July 17, 2023
Uganda: What Does It Mean to Be 'Educated'? In Uganda It's Not Just Schooling That Counts
How do you gauge whether someone is educated or not? In many parts of the world, the answer relates to the level of formal qualifications they achieve when they are young - do they… Read more »
June 21, 2023
Ghana: Ama Ata Aidoo - The Pioneering Writer Left Behind a String of Feminist Classics
Prolific author and former Ghanaian education minister Ama Ata Aidoo passed away on 31 May 2023 at the age of 81. News of her death reverberated around… Read more »
July 13, 2023
South Africa: SAN and Khoe Skeletons - How a South African University Sought to Restore Dignity and Redress the Past
It has been nearly 100 years since the skeletonised remains of nine people were removed from their graves on a farm near the town of Sutherland in South Africa's Northern Cape… Read more »
June 27, 2023
Africa: Covid-19 Hurt Kids' Math Learning More Than Reading and Writing - With the Biggest Setbacks in Fall 2020
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. Read more »
June 21, 2023
South Africa: Sign Language Is Now Official in South Africa - How This Will Help Education in Schools for the Deaf
South African Sign Language is set to become the country's 12th official language. Parliament approved a constitutional amendment in a bid to "promote the rights of persons who are… Read more »
June 19, 2023
Tanzania: Tanzanian Students Who Struggle With English Feel Bullied - a Major Barrier to Learning
In many postcolonial contexts, early learning is conducted, and assessed, in a language that is unfamiliar to learners. About 40% of the world's population cannot access schooling… Read more »
June 13, 2023
Kenya: Kenya's Budget Doesn't Allocate Funds for New Education Initiatives - This Will Stall Innovation in the Country
President William Ruto's first budget for Kenya sets no education priorities. The Finance Bill 2023 doesn't make it clear what Kenya is trying to achieve - stronger foundational… Read more »
June 08, 2023
South Africa: Sex, Money and Love - What South African University Students Say About Romance and Dating in a Material Age
Transactional sex - the exchange of consensual sex for material support like gifts, money or food - occurs on university campuses in many parts of the world. Read more »
June 06, 2023
South Africa: Learning to Read Is a Journey - a Study Identifies Where South African Kids Go Off Track
Any parent who has watched a child learning to read knows that it is a journey. Various skills and processes must come together and build "brick by brick" before a child can read a… Read more »
May 31, 2023
Africa: Free Secondary Education in African Countries Is On the Rise - but Is It the Best Policy? What the Evidence Says
When President Salva Kiir announced the abolition of secondary school fees in South Sudan in February 2023, he was following several fellow African leaders. Read more »
May 25, 2023
Zimbabwe: Education in Zimbabwe Should Strive for Inclusion - How the Philosophy of Ubuntu Can Help
The notion of inclusive education began to emerge during the 1950s and 1960s. At first it focused on integrating students with disabilities into mainstream classrooms, but it… Read more »
May 22, 2023
South Africa: South Africa's 10 Year-Olds Are Struggling to Read - It Can Be Fixed
More than 80% of South Africa's grade 4 pupils - who are on average nine or 10 years old - cannot read for meaning. That means they can't answer basic questions about or draw… Read more »
May 21, 2023
South Africa: South Africa's Reading Crisis - 5 Steps to Address Children's Literacy Struggles
Kunyashe is a Grade 1 pupil in Cape Town, South Africa. She's very focused on her schoolwork. She shares a tiny one-roomed shack, hardly bigger than a double bed, with her mother… Read more »
May 18, 2023
Nigeria: Obaro Ikime Was One of Nigeria's Great Scholars - He Showed Why History Matters in Building African Nations
Iku o mo eni'san! "Death does not know the good ones" is a Yoruba phrase to describe the indiscriminate nature of death. If character and social values were considered in the… Read more »
May 14, 2023
Ghana: Ghana School Students Talk About Their Social Media Addiction, and How It Affects Their Use of English
Social media networks such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, YouTube and Instagram have been shown to have significantly transformed student behaviour. But the focus has been on… Read more »
May 08, 2023
Nigeria: Remote Teaching in Nigeria and South Africa Got a Covid Wake-Up Call - How to Capitalise On It
Universities had to deal with many anxieties and uncertainties during the early days of the COVID pandemic. One of these was how to move all of their teaching online. For some, the… Read more »
May 04, 2023
Ghana: History Classes Help Students Develop Curious Minds - but Teachers Aren't Equipped to Nurture This
There are two camps when it comes to teaching children: one says teachers should focus on guiding students to find things out for themselves. This approach makes learning… Read more »
April 13, 2023
Africa: Drawing Pictures Is Great for Children's Development - Here's How Parents Can Help
When the weather's bad and there's no prospect of a trip to the park, we might well reach for crayons, pencils and paper as a way to keep our children entertained. But drawing is… Read more »
April 16, 2023
Ghana: Juvenile Offenders Aren't Prepared for Rejoining Society - How the System Is Failing Them
Globally, about one million children are held in police custody annually; 410,000 of them are held in detention and remand centres. On any day, it is estimated, remand homes around… Read more »
April 13, 2023
Ethiopia: Ethiopia Was Feted for Expanding Education Rights for Refugees, Then Politics Got in the Way
Ethiopia is one of the largest refugee-hosting countries in the world. It hosts more than 800,000 refugees and asylum seekers. For decades, refugees were sheltered primarily in 26… Read more »
April 12, 2023
Senegal: Only 1 in 3 Girls Makes It to Secondary School in Senegal - Here's Why and How to Fix It
Senegal has a young population, with about half of its 18 million people aged below 19. This indicates a potentially high demand for education. Of those aged six to 11, however,… Read more »
March 23, 2023
Ghana: Women Occupy Very Few Academic Jobs in Ghana. Culture and Society's Expectations Are to Blame
In many parts of the world, men dominate the higher education sector. A 2022 UNESCO report found that, globally, fewer than two out of five senior academics are women. In an… Read more »
March 12, 2023
Africa: ChatGPT is the Push Higher Education Needs to Rethink Assessment
The COVID-19 pandemic was a shock to higher education systems everywhere. But while some changes, like moving lectures online, were relatively easy to make, assessment posed a much… Read more »
March 06, 2023
Africa: Teachers Change Lives - But What Makes a Great Teacher?
Excellent teachers can change our lives. Researchers have shown that good teachers encourage us to think critically, reflect and learn across disciplines. These are all skills that… Read more »
February 27, 2023
South Africa: Online Learning Platforms Aren't Enough - Lecturers Need the Right Technical Skills
Technology has become the centre of our lives. It has also changed how university students learn and how lecturers teach. Some institutions had already shifted to some form of… Read more »