Regional
Indian Prime Minister Announces Plan to Devote More Resources to African Higher Education
In a speech made in early April at the first Indo-African Forum Summit on African development, the Indian prime minister proposed creating regional and pan-African institutions of higher education.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said such institutions would focus on science, information technology, and vocational education. He also proposed increasing spending on research and development in agriculture and renewable energy. Mr. Singh said India would also increase its number of college and technical-training scholarships for students from Africa from 1,100 to 1,600 each year.
The prime minister’s remarks reflected India’s growing involvement in Africa. In 2006, the country announced it would spend US$1 billion to connect 53 African countries through satellite and fiber-optic networks to telemedicine and distance-education programs. A project to equip five African universities with tele-education studios and to provide course content to 53 learning centers across the continent is under way.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [1]
April 8, 2008
Botswana
Country Set for Second Public University
Botswana’a second public university is set to enroll its first class of students in 2010. The Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), has been in the planning stage for the last five years, and will be located in Palapye, a small town 160 miles north of the capital Gaborone. Current plans would see a capacity enrollment of 10,000 students, one-fifth of whom would be graduate students.
Recently the government advertised in the Commonwealth Secretariat Yearbook for expressions of interest in possible partnerships to participate in the development of BIUST. So far a number of institutions in North America and Australasia have responded and were visited by the Minister of Education and the coordinator of the BIUST implementation unit. Memorandums of understanding have been signed with Howard University [2] in Washington, DC and with World University Service [3] of Canada, a development agency.
– University World News [4]
March 30, 2008
Nigeria
New School Curriculum to Launch in September
A new nine-year basic education curriculum will be launched at all Nigerian public schools in September, beginning with students entering Primary One and Junior Secondary Class One.
Although the basic structure of the education system, 6-3-3-4, will remain intact, the new nine-year basic curriculum is designed to be more in tune with the needs of the Nigerian economy and society. There will also be less of a disconnect between the curriculums of the first six years of primary schooling and the next three at junior secondary. In addition, the curriculum is designed to equip students with entrepreneurial skills, strategic communication skills, functional literacy and numeracy, with an overarching goal of working toward reducing poverty, while creating jobs and wealth for graduates. The new curriculum is also designed to better meet the needs of socially marginalized groups such as adult learners and special needs groups.
Core basic subjects will include: English studies, mathematics, basic science and technology, social studies, civil education, cultural and creative arts, health and physical education, language, religious studies, computer studies and French. Elective subjects include Arabic, agriculture, home economics and business studies. French is being introduced in Primary 4 as a core subject. The National Council on Education approved a three-level curriculum structure: Lower Level Basic Education Curriculum for primaries 1 to 3, Middle level Basic Education Curriculum for primaries 4 to 6 and Upper Level Basic Education Curriculum for JSS 1-3. Primary school and junior secondary school will remain distinct entities.
– This Day [5]
April 8, 2008
American University Sees Large Growth in Enrollments
The American University of Nigeria [6] will conclude its third year of operations at the end of the current academic year. In that time, the institution has grown from 120 students in its first year to more than 700 today, said J. Elspeth S. Smith, vice president for university relations, at a national governing-board conference in April.
With an annual tuition of approximately US$7,000, Nigerian students are able to obtain a U.S.-style degree for a fraction of the costs of studying in the United States. The University was created in partnership with the American University [7] in Washington, D.C.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [8]
April 14, 2008
South Africa
New Fiber Optic Cable to Speed International Research Collaborations
The South African government has been backing the development of high-speed optical fiber ring networks that are expanding university bandwidth 35-fold and vastly increasing the speed and capacity of Internet connections. The new South African National Research Network (SANReN) system will help close the digital divide between southern Africa and developed countries, and advance the capacity for research and collaboration with scholars locally and internationally. The universities of the Witwatersrand [9] and Johannesburg [10] were first to connect in late March.
In the next few years it is hoped that all universities in South Africa will be connected to SANReN’s 10 gbps network – and by mid-2009 to the under-construction oceanic Seacom cable, which runs up the east coast of Africa and will connect South Africa via the east coast town of Mtunzini to Europe as well as Mumbai in India. Universities currently rent space on the South Atlantic Telecommunications cable, SAT-3, which runs up Africa’s west coast.
– University World News [11]
April 6, 2008
Zimbabwe
School Teachers Continue to Leave in Droves
Zimbabwe’s education system, once the envy of all other African nations, is being dismantled teacher by teacher. In 2007, 25,000 teachers fled the country, according to the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe. In the first two months of this year, 8,000 more disappeared. There are a total of 150,000 teaching vacancies that can’t be filled. The Education Ministry employs high school graduates to teach with no degree or experience.
In a country where the official inflation rate is 100,000 percent, teachers simply can’t afford to teach. Before the national elections in March, teachers went on strike to protest salaries of 500 million Zimbabwean dollars a month — about US$10. Their salaries went up 700 percent to end the strike but the raise is not nearly enough to keep pace with hyperinflation. Many teachers have fled to neighboring countries such as South Africa to seek work. The vast majority cannot find work as teachers and end up in menial labor.
At most schools, computers are a dream. Even textbooks are so scarce that 35 children must share one, according to the teachers union. Children sit crammed 80 to a classroom, sometimes on the floor. The higher education system is equally troubled, depriving Zimbabwe’s hospitals of doctors and the mining sector of engineers. Zimbabwe’s mining sector, the country’s last significant source of exports, needs 1,100 skilled specialists; however the technical institutes are all but closed these days.
– The Los Angeles Times [12]
April 8, 2008