EDUCATION - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

South African study shows the power of sharing daily experiences for teachers to learn how to include all learners

GLOBALLY, more than 258 million children and young people between the ages of 6 and 17 are not in school. In South Africa, the figure stands at 232,000 for children aged between 7 and 17. The main reasons they’re not attending school are related to the quality of education, financial constraints, disability and child or teenage pregnancy. The notion of inclusive education focuses on ensuring that all children attend school and receive a good education. The first is a challenge for governments. The second is a challenge for teachers – but they don’t often get the support they need. Wacango…

Apr

2024

By EKATERINA RZYANKINA

Digital textbooks expand learning for engineering students – South African study

EDUCATION

IN the past four years, it’s become increasingly common for part or all of a university student’s learning to happen online. This transition to digital learning platforms has highlighted the digital divide within educational contexts. In poorer, less resourced and connected countries like South Africa, this divide is not merely a matter of who has access to digital devices and who doesn’t. It’s also about whether students are digitally literate. This is about more than merely navigating digital devices and platforms. It’s also about being able to think and evaluate information critically and to creatively use technology in problem-solving. Universities…

Apr

2024

By INGER FABRIS-ROTELLI, ANSIE SMIT, DANIELLE JADE ROBERTS, DANIEL MAPOSA, FABIO MATHIAS CORREA, MICHAEL JOHAN VON MALTITZ and SONALI DAS

South Africa is short of academic statisticians: why and what can be done

EDUCATION

OUR world is awash with data. A 2019 article published by the World Economic Forum estimated that, by 2025, about 463 exabytes of data will be created each day globally – that’s the equivalent of 212,765,957 DVDs per day. But data is only useful if it can be collected, analysed and explained by experts. That’s where statisticians come in. People like us are trained to make sense of data. Our analyses can then guide organisations and governments in making sensible policy decisions. Both “data scientist” and “statistics lecturer” feature on the South African government’s critical skills list. Due to the…

Apr

2024

By SHARON FONN and MARTA VICENTE-CRESPO

Africa’s PhDs: study shows how to develop strong graduates who want to make a difference

EDUCATION

THE challenge for universities is to produce graduates who can work with others to produce knowledge and research that can change institutions and societies for the better. That is the basis on which the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (Carta) began developing an approach to teaching PhDs 12 years ago. The consortium supports faculty members of public universities and research institutes on the continent who want to pursue a PhD. The training covers a range of research methods to ensure graduates value multidisciplinarity. It also includes a focus on stakeholder and community engagement and prepares students for life…

Mar

2024

By CHINAZA ULEANYA

Rural schools in South Africa can produce good exam results too: study shows what’s behind one success story

EDUCATION

EACH weekday, hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers in South Africa’s rural areas (which make up just over 31% of the country’s total area) make the journey to school. It’s often difficult. Poor road networks and a lack of easy access to transport make just getting to and from school a challenge. Many rural schools are dilapidated and poorly equipped. It’s very unusual for these schools to have libraries, computer rooms or science laboratories. There has been some improvement in matric (school-leaving) exam results in the largely rural provinces. In 2016 the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo provinces, which…

Mar

2024

By VICTOR OSEI KWADWO and ROSE VINCENT

Ghana’s free high school policy is getting more girls to complete secondary education – study

EDUCATION

EDUCATION drives economic growth and individual well-being. Secondary education, in particular, plays a crucial role. In recent decades, this recognition has encouraged several African countries to make secondary education free. One example is Ghana’s Free Public Senior High School (FreeSHS) policy, initiated in 2017. The policy aimed to remove cost barriers to secondary education, including fees, textbooks, boarding and meals. As scholars of public policy, we conducted research into the impact of the policy, particularly its effect on the number of girls completing secondary school. We emphasised the educational outcomes of girls because they are at a disadvantage when accessing…

Mar

2024

By KAYLIANNE APLOON-ZOKUFA

South Africa: women play a key role in early childhood learning and care – but they need help accessing university

EDUCATION

IN South Africa, the early childhood development sector is dominated by women who build creches from the ground up. These women offer services to communities that go far beyond childcare. They teach, feed and nurture children and keep them safe. They also build sustainable businesses and provide employment opportunities to members of their communities. Previously managed under the Department of Social Development and currently under the Department of Basic Education, the early childhood development sector runs on an entrepreneurship model. Some individuals in the sector opt to set up and run childcare businesses; there are also many not-for-profit early childhood…

Mar

2024

By MARILYN CAMPBELL and ELIZABETH J EDWARDS

We looked at all the recent evidence on mobile phone bans in schools – this is what we found

EDUCATION

MOBILE phones are currently banned in all Australian state schools and many Catholic and independent schools around the country. This is part of a global trend over more than a decade to restrict phone use in schools. Australian governments say banning mobile phones will reduce distractions in class, allow students to focus on learning, improve student wellbeing and reduce cyberbullying. However, previous research has shown there is little evidence on whether the bans actually achieve these aims. Many places that restricted phones in schools before Australia have now reversed their decisions. For example, several school districts in Canada implemented outright…

Mar

2024

By COLIN FOSTER

Understanding how the brain works can transform how school students learn maths

EDUCATION

SCHOOL mathematics teaching is stuck in the past. An adult revisiting the school that they attended as a child would see only superficial changes from what they experienced themselves. Yes, in some schools they might see a room full of electronic tablets, or the teacher using a touch-sensitive, interactive whiteboard. But if we zoom in on the details – the tasks that students are actually being given to help them make sense of the subject – things have hardly changed at all. COLIN FOSTER, Reader in Mathematics Education, Loughborough University We’ve learnt a huge amount in recent years about cognitive…

Feb

2024

By GIJSBERT HOOGENDOORN, DANIEL HAMMETT and MUKOVHE MASUTHA

South Africa’s apartheid legacy is still hobbling research – a study of geography shows how

EDUCATION

KNOWLEDGE matters. It informs how we think about the world around us. It informs our decisions and government policies, supporting economic growth and development. Knowledge is also power. Certain types of knowledge are given more value than others. This is driven by histories of privilege. In South Africa, apartheid looms large in debates about how knowledge is produced. Though it formally ended 30 years ago, it still influences whose knowledge is considered “right” and whose is sidelined. And this matters in everyday life. For instance, health and medical research and instruction used to focus on white and male bodies. This…