| March/April
2003
COVER
PAGE Education in Poland REGIONAL
NEWS FEATURE
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Regional
News
Africa
ANGOLANation Returns to School
In partnership with the Ministry of Education and Culture, UNICEF is helping to train 4,000 new teachers, restore 1,300 classrooms and prepare thousands of education kits to be supplied to the provinces of Bie and Malanje – the launch sites of the program and among the worst hit by the civil war. Funds from the European Union will expand the project to 30 other municipalities, where returning refugees will be a priority. Currently, 44 percent of Angolan children are out of school. —
Irinnews.org GHANA
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| Brain
Drain Costing Approximately 70,000 highly qualified Africans leave their home countries annually, according to Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana Edward Ofori-Sarpong. In a recent lecture on the “Effects of Brain Drain in National Development,” Ofori-Sarpong said Africa spends an estimated US$4 billion annually to recruit about 100,000 skilled expatriates. Quoting from experts in the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Africa and International Organization for Migration, he said there are 30,000 Africans with doctorates living outside the continent. He said 60,000 professionals, including doctors, university lecturers and engineers, left between 1985 and 1990. Approximately 6 percent of Ghana-trained doctors left the country in the 1980s, he added. According to Ofori-Sarpong, there are 20,000 scientists and engineers -- about 3.6 percent of the world’s scientific population -- servicing Africa’s estimated 600 million people. “Africa would need at least 1 million scientists and engineers to sustain its development prospects,” he noted. Official statistics indicate that skilled workers from South Africa who immigrated to other countries have cost that country an estimated US$7.8 billion in lost human capital, said Ofori-Sarpong. He cautioned that by failing to offer greener pastures for its own intelligentsia, the continent is committing suicide. He added that he was at a loss as to why African governments, who claim to be poor, find it logical to pay expatriates hundreds of times more than local experts. —
Ghanaian Chronicle
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Adamawa State University Opens
Adamawa State University welcomed nearly 600 students this March when
it opened its doors to academic activities.
The university, listed as a degree-granting institution by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, is offering courses in science, arts and technological disciplines. The new institution is located on the abandoned site of the state polytechnic and will eventually include a college of medicine and a school of remedial studies.
University officials hope the School of Agriculture will be able to complete a move to Ganye, where students can study in the correct environment.
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This Day
Feb. 15, 2003
A recent review of Nigerian education
shows that from 1992 to 1999, Nigerian students trailed behind their counterparts
in Ghana, Gambia, Sierra-Leone and Liberia in mathematics, English, physics
and chemistry, based on their scores from examinations conducted by the
West African Examinations
Council.
In its February report, Shelter Rights Initiative (SRI) expressed concerns that Nigerian scores for the period 2000 to 2003 will be even worse. The nongovernmental organization blames nonpayment of teachers’ salaries in several states across the country, where secondary schools in some areas are not in session for up to six months.
SRI cites shrinking budgetary allocations in education as the main factor in the deterioration of Nigerian education. According to the report, budgetary allocations by the current administration have been: 11.12 percent, 1999; 8.36 percent, 2000; 7 percent, 2001; 5.9 percent, 2002; and 1.8 percent, 2003.
The closure of universities due to the stalemate between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, now in its fifth month, is a further indication of trouble. The report also notes that of the 1,200 programs being run by Nigerian universities, 195 of them lack official accreditation by the National Universities Commission.
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Vanguard
Feb. 17, 2003
WAEC
Goes Online
The West African Examination Council
has launched a Web site, which will publish current and historical examination
data.
Students will now, for a small fee, be able to check their results online. Results of all examinations conducted in the last 10 years will be posted on the Web site. Databases will eventually be available for results, history, operations and research activities since the inception of the council in 1952.
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This Day
Feb. 26, 2003
Academy of Learning Closes
Educor, which ran the Academy of
Learning, an adult education institution that teaches computer, bookkeeping
and secretarial skills, has closed the school with immediate effect.
There were approximately 55 branches of the Academy of Learning, all of which were owned by franchisees. There were 2,800 students at the academy’s various outlets last year.
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Business Day
Feb. 11, 2003
UNISA Enters Tanzanian Market
The University of South Africa (UNISA)
is moving into the Tanzanian education market and will be offering its
programs in collaboration with the Civic Education Centre (CEC).
According to CEC Executive Director Paul Masawe, the two institutions have the go-ahead from all the relevant authorities, including the Higher Education Accreditation Council of Tanzania.
According to Masawe, undergraduate degree programs will be conducted at the Changganyikeni campus later in the year. A campus will also be constructed in the Mpiji area. Students, however, will be able to take UNISA programs wherever they are via distance learning and can take examinations at any of the local or international examination centers.
—
Business
Times
Jan. 31, 2003
Science University for Women Opens
The Kiriri Women’s University of Sciences and Technology began offering
degrees in computer science and mathematics for female students in September
2002.
The Nairobi-based private university, which aims to bridge the gender gap in science and technology, admits 90 students annually and emphasizes practical skills and research. The university hopes to add engineering and medicine to its curriculum in the future. Fees are a relatively hefty US$1,220 per term.
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New Vision
March 18, 2003
Exam Council Accused of Corruption
The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council
(Zimsec), responsible for O- and A-level examinations since 1998, has
been accused of rampant corruption in the administering of national tests.
According to the Zimbabwe Standard, leaks of examination papers have allegedly become commonplace, as has the fabrication of grades for people who never sat or performed badly in national examinations. The newspaper adds that Zimsec has become synonymous with shoddy grading and poor administration. It has been reported that grades have gone to the wrong schools, with some even receiving the results of examinations they never sat for, while the results of others went missing.
Many schools are now calling for a return of Cambridge and other foreign examination bodies. Before responsibility for testing was passed to Zimsec in 1998, Cambridge collaborated with the Ministry of Education in the provision of national exams in Zimbabwe. Doubts are now surfacing about the legitimacy of O- and A-level results and whether they will be given equivalency anywhere else in the world.
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The Zimbabwe Situation
March 3, 2003
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