Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Ugandan history teaching is becoming dangerously irrelevant. This is the concern of Dorothy Sebbowa, a lecturer in history education at Makerere University. “The country risks losing knowledge of its own past,” she warns. But through changing the way history is taught, that knowledge can be saved. by Tewodros Alemayehu Makerere is Uganda’s largest university, and still uses a teaching model where one lecturer addresses […]
War has a devastating effect on the lives of the children caught up in it. Education is one of the first things to suffer the disruption to daily life caused by conflict, while the effects of trauma can last for many years after the end of hostilities. The Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency in Northern Uganda became particularly notorious worldwide for the abduction and abuse […]
The new and old buildings of Uganda’s oldest university, Makerere University, occupy an entire hill. In 2011 Makerere University became the first university in sub-Saharan Africa to have a Microsoft Innovation Center. The construction of the centre was as a result of a partnership between The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Microsoft to establish innovation hubs across Africa. Makerere University, a public […]
Young people’s approach to sex education in Uganda has been undergoing gradual change thanks to an SMS Helpline provided by SchoolNet Uganda allowing them to ask questions about sexual and reproductive health – issues that they never before dared put to authority figures. by Pauline Bugler SchoolNet Uganda is one of thirteen organisations implementing the Access, Services, Knowledge (ASK) Alliance and is training two […]
At the 2011 eLearning Africa Conference in Tanzania, a Welsh grandmother and a Cameroonian Chief realised that they had the same fear – in the digital age, the past was being left behind. by Jonathan Adebayo Gaston Donnat Bappa, from the Babimbi region of Cameroon, was concerned that “we are losing traditional skills in Africa at an alarming rate”. Valerie Wood Gaiger had come […]
Twenty years ago, South Africans celebrated on the streets as the Apartheid regime crumbled to dust. Today, jubilation over the demise of the brutal regime comes amid discouragement about the problems South Africa has yet to fix. Indeed, the system of racial segregation has been dismantled. Homes are no longer invaded when police suspect interracial sex. The mass evictions – by some counts, over […]
Today, the whole world is very bullish about Africa: a decade ago, a respected magazine called Africa the hopeless continent; now even it is acknowledging that Africa is rising. Sub-Saharan Africa’s growth momentum has been maintained over the past two decades and the prognosis is good. Despite substantial progress in reforming the overall policy environment it would appear that many African countries may not […]
Educators and researchers are in two minds when it comes to the pedagogical, social and technological benefits of social media, particularly Facebook. Some say it can provide a platform for learning and allow students to collaborate and communicate with each other. Yet other educators say Facebook has little educational value and does not serve any academic purpose. In the worst-case scenario, it could even […]
“Those most often left behind are language minorities. Keeping the promise of the MDGs requires a new understanding of the critical role of language in human development. Because there can be no true development without linguistic development, only by putting language at the centre of development can we close the gaps and meet key targets of the MDGs and other global agendas such as […]
Eds: Many thanks to Adebola Adedugbe for agreeing to do the interview after a lengthy power cut in Abuja! Energetic, resourceful young Africans make up roughly 50% of the Continent’s population. And their rising numbers go hand in hand with a decreasing agricultural workforce. Waves of young people migrate from rural to urban areas in search of white-collar jobs and better earnings. Why pick […]
