- Dr. Akiiki Babyesiza and Dr. Sarah Fichtner, Research Fellows at the Robert Bosch Academy
About
With an average age of 19, Africa’s population is currently the youngest and fastest-growing of all continents. Schools and universities are facing major challenges if they want to provide new generations with access to quality education in a context marked by scarcity of resources, insufficiently trained teachers and permanent reform cycles.
Although enrolment rates in primary education in sub-Saharan Africa have increased from 59 % to 79 % between 1999 and 2012, this improved access at the primary level has not necessarily translated into learning successes and opportunities for lifelong learning for all. Primary school dropout rates are the highest globally and the transition rate to secondary schoolingis only 64 % – compared with 94 % as the global average. Only five percent of the population is enrolled at university.
What does this context imply for educational institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, for their everyday functioning, self-perceptions, societal meaning, political framing and economic purposes? What “quality-enhancing measures” are employed and by whom, with what intentions and based on whose recommendation, network and/or experience?
Based on input from two research projects funded by the Robert Bosch Academy, supplemented by contributions from invited discussants, one roundtable debate will focus specifically on the space for learner-centered pedagogy in curricular reforms, classroom practices and in-service teacher training in primary and secondary education in West and Central Africa. Another roundtable will deal with the vision and mission of research and knowledge transfer of public universities in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Registration for this event is closed.
Roundtable 2: Research and knowledge transfer at public universities in Eastern and Southern Africa: translating policy into practice
Olaf Hahn, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Education Sub Saharan Africa (ESSA)
Simon Stroß, Federal Foreign Office
Michel Carton, NORRAG/Graduate Institute Geneva
Roundtable 1: Competency-based reforms, learner-centered pedagogy and in-service teacher training in primary and secondary education in West and Central Africa
Frederick Fondzenyuy Njobati, Pedagogic In-Service Training Program Cameroon (middle)
Jean Kasereka Lutswamba, CBCA schools in Democratic Republic of Congo (left) and Dr. Dominique Lahanier-Reuter, Equipe Théodile-CIREL, Université Lille 3 (right)
Dr. Julia Seibert, Africa Department, Brot für de Welt - Protestant Development Service (middle)
Participants of the roundtable debates
Roundtable 2: Research and knowledge transfer at public universities in Eastern and Southern Africa: translating policy into practice
Dr. Mulu Nega, Institute of Educational Research in Addis Ababa University (middle)
Akiiki Babyesiza, Research Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy (middle)
Dr. Patricio Langa, Institue for Post-School Studies, University of the Western Cape (right)
Sarah Fichtner, Research Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy (second from the left)
Gerhard Kemp, Senior Research Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy, and Friederike Mieth, Research Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy
Cay Etzold, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) (left), Jannik Rust, Robert Bosch Academy (second from the left) and Karen Hauff, German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) (right)