Go back to The Africa Report homepage

More civility for the civil service

International business schools have found a niche market in creating courses to improve customer services and management skills for West African public servants

Continue reading...

Gone are the architect's pens and pencils

Adama University in Ethiopia has been transformed from a teacher-education college to a university, but students and staff still need up-to-date equipment, says Dr Tilahun Erduno.

Continue reading...

Zimbabwe's schools: No need to start from scratch

Student Bongani Ncube-Zikhali says that Zimbabwe has schools and teachers. It just needs the resources to pay them.

Continue reading...

French Africa: the last open-air jail?

Tunisian campaigner Mahdi M'rabet speaks out about why he thinks Francophone Africa should start learning English

Continue reading...

Ministers must face-up to education’s systemic breakdown

Nigeria’s legislators are debating a law banning public servants from sending their children overseas to study. Leonard Lawal remembers when a Nigerian school certificate wasn’t something to be ashamed of.

Continue reading...

Too many PhDs and not enough scientists

Research for research’s sake benefits nobody. African farmers should be telling their scientists what problems need solving. 


Continue reading...

Parents: your kids are being cheated by the system

The promise of free primary education has been one of the most sweeping changes to Africa’s education policy in the last fifty years. But is it really free? Corruption, mismanagement and teacher absenteeism are rife, and parents continue to pay registration fees. They should be far more incensed.

Continue reading...

Disabled children can and should go to school

With often over 100 children in their classrooms already, teachers in Tanzania can be unwiling to take in students with disabilities or special needs. But they have every right to an education, blogs Tanzanian education coordinator Edward Masangwa


Continue reading...

A lexicon of abuse

This disturbing glossary of expressions used by children and teachers to describe abuse and violence has been collated by the NGO Plan International. Read more on sexual exploitation in African schools in an article for the Education Campaign in our December-January issue, out now.

Continue reading...

Prepare teachers for change

Uganda’s education ministry has reduced the number of subjects being taught, but teachers find it hard to adapt to new courses says Sister Mary Theopista Tinkamnayire, National Trainer in Mathematics in Kampala, Uganda

Continue reading...

Testing at the top

16-year-old Ghanaian student 16-year-old Ghanaian student Kwaw Amihere describes how he got into a prestigious international school in Tema and the exams that now await him

Continue reading...

The government should provide 'universal pay-something' education

In response to our recent article on secondary education in Ghana, Omayma Halabi Ahma, a current student at Ashesi University College in Ghana, says that universal free education is not the best solution.

Continue reading...

Kenyan higher education is a luxury for the poor, a commodity for the rich

A system known as 'Module II' aimed at making those students who can, pay for their higher education, is bringing down the integrity of the degrees on offer, writes Moses Karanja, a graduate from the University of Nairobi, Kenya

Continue reading...

To a virtual degree

The poor state of facilities at Nigerian universities means many students prefer to take degrees abroad, writes Ossai Okwudilii from Abuja, Nigeria who is studying for an online master's degree in information security and the University of Liverpool in the UK

Continue reading...

Trying to balance access and quality in Ghana

In Ghana the massive expansion of access to public primary and secondary education has decreased quality and is causing more families to send their children to private schools.


Continue reading...

It's fun to teach geniuses

"It’s incredibly hard to access reading materials at the University of Nairobi", writes Devon Knudsen, a part-time African politics lecturer at the University, "but one of my students came up with a way around the obstacles: one person with a decent internet connection downloads hundreds of relevant electronic journal articles and burns them onto a CD, and then makes copies for all the students in the class at only 15Ksh per CD.

Continue reading...

I wish I could make four copies of myself

In Togo, teachers have been on strike, saying that they support the return of universal free education but that the state’s resources are inadequate.

Continue reading...

Why investing in girls education makes sound economic sense

Countries that do not invest enough in educating and empowering girls are undermining their economies’ resilience, productivity and competitive potential says Saadia Zahidi

Continue reading...