questFocus
Improving the performance of children in primary schools in Africa, paying specific attention to barriers facing girls
JUNE, 2008
ISSUE: VOLUME 1, NUMBER 1
Edittor's Note:
Education reform efforts in less industrialized countries have aimed at making education an effective vehicle for national development.
Governments, policy makers, researchers and civil society have emphasized that developing countries need to invest more in education and ensure
that systems of education are efficiently managed, that limited funds allocated to sector have maximum impact, and that cost-recovery measures are adopted.
Although major strides have been made in education in quantitative terms, there are serious shortcomings in Africa’s education system
Research has pointed out that, completion rates of primary education in Africa have continuously remained very low for the last five years.
Other indications are that teaching-learning time is not utilized efficiently in primary schools. Several factors are behind such inefficiencies.
These include: Education policies and management processes - mis-allocation of resources to educational levels; school based factors – teachers attitudes,
time utilization, school environment; and household based factors -poverty, socio-cultural factors, and gender issues.
Arising from this background, the operations of primary education, is an attempt to map out policies and analyze institutional and structural
factors which affect efficient utilization of primary school resources
About QUEST
Quality Education for Social Transformation was The Rockefeller Foundation’s Human Capacity Building and Africa regional program,
whose overall goal was to improve the performance of children in primary schools in Africa, paying specific attention to barriers facing girls. It was a research,
intervention and dissemination program supported by The Rockefeller Foundation on the quality of primary education in Africa. Its main focus was on the learning, practice,
and mastery of literacy at primary school by poor children in rural areas.
QUESTAFRICA.ORG Website
Questafrica.org collects processes and disseminates information on improving access to primary education in Africa. The website leads in the dissemination
of educational project outputs and offers opportunities for information sharing among partners of the QUEST program and other initiatives in Africa, with a focus
on eliminating barriers facing young girls’ access to better education. The website publishes books, magazines and various reading materials published by several institutions
and individuals formerly supported by the QUEST program.
News and Updates
Stopping pregnancy from being the end of the educational road.
Are the effects of teenage pregnancy on the education of girls being addressed with sufficient vigor in
Kenya? With statistics indicating that pregnancy accounts for 31 percent (2003 figures, provided by the Kenyan chapter of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (END/2006))
of all school drop-out cases among girls, this is a question that begs asking. A Gender and Education Policy developed in 2003 makes provision for the re-admission of girls who
become pregnant while still at school, even allowing them to seek a place at a different institution to the one they originally attended. This is to avoid the girls being stigmatized
by their former schoolmates, as a result of pregnancy.
More...
Mother Tongue Education Both Effective and Elusive
A debate about the extent to which mother tongue schooling improves the quality of education is emerging in Kenya, with certain experts campaigning for children's mother tongue to be used as the language
of instruction in schools. Kenya, as with a number of other countries across Africa, has a majority of its children going through an education system that sometimes fails to provide instruction in the language they speak at home --
which is the language they understand best.
More...
Special Features
QUEST’s Growing Up and Sexual Maturation in Zimbabwe’s Primary Schools.
By: Prof. Overson Shumba
The feature provides an overview of the research and outputs of the Growing Up and Sexual Maturation (GUSM) Project (2002-2007) at the University of Zimbabwe. We researched how knowledge, beliefs and practices surrounding
GUSM militate against sustained participation, persistence, and achievement especially among girls in primary schools and against equity, quality and relevance of education. This research process was guided and facilitated by
research questions that can be coalesced into the core question: What, by whom, and by what methodology must information on growing up and sexual maturation be conveyed to primary school level pupils?
More...
Education Research Grants and Training
Opportunities
The Institute of Education Science (IES) invites applications for research projects that will contribute to its education research programs in:
i. Education Research Request for Applications (FY 2009) - 84.305A
ii. Education Research Training Grants (FY 2009) - 84.305B
iii. Special Education Research Request for Applications (FY 2009) - 84.324A
iv. Special Education Research Training Grants (FY 2009) - 84.324B
v. Unsolicited Grant Opportunities (FY 2008: Released October 09, 2007)
The application deadline dates has been extended from July 10, 2008 to August 4, 2008. More…
Education Research Networks
ERNWACA Education Research Network for West and Central Africa. A bilingual research network with 12 member countries. Website: www.ernwaca.org. E-Mail: mldiarra@rocare.org
The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) is a pan African Non Government Organization founded in 1992 to promote girls’ and women’s education in sub Saharan Africa in line with Education For All. FAWE has a network of National Chapters in 35 countries. Website: www.fawe.org.
Email: fawe@fawe.org
The Association of African Universities (AAU) is the apex organization and forum for consultation, exchange of information and co-operation among institutions of higher education in Africa. Website: www.aau.org.
Email: info@aau.org
The Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, launched in May 2000 by Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation, the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa represents both a belief in the importance and viability of higher education in Africa and a mechanism to provide meaningful assistance to its renaissance. Website: www.foundation-partnership.org
African Education Journals Web Links
Upcoming Conferences
2nd African Council for Distance Education (ACDE) Conference and General Assembly. 8 to 11 July 2008, Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria. Website:
www.nou.edu.ng/noun/acde2008. Contact name: Professor Babatunde Ipaye, Chairman, LOC
The Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning: Access to Learning for Development conference 13 to 17 July 2008, London, United Kingdom. Website:
www.col.org/pcf5. Contact name: Elena Papamichael, Conference Officer
Narrative and Interactive Learning Environments. 5 to 8 August 2008 Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Website: http://nile2008.org
Contact name: Judy Robertson
24th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning 5 to 8 August 2008 Madison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin, United States. Website:
www.uwex.edu/disted/conference. Contact name: Kimary Peterson, Conference Manager
Learning Technologies Africa 8 to 10 September 2008 Abuja,, Nigeria. Website: www.LearnTechAfrica.com. Contact name: Sam Juwe
1st Southern African conference on the First-year experience: Opening conversations on First-year success 8 to 10 September 2008. Stellenbosch University, Western Cape, South Africa. Website:
www.sun.ac.za/FYEconference2008. Contact name: Susan van Schalkwyk
7th International Internet Education Conference (ICT-Learn2008):
7 to 9 October 2008, Mariott Cairo Hotel, Cairo, Egypt. Website:
www.distant-learning.net. Contact name: Mohamed Alazab
10th Annual Conference on World Wide Web applications: 3-5 September 2008. Cape Town, South Africa. Website:
http://active.cput.ac.za/ZAW3/public/index.asp?pageid=546. Contact name: Prof Pieter van Brakel, Mobile +27 82 966-0789, E-mail
vanbrakelp@cput.ac.za
Contact information
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Tel: +254 20 675 28 66, Email: questafrica@gmail.com
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