EDUCATION - The African Mirror

Jan

07

2021

From text to tablet: how to learn in a lockdown

EDUCATION

UMBERTO BACCHI AS a third lockdown traps millions of British schoolchildren at home, free tablets and televised lessons are being touted as alternative ways to learn in a lockdown. Globally, two in three school-age children lack internet at home, according to the United Nations, and ensuring equal access to education has become an acute challenge in the pandemic. With governments, charities and firms scrambling to get more people online or provide alternative learning sources, here are seven initiatives underway worldwide to boost remote learning: SOLAR RADIOS - Burkina Faso Burkina Faso began broadcasting lessons on radio, television and online after…

Jan

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Parents worry as crowded Kenyan schools reopen after coronavirus shutdown

EDUCATION

THOMAS MUKOYA HUNDREDS of children formed an orderly queue that snaked through Nairobi's biggest slum Kibera, waiting to enter classrooms for the first time since March, when the government closed schools after Kenya reported its first COVID-19 case. The country is the last in East Africa to fully reopen its schools. Children in grades four, eight and 12 returned to class in October so they could prepare for exams postponed amid the pandemic. The World Health Organization and the U.N. children's agency UNICEF say prolonged school closures due to COVID-19 present many risks for children in poor countries. Higher rates…

Jan

16

2021

By The African Mirror

As COVID-19 rages, S.A delays new school year until mid-Feb

EDUCATION

SOUTH Africa has delayed the start to its new school year by two weeks to February 15, in order to prevent schools becoming transmission centres for COVID-19, as new cases have hovered around 20,000 a day for the past week. School was out for about a third of last year when South Africa was in the grip of its first wave of coronavirus infections. The closures widened an already stark educational divide between elite schools that easily shifted classes online and the rest with little or no capacity for digital learning. "CEM (council of education ministers) took this difficult decision,…

Jun

30

2020

By The African Mirror

Better access to stories can improve adolescent lives in Africa

EDUCATION

ELLEKE BOEHMER, Professor of World Literature in English, University of Oxford ACROSS cultures, the self-making powers of storytelling are widely recognised. Steve Biko, the South African Black Consciousness thinker, once said that we need to speak from where we stand. Seeing the impact of our environment on our thinking about ourselves can change our thinking, he suggested. Telling our stories is an important way of doing so. Though stories are universal, access to them is not. We are involved in a project that’s trying to address this. The United Kingdom Research and Innovation fund’s Accelerate project is working with adolescent…

Jul

06

2020

By The African Mirror

Teachers’ fears are real and they need a willing ear

EDUCATION

ZANDILE BANGANI WITH schools steadily reopening to save what’s left of the academic year, teachers find themselves face to face with the Covid-19 pandemic that forced them to flee their classrooms in March. At the time of publication, at least 1 000 teachers had been infected with the coronavirus and the number was rising daily in a battle they never imagined having to fight. After much wrangling between the government and teacher unions about the best way to resume classes, schools have staggered their reopening. They have also implemented measures such as the decontamination of classrooms for the sake of teachers’…

Mar

02

2021

By The African Mirror

New report ranks how friendly – or not – African governments are towards girls

EDUCATION

THERE are approximately over 308 million girls below 18 years on the African continent. While the African Union’s legal and policy framework does refer – patchily – to the rights, interests and plight of girls; continental bodies and national governments can and should do more to protect girls, provide for them and ensure that they participate fully in society. RONGEDZAYI FAMBASAYI, Doctoral Researcher: Faculty of Law, North-West University Not only do governments have legal obligations to protect the life and well-being of girls, doing so also has economic benefits. For instance, it’s argued that every dollar invested in a girl’s…

Mar

16

2021

By The African Mirror

Online learning is an opportunity to meet the needs of struggling students

EDUCATION

AS many have observed, the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare many challenges that students face at school and higher education institutions. In South Africa, these relate particularly to inequalities arising from students’ diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. These inequalities account for the learning barriers and inability to learn effectively. DR THELMA DE JAGER, HOD Education, Tshwane University of Technology MASHUPYE HERBERT MASERUMULE, Professor of Public Affairs, Tshwane University of Technology Contributing to ineffective learning, research conducted in South Africa showed that a total of 97% of educators never or seldom use a flexible curriculum and extra time to accommodate the diverse learning…

Mar

14

2021

By The African Mirror

How school maths could better prepare South Africans for the world of work

EDUCATION

IN the modern world of work, most computations are done using technology. In contrast, in South Africa, school maths computations and other kinds of mathematical work such as graph sketching and construction of geometric figures are done with pencil and paper despite the availability of computer software to perform these tasks. CYRIL JULIE, NRF/FrF Professor of Mathematics, University of the Western Cape What’s taught in schools – and how it’s taught – is at odds with equipping pupils with skills needed in the post-school world. Our research explored what maths education should aim for in preparing students for the digital…

Mar

11

2021

By The African Mirror

Disasters interrupt schooling regularly in parts of Africa: here’s a solution

EDUCATION

SCHOOLS are among the worst institutional casualties of complex disasters. This has been the obvious case with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Boko Haram insurgency and other violent conflicts in Africa, which have caused the suspension and destruction of schools. MARGEE ENSIGN, President, Dickinson College JACOB UDO-UDO JACOB, Visiting International Scholar in International Studies & Political Science, Dickinson College Countless schools have been damaged, closed or destroyed. Untold millions of students have been forced to suspend or to abandon their education because of violence or the pandemic. These disruptions have further blighted the already precarious educational foundation of the continent.…

Mar

05

2021

By The African Mirror

Why community participation in schooling is struggling in Nigeria: a view from the ground

EDUCATION

NIGERIA has more out-of-school children than any other country in the world. Around 10.5 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are not in school. MÁIRÉAD DUNNE, Professor of Sociology of Education, University of Sussex SARA HUMPHREYS, Visiting Research Fellow, University of Sussex A key government strategy to get more children into school, and improve school quality, is to increase parental and community participation. Parental and community involvement in various aspects of schooling – ensuring that children go to school, contributing cash or labour to construct classrooms, and participating in school management –- is part of a more…