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Africa - Politics Presentation

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on October 20, 2007 at 10:34:47 am
 

Online Presentation: Africa - Politics

 

Introduction:

The continent of Africa was forever changed by the colonization from the western powers. Now the continent is a land of political struggles and mass genocides, often lost in the news. However, There remains to be hope and strong culture which keeps Africa alive and having a potential future. while a majority of the news out there today is negative, the states and people of Africa remain rich in culture and passion.

 

 

 

Background

 

 

Education

 

 

Education in Africa began as a tool to prepare its young to take their place in the African society. The African education experience was strictly set up to prepare the young for society in the African community and not necessarily for life outside of Africa. The schooling system pre- European colonialism consisted of groups of older people teaching aspects and rituals that would help them in adulthood. Education in early African societies included such things as artistic performances, ceremonies, games, festivals, dancing, singing, and drawing. Boys and girls were taught separately to help prepare each sex for their adult roles. Every member of the community had a hand in contributing to the educational upbringing of the child. The high point of the African educational experience was the ritual passage ceremony from childhood to adulthood. There were no academic examinations necessary to graduate in the African educational system.

 

When European colonialism and imperialism took place it began to change the African educational system. Schooling was no longer just about rituals and rites of passage, school would now mean earning an education that would allow Africans to compete with countries such as the United States and Europe. Africa would begin to try producing their own educated students as other countries had.

 

However, education in Africa is still less developed than other parts of the world, and many African countries have low rates of participation. Schools often lack many basic facilities, and African universities suffer from overcrowding and staff being lured away to Western countries by higher pay and better conditions.

 

What is Africa's Future in Education Look Like?

 

 

According to UNESCO's Regional overview on sub-Saharan Africa, in 2000 only 58% of children were enrolled in primary schools, the lowest enrollment rate of any region. UNESCO also reported marked gender inequalities: in most parts of Africa there is much higher enrolment by boys, but in some there are actually more girls, due to sons having to stay home and tend to the family farm. Africa has more than 40 million children, almost half the school-age child population, receiving no schooling. Two-thirds of these are girls. The USAID Center reports as of 2005, forty percent of school-aged children in Africa do not attend primary school and there are still 46 million African children have never stepped into a classroom.

 

The regional report produced by the UNESCO-BREDA education sector analyst team in 2005, show that less than 10% of African children are now excluded from the system. However 4 out 10 children still did not complete primary school in 2002/2003. So, five years after the World Education Forum and the adoption of the Millennium Goals, progress at primary level is far from decisive. The analysis highlights that now principal efforts should be direct to reducing the number of dropouts per level. It appears also that geographical disparities (rural areas/urban areas) or economic disparities (low income households/wealthy households) are more significant and take longer to even out than gender disparities. From the quality point of view, the existing data from school achievement evaluation programmes and of household surveys indicates very significant disparities in country performance, between the differents countries and within each country.

 

This report shows besides that secondary (lower and higher levels) and higher education enrolments have progressed proportionally more than primary enrolment over the period 1990 – 2002/2003 which questions the reality of policy priority given to primary education. The strong pressure for educational continuity from the majority already benefiting from schooling explains this trend. To this must be added the weakness of mechanisms regulating pupil flow between the different levels of education system.

In 2005, the inventory and trends show a definitive risk of not reaching universal primary enrolment by 2015. 

 

Source:

www.unesco.org

 

 

 

Recent News

 

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    Former Augustineum Secondary School pupil and head of a fundraising campaign, Lehman Sethie, has denied allegations that he misappropriated school funds.

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    The Okarukoro Mobile Unit is in dire need of water to keep children in the mobile school.

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    Uganda: Muk's Artistic Trip Down Memory Lane [opinion]

    CURIOSITY grips me when I arrive at the Makerere University School of Industrial and Fine Arts gallery. A two-week exhibition depicting artworks from the school's archives opened on Tuesday.

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    The Pan African Writers' Association (PAWA), have taken their avowed war on the HIV/AIDS pandemic to the doorstep of some selected first and second cycle schools in the Greater Accra Region.

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    Liberia: The Children Are Smiling But There's So Much More to Do - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf [interview]

    Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told AllAfrica in a 1986 interview, shortly after being arrested and fleeing the country, that her goal in life was to "bring good governance to Liberia before I die." Since her inauguration in January 2006, she has had the chance to try, and she acknowledges the magnitude of the challenge. Twenty months into her presidency, she thinks the ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Current Situation

What's happening in Africa's News?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sierra Leone just had an election and many experts are impressed with the transparency of the voting process. There were many incidents of ballot stuffing and voting fruad but they were dealt with in a very fair and effiecent way. The article from BBC explains more

 

Themes in African Politics-

these are just themes that we could possibly organize our presentation around

  • corruption/ overcoming corruption
  • combating poverty
  • ethinic struggles - due to poorely drawn borders, religious differences ect

 

Hope for the future

 

This is a general article from International Herald Tribune. It talks about the new program trhe UN and World Bank are working on to help developing countries recover assets stolen by corrupt leaders. This article does not specifically deal with Africa but I thought it was a good source.

 

Links

 

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