Regional
Universities in French-Speaking Africa Face Increased Overcrowding
According to French newspaper Le Monde, in 2005, there were 400,000 students enrolled at universities in the 20 sub-Saharan French-speaking countries of Africa. By 2015, those universities will have to teach two million, leaving questions about how universities will cope with the massive projected increase while facing huge budget shortfalls.
Unlike English-speaking universities, which Le Monde says are more selective and expensive, entry to French-speaking institutions is typically guaranteed to high school graduates, with grants and benefits also being more generous.
According to Pierre-Antoine Gioan, author of a study on higher education in French-speaking Africa published by the World Bank, student numbers will increase by more than 150 percent in Mali, Cameroon, Benin and Senegal, and between 90 percent and 150 percent in Guinea, Togo, Gabon and Mauritania.
– Le Monde [1]
February 4, 4009
– University World news [2]
February 8, 2009
Botswana
University of Botswana Closed After Student Boycotts
The University of Botswana [3] (UB) closed its doors on February 4, 2009 after four days of class boycotts and violence. Students were boycotting classes to protest a ministry decision to stop paying allowances to those who repeat their courses. The university reopened February 15.
– Mmegi [4]
February 9, 2009
Ethiopia
Massification of Tertiary Education Leading to Dire Faculty Shortages
Over the last 15 years there has been an explosion in access to tertiary studies in Ethiopia, growing four- to five-fold. As a result, faculty members are being stretched to a maximum, argues Kedir Tessema, an academic at Addis Ababa University [5], in a paper published in the journal Higher Education Quarterly.
Despite enrolling almost 200,000 students in 2007, Ethiopia still has one of the worst rates of university access in sub-Saharan Africa. The country of 80 million has 21 universities, many of which were opened just two to three years ago. As a result of the relative explosion in the number of universities, there is now an “acute” shortage of qualified faculty, with the percentage of lecturers holding a doctorate falling from 28 percent to 9 percent in just six years. Academics are reportedly struggling with class sizes, which have grown from an average of 35 students in 2000 to more than 100 today.
– The Times Higher Education Supplement [6]
February 5, 2009
Mozambique
Universal Primary Education Goals in Danger
Mozambique’s most significant education-related problems are access to basic education and illiteracy rates, which according to the UNDP’s 2007/08 Human Development Index currently stands at 61.3 percent, meaning just 38.7 percent of the adult population is literate. According to the UN Integrated Regional Information Network, the challenges to Mozambique’s education system are substantial, but not insurmountable.
The government and its development partners aim to tackle these issues by extending the reach of education services throughout the country to areas outside the capital region. This falls in line with the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of universal primary education by 2015.
According to Cristina Tomo, Director for General Education in the Ministry of Education and Culture, an education program targeting primary school children in the disadvantaged central and northern parts of the country is already reversing low education indicators. The Child-Friendly Schools program is part of a “six-year program aimed at providing education as the basis for improved welfare and livelihoods for vulnerable children, such as orphans in disadvantaged communities in the rural areas.” Tomo told IRIN.
Enrollment rates have increased by 36 percent in the targeted districts, showing a much higher increase than the national average of 17.5 percent. Ensuring that the schools have adequate water and sanitation services, and that the health needs of the children are catered for, is central to the success of the program.
– UN Integrated Regional Information Networks [7]
February 5, 2009
Nigeria
Students Told to Expect Fee Hikes
Students in Nigeria can expect to pay more for their education after the Education Minister, Sam Egwu, warned that quality higher education does not “come cheap”. Mr. Egwu said universities needed more cash to end years of bad management, crumbling infrastructure and academic decline, newspaper This Day reported.
The size of the Nigerian higher education system has grown rapidly in recent decades, with the number of universities jumping from just one in 1960 to more than 90 today.
– This Day [8]
February 11, 2009
South Africa
New School Leaving Certificate
The South African high school graduating class of 2008 was the first to receive a new school-leaving certificate, known as the National Senior Certificate. The new certificate replaces the Senior Certificate and was phased in for Grade 10 students in 2006. It was issued for the first time last year with all provincial candidates taking the same examinations, after studying the nation’s first undifferentiated curricula and assessments.
Business Day reports that many of those students who enter university will participate in a pilot project run by Higher Education South Africa, to test the new school curriculum.
While it is was widely acknowledged that the old curriculum was outdated, universities are a bit nervous about the new school-leaving certificate and unsure as to the learning outcomes of the new curriculum. A National Benchmarking Test developed by Higher Education South Africa, which will be taken by first-year students at three universities, is being used as an answer to this problem.
– Business Day [9]
January 11, 2009
– HESA news release [10]
December 31, 2008
Zimbabwe
Nation’s Flagship University Closes After it Demands Tuition in Foreign Currency
The University of Zimbabwe [11] was closed in February following violent demonstrations sparked by the government’s decision to charge tuition fees in foreign currency. The official notice that students received prior to the demonstrations stated that they must pay an examination fee of US$400 on top of tuition fees of US$1,800 per semester. The violence quickly spread to other public institutions.
A statement released by The Zimbabwe National Students Union [12] following the university’s closure asserted “payments of fees in foreign currency will be the final death nail in the collapse of our once vibrant and robust education sector. Scores of students will drop out of school owing to high fees.”
– University World News [13]
February 22, 2009