questFocus
Improving the performance of children in primary schools in Africa, paying specific attention to barriers facing girls
OCT/NOV, 2008
ISSUE: VOLUME 1, NUMBER 3
News and Updates
The Education Imperative: Extending the Reach of High-Quality Learning
Transforming education and extending its benefits to all underserved communities is a complex challenge that requires a combination of institutional,
cultural, technological and infrastructure changes, as well as innovative and effective partnerships between governments, development organizations, communities and businesses. Although technology is not the only tool required to address these challenges, it can play an important role in broadening access to learning, helping empower students and teachers, and enabling schools and education systems to be more relevant,
effective, and adaptive. By helping transcend the barriers of time, distance, and limited resources that often impede access to education, software can be a powerful agent for change. Compelling software and tools can create a rich, interactive instructional environment that ignites students’ imaginations, expands their horizons, and sparks the curiosity and wonder that is the catalyst for learning. Building on a decade
of experience working with education leaders worldwide and developing innovative learning resources, Microsoft is committed to using its expertise, its passion for technology, and a rich network of alliances to accomplish these goals:
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Download:
A Microsoft White Paper from the Unlimited Potential Group
on Extending the Reach of High-Quality Learning
Get the Zimbabwe Engine Started!
When and how will the Zimbabwe engine start running again? The most frustrating part of the Zimbabwe image is that the country did not always look like this- in the early 1990s, it was considered one of Africa’s most promising countries. For starters, it had one of the strongest, most diverse economies in the region. It was not only a major mining centre and tobacco exporter, but also a strong agricultural producer.
Social indicators were also improving. Zimbabwe boasted one of the region’s most well-educated populations, with an adult literacy rate above 90%. The government invested heavily in education in the 1980s and with the introduction of free primary school fees, Zimbabwe was able to achieve universal primary education by 1990. By the early 2000s, this potential was squandered, demonstrating that poor leadership can wipe away development progress in a matter of years.
So what really happened to this one time oasis of Africa?
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Nomadic Schools for Mobile Girls
Five years after the introduction of free primary education (FPE) in Kenya, the enrolment of girls in schools continues to lag behind in Garissa, in Kenya's North Eastern region. Most communities living in the North Eastern region are nomadic and semi-nomadic, and depend on livestock for their livelihood. "The nomadic life favours only boys to be in school. Parents force boys to go to school and the girls are required to look after the animals.
They (parents) leave the boys under the care of relatives who ensure they go to school, while girls move around with their parents from place to place in search of pasture for their livestock," Nur Ibrahim Abdi, the Deputy District Education Officer of Garissa told IPS. Eleven year-old Nadia Yusuf is one such girl, who has dropped out of school permanently to care for the family's herd of 100 goats, while her three brothers go to school. "My parents and I move from one water
point to the next to feed our animals. If we find a water point dry, we look for the next and we lodge there for days as our goats drink and feed," she told IPS from the outskirts of the semi-desert Garissa town.
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Special Features
Policies on Free Primary and Secondary Education in East Africa. A Review of the Literature
By: Moses O. Oketch and Caine M. Rolleston
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are among the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa which have recently implemented policies for free primary education. Since the 1960s, they have attempted to expand access at various levels of their education systems albeit with differences in philosophy and in both the modes
and successes of implementation. All three countries continue to face the challenges of enrolling every child in school, keeping them in school and ensuring that meaningful learning occurs for all enrolled children. This paper provides a review of the three countries’ policies for expanding access to education, particularly with regard to equity and the enrolment of excluded groups since their political independence in the 1960s. It considers policies in the light of the countries’
own stated goals alongside the broader international agendas set by the Millennium Development Goals and in particular, ‘Education for All’. It is concerned with the following questions: What led to those policies and how were they funded? What was the role, if any, of the international community in the formulation of those policies? What were the politics and philosophies surrounding the formulation of those policies, have the policies changed over time, and if so how and why?
The paper also discusses the range of strategies for implementation adopted. Tremendous growth has occurred in access to primary education since the 1960s, not least in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The challenge of providing equitable access to schooling has been addressed in a series of education drives with varying motivations, modalities and degrees of success, the most recent of which pays attention to the increasingly pressing question of the transition to secondary education.
The success of such policy remains to be seen but will be crucial for the widening of access to the benefits of education and to economic opportunity, particularly for those groups which history has so far excluded.
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Education Research Grants and Training
Opportunities
The Institute of Education Science
(IES) Research and Research Training Grant Programs: Future Competitions.
The Institute of Education Sciences accepts applications twice each year for its research and research training grant programs – generally, the fourth Thursday in June and the first Thursday in October. We anticipate that due dates for 2009 will be, More…
Commonwealth Scholarships 2009. The Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE) has been asked to nominate two suitable candidates for the Commonwealth Scholarship scheme and candidates are invited to submit an application to CREATE. For further information on the scheme and how to apply, visit their website
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
“Inclusive Education: the Way of the Future.” The 48th session of the International Conference on Education 25 – 28 November 2008 (Geneva, Switzerland).
"The New Dynamics of Higher Education" World Conference on Higher Education: 6-8 July 2009, UNESCO Paris.
World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development, Moving into the Second Half of the UNDecade will be held from 31 March – 2 April 2009, Bonn, Germany.
Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) will take place from 19 - 22 May 2009 in Belém, Brazil, under the overall title: “Living and Learning for a Viable Future – The Power of Adult Learning“. The schedule for the Regional Preparatory Conferences is:
• 3 – 5 December 2008 in Budapest (Hungary)
• 5 – 7 January 2009 in Tunis (Tunisia)
Contact information
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