Anglophone Africa

Anglophone Africa is in theory the supraregion consisting of those countries in Africa that are predominantly English-speaking. All such countries are members of the Commonwealth of Nations - see Category:Commonwealth_countries.

For related concepts see Category:Africa and Category:English-speaking countries.

For background information on ways of categorising Africa see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regions_of_Africa

VISCED

In VISCED we treat South Africa separately. Thus the supraregion might more correctly but less charitably called "Anglophone less-developed Africa". Anglophone Africa is the supraregion consisting of those countries in Africa where English is both a widely-spoken language and an official language, where the country was a former colony of Britain, and where the educational infrastructure is or until recently was organised along "British" lines.

These countries include:

In East Africa - Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

In Southern Africa - Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia

In West Africa - Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia

Report

This is an initial summary by Nick Jeans.

E-learning is fundamentally influenced by students’ preferred platforms. In many parts of Africa, internet access is cheaper and more reliable by phone than by PC/ laptop, so learning materials need to be accessible via mobile devices. Distance learning can increase the number of people in education in Africa. The biggest obstacle to e-learning in Africa is really bandwidth. Undersea cables should provide more bandwidth to Africa this year in 2010, but there are still obstacles with unstable electricity supply, lack of computer equipment and internet access at schools. Challenges are: a) High student to computer ratio due to relatively few computer workstations as compared to the high numbers of students; b) Poor internet connectivity; and c) Erratic power supply. African Teachers are often used to being the omniscient sage on the stage – and pupils’ parents expect them to be so. They therefore tend to be pedagogically conservative and unconvinced by approaches such as personalised learning or games-based learning.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the average 15-year-old does not attend school. The challenge of reaching ‘Education for All’ by 2015 is to afford these socially excluded young people access to quality learning opportunities. (e-Learning Africa 2011 conference website under the theme CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT AND eINCLUSION: http://www.elearning-africa.com/programme_themes.php)

References

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> Africa
> VISCED supraregions
> Countries

>> VISCED

Farrell, Glen and Shafika Isaacs. 2007. Survey of ICT and Education in Africa: A Summary Report, Based on 53 Country Surveys. Washington, DC: infoDev / World Bank. Available at http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.353.html

http://www.schoolnetafrica.org/