Tag: Literacy

Field Stories

A moment in time. Uganda Kayanga District

by Pauline McLeod “I want to read, I want to read.” Three P1 and 2 children were knocking on the door at 9.00am in the morning. Not yet fully dressed these three children had come from the nearby village and were outside Maligita Primary School Office. They wanted access to the  books in the library and to read on the tablets. Maligita Primary School […]

Field Stories

Leadership Training in Burkina

by Corinne Brion
Neowongo! (Welcome in Moore, one of the 59 dialects In Burkina Faso, West Africa). Tonight, I am leaving Burkina Faso. I am at Ouagadougou’s international airport reflecting on my experiences in the land of the ‘Incorruptible People.’ Burkina Faso is the size of Colorado and has 19 million inhabitants. It is a former French colony and like many countries in Africa gained its independence in 1960. Burkina Faso ranks 183 out of 188 on the Human Development index […]

Field Stories

The Push for “Free” Universal Education in Africa Often Falls Short—Here’s a Better Way

By Efosa Ojomo
I grew up in Nigeria where nearly half the population still lives in extreme poverty. But even for most who are desperately poor, education is highly valued as a majority of children—more than 70%—attend primary school and nearly half attend secondary school. Many also go on to attain higher education degrees. This push for education […]

Field Stories

A digital intervention to literacy and numeracy for refugees and asylum seekers, Kakuma, Kenya

Along with the other arid and semi-arid lands, Turkana county has one of the lowest indicators of economic and social development in Kenya, with youth and women being the most affected. Across the county, youth not only face structural barriers to work but also deal with social and cultural blocks. This equally affects women and newly-arrived refugees. The key barriers hindering the absorption of […]

Opinions

“No country can make progress on the basis of a borrowed language”

Professor Kwesi Kwaa Prah is the founder of the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS), a civil society, Pan-African organisation which focuses on African development through the lens of cultural, social, historical, political and economic research. Currently, through the CASAS Harmonization and Standardization of African Languages Project, Professor Prah and CASAS are working towards improving African literacy rates. By forming standardised groupings […]

Trends

UNESCO Mobile Learning Week 2013: Scratching the surface

The recently hosted UNESCO Mobile Learning Week (MLW) 2013 set out to answer three vital questions: how can mobile technologies support literacy development for both children and adults? How can they support teachers and their professional development, to ensure quality education is delivered to all students? And how can mobile technologies contribute to gender equality and extend opportunities to women and girls? A series […]