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Teachers
UNESCO estimates that 18m new teachers are needed globally between now and 2015 to accommodate all children at school in classes of no more than 40 children per teacher. Sub-Saharan African will need 2.4m new teachers. This calls for massive new investments, but it is clear that such growth in spending is unlikely to be achieved according to reseach by ActionAid entitled Confronting the contradictions: The IMF wage bill caps and the case for teachers. Despite compelling evidence that education is a sound long-term investment for a country, the IMF regards spending on education as simply ‘consumption’ and not as ‘productive investment’ and therefore education spending, especially on wages, is always curtailed. The researchers argue that in setting these wage bill caps, rising school enrolment rates should be taken into consideration.
Policy developments
In her budget speech, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said the continued failures of some teachers and education officials could no longer be blamed on apartheid or insufficient resources and that levels of under-performance in the education system were too high and an unjust subversion of the promise of freedom and democracy, to our people. After referring to ‘reported failures in our execution of the no-fee schools policy the minister also said ‘the time have arrived for SA to offer all children free primary education’. Free primary education is also one of the issues to be discussed at the ANC policy conference at Gallagher Estate this month.
Minister of science and technology, Mosibudi Mangena, announced in his budget speech that some R323m would be spent on development programmes to encourage careers in the ‘critical’ human resources shortages in science, engineering and technology (SET). His department also allocated R178m to provide modern research facilities and infrastructure for the research community. The minister said his department and the National Advisory Councils on Innovation have compiled a comprehensive report on the infrastructure requirements of both science and innovation, which is toform the basis of a long-term infrastructure plan for science and technology.
Libraries and reference material
A novel programme aimed at installing a reading habit among low-income communities was recently launched in Argentina. The ‘Books and Houses’ campaign plans to distribute a total of 80 000 bookshelves, each complete with 18 volumes of books, to individual households in 800 districts and towns around the country. The books were carefully selected by a team of experts in education and literature, and although the central goal of the new programme is to make books available to children in order to help them acquire a reading habit, the volumes that were chosen are for the entire family. The programme began by delivering bookshelves to 70 homes in Anatuya, where 27% of the local residents have either no formal schooling or did not complete primary education. The next area to be targeted is the Buenos Aires suburb San Isidro, where affluent neighbourhoods coexist alongside six slums that are being upgraded with new low-cost housing.
Volunteers at the English Wikipedia and SOS Children have launched the 15 volume Wikipedia Selection for Schools consisting of articles that have been cleaned up and checked for suitability for children, avoiding adult content as well as extra material specifically selected to be of interest to children who follow the UK National Curriculum and similar curricula elsewhere in the world.
Wikimedia Foundation chairperson said the foundation aims to encourage the development and distribution of reference content to the public free of charge. It is intended to extend and update the selection periodically.
Corruption and crime
A new report, Corrupt shools, corrupt universities: What can be done? by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), traces illegal registration fees, academic fraud, embezzlement and other problems which are undermining education systems in more than 60 countries, with information derived from government ministries, development agencies and research institutes. The report notesthat bribes and payoffs in the recruitment and promotion of teachers lowers their quality, and illegal fees paid for school entrance and other hidden costs result in low enrolment and high dropout rates. In universities most corruption is in the form of fake universities offering bogus degrees and engaging in accreditation fraud. The number of phony universities offering sham degrees quadrupled from 200 to 800 on the Internet between 2000 and 2004.
The study argues that leadership and political will at the highest levels of government is crucial to combat this. Transparent regulatory systems and stronger management efforts to bring about greater accountability are among the improvements necessary for corruption in education systems to abate. The report recommended that management, accounting, monitoring and audit skills are crucial for such groups as administrative staff of schools, parent-teacher associations, unions and other individuals associated with the educational process.
The past month has seen numerous attacks on pupils by fellow pupils while three pupils died in violent attacks by classmates.
Open, distance and flexible learning (ODFL) tackles HIV/AIDS
According to research by the UK Institute of Education, ‘business as usual’ will not meet the education challenges of the HIV epidemic in South Africa and Mozambique, but open, distance and flexible learning (ODFL) can reduce the effects of HIV on young people. ODFL has the potential to increase access to education; improve quality of schooling (and thereby child survival and family health); raise public awareness and advocacy for health initiatives; and spread health information and encourage health behaviour. The study found that HIV/AIDS-afffected young people need more opportunity to develop literacy skills and undertake vocational training. They are most easily reached by radio and particularly like to learn through music, drama and stories. The study recommends using ODFL to:
- deliver the national curriculum to those out of school;
- promote critical thinking, positive group identity and solidarity among young people;
- develop, coordinate and disseminate the knowledge base on HIV/AIDS at the national level;
- improve teachers’ ability to empathise with young people affected by HIV/AIDS and provide psychosocial guidance and counselling; and
- give young heads of households access to information, psychosocial support, training on business skills and careers counselling.
Mathematics and science
The DoE has backed out of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMMS), an international maths and science exam conducted every four years to measure pupils’ performance in maths and science globally, because it did not want to subject pupils to too many tests. South African pupils came last in the two most recent TIMMS conducted in 1999 and 2003. Vishnu Naidoo, chairman of the SA Mathematics Foundation described the country’s pullout as sad. ‘Even though we may perform poorly, these are indicators that serve to inform us about our curriculum and what adjustments we should be making’.
SA technology and training company IT School Innovation has launched an educational tool MOBI which turns mobile phones into edutainment devices by allowing users to chat and listen to the latest music hits while learning the high school maths syllabus. The service is available in English and Afrikaans and other subjects such as physics and chemistry are in the pipeline. MOBI runs on most Java enabled handsets and can be downloaded and installed for free. Once installed the application is able to connect to an online server via a mobile wireless protocol such as 3G or GPRS and provide access to MOBI Maths, MOBI Chat and MOBI Radio. Full use of MOBI Maths is charged at a nominal monthly fee, while some sections such as Basic Skills are free.
Database launched
The department of science and technology (DST) recently launched a database that quantifies and monitors the levels of unemployment among science, engineering and technology graduates. The database will be managed by the South African Graduate Development Association, an NGO that empowers unemployed graduates. It will be used by job seekers, employers, candidates for postgraduate studies, institutions of higher learning and other stakeholders to improve the rate of human capital development, especially in science, engineering and technology. According to science and technology minister Mosibudi Mangena, SA has a considerable skills mismatch retarding the country’s economic growth and competitiveness. ‘I have no doubt that what we are engaged in today is a step in the right direction to closing the gap between the skills shortage and the skills mismatch’. The minister also announced that the lion’s share of the DST’s medium-term budget (some R323m) would be spent on human capital development programmes to encourage careers in science, engineering and technology.
E-learning
The 2nd international e-Learning Africa conference that seeks to help mainstream technology in education to serve the population was held in Nairobi in May. Topics ranged from the use of cellphones as education tools to the training of civil servants through distance education and the role of e-learning in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. Experts said computer-based learning has created opportunities for many who would otherwise have been overlooked. The Electronic Schools Project aimed at creating digital centres in schools throughout Africa is set to grow, following the successful outcome of a pilot study which implemented the project in 120 schools in 16 African countries. The pilot study recorded a 35% improvement in students’ examination performance in places where electronic schools (e-schools) are operational. The primary goal of the e-schools project in Africa, led by NEPAD and supported by Smart Technologies, Hewlett Packard, Nokia and Microsoft, is to have 600 000 schools on the continent imparting ICT skills to their students within 10 years of implementation. Smart Technologies have already donated 50 ‘smartboards’ – electronic blackboards that enable teachers to communicate information to hundreds of students at a time – to help the project in Kenya, Rwanda and SA. According to Smart Technologies, the success of the project depends on the speed at which teachers can be trained to adopt and use the new technology. The project also faces challenges such as lack of infrastructure, especially in rural areas, lack of physical security and difficulties involved in managing a consortium of private sector partners.
Poverty and malnutrition
A study by the University College of London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an international group of academics which assessed the links between poverty, stunted growth – often caused by ill health and malnutrition – and low achievement at school, has found that more than 200m children under five years in developing countries are not achieving their full potential.
They do badly at school and have low productivity in adulthood, and as a result they pass on poverty and deprivation to future generations. The researchers found that:
- many mothers in poor families were uneducated, suffered from stress and depression and were unable to provide a stimulating home environment;
- poor children often attended inadequate schools and had little support from family members who did not appreciate the benefits of education;
- stunted children were less likely to be enrolled in school and if they did go to school, they were more likely to enrol late, get lower grades and have a low IQ for their age; and
- stunted children were less likely to have completed their primary education.
The study found a strong link between school success and economic prosperity: each year of schooling increases adult wages by almost 10%.
Skills survey
A Centre for Development and Enterprise survey, The South African skills crisis: A report from the corporate coal face, revealed that SA’s businesses had few positive things to say about the schooling system in SA. For instance:
- private sector employers have ‘grave reservations’ about the overall quality of education in SA;
- they saw a decline in school leavers’ abilities in maths, science and especially language skills;
- there was ‘no work ethic’, there was a lack of discipline and culture of learning, and learners lacked the ability to be trained;
- dealings with SETAs were cumbersome and assessors were poorly trained;
- there were uneven standards between universities; and
- skills issues were their greatest single source of frustration.
According to the survey findings the skills shortage was worsening as a result of the brain drain, the aging of skilled staff or their promotion to more senior positions, and government’s emphasis on employment equity.
The report recommends that an improved apprenticeship be instated, immigration be opened up as a short-term solution and that government should moderate its pressure for employment equity.