Madagascar

Partners situated in Madagascar

None.

Madagascar in a nutshell

Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar (older name Malagasy Republic, French: République malgache), is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth-largest island in the world, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are specific to Madagascar.

The population of Madagascar is just over 20 million.

The capital is Antananarivo.

The official languages are Malagasy and French.

Madagascar is currently divided into six autonomous provinces (faritany mizakatena), and subdivided into 22 regions (faritra), the latter created in 2004. The regions will be the highest subdivision level when the provinces are dissolved in accordance with the results of the 4 April 2007 referendum, which means in theory by 4 October 2009.

Development

Since the mid-1990s Madagascar has followed a World Bank and IMF-led policy of privatisation and liberalisation which has placed the country on a slow and steady growth path. Agriculture, including fishing and forestry, is a mainstay of the economy, accounting for more than one-quarter of the GDP and employing 80% of the population. Exports of apparel have boomed in recent years primarily due to duty-free access to the US. Deforestation and erosion, aggravated by the use of firewood as the primary source of fuel, are serious concerns. Madagascar is plagued by periodic cyclones, floods, drought, and locust infestation. Poverty reduction and combating corruption will be the centrepieces of economic policy for the next few years.

Madagascar is a classified as a highly indebted poor country by the World Bank.

Children make up more than half of the population, and half of them live on less than $1 a day.

Madagascar education policy

Education in Madagascar is mandatory for the children between the age group of 6 to 14.

Madagascar education system

(sourced from http://www.mapsofworld.com/madagascar/education/)

Madagascar education includes a number of schools, colleges and universities. Madagascar education is mandatory for the children between the age group of 6 to 14.

The duration of primary education in Madagascar is 5 years. The elementary education is provided to the children of the age group between 6 to 11. The duration of secondary education in Madagascar is 7 years. The secondary education is divided into a junior secondary stage and a senior secondary stage. Children from 12 to 15 years attend the junior secondary stage and children from 16 to 18 years attend the senior secondary stage. The duration of the junior secondary stage is 4 years and for senior secondary stage, the duration is 3 years. After the completion of junior level, certificates are received by the graduates. After completing senior secondary, baccalaureat is received by the graduates. The schools of Madagascar include the American School of Antananarivo, Russian Embassy School, American High School, etc.

College professionelle is similar to the junior secondary stage and college technique is similar to the senior secondary stage.

Higher education

Universities in Madagascar

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Madagascar)

The University of Madagascar was the former name of the centralized public university system in Madagascar, although the original branch in Antananarivo is still often called by that name. The system traces its history to 16 December 1955, and the formation of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the capital Antananarivo. It quickly established itself as the main center for higher education in the country, and was renamed the University of Madagascar in 1961. The main branch opened five more branches in Antsiranana, Fianarantsoa, Toamasina, Toliara, and Mahajanga. In 1988, all branches of the system became independent of each other, and the name University of Madagascar was dropped in favor of more geography-specific titles.

Higher education reform

The Bologna Process

Not applicable directly.

Information society

Madagascar has begun to take steps towards promoting ICTs for development with the adoption of two policies:

1. the national ICT policy in 2004
2. the economic and social development policy, the Madagascar Action Plan for 2007-2012, which promotes

the expansion of ICT infrastructure and access in the country including the establishment of ICT centres in schools.

The country does not have a national ICT policy for education, and the level of access to ICTs including connectivity is relatively low.

There are a few initiatives in the country that attempt to promote the access and use of ICTs to support learning and teaching, but these largely assume the form of extracurricular projects.

Source: http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.413.html Source InfoDev

ICT initiatives in schools

Madagascar Virtual School The Africa Virtual School (AVS) was founded in February of 2008 as the first regional school of the World Virtual School, in order to serve students of all backgrounds with the highest quality online courses, at the lowest cost possible.

The goal of AVS is to offer equitable, quality education to all students, regardless of age, race, gender, ethnic, religious, or cultural background, via the internet so that they may join the global social, cultural and economic environment.

The World Virtual School is a subsidiary of the Hawking Institute, Inc., a non-profit NGO of Atlanta, GA, USA. It is also a partnership project with The Personal Learning Center, International, LLC (dba PLC/i EDU) which is incorporated as a Limited Liability Corporation within the State of Illinois in the United States and has official offices in Cordova, Illinois, USA.

No evidences, though, from the website, of what has been actually being run in the country.

Madagascar School Project One Laptop Per Child Initiative As with organizations such as the United Nations Commission for Africa, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, and Develop Africa to name a few, the Madagascar School Project views technology as a tool to help the Malagasy improve the quality of their lives and fight against poverty. See Factsheet

The SchoolNet Association of Madagascar was launched in 2005. Since then it has mainly been involved in activities supported by the International Institute for Communications and Development (IICD) Global Teenager Project which encourages on-line collaborative learning programmes with young learners from all over the world.

SchoolNet Madagascar has also trained 220 learners and teachers to participate in the Mtandao Afrika programme supported by Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Program, which assumes the form of a contest to encourage learners and teachers across Africa to form teams to develop educational Web sites.

Ecole Vinet de Madagascar Rural school in Ambohimalaza. The school was founded in 1904 by the Swiss missionary, Julie Dériaz.

Virtual Campuses in HE

Interesting Virtual Campus Initiatives

None known.

Interesting Programmes

None known.

Re.ViCa Case-study

None.

Lessons learnt

None.

References

Wikipedia entries

• Madagascar
• University of Madagascar

Reports and papers

1. Education in Madagascar (written in 1994), http://www.wildmadagascar.org/overview/loc/30-education.html
2. Madagascar Education, http://www.mapsofworld.com/madagascar/education/

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