Countries around the world face huge educational challenges, ranging from disputes over teachers’ salaries to curricula reform, the need for various resources and demands to adapt to an ever-changing world.
In Africa the challenge is particularly daunting because millions of primary and school-age children do not attend school due to factors such as poverty, disease and conflict.
However, the African Union, the United Nations, and many organisations are working to strengthen education on the continent. The aim is to improve the economies of African countries and make the continent competitive in a global context.
Initiatives such as the New Partnership for Africas Development (Nepad) have helped to set the cogs of transformation in motion. The e-Schools Initiative, for instance, unites African governments and the private sector in the development of ICT-based resources for Africa. It focuses on connecting African schools to the internet so they can improve communication, share resources and become members of the global digital society.
In the years to come many more exciting initiatives are set to follow.
Ten tips for interactive learning:
- Give learners a map of Africa and ask them to write down the names of three countries.
- Ask learners to research statistics regarding education in Africa on the internet. For example: electricity in schools and the literacy rFor geography, copy A3 maps of Africa for learners from grades 10 to12. Ask them to rank the countries based on their education systems.
- Ask learners to research and then design a poster for an educational initiative, such as the Nepad e-Schools Initiative.
- Ask learners to write a letter to a newspaper about how they think education could be improved. Ask them to consider what the government can do, what teachers and parents can do, and what they, as learners, can do.
- Ask learners to draw a comic strip of three to five frames that would inspire learners to attend school.
- Ask learners to prepare dramatisations in which one person should try to convince another not to leave school before getting his or her matric.
- Ask each learner to complete the following sentence: “If I was the minister of education, I would …” Ask learners to use their sentences to write an email to our minister of education.
- For life orientation, ask learners to make a list of some challenges in Africa, such as the lack of education, poor healthcare facilities, poverty and HIV/Aids infection rates.
- Ask learners to find a list of five projects that have improved the quality of education in Africa.
Naama Oren is an editor for Learnthings Africa, which specialises in the production and licensing of interactive e-learning and print-based materials