Topic 1: Promotion of Education in Africa
The issue of basic education in the world, especially in Africa has been in the spotlight, waiting impatiently to be solved. The UN, with its Millennium Development Goals, has cited education as one of its top priorities to be achieved by 2015. The African Union, with its Second Decade of Education, has emphasized the need for primary education in Africa to ensure gender equality and the enhancement of African cultural values. Sadly, in many African nations, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa, adult literacy rates are well below 50%, and many youth lack the most basic and primal educational opportunities. The delegation of South Africa recognizes this urgent need of promotion of education in Africa.
Background
As a fortunate nation, South Africa has a stable educational infrastructure and a sound “baseline” for elementary education. In South Africa, the average adult literacy rate is a good 93 percent, as compared to the international average of 84 percent (2010) and the staggering 62 percent of Africa. To continue, most youth has completed grade 9, which concludes their general education and ends their compulsory schooling. And to breathe a sigh of relief, there is little gender disparity in the South African education system.
However, there are always some holes. Despite the solid literacy rate- this is defined as a person 15 years or older and can write a short statement about his or her life- South Africa lacks strong secondary and tertiary education. As stated from a study conducted by the OCED (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development), “some three-quarters of South African adults have completed at least grade 6, half has completed grade 9, and just under one-thir...
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...amic Militant Organizations in Africa
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The number of people who have been excluded from education is enormous. The school age population includes thousands of displaced children across Sudan. Many more young people have never acquired basic literacy, numeracy or life skills. Girls and women are among those who fare the worst in accessing education. Parents with very limited means will often prioritize boys’ education, and girls are often kept at home to ensure their bride price. A girl in South Sudan is three times more likely to die in childbirth than she is to finish primary school. The lack of adult literacy and education greatly impedes people’s ability to engage in economic activities and hinders the growth and peaceful development of the country. There is a need for recognized, non-formal alternative education options to help provide people with the essential literacy, numeracy and skills they need to support themselves. The challenges of the formal school system also need to be addressed to bring an end to a cycle that leaves people without any access to education. Investment needs to be made in all aspects of public education. Fewer than 50% of schools have a permanent building. Most communities have no learning materials, resources or
Likewise, the construction of primary school increased from 11,873 in 2001 to 15,816 in 2010 with registration doubled from 4,875,185 to 8,419,305 in the same year. Secondary school construction alike, increased by 355% in the same period (Mihayo, 2011) cited from Haki Elimu. At least, above a 100% of children now access education (Mihayo, 2011; UNESCO, 2011). Yet, enrollment t increase does not correspond with the quality of education, where primary school graduates cannot calculate standard II level basic mathematics. They can hardly read standard II level Kiswahili (World Bank, 2012; Mihayo, 2011 2014; Uwezo, 2012; Hartwig, 2013). This is not to say, the ability to read and write remain the only measure for ensuring students’ cognizant capability. Literary ability must be beyond the reading and writing to numerical and technological knowledge (Shank & Brown, 2013). Schools cannot improve skills and technology, if they suffer from scantiness of teachers, or sometimes have unqualified teachers, and schools lack learning and teaching materials. Poor quality of education in primary school leads to a poor quality of education in secondary school (World Bank 2012; Uwezo, 2012). This is the reason for students’ failure in the national primary and secondary school exam each year, for instance, the (URoTMOEVT, 2012) national exam result Figure 1:2. I build on the same argument that,
Bureau of African Affairs. (2011). Background Note: South Africa. Retrieved March 28, 2011, from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2898.html
Reda (2015) states “If we want to see the world as a just and fair place where everyone is given equal opportunities, education is what we require. Education is a must if we want to do away with the existing differences between different social classes and genders. It opens a whole world of opportunities for the poor so that they may have an equal shot at well-paying jobs.” Creating education in a democratic state has been aimed by many states, theorists, philosophers and so on. Countries in this era have succeeded is aiming for a democratic education, some are getting there and other countries fail in creating a democratic education. The manner in which manner is received plays a crucial role in the life of everyone but as much as that is important to the human existence, the manner in which education is given is just as vital. The below will discuss Amy Gutmann’s theory of democratic education briefly, the South African education system and the extent to
Looking at the comment created by South Africa’s education minister, it clearly shows that the standard of education provided in Africa is poor. It may not necessarily be the teachers fault for the poor education but also the infrastructure of the schooling environment as well as a scarcity of instructional resources for the learners, that plays a role on the poor
Koopman, Joop. “If Nigeria Falls to Islamic Extremists, All of Africa Will Be at Risk.”
Poor education in the rural areas of Nigeria are a major problem. “Forty percent of Nigerian children aged six to eleven do not attend any primary school with the Northern region recording the lowest school attendance rate in the country, particularly for girls. Despite a significant increase in net enrollment rates in recent years, it is estimated that about 4.7 million children of primary school age are still not in school.” (Jaulmes) Some children are not even fortunate enough to go to school in the west African country of Nigeria. Although Nigeria has had a National Policy on Education since 1981, it has not been implemented effectively and efficiently due to insufficient political will that leads to poor funding for schools and teacher,
The rural environment could be unfavorable to a child’s education, as parents in rural areas are often disadvantaged because they live in poverty and lack adequate, formal school education, which frequently results in them having low literacy skills. “Literacy is a powerful force in the economic and political empowerment process; it is also of particular importance for alleviating poverty that exists amongst the largest proportion of the disadvantaged communities in South Africa” (Matjeke, 2004:23). Poverty poses a problem because parents of low socio-economic status are not able to sufficiently provide for the basic functional, social and academic needs of their children. Parents in rural areas tend to teach their children how to survive in a rural environment with little or no education, rather than encourage children to strive for more than their current circumstances. It is therefore crucial that factors contributing to the impact and role of parents involvement in their children’s literacy development be identified and ways in which parents can ...
Dei S., Schooling and Difference in Africa: Democratic Challenges in a Contemporary context. Toronto, University of Toronto Press: 2006. Print.
In addition, The State of Education in Africa Report 2015 (SEAR) reports that only 6% of college age students in the sub-Saharan Africa are college students compared to 26% of college students who are in the same age group, globally. In addition, the ratio of professor to student is 50% more in African universities than universities across the globe (SEAR, 2015). This questions the effectiveness of teaching and learning or whether goal and objectives are met or even if they are meeting the goals of UNESCO in providing equitable quality education to
Africa continent is the most undeveloped continent in the world in terms of using economic resources, government structure and education. Education is the most serious part of social, because have a good education will help country develop in the future. But if one country that do not have strong education so that country will not have professors and techniques workers to help country develop. Generally, Africa has nearly 128 million school-aged children, and 17 million of them never attend to go to school, and 70 million children never went to school.
Education Law is the area of law that relates to schools, teachers, and the rights of Americans to a public education, as well as standards for those students who attend private schools. S Woolman & H Botha ‘Limitations’ in S Woolman et al (eds) Constitutional law of South Africa (2 edition, OS, July 2006) chap 34. That said, Enver Motala and Jon Pampallis do stop to note the varying political axes around which education law and policy turn: ‘Law and policy are unequivocal regarding the need to address both the ‘humanistic’ elements of reconstruction and issues which are more narrowly concerned with economic development. Concerns for democracy, redressing historical injustice, ensuring a human rights culture, providing an environment for participation and accountability are matched with concerns for economic regeneration, human resource development, in the international economy’. 1996 (Constitution) provides for the right to education. Of particular importance is that section 29 (1) (a)4 provides a benchmark of education called basic education, an unqualified human right that everyone is entitled to.5 Of particular note is that the term basic education in section 29 (1) (a) is similar to that which was defined by the World Declaration.
The results of this research showhow South Africa faces many challenges when it comes to poverty and education. Education is the most important industry in South Africa and it is being treated like a priority. Many social issues, for example poverty, have an influence on education and makes it and even bigger challenge. The businesses in the education industry have to deal with many challenges, caused by poverty. It is difficult to adapt and/or to deal with these challenges, especially in the macro environment because there is no control over the elements of the macro environment. However, these schools should consider the above solutions to these challenges as they could be helpful.
The standard of education in rural areas is very low than the standard of education in any other part of South Africa. There have been cases in the past few years in rural areas of Limpopo where people who were supposed to deliver books in schools threw them away. Schools had to wait for months before they could get their learning materials and students were losing a lot of time to cover the whole syllabus. Since not all parents can afford to buy any study material for their kids, a lot of students were disadvantaged this