classrooms - The African Mirror

Oct

2023

In Burkina Faso, a million children out of school due to insecurity– UNICEF

MORE than one million children and 31,000 teachers have been unable to return to their classrooms in Burkina Faso due to violence and insecurity as the West African nation starts another academic year, UNICEF said. About 6,100 schools, or at least one out of four, were shut down on the first day of the school year, UNICEF said. The junta that seized power in a military coup last year has struggled to improve security in the country. Indeed, data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group, shows that violence nationwide has only increased since the…

Feb

2023

By BONFACE ORUCHO/BIRD STORY AGENCY

This edtech startup is helping rural schools overcome tech integration barriers in classrooms

EDUCATION

AT a chief's camp in Lokichogio, North West Kenya, various school children have gathered to observe microorganisms with pocket-size foldable microscopes. This is the first time these children are seeing and using microscopes. Barely 30 km from the South Sudan border, this semi-arid area inhabited by pastoral communities usually has limited access to learning innovations. "Since access to microscopes in this region is difficult, we introduced these foldable microscopes which can fit in pockets. The children can go to the fields with them," explained Patrick Njoroge, co-founder of Edutab. Edutab Africa is an edtech startup founded in 2018 to provide…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Spurred by COVID-19, African schools innovate to close learning gap

EDUCATION

NELLIE PEYTON and KIM HARRISBERG IN rural Sierra Leone, teenagers tuned into solar-powered radios for their lessons, while Kenyan students texted a code to receive free learning guides on their phones. As COVID-19 shut Africa's schools, governments and charities rushed to make learning accessible to millions of pupils without internet or even electricity, sparking innovations that could keep children learning long after the pandemic has passed. "The situation... pushed all the governments and education ministries to think in a different way," said Elena Locatelli, an advisor on education in emergencies at the U.N. children's agency UNICEF. In a matter of…