African Students Forum

I have been thinking about this lately and I came up with some issues I identified as core problems in the African educational experience - following the problems will be my ideas as to how we can help fix or alleviate some of the problems. Please post yours:

a. Short range vs long range goals: The African educational system to me suffers from short sightedness - most (all) of the policies in the educational system for almost all the countries in Africa are centered around a single academic year. The plans and budgets always seem to cater to the immediate academic needs and there's never long term planning for the needs of students in the future.

b. Complacency: Education in most African countries is a joke. Have you checked out the class size, the buildings, the class curriculum lately? It seems to me that everyone has some home closed their eyes to how bad everything is and taken the back seat on speaking out against ridiculous standards. We have grown accustomed to sitting on the floor while we are taught, going to class in dilapidated buildings, and accepting the wretched state of things. Could this be because we really don't know what studying in other parts of the world looks like?

c. Standards: Wow, what is the standard for an African curriculum? Is it that you are thought mostly theoretical stuff and then at the end of the the semester (or term) you then spill it out? Is it that you are given no homework but yet expected to remember all that you have learned by the end of the term? Is it that they force you to focus on the theoretical aspects of learning but never really knowing how to use your knowledge in practical terms? Labs? I wonder how many labs in Africa can boast of having at least up to par equipment and resources for students.

d. Parents: Its funny that in most African households, the parents are never really involved in the educational activities of their children. It seems to me that the expectation is that once a family can afford to pay for school fees, then that's the end of it! What bullshit! Every parent is supposed to be involved in the activities of their children; making sure their homework gets done (if they have any), checking up on their grades not only at the end of each term but as an ongoing process through out the academic year.

e. Qualified teachers: I don't even need to say much about this - since most of the teachers went through the same faulty educational process, its no big surprise that what they end up teaching and their attitudes toward teaching is simply crap. They most often than not teach with old, archaic lesson notes, lesson plans that are outdated and ineffective. Another big problem is that, even when the teachers are willing to revise their curriculum and start all over, they are bogged down by unnecessary paper work and bureaucracy.

f. Resources: Most schools and their teachers have absolutely no access to the necessary tools that are needed- tools such as computers and other information technologies now commonplace in developed countries are considered as luxury items in Africa.

h. Brain drain: Most educators in African are leaving the continent to start all over somewhere else - quite frankly I don't blame them. Educators in Africa are seriously undervalued and underpaid and almost every teacher is waiting for that lucky break where they can start somewhere else for a better opportunity.

... more to come.

I agree with your observations.

I would just add inadequate and underfunded educational programs as another problem. I guess what we could do is to create awareness.

If we could somehow talk to some of our government folks, it might go a long way.

maybelline wrote:I agree with your observations.

I would just add inadequate and underfunded educational programs as another problem. I guess what we could do is to create awareness.

If we could somehow talk to some of our government folks, it might go a long way.

d problem is there is no food on d tables of many africans so 4 many 2 think rite is a problem.even d teacher will look 4 ways how 2 take care of his family so he take sometin frm someone how is not capble and gud ones relax.the bad ones get to the top of admin and jopadise evrytin,dey take money to get lux, finish the economy and never wanted gud tins 4 the nation as long as they re ok.they will build visions without missions n missions without visions

Haha, you're funny; I totally agree with your observations.

....sooooo, how do we get more food in Africa? Should be import more food, or find a way to push mechanized farming so that we can produce enough for our citizens?

i would like to know your thoughts

As African we need to stand up and try to change thus time for uchange.We have identified the problem now thus time to identify the solutions to these highlighted problems.

i pray dt the 1st shall not be d last.everythng psychologically started from africa and we re last in development both materially and mentally,but i dont understand why d pple in top position re so greedy.i believe most of them schooled on scholership and foods re provided on thier tables but they want 2 take it all and most of them diverted away from agric and went 2 country"s boom.i think minimal importatn of goods generally including food materials,several visible research in agric and believe we re d 1st ready 2 give evry1 want we dont even ve.
i will cont d discussion next time

Very interesting... what do you mean by everything started psychologically from Africa?

I love your insights

I totally agree with the observations people have made and what i want to put forward is that an African woman needs more support towards education so what can we do to support them?

Amongi Janet wrote:I totally agree with the observations people have made and what i want to put forward is that an African woman needs more support towards education so what can we do to support them?

Very good question... though I think both men and women need to be supported.

the beg problem facing the development in africa in general and its educational system in particular is the curreption of its leaders.