New approach to Africa’s education problems
What you need to know:
- Solution: Model schools are being opened in Uganda and the focus is on both the teacher and the pupil.
- In Ivory Coast, Thierry N’Doufou has invented Africa’s first educational tablet computer, Qelasy.
Overcrowded classrooms, lessons under trees, teacher shortages, no money for fees… the problems of education in Africa are well-known, including 30 million children without any schooling at all.
But all is not gloom. From around the continent come stories of invention and initiative in the face of often insuperable problems.
The thrust today is towards cyber technology. But a computer is useless without power to turn it on and most rural schools in Africa do not have mains electricity.
However, in Uganda, they are using the abundant equatorial sunshine to provide electricity for mobile classrooms.
The Maendeleo Foundation has provided two jeeps with solar panels attached to their roofs.
Arriving at a school, the vehicle provides an instant classroom, with enough tents, chairs, desks and laptops for a class.
The power from the solar panels allows pupils to have computer lessons lasting several hours. Five schools and 2,000 pupils are currently benefiting from the project.
In Ivory Coast, Thierry N’Doufou has invented Africa’s first educational tablet computer, Qelasy, which he says replaces the books, pencils, text books and notepads that most children haul to school every day in a heavy bag.
The idea is to transfer a country’s entire education curriculum onto a digital format, along with sounds, animations and interactivity.
The Ivorian government is introducing the tablets to 5,000 students and N’Doufou says: “My dream is to reach all the schools in the world for a better education.”
Back in Uganda, a new type of award-winning school, supported by an international partnership, is being promoted to tackle the problem of a country with one of the world’s fastest growing populations. There are more Ugandans under 18 than there are adults.
ABSENTEESIM
So what is so much better about this school? The curriculum, the technology, the new buildings?
A senior teacher at the school, Kira View secondary near Jinja, gave the answer: The staff get paid on time.
Hardly revolutionary, you might think, but when teachers do not get their salaries on time or earn enough, they take second or third jobs and the kids are abandoned. “Teacher absenteeism” is a major problem.
Kira View is part of an experiment to change how some schools are managed, with a growing number becoming private-public partnerships.
A social enterprise, Promoting Equality in African Schools (Peas), runs an expanding network of schools, which aims to raise standards and ensure proper, transparent management.
The schools charge parents a small fee and this has caused controversy. The counter argument is that this money, along with contributions from the government, guarantees a school’s financial independence.
It means teachers get paid. The Peas network, with headquarters in the UK, already operates 21 schools in Uganda and the aim is to expand to 100.
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When Stephen Sutton learned that he had terminal bowel cancer he was only 15 and immediately drew up a list of 46 things to do before his death.
They included sky diving, bungee jumping, playing drums at a European football match, hugging an elephant, getting a tattoo — and raising £10,000 (Sh1.4 million) for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
Stephen died last May, aged 19, having achieved most of his ambitions, the finest of which was the money he raised for the cancer charity.
The Trust has just announced a final total of £4.9 million (Sh713 million) achieved after a selfie he posted online went viral.
It showed him in a hospital bed, an oxygen mask over his face, but smiling and giving thumbs-up.
The Trust has now announced where the money will go: £2.9 million (Sh422 million) to specialist cancer units for young people across the country; £1.2 million (Sh174 million) to train cancer nurses and support staff, and £800,000 (Sh116 million) to improve the Trust’s information services. Stephen’s campaign brought in 340,000 individual donations.
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We are sometimes asked why we give the Kenya shillings equivalents of foreign currencies.
Well, let’s say a story mentions 1,000 sterling, 1,000 South African Rand and 1,000 US dollars. Would the average Nation reader know how much those sums are in local money?
Ten pounds for a haircut in Britain does not sound too much, but that’s Sh1,460 and how many Kenyan men would fancy paying that much for a haircut?
For the record, £1,000 is worth Sh143,981 while 1,000 Rand only 8,008 shillings. A thousand bucks is Sh88,599 and if you’re talking Euros, a thousand Euros are Sh114,555.
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Two page boys at a wedding. One asks the other, “How many husbands can a lady have?” “Sixteen,” says his friend. “The vicar said so… four richer, four poorer, four better, four worse.”
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He wasn’t the brightest of thieves and when he was found not guilty of armed robbery, he shouted, “Great! Does that mean I can keep the money?”
