Anglophone Africa

Contents [hide]

1 Partners and Experts in Region

2 Countries in Region

3 Education in Region

4 Schools in Region

5 Further and Higher education

       5.1 Universities in Region
       5.2 Polytechnics in Region
       5.3 Colleges in Region

6 Education reform

       6.1 Schools
       6.2 Post-secondary

7 Administration and finance

       7.1 Schools
       7.2 Post-secondary

8 Quality assurance, inspection and accreditation

       8.1 Schools
       8.2 Post-secondary

9 Information society

10 ICT in education initiatives

       10.1 Virtual initiatives in schools
       10.2 Virtual initiatives in post-secondary education

11 Lessons learnt

       11.1 General lessons
       11.2 Notable practices

12 References

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 and Kenya 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, 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 soon, 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 – furthermore pupils and parents expect them to be so. They therefore tend to be pedagogically conservative and unconvinced by approaches such as constructivist, personalised 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)

Experts situated in Region

Regional overview

High mobile phone penetration relative to fixed line subscriptions make Africa the region with the highest ratio of mobile phone to Internet users in the world. Many applications available over the Internet in other parts of the world are available in Africa via mobile networks. Necessity can become the mother of invention, provoking the development of interesting uses of mobile technology, including the M-pesa payment method from Kenya. Safaricom has seen the market penetration of its money transfer product grow to a total of approximately 15 million subscribers today. Another Kenyan company, Virtual City, won the top prize of USD $1 million at Nokia’s Growth Economy Venture Challenge while MXit, a social network with more users than Facebook in South Africa, is now being used for learning with MXit Reach, using QuizMax, Calcit, Nokia MoMaths or Dr Maths to learn Maths, Physical and Life Sciences (http://www.mxit.com/content/ap/en/MXitReach).

Education in Region

Many of these countries have maintained elements of the British educational system.

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)

Many universities in Africa provide vocational courses that would commonly be delivered by Further Education institutions in the European Union.

Schools in Region

Further and Higher education in Region

Universities in Region

Polytechnics in Region

Colleges in Region

Education reform

Schools

Post-secondary

Administration and finance

Schools

Post-secondary

Quality assurance

Schools

Post-secondary

Information society

ICT in education initiatives

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.

OER Africa (http://www.oerafrica.org/) is an initiative established by the South African Institute for Distance Education (Saide) to play a leading role in driving the development and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) across all education sectors on the African continent.

Virtual initiatives in schools

SchoolNet Africa (http://www.schoolnetafrica.org/) is a non-government organisation (NGO) that operates across the continent to improve education access, quality and efficiency through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in African schools. SchoolNet Africa works mainly with learners, teachers, policymakers and practitioners through country-based schoolnet organisations across Africa. SchoolNet Africa started in 1999 and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa where it employs staff from different African countries to manage its programs.

ACEMaths was a collaborative project to select, adapt and use a set of materials on the teaching and learning of maths for teacher education. These are now available for downloading for free from http://www.oerafrica.org/acemaths/ACEMathsProjectHome/tabid/132/Default.aspx

Worldreader.org E-­Reader Trial in Ghana involved the use of 16 Kindles by sixth-grade students at the Orphan Aid Africa School in Ayenyah, Ghana, which ran from March 16 to March 26, 2010. These trials form the very initial phase of the long term and continuing study of the application of e-reader technology in education, and their consequent effects on literacy in developing countries. Worldreader.org is a not-for-profit organization based in Barcelona, Spain and the U.S., whose aim is to make digital books accessible to everyone in the developing world.

The main findings that indicate that e-readers could be deployed successfully in similar communities and schools in developing countries are: 1 These 6th-grade students in a village in Ghana, who had used cell phones but had no experience with computers, were all able to learn to use the Kindle successfully after several hours of training and several days of practice. 2 Reading digital books was an acceptable alternative to reading paper books, and the kids quickly forgot they were using a device and became absorbed in the stories they were reading. 3 Kids were excited to read using the device, in part because it was novel and fun to use, and also because it was less intimidating due to the built-in dictionary which helped readers decipher the meaning of new words. 3 Kids also read more using the Kindle because of the variety of books on the device and the instant availability of thousands more, as well as local and timely material like Ghana football scores. 4 The Kindles supported the process of learning to read, especially for new language learners, thanks to the built-in dictionary to look up words, and the text-to‐speech capability for pronunciation (although mechanical-sounding).  The infrastructure already in place for mobile phones supports e-readers: Low‐power Kindles successfully charged from solar-powered car batteries in an hour, while books could be downloaded via satellite internet link in 45 seconds, using the cell phone coverage in the village.

The main challenges observed that could affect adoption in developing countries were: 1 The preparation and setup of the e-readers - buying, unpacking, charging, loading with books, etc. – was time-consuming and will be challenging to scale up without developing new methods, in co-operation with the manufacturers. There was also a lack of tools for managing many devices; for example, there was no central way to see which devices had which books loaded. 2 There were a number of usability issues with the Kindles that, while not barriers, increased the learning curve, such as several ways to accidentally hide books, and a setting that drains the battery quickly. A light was also commonly requested, so the students could read at night. 3 The current cost of e-readers and books, along with DRM (digital rights management) policies, would need to be adapted to the market and to educational use. 4 Content for this trial was purchased using personal credit cards, but new payment methods will need to be supported for wide-scale deployment, such as educational invoicing, and the scratch-off cards used for mobile phones. 5 There is currently a lack of local content available on e-readers, so local publishers would need to be encouraged to digitize their content. 6 While ruggedness of the devices was not a problem in the study, the conditions observed - dust, dirt, rain, and the rigours of child handling – will need to be considered by e-reader manufacturers. 7 The importance of buy-in by the school administration, and the support of a local champion, cannot be overstated. In the trial, the headmaster and the 6th-grade teacher were extremely enthusiastic and supportive, and this contributed to the success of the trial.

The e-readers continue to be used, both in Ghana and Kenya, with very positive effects on literacy skills.

Video report: http://www.aljazeera.com/video/africa/2011/10/2011102212020874118.html Worldreader videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAmVaMsXHOU&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU1DH_FLDKA&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F55h04PEb08&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Virtual initiatives in post-secondary education

Lessons learnt

General lessons

Notable practices

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/