cooperates with its government ([2], p. 88; [3], pp. 44–45). Consequently, governments of modern societies continue to invest in higher education.

There has been acute stress on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education within higher education around the globe in recent times.1 The desire for STEM education emerges from the quest to train individuals to prepare for the challenges of the 21st-century. While some of these problems are known, others are largely unknown. For example, terminal diseases such as Ebola and Coronavirus and socioeconomic issues such as poverty, governance, and climate change threaten human life. On the phase of both known and unknown threats to human life and survival, higher education is expected to invest learners with the capacity to understand the volatile conditions of the 21st-century and be competent to deal effectively with these challenges. Higher education is expected to introduce learners to a whole range of organic and inorganic experiences to create new or improve upon existing measures for the survival of the glocal society.

John Dewey's pragmatic theory of education becomes relevant at this point. His theory broadly connects learners with society. Learners cannot deal with the challenges of the 21st-century if they continue to receive the educational contents that are mutually exclusive from society. This means that both the society and the school must have a common purpose. John Dewey's *My Pedagogic Creed* shows how society and schools can establish and pursue a common purpose—assisting learners to understand and manage their complex social experiences.

Recent educationists have recast Dewey's pragmatism into various learning models known as student-centered learning. The shift from the teacher's desire and purpose in the curriculum to learners permeates these learning models. Usually, teachers encourage learners to be part of the educational process and inspire them towards leading various learning activities in the school. These learning experiences are a set of "…collaborative activities, goal-driven tasks, intellectual discovery, activities that heighten thinking, and activities that provide practice in learning skills" to learners ([4], p. 420). The strong emphasis on the learner's independence in the learning process often overshadows the interrelatedness between the school and the larger society. While Dewey expected learners to decide the contents and method of their education, he hoped their engagement with the larger society would create a mutual context by which they could determine the task of education. This interrelatedness between society and the school is the basis of Dewey's pragmatic theory of education. However, modern education theorists seem to have pushed away from this foundation.

The thrust of this study is that Dewey's pragmatic theory of education may assist the 21st-century educationist in achieving the critical task of higher education—investing learners with the capacity and skill in dealing effectively with the known and unknown challenges of the 21st-century. In doing this, the study examines Dewey's fivefold themes in *My Pedagogic Creed*. With these themes at the background of succeeding analysis, the article discusses and draws out implications of Dewey's view for higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. The present study is a connected social criticism of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa, and it relies substantially on Dewey's views and other secondary sources that either praise or criticize his pragmatic notions in *My Pedagogic Creed*. The author's participation, observations, and desire for the relevance of higher education in 21st-century Sub-Saharan Africa is the backdrop for this discourse.

<sup>1</sup> The apparent neglect of the Arts and Humanities for STEM education must be resolved. The Arts and Humanities establish firm foundations for the operations of knowledge gained from STEM education. By ignoring the Arts and the Humanities, it is feared that the 21st-century society may be eroding the moral contexts that regulate the skills acquired through STEM. The effects of amoral STEM education may lead to unimaginable dire ends.

*Making Higher Education Count in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons from John Dewey's… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104087*

## **2. Higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa**

Sub-Saharan Africa comprises 48 countries, with a population of about 1 billion ([5], n.p.). Higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to expand ([6], p. 1). For example, student enrollment increased from 5.9 million in 2010 to 8.3 million in 2019 ([7], n.p.). A significant enrollment increment was recorded in Mauritius, Cape Verde, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Sudan, Seychelles, Senegal, Congo D.R., Ghana, Guinea, Cameroun, Togo, Nigeria, Lesotho, Kenya, and Benin ([5], n.p.). The general expectation that higher education would lead to the development of the Sub-Saharan African region is the basis for this expansion ([8], p. 174). Higher education is expected to produce competent, highly skilled labor who perform various roles in significant sectors in these developing economies ([6], p. 6).

However, a general doubt exists on the quality of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa ([9], p. 75). Studies show that deficit research capacity, poor quality of university professors, lacking educational resources/facilities, and disconnection between industry and higher education institutions are some of the factors that impede the quality of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa ([10], pp. 20–21; [11], pp. 13–14; [8], p. 174). Many governments have adopted various strategies to improve the quality of higher education ([12], p. 66). The African Graduate Fellowship Program (AFGRAD; 1963–1990); the Advanced Training for Leadership and Skills Program (ATLAS; 1991–2003); the Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs) or the "Feed the Future Innovation Labs for Collaborative Research," 2013; and the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA) are some of the strategies for strengthening higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. *Agenda 2063* ([13], p.12), approved by 54 African countries, is a recent measure to improve higher education in the region through a Pan-African E University that enhances

*…human capital, science and technology and innovation through increasing access to tertiary and continuing education in Africa by capitalizing on the digital revolution and global knowledge; reaching large numbers of students and professionals in multiple sites simultaneously by developing relevant and high quality curriculum and ensure the prospect African student a guaranteed access to the University from anywhere in the world and anytime (24 hours a day, 7 days a week).*

Some of these approaches allow the private sector to invest in higher education. For example, the private sector involvement in higher education in Ghana and Ethiopia is 15%, 20% in Kenya, and about 36.7% in Nigeria and Senegal ([11], p. 13). It is estimated that these investments and measures will produce laudable improvement in the quality of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the nature of higher education, study environment, curriculum, method, and social engagement of higher education institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa reveal a shortfall.

Since their establishment, higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa has been used as a tool towards a particular end. Higher education established the avenue by which colonial worldview was transmitted from the colonialists to their subjects during colonial times ([14], p. 36). Higher education institutions produced a workforce needed to keep the colonial operations active ([9], p. 75). In postcolonial Africa, higher education continues to be a tool to socioeconomic ends. Higher education is expected to produce a skilled/professional workforce to drive economic and infrastructure development. Also, higher education has the task of recasting the African identity such that the African worldview can be sustained in an increasingly globalized world ([13], p. 2). Further, it is expected that higher education will produce a citizenry that understands their civic duties and promote social cohesion ([13], p. 2).

Unfortunately, higher education's socioeconomic return has not been satisfactory in the Sub-Saharan African region. An underlining factor is a critical gap between higher education and the larger community. The disengagement between higher education and society has existed right from the inception of higher education institutions. Colonialists' purpose for higher education was external to the Sub-Saharan African society ([9], p. 75). African culture was disregarded, so no connection existed between higher education and the socioeconomic demands of the social context that hosted higher education institutions ([14], p. 37). The result was the disparity between higher education products and existing markets/industries in society. Academics and corporate players have varying views on higher education, employment requirements, and students' attitude and abilities for the labor market. The widening gap between higher education institutions and the larger society means that little connection exists between higher education and the developmental goals and strategies of Sub-Saharan African countries. Presently, industrial support for higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa is either negligible or non-existing, leading to incongruence between higher education products and corporate requirements ([6], p. 24). This disparity set the stage for the migration of skilled force from Sub-Saharan Africa to mostly Western destinations. Accordingly, higher education holds little relevance for African societies ([14], p. 41).

Recent developments have positioned knowledge and information at the center of socioeconomic growth ([15], p. 1). Production factors and economic capital have been redefined. This positioning means that higher education is needed to drive socioeconomic developments by producing a labor force that can effectively contribute to national and international growth. There is a need for a practical reconceptualization of higher education in Sub-Saharan African societies to reposition higher education institutions to satisfy the demands of a knowledge-based information economy. Dewey's proposal of educational reformation could aid the reconstruction of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa to meet the varied demands of a knowledge-based information economy.
