Angola
UNICEF Workshops to Train Teachers
Angola has been at peace for almost two years, and after 27 years of fighting, the government has committed US$44 million to get 1 million grade-schoolers back in class within a year. International children’s charity UNICEF [1] will train 29,000 teachers in three national workshops. The aim is to cut the number of children under age 11 who have no basic primary education from 44 percent to just 4 percent. In a country where 70 percent of the population of 13 million is under age 24 and more than half are children, the benefits will be felt far beyond the classroom, considering the multitude of problems — including AIDS, poverty and malnutrition — Angola faces.
Angola is famous for its endemic corruption, but with money already earmarked for education, Angolans are hopeful it will find its way to the children. Part of the challenge has been to persuade people at all levels of society of the importance of investing in schools. During the last four years of the war, the country spent just 4.7 percent of its GDP on education; in 2002, it spent 7 percent, and the plan was to increase that to 10 percent in 2003. The success of a pilot program in two Angolan provinces, which was backed by regional and church leaders, helped win the argument.
— The Guardian [2]
Oct. 28, 2003
Kenya
Lecturers End 3-Month Strike
The three-month old strike by public university lecturers is, for the time being over, and their unions have finally accepted a government assurance that a salary deal will be tabled by the end of February. All six public universities in Kenya were closed Nov. 10 after the lecturers went on strike. Three universities re-opened Jan. 7, but the remaining three stayed closed as lecturers continued to protest government inaction. Talks broke down Jan. 12, and activities at all six public universities were again suspended, prompting student riots at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology [3].
After a further two weeks of cancelled lectures, an agreement was reached for classes to resume. In keen anticipation of the salary package, union members said it is the culmination of a determined effort to push the government to recognize their role and status in the development of the nation. Should the government fail to come up with an acceptable package, the teachers’ union has warned that serious learning in public institutions will not resume. Meanwhile, students have reportedly started to filter back to campuses, but very few classes are said to have restarted.
— Allafrica [4]
December 2003/February 2004
No Funds to Avert Lecturers’ Strike
The Government is broke and cannot afford lecturers’ pay demands. This statement by Minister of Education George Saitoti last week effectively shattered lecturers’ hopes for a better pay deal.
Saitoti moved to avert a planned lecturers’ strike by announcing a modest increase of their housing allowances. However, he said the basic salaries remain at the rates suggested by the Inter-Public University Council Consultative Forum in February – already rejected by the Universities Academic Staff Union. Statements from union officials suggest that the new move would harden the union’s resolve to carry out its strike threat, slated for April.
— The Nation [5]
March 10, 2004
Mozambique
Language Key to New Curriculum
Education is a key instrument in the fight against absolute poverty, declared Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi at the January launch of a new curriculum for basic education. An immediate priority is tackling the illiteracy rate, which stood at more than 90 percent in 1975. Today, according to Mocumbi, that rate is down to 53 percent.
The new curriculum allows Mozambican languages to be the medium of teaching in the first years of primary school. Educational experts have long argued that teaching 6-year-olds in Portuguese, a language many of them have never encountered before, is a recipe for failure. Mozambique is a mosaic of many ethnic and linguistic groups. In the first stage of the new curriculum’s implementation, Mocumbi said, it will only be possible to introduce the 10 Mozambican languages whose written form has been standardized.
The new curriculum also introduces moral and ethics education, and attempts to make schooling more relevant to the needs of local communities.
— Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique [6]
Jan. 19, 2004
Namibia
India Courts Unam Officials
An academic team from the University of Namibia [7] (Unam) recently went on a two-week trip to India for academic development and to strengthen ties between Unam and institutions of higher learning in India. The team visited a number of high-profile institutions and also such Indian educational organizations as the All India Council for Technical Education [8]. The trip already has produced plans for an academic exchange that will lead to India being profiled as a quality educational destination for Namibians.
— New Era
Jan. 23, 2004
Nigeria
Three Professional Schools Earn Approval
Thirty years after its establishment, the Nigeria Institute of Journalism gained approval in December from the National Board of Technical Education to offer programs in mass communication. Ronik Polytechnic [9] in Ogun state and Allover Central Polytechnic in Lagos also satisfied the requirements of the governing board to offer programs in engineering, science and business studies.
— This Day [10]
Dec. 31, 2003
Open University Up and Running
With support from UNESCO [11], the Commonwealth of Learning [12], India and the United Kingdom, National Open University of Nigeria welcomed its first 32,000 students in January.
Speaking at the orientation ceremony for the first students, Minister of Education Fabian Osuji said programs offered at the institution will fill the gap created by the closure of satellite and outreach campuses of conventional universities. He justified the government’s decision to embark on the project by arguing that conventional universities lack the capacity to absorb eligible candidates for university education. According to the minister, Nigeria’s 54 existing universities have the capacity to enroll 200,000 students — less than 15 percent of the 1.5 million applications the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board [13] received last year. Considering the statistics, the minister argued, it has become imperative for Nigeria to adopt open and distance-learning options. The ministry expects the new Open University to enroll 68,000 students by the end of the year.
— This Day [10]
Jan. 27, 2004
Somalia
Private Education May Hold Key to Future
Despite the collapse of the central government in 1991 and the chaos that followed, parents, teachers and aid agencies have managed to piece together a private education system that ranges from preschool to newly founded institutions of higher education.
Because most Somalis are poor and have no money for tuition, many children are left out of the nascent school system. A report released by the United Nations Development Program [14] found that only 16.9 percent of primary-school-aged children in Somalia attend school. “Children in Somalia are either learning or looting,” said Abdulrachman Abdullahi, chairman of trustees for Mogadishu University [15]. Abdullahi helped rebuild his country seven years ago by establishing the first functioning university in Somalia since war broke out in 1991. The university now has 6,000 students enrolled in nine programs. Fees are several hundred dollars a semester. “We’re trying to convince Somalis that education is a commodity, like rice and oil,” he said.
Ridiculed at first, the former army officer’s initiative has been followed by others, and universities have opened to meet the growing demand. In 2003, Banadir University’s medical school was restarted (see WENR [16] July/August 2003) with 22 students. On Dec. 25, Sudan’s Al-Neeylain University opened a branch in Somalia. Funded by the Sudanese government, the university already teaches 4,000 Somali students at the main campus in Khartoum and plans to serve thousands more in Mogadishu. Mogadishu University is building a 20-acre campus north of the city, and educators predict that if peace is reached and a stable government returns, students will enthusiastically fill classrooms again.
— Mail and Guardian [17]
Jan. 21, 2004
South Africa
Complications Await Institutional Mergers
A new era dawned in the South African higher education sector on Jan. 1 with institutional mergers leading to the birth of four new universities: the University of KwaZulu-Natal [18], Tshwane University of Technology [19], North West University [20] and the University of SA [21] (Unisa). While this signals new beginnings for the sector, the US$450 million dollar merger exercise will not yield immediate transformation results given the complexities of rationalizing 36 institutions into 22. For cash-strapped and poorly governed institutions that have been given a second lease of life, the merger process is a fraught process.
Massive challenges and administrative nightmares lie ahead. The four newly integrated institutions still do not know which staff will be taking voluntary severance, so they cannot plan enrollments or staff allocations. The schools have not finalized their new mission statements or consolidated their curriculums and program offerings. Buildings have to be consolidated and new satellite campuses have to be set up, while more mundane administrative issues such as designing new letterheads, brochures and joint registration processes also have to be dealt with. In April, a new funding formula will be enacted to add to their woes. The amount of state funding will then depend on the universities’ three-year rolling plans, graduation rates, research outputs, staff and student equity and other targets. There are also sure to be lengthy battles between management and staff unions as the emotional issue of salary gaps starts to cloud important governance issues.
For a full list of merging institutions, please visit the September/October 2003 issue of WENR [22].
— Business Day [23]
Jan. 12, 2004
National Register Aims at Fraudulent Degrees
South Africa is struggling to contain an explosion in university-degree fraud. It is estimated that more than 15 percent of South Africans obtained their jobs on the basis of bogus education credentials. The huge scale of the problem has forced South Africa’s leading universities to create a National Qualification Register to help employers confirm the veracity of academic claims.
— The Times Higher Education Supplement [24]
Nov. 19, 2003
Togo
New University Opens
Togo’s second university is in the northern town of Kara. The foundation stone for Kara University was laid some four years ago; however, it is still sitting in an empty field. Because the government cannot afford to build the campus, lecturers and students are making do with the buildings of a former teacher training college.
The new university is expected to reduce crowding at the University of Lomé [25], Togo’s only other university, in the capital city of Lomé. The new institution offers classes in economics, management, history, geography, modern languages and biological sciences. Annual tuition fees at Kara of US$50 are half those in Lomé.
— UN IRIN [26]
Jan. 27, 2004
Uganda
4 Universities Shuttered
The National Council for Higher Education has shut down Nakaseke, Kabale, Mbale Elgon and Farland universities. The council also deferred issuing operating licenses to five other universities, including Kampala International University, in a crackdown on substandard institutions of higher education. The council granted charters to Uganda Christian University [27] in Mukono and the Uganda Management Institute [28].
— New Vision [29]
Jan. 28, 2004
Zimbabwe
Teacher Shortage Closes Nursing School
Zimbabwe’s already strained health sector will come under even greater pressure after one of the country’s biggest nursing schools failed to open. Harare Central Hospital, with an annual intake of 180 nursing students, could not open its doors to new students because of a crippling shortage of instructors. Students were turned away Jan. 4, when hospital authorities said they would be called to return at a later date. Students and nurses who talked to the U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks said the school had been left with only three instructors; a minimum of 15 are needed to operate. The situation is set to worsen — the remaining instructors have all submitted their resignations.
— UN IRIN [26]
Jan. 9, 2004
Strike Continues for University Lecturers
Lecturers at the University of Zimbabwe [30] have been on strike for several weeks and Minister of Higher Education Herbert Murerwa recently said the government has no money to meet their demands. Late in February, lecturers resolved to stay on strike until the government comes up with a solution to their grievances, which include unacceptable housing and transport allowances.
— Zimbabwe Standard [31]
Feb. 29, 2004