Education In sub-Saharan Africa Research Articles

Relevance and usability of a computerized patient simulator for continuous medical education of isolated care professionals in sub-saharan Africa.

to explore the relevance and usability of using a computerized patient simulator as a tool for continuous medical education and decision support for health professionals in district hospitals in Sub-Saharan Africa. based on the diagnosis pathway and decision analysis in uncertainty context, interactive clinical vignettes are developed using VIPS, a computerized patient simulator, taking into account clinical problem situations whose relevance was identified. Vignettes were adapted to take into account local epidemiology, availability of diagnostic and therapeutic resources, and local socio-cultural constraints. The evaluation on VIPS software was made by care professionals and students. a computerized patient simulator can be used to provide initial and continuing medical education in Sub-Saharan Africa. But many challenges exist. further research is needed to measure potential improvements in knowledge, skills, decision-making abilities as well as patient outcome.

Some Trends in Publishing in Continuing Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

Some Trends in Publishing in Continuing Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

Medical schools in sub-Saharan Africa

Small numbers of graduates from few medical schools, and emigration of graduates to other countries, contribute to low physician presence in sub-Saharan Africa. The Sub-Saharan African Medical School Study examined the challenges, innovations, and emerging trends in medical education in the region. We identified 168 medical schools; of the 146 surveyed, 105 (72%) responded. Findings from the study showed that countries are prioritising medical education scale-up as part of health-system strengthening, and we identified many innovations in premedical preparation, team-based education, and creative use of scarce research support. The study also drew attention to ubiquitous faculty shortages in basic and clinical sciences, weak physical infrastructure, and little use of external accreditation. Patterns recorded include the growth of private medical schools, community-based education, and international partnerships, and the benefit of research for faculty development. Ten recommendations provide guidance for efforts to strengthen medical education in sub-Saharan Africa.

International Collaboration in Distance Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

This chapter examines international collaboration in distance education in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), focusing on efforts aimed at utilizing technology. It identifies a number of significant collaborative endeavors. The collaborative efforts observed have a similar goal of pooling together ICT resources and expertise towards improving educational outcomes. The prevalence of teacher education and training across the initiatives, in the context of the Millennium Development Goals, is noted. Institutions outside Africa are actively involved in the funding and provision of expertise. Also, the AVU consortium model seems to be a viable approach to collaboration, with notable results seen. With the challenges facing technology-focused collaboration, such as a lack of enabling policies and the digital divide, the chapter suggests that African countries and institutions should pursue a culture of change and be more flexible. More formal training in distance education, utilizing Africans in the Diaspora and promoting dialogue across international spectrums are also recommended.

In Search of Sources other than Governmental in the Financing of Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Word of Caution Beyond the Gains

With the massification of higher education, the African higher education system is undergoing a profound structural crisis. The economic situation is not the only cause of the debilitating state of higher education in Africa. The African university is caught up in a dilemma: It seems to be left with little choice but to diversify the sources of its revenue, which means the neces- sity of introducing cost sharing. With this scheme, students and parents, especially, are expected to bear an important share of the cost of education. This article takes a look at the financial and management reforms adopted in some African countries in a bid to boost access, quality and efficiency. It documents the cost sharing measures introduced alongside its gains, then takes a critical look at the impact that revenue diversification might have on the mission of the university, the quality of learning and the community with the increasing commercial ordering of life. It suggests that African govern- ments and university leaders resolutely look for ways beyond the financial and management policies to bail out their tertiary education systems. Build- ing political consensus and adopting regional and continental strategies will go a long way toward creating sustainable institutions of higher learning.

Public Funding and Budgetary Challenges To Providing Universal Access To Primary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

Budgetary capacity that would allow for the public funding of the provision of universal access to primary education is lacking in many sub-Saharan economies. National revenues significantly lag behind the overall economic productivity measure of GDP. Analysis of data derived from UNESCO and UNDP for 2004 shows that governments in the region spend far less in US dollars per unit cost on primary education than do developed countries. Increasing the unit cost of education in order to enable a government to guarantee universal primary education would take away resources from other tiers of the education system in many countries in the region. The alternative is to universalise access, despite existing budget allocation constraints, and thereby further compound the problems of poor infrastructure and limited human resource capacity that continue to compromise education quality in sub-Saharan Africa.

Preparatory considerations on the application of inclusive education in sub-Saharan Africa

Preparatory considerations on the application of inclusive education in sub-Saharan Africa

Globalization and Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Mixed Blessing?

Globalization and Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Mixed Blessing?

Harnessing Open Educational Resources to the Challenges of Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

The challenges to teacher educators in sub-Saharan Africa are acute. This paper describes how the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) consortium is working within institutional and national policy systems to support school-based teacher professional development. The TESSA consortium (13 African institutions and 5 international organisations delivering teacher education across 9 countries) designed and produced a bank of open educational resources (OERs) to guide teachers’ classroom practices in school-based teacher education. Drawing on examples from the TESSA consortium and from the University of Fort Hare, South Africa, the authors categorize the forms of TESSA OER integration as highly structured, loosely structured, or guided use. The paper concludes by outlining success factors for the integration of OERs: accessibility, adequate resources, support for teachers, accommodation of local cultural and institutional practices, and sustainable funding.

Africa's education enigma? The Nigerian story

In the last two decades, the social and economic benefits of formal education in Sub-Saharan Africa have been debated. Anecdotal evidence points to low returns to education in Africa. Unfortunately, there is limited econometric evidence to support these claims at the micro level. In this study, I focus on Nigeria, a country that holds 1/5 of Africa's population. I use instruments based on the exogenous timing of the implementation and withdrawal of free primary education across regions in this country to consistently estimate the returns to education in the late 1990s. The results show the average returns to education are particularly low in the 90s, in contrast to conventional wisdom for developing countries (2.8% for every extra year of schooling between 1997 and 1999). Surprisingly, I find no significant differences between OLS and IV estimates of returns to education when necessary controls are included in the wage equation. The low returns to education results shed new light on both the changes in demand for education in Nigeria and the increased emigration rates from African countries that characterized the 90s.

Food Price Inflation and Children's Schooling

textabstractI analyze the impact of food price inflation on parental decisions to send their children to school. Moreover, I use the fact that food crop farmers and cotton farmers were exposed differently to that shock to estimate the income elasticity of school enrolment. The results suggest that the shock-induced loss in purchasing power had an immediate effect on enrolment rates. Instrumental variable estimates show that the effect of household income on children's school enrolment is much larger than a simple OLS regression would suggest. Hence, policies to expand education in Sub-Saharan Africa should not neglect the demand side.

Online Learning in Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Ghanaian University students' experiences and perceptions

This study adopted a qualitative case-study approach to examine the attitudes, experiences, and perceptions of undergraduate students who were enrolled in an online, collaborative learning course at a Ghanaian private university. Data sources included surveys, student and instructor journal entries, email records, individual interviews, and Web-server logs. The study found that the students did not respond favorably to online constructivist teaching approaches such as asynchronous discussions and ill-structured project-based learning activities, and perceived collaborative online learning within their context as a complex, more demanding and time-consuming experience.

REFLECTIONS ON POLICIES FOR MASS LITERACY EDUCATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

REFLECTIONS ON POLICIES FOR MASS LITERACY EDUCATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

A Dime a Day: The Possibilities and Limits of Private Schooling in Pakistan

This paper looks at the private schooling sector in Pakistan, a country that is seriously behind schedule in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Using new data, the authors document the phenomenal rise of the private sector in Pakistan and show that an increasing segment of children enrolled in private schools are from rural areas and from middle-class and poorer families. The key element in their rise is their low fees - the average fee of a rural private school in Pakistan is less than a dime a day (Rs.6). They hire predominantly local, female, and moderately educated teachers who have limited alternative opportunities outside the village. Hiring these teachers at low cost allows the savings to be passed on to parents through low fees. This mechanism - the need to hire teachers with a certain demographic profile so that salary costs are minimized - defines the possibility of private schools: where they arise, fees are low. It also defines their limits. Private schools are horizontally constrained in that they arise in villages where there is a pool of secondary educated women. They are also vertically constrained in that they are unlikely to cater to the secondary levels in rural areas, at least until there is an increase in the supply of potential teachers with the required skills and educational levels.

Paradigm shifts in medical education: implications for medical/health librarians in sub-Saharan Africa.

Contemporary health and medical education in the present information dispensation must actively engage healthcare providers in opportunities for knowledge seeking, learning to learn, and motivation to continue learning. The favored pedagogical design to achieve this is Problem-Based Learning (PBL) enhanced with the provision of library and information services that will enable health workers to acquire problem solving and lifelong learning capabilities. This paper presents a brief analysis of Problem-Based Learning features and their usefulness in medical and health education in Sub-Saharan Africa. In greater detail, it discusses the emerging roles of the medical/health librarian in the present knowledge dispensation. The new paradigm challenges information professionals to expand beyond traditional roles to designing and building quality knowledge management infrastructure that will provide access to quality-filtered, evidence-based, and critically analyzed information designed for use by healthcare trainers, students and consumers. In addition, the trend provides librarians with the opportunity to develop programmes for quality information instruction for healthcare professionals. The information professional is not only a collaborator in the research process and project management, but also facilitates immediate information access at the point of need for medical/health students, and also promotes public understanding of health issues through communication. Finally the paper discusses the measures that academic librarians can adopt in the successful implementation of PBL in their institutions. University of Dar es Salaam Library Journal Vol. 9 (2) 2007: pp. 72-85

The TESSA OER Experience: Building sustainable models of production and user implementation

This paper offers a review of the origins, design strategy and implementation plans of the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) research and development programme. The programme is working to develop new models of teacher education, particularly school based training, including the creation of a programme webspace and an extensive bank of Open Educational Resources. This paper identifies key research findings and literature which informed the TESSA approach and activity design. Drawing on participant experiences in different development activities and data generated in development testing activities, I offer a personal account of the programme to date. The paper concludes by suggesting a pattern of resource making and design that could be adopted by other programmes serving parallel development needs. Editors: Andreia Santos (Open University, UK). Reviewers: Richard F. Heller (Peoples-uni.org, UK) and Andreia Santos (Open U., UK).

From 'crisis' to 'transformation'? Shifting orthodoxies of African higher education policy and research

After years of neglect, there is renewed international interest in higher education in sub-Saharan Africa. Comparative projects have been launched on a continental scale, looking at the socio-economic relevance of higher education, often with the aim of reviving failing institutions. A new 'transformation' policy paradigm has replaced a previously dominant rhetoric of 'crisis'. Promoted by the major funders, this discourse has been adopted by many within African governments and university administrations. We argue that such interventions are possible because of the particular post-colonial historical ties among African, European and American academies. They represent the latest stage of donor involvement in African universities, and are made possible by the outward-looking perspectives of many African scholars. Yet is this latest paradigm shift leading to real changes in research capacity and teaching quality within African institutions? Is it informed by specific institutional needs? We compare research and development projects led by donors with those led by academics themselves. Attempts by international donors to invigorate locally relevant research capacity are limiting the re-emergence of academic autonomy. Academic research 'collaborations', especially those led by European and American scholars, fare little better.'

A Dime a Day: The Possibilities and Limits of Private Schooling in Pakistan

A Dime a Day: The Possibilities and Limits of Private Schooling in Pakistan

Orphaned and vulnerable children in Zambia: the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on basic education for children at risk

Background There is an emerging corpus of work on the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on education in sub-Saharan Africa. This mainly employs demographic models to make projections of student enrolments and teacher requirements. However, there is a paucity of research in basic schools to examine the experiences of AIDS-affected teachers and students. Purpose This study explored staff and student perceptions of the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the education of affected children in high-prevalence districts of the Copperbelt province of Zambia. The impact of the epidemic on student enrolment, attendance and completion rates, and on the quality of the learning experience, was investigated. Programme description and sample The Ministry of Education assisted with the selection of districts in the Copperbelt Province with the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS (34% to 39%). Four government schools with the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates and two community schools in impoverished communities were selected. Design and methods Statistical data from each school were made available. Six focus groups were held with District Education Board Personnel, NUT officials and the Copperbelt Special Education Standards Officer. Six interviews were held with school management teams. A total of 72 teachers and 64 students responded to questionnaires; 36 students also took part in four focus groups, each involving gender balanced groups of six to eight students from grades 4–8. Results The study provides information on the impact of the epidemic on basic education that has not previously been documented in Zambia and may assist the strategic planning and management of basic schools. A positive outcome of this study was that students, teachers and other professionals freely discussed issues concerning HIV/AIDS and its impact on education in a context where such issues are usually met with silence or denial. Conclusions The challenge for the Zambian Ministry of Education and the international community is not only to provide the right to basic education, but also to strengthen schools as inclusive and supportive communities. For students, this might focus on provision of alternative and more flexible opportunities for participation and learning, access to health and life skills education and appropriate counselling and support. For teachers, professional development opportunities to support the management of large classes and curriculum development—e.g. in the areas of life skills and vocational skills—are implicated.

Introduction: quality education in Africa – international commitments, local challenges and responses

Background and objectives The Education for All (EFA) campaign emerged as a global imperative as a result of the International Conference on Education held in Jomtien in 1990. Ten years later, at the Dakar Summit, it was established that remarkable progress had been accomplished in terms of access (e.g. increase in gross enrolment ratios and in the number of literate adults), but that quality, as measured through various indicators, left much to be desired. Such indicators included alarmingly low student achievement and high drop out rates, resulting in system inefficiency. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) was reported to be the region where the picture was the gloomiest. Indeed, various evaluations showed that in this part of Africa, most students left primary school without mastering the 3 Rs. 1 In addition, school did not seem to help pupils ‘‘learn how to learn’’. These findings are all the more preoccupying as primary schooling is an involuntary terminal stage of education for many children in SSA. In other words, these children are potentially the future illiterate adults. Worth mentioning also is the fact that grade repetition and drop out are estimated to consume about 25% of the financial resources allocated to primary education in this region. In response to the foregoing, the international community pledged to support the achievement of quality universal primary education (UPE) in lowincome countries by 2015, especially in SSA. Five years after Dakar, there were indications that progress was still very slow with respect to quality (see for instance UNESCO 2004). Two years earlier, in the framework of its 2003 biennale, ADEA commissioned an ambitious study of quality improvement in basic education in SSA. This study helped to identify knowledge gaps, new challenges, promising policies, programmes and practices, as well as unresolved questions (see Verspoor 2005). ADEA subsequently opted to maintain quality as a key focus of its activities, while remaining cognizant of the fact that a large number of eligible children in the region are still deprived of their right to formal basic education. In fact, the great challenge that SSA faces is to attend to access and quality simultaneously, as the two sides of the same coin, in a context of economic hardships, inadequate