Current
Issues in Educational Development in Selected
African Countries:
A
Comparative and International Education
Perspective
Ghelawdewos
Araia
October
13, 2014
This
article intends to critically examine the state of
educational developments in Botswana and South
Africa from Southern Africa; Ethiopia and Tanzania
from East Africa; Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and
Sierra Leone from West Africa; and Egypt and
Morocco from North Africa. The methodology
employed throughout the text of this article is
the comparative and international education
perspective, but the latter, as some people
assume, is not simply about comparisons and
contrasts. It goes deeper rather in exploring the
educational theory and practice in international
context, delves into the purposes of schooling,
educational access and opportunities,
accountability, as well as professionalism and
quality education. The methodology also involves
demographic attributes, geographical and economic
realities, as well as political and cultural
factors.
This
paper studies current educational development in
Africa in the context of the four cardinal
geographical locations in the Continent, and as
Noah W. Sobe and Jamie A. Kowalcyzyk aptly put it,
“A more recent schema for approaching context on
comparative education scholarship comes from Mark
Bray and R. Murray Thomas (1995) who have proposed
a three dimensional cube for thinking about the
location or site of any comprehensive education
study. One axis is geographical and proposes that
research might focus on world regions, countries,
provinces, districts, as well as the
“locational” levels of schools.”1
Bray
and Thomas also propose two more axes, namely
demographic factors and ethnicity and substantive
issues associated with the two axes, but for the
purpose of this paper, I will focus on regional
educational development and the mission and
objectives of the latter and the strategies of
development that the countries under study should
take in order to realize a successful
educational-cum-development enterprise, which, in
turn, would catapult the African nations as
“equal” members in the global economy.
Most
importantly, Sobe and Kowalcyzyk, further argue,
“the act of contextualization is essential in
the field of comparative education, and it means
treating contexts as a matter of concerns while
focusing our research attention on the educational
assemblages that compose and govern our present
and future worlds.”2
I am
in full accord with Sobe and Kowalcyzyk and I will
treat contexts as a matter of concern while
exploring and dissecting the educational
development of the selected African countries
mentioned above. The comparative methodology that
I will employ in this article will essentially
incorporate the following important themes: policy
context, the goal to increase enrollment, the goal
to increase and expand tertiary education,
improving quality of education, the role of
educational associations and institutions, the
role of research projects, the linkages of higher
education and economic development, and
distribution of higher institutions of learning.
The
above topics will be thematically highlighted in
relation to current issues in educational
development in the selected countries. However,
instead of simply analyzing country profiles one
by one, I have rather opted for theme-based
comparative analysis of the many facets of
educational development in all the countries.
With
respect to educational development, for instance,
we can first examine that of Botswana and
contextually compare it to the selected countries:
“The tertiary education policy of 2008 outlines
a series of policy recommendations for higher
education in the country. Amongst others, this
policy seeks to support the creation of a single
integrated and differentiated tertiary education
system.”3
Similarly,
post-Apartheid South Africa wanted to implement
policy of “action research for the twenty first
century” in order to “exploring educational
pathways,” according to studies made by the
South African Journal of Higher Education (SAJHE)
4
Compared
to Botswana and South Africa, Ghana also wants to
develop its tertiary education in a similar
fashion, but what makes Ghana different is the
fact that its policy is more comprehensive rather
than focused on one or two sectors of the
educational system: “The National Council for
Tertiary Education (NCTE) was established in 1993
to advice the Ministry of Education on all matters
related to the development of tertiary
education.”5
In a
similar vein to Ghana, “The Government of
Tanzania has deployed a series of strategies to
ensure the adequate and more concerted development
of both higher education and TVET sub-sectors, to
supply the economy with increasing number of
skilled and knowledgeable professionals it needs
to sustain its growth.”6 The
Tanzanian educational policy, with emphasis on
knowledge-based economy, is adopted by almost all
African countries, including the selected
countries, and almost all of them have now given
priority to producing skilled professionals
through their respective technical and vocational
education and training (TVET). The graduates from
the latter institutions will, in turn, run the
economy effectively in an effort to boost the
various sectors of the national development
projects.
In
regards to education policy, in the last decade
and half, Ethiopia launched a more comprehensive
educational strategy aimed at expanding
elementary, secondary, vocational and technical
colleges, while at the same time augmenting higher
institutions of learning in all the regional
states that make up Ethiopia. In point of fact, as
I have discussed it in my book by making reference
to Teshome Yizengaw, one time vice minister of
higher education of Ethiopia, I noted that
Ethiopia “has stressed issues of quality and
relevance in educational progress; quality of
teaching staff and facilities; improvement of
management leadership; introduction of financial
diversification, including income generation and
cost-sharing by students; and improvement in the
system of evaluation, monitoring, autonomy and
accountability.”7
Almost
all the themes that I have mentioned earlier as
the main discussion points for this paper are
conceptually fulfilled by Ethiopia. However, on
translating those educational agendas into
concrete action could be a major challenge for the
country. Higher institutions of learning in
Ethiopia continue to encounter dearth of qualified
faculty and they also face budget constraints, and
as a result some universities are unable to own
the necessary instructional technologies, and the
majority of college entry students cannot afford
to share the cost of schooling.
Sierra
Leone, a country that was bedeviled by a
decade-long civil war, euphemistically known as
Blood Diamond, has made a come back and is trying
to catch up in educational development with other
African countries that have shown progress in both
educational and economic developments. The
country’s current policy in formal and
non-formal education (mainly distance learning) is
focused on “provisioning quality, relevant and
equitable learning opportunities for all is the
policy thrust and overarching objective of
education in Sierra Leone. The importance of
education as the key to human development is
recognized in all of the nation’s social and
economic development policies and practices.”8
Sierra Leone is a small country that could
countenance all the challenges that Ethiopia and
other African countries encounter, not to mention
the present Ebola menace, which could be a major
distraction from otherwise sound educational and
economic development policies.
Regarding
cross-border education, which has now become
fashionable globally, Sierra Leone, in cooperation
with Ghana, has implemented “a commonwealth
youth program diploma course in Youth Development
Work through distance education,”9 while
at the same time it sought the training of its
educational leadership by the Indira Gandhi
National Open University (IGNOU) 10
Nigeria,
the biggest and wealthiest in West Africa, is
pioneer in educational development amongst the
ECOWAS African nations, and its policy of
education (reformed several times since 1977),
which reflects the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
and the UNESCO ‘Education for All’ (EFA)
motto, is by far comprehensive compared to the
selected African countries, and for that matter to
all other nations in the Continent. “Nigeria’s
educational aims and objectives for all levels of
education are: a) the inculcation of national
consciousness and national unity; b) the
inculcation of correct values and attitudes for
the survival of the individual and the Nigerian
society; and c) training for understanding the
world around.” 11
The
third Nigerian educational objective insinuates
that Nigeria is in tune with current globalization
and it looks that the Nigerian leadership, at
least in theory, is determined to keep up with the
nature and characteristics of globalization in
order to be competent and successful in the global
arena. Whether Africans will fail, prevail, or
successfully forge “equal” partnerships with
the industrial North remains to be seen, and I
will discuss this conundrum at the end of the
paper and continue with educational policy and
other parameters for now.
Following
the national educational objective, “one of the
Nigerian Vision 20: 2020 is to improve the
nation’s prospects for achieving the Millennium
Development Goals and creating employment in a
sustainable manner. In order to achieve the
long-term broad objectives, on [sic/one] of the
challenges is for the nation to raise the quality
and standard of education to international
comparative levels. Every Nigerian child must have
opportunity to acquire quality education, in an
environment conducive to learning. The strategy to
be employed will include redesigning the curricula
to sooth the labour market demand and benchmarking
of the quality of education standards with global
standards.”12
I
have earlier stated that Nigeria was a pioneer in
education, and in point of fact, in 1998, in one
of my articles entitled Nigeria: The Troubled
Giant of Africa (African Link, Vol. 6, No. 4,
1998), I have extended credit to Nigeria for
establishing several universities, colleges, and
polytechnics in just a decade and half following
independence in 1960 when it had only one
university for the entire nation.
Following
the 2010 reform and education policy, however,
some critics observe the shortcomings, drawbacks,
and lethargy in Nigeria’s educational
development, and for the sake of comparative
analysis and also to have a balanced view and
perspective, I hereby present the criticism
leveled against Nigeria’s educational system,
with particular focus on higher education,
professional capacity, and research. Based on the
Methodological Workshop on the Development Impact
of Higher Education in Africa held in Dakar,
Senegal, in September 2005, Llyod Amaghionyediwe
and Tokundo Simbo-Wale Osinubi contend,
“Although it is Africa’s largest country with
20% of the region’s population, Nigeria has only
15 scientists and engineers engaged in research
and development per million persons. This compares
with 168 in Brazil, 459 in China, 158 in India,
and 4,103 in the United States (World Bank,
2002).”13
The
above comparison of Nigeria with other countries,
however, is sketchy at best and paradigmatically
wrong at worst. Nigeria should not be simply
compared to the United States and China, which are
respectively first and second economies in the
world. It should not be compared to emerging
economies such as Brazil and India either, and it
is for the following reasons: 1) Nigeria’s
population, though the biggest in Africa, is much
smaller than all the respective countries
mentioned for the purpose of comparison; 2)
population remains an elusive methodological tool,
akin of a neo-Malthusian vice, unless it is
critically examined in the context of overall
economic development and favorable or unfavorable
global reality to Africa as a whole; 3) the
industrial base of Nigeria is much smaller
compared to all the sampled nations for
comparison, although the country has a great
potential to catch up if it overcomes corruption
and adopts correct development policies and
strategies.
The
educational policy of Senegal, like most of
African nations that we have discussed thus far,
is aimed at improving the quality of higher
education, and “project activities will include
the establishment of training opportunities,
preparation of a guide for foreign students,
research on existing mechanisms in Quality
Assurance as well as assessment of the employment
needs of the private sector.”14
The
Senegalese education project was financed by
UNESCO and was presented as a workshop by its
Regional Office for Education in Africa on March
2012. Sponsors of the workshop include the
Directorate General of Higher Education (DGES) and
the universities institution of Public Higher
Education (EPES), and the National Authority of
Quality Assurance (ANAQ). Moreover, the conference
of the workshop was co-sponsored by the German
Academic Exchange Office – Deutscher
Akademischer Austauscdienst (DAAD). The latter
played the same role that the Indira Gandhi Open
University played in Sierra Leone, and it is also
involved in Hawassa University in Southern
Ethiopia.
The
role of European and American universities in the
development of African education is not novice. It
is true for all African countries that their
educational policies were influenced, shaped, and
formulated by European and American policymakers
before and after African nations gained
independence. Ethiopia, though never colonized,
had a brunt of education policy superimposition by
foreign experts. The University College of Addis
Ababa (now Addis Ababa University), when founded
in 1950, was led and administered by predominantly
Jesuit scholars and educators, including the
Canadian Dr. Lucien Matte. Soon after, the
university was affiliated with the University of
London. And until the early 1970s, these academics
would serve as professors, deans, and presidents,
but Ethiopians gradually replaced them when the
university ushered an Ethiopianization program,
with deliberate policy to run the university by
Ethiopians.
Thus,
the present influx of universities from all over
the world as partners in research in the 31
universities of Ethiopia, is a combination of the
previous universities involvement as sponsors and
administrators.15
Egypt
is the home of Al-Azhar, the first university
founded in Africa in 988 CE, i.e. during the
Fatimid Dynasty. However, the development of
higher education in Egypt was ushered in the post
Nasser-led Free Officers revolution of 1952, but a
decade will elapse until the Nasser regime
initiated a policy of higher education with an
objective to open up higher institutions of
learning.
Nevertheless,
like in most African countries, the Egyptian
universities were understaffed, lacked facilities,
and low wages forced professors to teach in more
than one university.16 This problem may
sound a unique Egyptian and/or African problem,
but it very much affects the thousands of American
universities, save the Ivy Leagues, and I know it
first hand because the City University of New York
(CUNY), where I teach, is run by a majority of
adjunct faculty rather than tenured or full-time
professors and as a result the University suffers
from a permanent low quality education.
In
response to the drawbacks, Egypt, like most
African countries that realized the shortcomings,
and in some instances failures of the educational
system, initiated a reform in education in order
to overcome “narrow access and limited
opportunities for students; poor quality of
educational inputs and processes; deficiencies and
imbalances in graduate output relative to job
market requirements; and underdeveloped university
research capability for the national innovation
systems.”17
Unlike
other African countries that underplay or even
hide the real issues associated with problems in
education that bewitch higher institutions of
learning, or on the contrary ‘cry wolf’ or
raise a false alarm, Egypt addressed the problem
candidly and openly, and it is only through this
kind of transparency that nations can come up with
genuine diagnosis and subsequently formulate
correct educational policies.
Moreover,
Egypt had to undertake reform policies in
education because it “has to improve
competitiveness in a global knowledge-based
economy where other countries were intensifying
investments in human capital and knowledge
production. It also need to provide
‘appropriately’ for a larger and more
diversified student population, and reduce social
inequalities arising from differences in
educational opportunities.”18
Morocco
is the only country in North Africa that is
currently not a member of the African Union
(following the Western Sahara crisis), but also
not affected by the 2011 peoples uprisings that
changed the political landscape of Tunisia, Libya,
and Egypt. The neighboring country Algeria did not
encounter an uprising either, but it had undergone
several Jihad conflicts and is not as stable as
Morocco.
Ironically,
however, despite the long and rich history and
stability, Morocco was unable to boast
well-established higher institutions of learning,
except for the Mohammed V University that was
established in 1957 and the Rabat International
University that was founded in 2010. All in all,
there are indeed 14 higher institutions of
learning in Morocco but they are not comparable to
the ones that are in Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa,
and the rest of the selected countries
universities. This is surprising, because Morocco
should have been the repository of the legacy of
the Moors who civilized Spain (711-1492), who
ventured into Europe from Morocco, and following
the Spanish Inquisition returned to Africa via
Morocco.
In
any event, as in most African countries, “higher
education in Morocco…is placed under the
authority of the Ministry of Higher Education,
Management Training and Scientific Research, and
educates senior and middle managers over 3, 5, or
8 years after graduation of baccalaureate.”19
Also, like most African countries, Morocco has
realized the significance of information
communication technology (ICT) to enhance its
educational system.
“The
Moroccan government has realized,” says Amr
Hamdy, “as a positive contributor to the
Information Society, Article 10 of the National
Charter of Education and Training of 1999 is
focused on the integration of ICT in education and
supports the acquisition of computing facilities
at schools along with the promotion of distance
education and learning. Several programmes and
initiatives, led and supported by the government,
are taking place in the context of long-term
strategy that is intended to cover all education
sectors and regions to ensure equal opportunities
for all citizens.”20
On
the contrary, as Majid Mardour argues, “The
situation of Moroccan education is unsatisfactory.
In spite of many reforms since 1956, there is no
tangible change as had been expected by Moroccans.
The failure of our educational reform is due to
many variables that can either be linked to
students, curriculum design, policymakers or
parents.”21
All
the above selected African countries, in one form
or another, have geared their educational policies
for the consumption of global donors, UN agencies
such as UNESCO, UNDP, UNIDO, and UNICEF etc. For
instance, when these countries state, “equal
access to education”, it could mean
accommodation of the have-nots as well as girls
and women in the educational sector, but the
ultimate objective is to echo the Education for
All (EFA) motto of UNESCO. By the same token, when
they emphasize ‘quality education’ and/or
‘ICT’ as component parts of their policy, they
are sending messages to UNESCO, UNDP, UNIDO, and
philanthropists who fund educational programs.
However,
the educational policies of these countries may
not be always implemented. Some of these nations
could fully realize some of the educational
programs; others may partially implement their
educational projects as planned and enshrined in
their policies; and yet others may not at all
fulfill educational agendas that were drafted on
paper with excellent coherence. The reason for the
failure of some countries in their inability to
translate their policies into action is because
respective Ministries of Education or the national
and local governments in these countries that
preside over education matters are more interested
in raising funds rather than fostering quality
education.
Quality
education should be synonymous with qualified
teachers and professors, and the level of
development that can relatively satisfy
instructional technologies such as computers,
laboratory equipments, textbook, Blackboard
Systems, Plasma TV broadcast, and Power Points as
part of the overall curriculum. But, in the
absence of qualified experts to effectively use
the instructional technologies that could at the
same impart knowledge and empower students, the
technologies would become ghost technical
entities.
Most
of the universities in the selected countries
suffer from dearth of qualified instructors, and
as a result quality education also suffers
ignominiously. There are even some institutions of
learning that have been shut down due to lack of
funds and qualified teachers. A case in point is
the Mekelle Institute of Technology (MIT) in
Tigray Regional State of Ethiopia. When first
established, MIT exhibited promises of producing
professional wizards in technology but at one
point it was unable to manage itself due to
financial hardship, and the Federal Government had
to step in to support the Institute but the latter
increasingly deteriorated that it finally gave in
and was incorporated as part of Mekelle
University, and it is now known as Ethiopian
Institute of Technology – Mekelle (EiTM).
While
Ethiopia did very well in terms of even
distribution of colleges and universities in the
nine Regional States and this measure was also
coupled by the creation of plethora of other
educational institutions and associations that
cushion the Ethiopian educational system as a
whole, the challenge of quality education is going
to stay for a long time to come. On top of lack of
funds and consequently shortage of instruction
technologies, the Ethiopian political landscape is
marred by patron-client relationship, in which
case political cadres, predominantly staff the
bureaucracies including the Ministry of Education,
rather than educated professionals. Insofar the
cadre, most of who are not educated, serve as
watchdogs behind educators, the entire educational
edifice would lack a solid foundation, and may
even stagnate and crumble in some instances.
Even
distribution of educational institutions could
reasonably overcome the inequity that had
previously prevailed in most African countries,
but along with distribution it is also important
to seriously consider zoning in education. Zoning
is best exemplified by Senegal, in which “the
director of higher education has drafted an
ambitious plan to create ten regional university
centers, each focused on a local strength on
industry. For example, agriculture and tourism in
the North, and mining and industry in Tambacounda
and Kaolack.”22
In
regards to even distribution of education
facilities and for that matter economic
development areas, in an effort to address the
Ethiopian problem, I have coined the concept of
appropriate development zones (ADZ), and this is
how I put it in my most recent book: “Learning
from China and from its own experience, Ethiopia
could overcome the problems of even distribution
by devising what I like to call appropriate
development zones (ADZ), in which the respective
regional states could effectively exploit their
resources. For instance, the Tigray Regional State
most likely could be a perfect ADZ for industry,
mining, and tourism, while the Amhara, Oromia, and
Southern States could develop via agriculture and
industry. While eco-tourism is most suitable for
Southern and Southwestern Ethiopia, conventional
tourism is quite obviously tenable for the Tigray,
Gonder, and Wollo (Lalibela) areas.”23
Surrounding
research in general and scientific research in
particular, some universities in South Africa have
done well, but universities in Nigeria may have
gone backwards in this respect. “On the research
side, Nigerian number of scientific publications
for 1995 was 771, significantly less than it’s
out of 1,062 scientific publications in 1981 by a
comparatively much smaller university system.”24
Across
the board in the African continent at present, and
more specifically in the selected countries for
the purpose of this paper, emphasis on technical
and vocational education has become the rule
rather than the exception. Some countries like
Tanzania, apart from TVET centers, also have
supporting ministries and institutions such as the
Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT)
and the Vocational Education & Training
Authority (VETA), which could play a pivotal role
in fostering the knowledge-based economy and
producing skilled manpower. In this regard, the
country did very well because, “TVET education
coverage in Tanzania is higher than other
low-income countries” although inequity and
quality education remain major challenges.25
While
countries like Ghana boast higher institutions of
learning such as Kwame Nkrumah University
(formerly Kumasi College of Technology), and the
University of Science and Technology, Ethiopia
also amalgamated its Addis Ababa science and
engineering colleges into one university, now
known as Addis Ababa Science and Technology
University. On top of this, Ethiopia has also
opened up several TVET centers.26 Similarly,
in an effort to catch up with other African
countries, Sierra Leone also has established what
it calls the National Council for Technical,
Vocational, and other Academic Awards (NCTVA).
Going
back to the external input in the higher
institutions of learning of Africa, we ought to
critically examine how well the African
universities will be impacted by exogenous
education systems and how they could fit into the
globalization education framework, and
consequently perform independently and compete in
the global arena.
In
spite of the remarkable success scored by the high
performing Asian economies (Republic of Korea,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore), the current
status of China as the second economy in the
world, and the emergence of the BRICS (Brazil,
Russia, India, China, and South Africa), the
global economy is still dominated by the
industrial North of Western Europe and the United
States. It is in light of this reality, thus, that
we must examine the educational policy of the
powerful Northern economies in contradistinction
with the selected African countries.
With
the exception of South Africa, which is a member
of the BRICS, and which has a relatively robust
industrial base, Nigeria, though oil rich and has
the potential of becoming a viable economy in the
global arena, is facing insurmountable political
crisis attributed to toxic corruption and the Boko
Haram terrorism; Egypt has just emerged from a
three-year instability following the Tahrir Square
people’s uprising; and the rest of the
countries, save Ethiopia which has recently shown
promising economic growth, are poor. In all
probability, thus, the dependence of these
countries on the donor rich countries will
continue unabated.
In
order to help us understand the globalization of
educational policy, it is advisable to borrow
Antoni Verger’s macro theoretical approaches,
two of which are the ‘World Society’ theory
and the ‘Globally Structured Educational
Agenda’ (GSEA) theory.
Based
on other sources and theoretical frameworks,
Verger expounds the two paradigms as follows:
“World Society argues that ‘education
institution’, as we know it, has spread around
the world as part of the diffusion of a culturally
embedded model of the modern nation-state. (Meyer
et al, 1997).”27 On the other hand,
“GSEA sees the world capitalist economy as the
driving force of globalization and the main causal
source of the profound transformations manifested
in education arena today (Dale, 2000). This
approach stresses that most significant
educational changes we witness today should be
understood as being embedded within interdependent
local, national and global political economy
complexes. International financial organizations
are key agents in this multi-scalar scenario due
to their agenda setting capacities.”28
The
interesting paradigmatic analysis that Verger
makes, of course, would make sense and help us
galvanize the contradictions or policy clouts that
the global convergence would have on our selected
countries. However, beyond this complex education
nexus between Euro-American (and to some extent
Canadian and Australian) and African universities,
it is important to understand the essence of
diffusion theory.
Diffusion
of Innovation (DOI) theory was first propounded by
Professor Everett Rogers of the University of New
Mexico, and the four categories he uses in
reinforcing his theory are Innovation,
Communication Channels, Time, and Social System.
On top of these categories, Rogers contends that
five stages (or component parts) are necessary in
order to realize the DOI, and they are Awareness,
Interest, Evaluation, Trial, and Adoption. The
ultimate objective of DOI, of course, is to make
sure members of the larger society adopt new
ideas, innovation, technology, or product through
time. It is in this context that we must see how
the higher institutions of learning of the
selected African countries can adopt instructional
technologies.
Based
on Schiffman’s ‘Instructional System
Design’, Daniel W. Surry, of the University of
Southern Mississippi, discusses the role of the
instructional technologists and adopters in
relation to diffusion theory: “…instructional
technology is inherently an innovation-based
discipline. Many of the products produced by
instructional technologists represent radical
innovations in the form, organization, sequence,
and delivery of instruction. An instructional
technologist who understands the innovation
process and theories of innovation diffusion will
be more fully prepared to work effectively with
clients and potential adopters.”29
Like
curriculum in its macro sense, instructional
technology ranges from the use of chalk and
blackboard for a face-to-face classroom setting to
a virtual class communication via Blackboard
Learning System or Power Point, the latest
technologies that are now being used in major
universities in the West and in several African
countries. One of these cluster technologies is
the satellite plasma TV that has been installed in
Ethiopian secondary schools beginning 2004. I
shall discuss the latter in the context of the
Ethiopian initiative to reinforce quality
education, but first I like to render some cursory
definitions to these instructional technologies.
Blackboard
Learning System is a virtual learning and course
management system by which instructors can add
online inputs to courses, which are otherwise
delivered face-to-face; and it is also a system by
which instructors can develop completely online
courses in bypassing the traditional face-to-face
learning system.
Power
Points help instructors to communicate an idea to
their audience (in most instances, their
students). These technologies actually aid (in
fact, teach) instructors how to present their
ideas from a template; their presentations, in
effect, are customized by the Power Point
technology, because, the latter, among other
things, also enable instructors to use other
instructional technologies such as slides, video
clips, and/or special effects in order to enhance
their presentations.
The
Satellite Plasma TV Broadcasting is essentially a
system to augment the instructor’s role in the
classroom while watching and monitoring along with
the students in the classes. It is a very
efficient tool in broadcasting subject matters to
students and also can boost uniformity in
curriculum across entire Ethiopia, but in all
education what matters is effectiveness and
not efficiency although the latter is also
important especially for developing countries that
are striving to catch up.
With
respect to the Ethiopian Satellite Plasma TV
Broadcasting, some scholars have produced some
observations and studies and they came up with a
critique of the system by offering us the pluses
and minuses or advantages and disadvantages of
this instructional technology. Two of these
empirical studies are authored by 1) Getnet
Demissie Bitew from Australia (2008), and 2)
Kassahun Melesse et al from Ethiopia (2012).
According
to Getnet, “One experience that is mentioned by
eleven out fourteen Government school participants
as a positive effect of the newly introduced
“plasma” model of teaching is the development
of the students’ English language listening
skills. Three (out of four) teachers and four (out
of six) students agreed that most of the students
are now catching new words as a result of
listening to them repeatedly from the “plasma”
transmission.”30
Getnet’s
studies, made just four years after the Plasma TV
were introduced into the Ethiopian schools, also
confirms that most of the students’ time is
spent in listening to the lecture series of the
remote master teacher of Satellite TV. In a
similar vein, two years ago, Kassahun and his
colleagues have done a lengthy and superb
fieldwork research on the new technology by
providing the pros and cons to the system and how
their target audience has also responded to the
Plasma TV broadcasting system.
For
the sake of clarity on the advantages and
disadvantages of Satellite TV instructional
technology in Ethiopia, and how teachers/students
view this classroom virtual teacher vis-à-vis
their interests, I have adopted Table 5 from the
study made by Kassahun et al 31 and
this is how they put it:
Aspects of Plasma Lesson
|
Aspects
of Plasma Lesson
|
Agree
|
Disagree
|
No. of Respondents
|
1
|
It
cannot replay back
|
76.6
|
23.4
|
415
|
2
|
It
gives enough time to do the given class work
|
25.8
|
74.2
|
430
|
3
|
It
gives enough time to copy notes
|
11.3
|
88.7
|
436
|
4
|
It
gives enough time for classroom teachers to
help students to class works
|
24.2
|
75.8
|
435
|
5
|
It
gives enough time to do the given class
works
|
25.9
|
74.1
|
430
|
6
|
It
gives chance for students to discuss in
groups
|
48.7
|
51.3
|
431
|
7
|
It
utilizes a variety of teaching aids
|
93
|
7
|
430
|
In
both studies, what we see in common is that
students listen much but don’t get the necessary
help from their face-to-face teacher, and I am of
the opinion that the Ethiopian schools may
continue to use plasma TV instructions but the
duration of class sessions have to be equally
shared by the teacher, the students, and the TV
teacher. Since the class sessions are 45 minutes
for respective classes, the time should be
adjusted as 15-15-15, that is, 15 minutes for
students to watch the plasma TV; 15 minutes for
the Teacher to explain, elaborate, and expound on
what has been presented/taught by the plasma TV
teacher; and 15 minutes for Q & A in which
students will have the opportunity to ask
questions and the teacher to answer routine
questions. Classes should be interactive in order
to fill the gap or clarify inexplicable concepts
rendered by the TV instruction, and it is also
advisable that the face-to-face teacher reviews
previous sessions before the new plasma lecture
begins in order to have a flow of discussion and
also students weave the contents of subject
matters in one quilt.
All
the instructional technologies that we have
mentioned above could be expensive and to some
countries luxury items and not priorities at all,
but they could enormously enhance the
knowledge-based economy and also the integration
of African countries into the global economy. Some
of the African countries may not afford to install
Ethiopian-style satellite TVs in their schools,
but despite this hard fact all the universities in
these countries, in fact, offer courses such as
computer science, marketing, and cognitive
psychology, which are the basis for ITC
instructional technologies and the stages and
component parts of diffusion theory that we have
discussed above.
As I
have indicated in my book, Democracy,
Devolution of Power, & The Developmental State,
universities from all over the world have now
converged in Ethiopia and they are operating in
respective campuses as research partners.
International agencies such as USAID and SIDA are
also involved in the grand venture of higher
education and development, but in the final
analysis educational development could become
meaningful and successfully oriented toward
economic transformation only when the respective
African universities (and by default, the African
nations) exhibit real independence, because
dependent development, after all, is not
development. It is for this apparent reason that I
have argued in my book, “Ethiopia, thus, must
create development-university-state nexus. In
other words, the universities will reinvent their
respective R & Ds by injecting venture capital
unto their institutions in collaboration with the
Government.”32 All African
universities in the selected countries, and for
that matter in all other nations of the continent
must reinvent themselves and craftily incorporate
the twin forces of educational development and
knowledge-based economy in the corpus of their
policies.
Notes
- Noah
W. Sobe and Jamie A. Kowalczyk, Exploding the
Cube: Revisioning “Context” in the Field
of Comparative Education, Current Issues in
Comparative Education, Teachers College,
Columbia University, Vol. 16, Issue 1, Winter
2013
- Sobe
and Kowalczyk, Ibid, p. 11
- SARUA:
Southern African Regional Universities
Association
- Southern
African Journal of Higher Education (SAJHE),
Vol. 8, Issue 2, 2014
- Widening
Participation in Higher Education Ghana and
Tanzania: Developing an Equity Scorecard, Working
Paper for Higher Education: Setting the Scene
- Tanzania
Education Sector Analysis, Beyond Primary
Education, the Quest for Balanced and
Efficient Policy Choices for Human Development
and Economic Growth, UNESCO, Dakar
Regional Office, Dar es Salaam Cluster Office,
SN/2012/ED/PL/1
- Ghelawdewos
Araia, Democracy, Devolution of Power, and
The Developmental State, Institute of
Development and Education for Africa, 2013, p.
212
- A.
M. Alghali, Edward D. A. Turay, Ekundayo J. D.
Thomson, and Joseph B. A. Kandeh, Education
in Sierra Leone, Feb 16-18, 2005
- A.
M. Alghali et al, Ibid, p. 26
- A.
M. Alghali et al, Ibid, p. 27
- UNESCO,
World Data on Education, VII Ed.
2010/11
- UNESCO,
Ibid
- Llyod
Ahamefule Amaghionyediwe & Tokundo Simbo-Wale
Osinubi, Ontario Inter-Development Agency (OIDA),
Journal of International Development,
Vol. 4, No. 9, pp. 85-120, 2012
- Global
University Network for Innovation (GUNI)
- Ghelawdewos
Araia, op cit, pp. 216-17
- Higher
Education in Egypt Country Review Report
- Ashraf
Khaled, Egypt: OECD Urges Sweeping
Higher Education Reform, University World
News, Issue No. 51, 11 April, 2010, p. 28
- Ashraf
Khaled, Ibid
- Centre
Regional d’investissement
- Amr
Hamdy, ICT in Education in Morocco, June
2017
- Majid
Mardour, Morocco World News, Rabat, May
28, 2013
- State_Univ.com
- Ghelawdewos
Araia, op cit, p. 152
- Amaghionyediwe
and Osinubi, op cit, p. 86
- See
Tanzania: Education Sector Analysis
- See
Ghelawdewos Araia, op cit, p. 207
- Antoni
Verger, Why Do Policymakers Adopt Global
Education Policies? Toward a Research
Framework on the Varying Role of Ideas in
Education Reform, Current Issues in
Comparative Education, Teachers College,
Columbia University, 16(2), 14-29, 2014
- Antoni
Verger, Ibid
- Daniel
W. Surry, Diffusion Theory and Instructional
Technology, paper presented at the Annual
Conference of the Association for Educational
Communication and Technology (AECT),
Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 12-15, 1997
- Getnet
Demissie Bitew, Using Plasma TV Broadcasts in
Ethiopian Secondary Schools, Australian
Journal of Educational Technology, 2008,
24(2), 150-167
- Kassahun
Melesse, Zelalem Teshome, Addis Simachew,
Akalewold Eshete, Status of Ethiopian
Satellite Television Broadcast Programs
Implementation in Mathematics & Science
from Teachers Perspective, Ethiopian
Journal of Education and Science, Vol. 7,
No. 2, 2012
- Ghelawdewos
Araia, op cit, p. 217
All
Rights Reserved. Copyright © Institute of
Development and Education for Africa
(IDEA).
Dr.
Ghelawdewos Araia earned his doctorate in
comparative and international education
(International Studies) from the Division of
Philosophy and the Social Sciences (now
Intercultural and International Studies),
Department of International Education, Teachers
College, Columbia University, in 1990. He is
currently Professor of African Studies at Lehman
College, City University of New York, and
Professor of International Studies at Central
Connecticut State University.
|