Author: Gregory

Trends

Origami meets microscopy

In this week’s Uganda News Review, find out about the dangers of high-tech crops and the blessings of low-tech health equipment, and how Uganda is planning to boost science teaching, libraries and eLearning. All this – and one reason why you’re never too old for school – read on… Uganda News in brief: Civil society activists petition the Constitutional court over anti-gays bill (Monitor) […]

Trends

The World Wide Web at 25: how Africa connects

Today marks 25 years exactly since Tim Berners-Lee first proposed the concept of the World Wide Web. To celebrate the News Team has put together this infographic showing the major arteries of Internet communication that (alongside satellite links) give Africa access to the Web, and the effect they have on the countries they serve. The story of Africa’s undersea cables goes back fifteen years. […]

Trends

UAVs with ISPs

This week, find out about what drones could do for internet in Africa and the image makeover needed in technical colleges. Meanwhile, rivalry with neighbour Kenya seems to be all the rage in Uganda’s printed media – see how the two countries compare on higher education and on tourism, below… Uganda news in brief: M7 and PM Mbabazi relations reach all-time low (Observer) ++++ […]

Trends

Texting without thumbs

This week in Uganda: traditional gender roles are challenged, the fight against sexual crime steps up a notch and SMS services take a creative leap forward. More mixed reaction, however, is voiced to last year’s exam results, out now – read on… 26.02.2014 Uganda news in brief: Museveni signs anti-gay law, Ethiopia condemns; but is the controversy overshadowing other news? (Monitor) ++++ Multibillion investment […]

Field Stories

African traditions online

African traditions are under threat. While younger generations increasingly desire to move to the big cities, emigrate, or assimilate, globalisation has brought external cultures into competition with local ones, leaving many of these older structures close to dissolution. One proposed solution to this erosion of tradition is the ATOE (African Traditions Online Encyclopaedia) – a Wikipedia-style, user-generated website that will amass the collected knowledge, […]

Field Stories

International Mother Language Day 2014

It’s impossible to encapsulate the variety of Africa’s languages in a single picture. The Continent’s complex history has had an equally complex effect on language. Some languages are vast, spoken over great distances by tens of millions. Some are tiny, spoken by single villages, towns or tribes. Many of these languages, which each encode millennia of tradition, history and culture, are critically endangered: one […]

Trends

Where mobiles outnumber people…

In 2001, about 25 million people in Africa had a mobile phone subscription; by 2013, that number had ballooned to 780 million – an increase of 3,120%. There are now more mobile phones in Botswana, Gabon and Namibia than there are citizens. by Steven Blum With statistics like these, it’s not surprising that many educational strategists are dreaming of a future where mobile phones […]

Trends

Lovers unite in rift region

In this episode of The Uganda News Review, find out about the apps that tackle corruption and money transfer costs, the pupils asked to bring bags of cement to school, and the bishop who gave everything he had to the poor. Plus: the people trying to improve the lot of women in work, and just how successful is Uganda’s progress towards the Millennium Development […]

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“It’s not possible to leapfrog building learning cultures”

African economies are starting to face a common problem: while investment, resources and labour are plentiful, the skills necessary to reap the full rewards of this richness are often lacking. 2012 research in South Africa, for example, found over 800,000 unfilled positions in high-skilled jobs across all sectors. As industry grows, there is clearly a pressing need to make sure the wealth it generates […]