Some of the main findings of Education at a Glance 2008, the latest annual report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are the following:
A competition offering a first prize of US$10 000, two runner-up prizes of US$5 000 each and 50 other prizes of US$1 000 each for the best entrepreneurial education programme in each African country has recently been launched by the UK-based education charity, Teach A Man To Fish. The Educating Africa Pan-African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education 2008 seeks to identify the very best organisations which have risen to the challenge of supporting education across Africa; to highlight their models; and to reward their achievements. The competition is open to all organisations based in Africa working in education, from primary through to tertiary, as well as in non-formal and adult education. According to Nik Kafka, managing director of Teach A Man To Fish, ‘if the huge demand for education that exists across Africa is to be met, it will require new and entrepreneurial models which can be replicated and taken to scale’.
Entries will be assessed against three criteria of entrepreneurship, sustainability and impact, and must be received before 20 Oct 2008. The winners will be selected by a panel of international judges, and the top three award-winners will be invited to collect their prizes at Education That Pays For Itself 2008, an international conference on sustainable education to be held in November 2008 in South Africa. Organisations wishing to take part should visit the competition website at www.teachamantofish.org.uk/competition for full details.
In the 2008 Academic Ranking of World Universities, annually produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jaio Tong University for the government of China, two African universities (ie, the Cairo University and the University of Pretoria ranked 406th and 486th respecrively in 2007) have slipped from the top 500 universities ranking, leaving only three African universities ranked in the elite global list for 2008, ie, the universities of Cape Town, the Witwatersrand and KwaZulu-Natal. South Africa follows Ireland in 25th place in terms of the percentage distribution of top universities by country, ahead of European countries such as Greece, Hungary, Poland and Portugal, as well as India. With three of its 23 public universities in the Top 500, South Africa has 13% of its tertiary institutions represented, and together the three universities enrol approximately 85 000 students. Of the three South African universities ranked among the top 500 universities in the world in 2008, the University of Cape Town is ranked highest, ie 252nd – the same ranking as in 2006 and one place higher than in 2007. Just beating the University of Cape Town are the University of Bologna in Italy, Bordeaux 1 in France and the University of Calgary in Canada. The University of the Witwatersrand is in 398th position, the same as in 2007 and two positions down from 2006. Ranked just above the University of the Witwatersrand, are the universities of Ulm in Germany, Valencia in Spain and Warsaw in Poland. The University of KwaZulu-Natal is in 477th position, down from 474th position in 2007 and 470th position in 2006. As a country, South Africa claims a meagre 0.6% of the top 500 places in the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
The US is first with 31.6% in terms of the percentage share of the top 500 universities by country, which is less that Europe combined, but way better than any other country in the world. More than half of the 100 universities ranked highest are American universities. The US is followed in the Top 500 by the UK with 8.3%, Germany (8%), Japan (6.2%), China (6%), France (4.6%), Italy (4.4%) and Canada (4.2%). Besides China, the only other developing country ranked ahead of South Africa is Brazil, which has a 1.2% share of universities in the Top 500. The University World News states that ‘[w]hile many universities and higher education sectors around the world ‘officially’ reject Shanghai’s Academic Ranking of World Universities, it has gathered sufficient momentum and academic credibility to demand that it is not ignored. South African universities will be concerned not to fall behind in the rankings race.’
Focussing on access, curriculum transformation and staff development in higher education, new research by the Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research at the University of Sussex, UK, finds that gender inequity still prevails despite national and institutional support for equality. The study explored how far gender equity is promoted or inhibited in five higher education institutions in South Africa, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. These countries were selected for their national policies on gender equity and commitment to international policies to end discrimination against women. The research has found that a highly-gendered environment exists which impedes women’s development as students and staff, having a negative effect on students’ learning and on female staff’s academic identities. According to the study, discriminatory practices include:
The study suggests a range of approaches to encourage increased gender equity, including to:
Recently, the Higher Education HIV/AIDS Programme, funded by the EU to the amount of R220m, embarked on one of the biggest HIV-prevalence studies ever undertaken in South Africa. The study not only aims to determine the level of HIV infection among 25 000 randomly selected students and staff from all 23 higher education institutions in South Africa, but also to establish the knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and behaviour of students and staff regarding HIV/AIDS. According to Dr Mvuyo Tom, vice-chancellor of the University of Fort Hare, who is a member of the HEAIDS strategic advisory committee, ‘the youth is the most exposed group to HIV. If we want to deal with HIV, we must have programmes that mitigate the disease and reduce infection. We cannot treat what we can’t measure and this is why this study is important.’ Mahlubi Mabizela, director of higher education at the Department of Education, said it was important for the country to know what the prevalence of HIV is at tertiary level. ‘Students are a reflection of our society. Higher learning institutions produce the human resource to various sectors of our economy and it is important for us to know [what the rate of prevalence is] so we know what to do and how to allocate finances’.
At the recent Foundation Phase Conference, the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, stated that quality foundation-phase education is of critical importance in South Africa. ‘It is within the foundation-phase grades, Grades R-3, that basic literacy, numeracy and life skills are developed and advanced. In the foundation-phase learners must learn how to read, write, count and calculate confidently and with understanding.’ In 2007 a representative sample of more than 54 000 Grade 3 learners from more than 2 400 primary schools participated in the second cycle of the systemic evaluation survey in which the written foundational skills of literacy and numeracy of the learners were tested; the first cycle of the survey was done in 2001. According to Naledi Pandor, some of the key findings emerging from the survey are:
According to Naledi Pandor, ‘some of the clearly intertwined challenges we experience at the level of foundation-phase education include the problem of teacher quantity, quality and ability; lack of sufficient support for African language learners; large class sizes; lack of resources; lack of quality leadership in schools, and the like. They are the shaky ground upon which we build education for some of our learners, especially those in rural and poor areas. The situation must change.’
The My 2010 School Adventure project, an initiative of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa and the national departments of education and sport and recreation, focuses on three key areas, viz, education, development of sport skills and coaching, and participation in regional and nationwide schools football tournaments. In the first phase, pupils and teachers will, as part of the curriculum, learn about the teams participating in the 2009 Confederations Cup and build relationships with schools in the countries that have qualified. Schools have already started playing in provincial football tournaments and the winning teams from all the provinces will play in the Schools Confederations Cup in March 2009. The national winning team will win tickets to attend the Confederations Cup, running from 14-28 June 2009 and featuring the current champions of the six FIFA Confederations, the reigning world champions and the next FIFA World Cup hosts, namely Brazil, Egypt, Iraq, Italy, New Zealand, the US, Spain, and the current host South Africa.
Recently, Education Minister Pandor launched a special schools project called Adopt a Nation, part of the My 2010 School Adventure, which will target 12m children from over 30 000 schools nationwide. ‘This schools project will see schools adopt the identity of nations participating in the Confederations Cup. This will provide an opportunity for schools to know more about the cultures of the people of the world’, she said. From Sept 2008 to Jan 2009, pupils across the country will work on creative elements such as essays, poetry, art projects, music and dance performances relating to the Confederations Cup, with the winning submission in line to win tickets to the Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup.
University of the Witwatersrand honorary education professor Jonathan Jansen has been appointed chairman of a ministerial committee on school evaluation. Early this year, the cabinet approved the establishment of a unit in the education department responsible for monitoring, evaluating and supporting schools and teachers. The committee’s central task would be to recommend to Education Minister Pandor mechanisms through which this could take place. The final report will be submitted to the minister by January 2009.