Worldwide Action in Education AFRICA

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Education for Economic Recovery and Development

Priority: Africa

Basic Education

Science and Technology - Education for All

Population Education

Post-apartheid Education

Teacher Education in Namibia

Radio boosts educational quality in Africa

Rural Women and the Environment

Table: 1990-1993, Co-operation for Development in Education

Priority: Africa

The "Priority: Africa" Programme is the practical expression of UNESCO's determination to contribute to the United Nations New Agenda for Development in Africa in the 1990s (UN-NADAF) and to the Global Coalition for Africa.

The aim of this contribution is to procure extrabudgetary resources to support regional and subregional co-operation of an interdisciplinary and intersectoral nature.

Under the Priority: Africa Programme, pluridisciplinary missions to identify co-operation projects are being organized, national specialists are being trained for that purpose, and regional programmes are being drawn up relating to the management of higher education, the development of distance education and educational technologies, and the enrolment of girls in school, having regard to the implications of these programmes in the fields of science, culture and communication, and to the development of a culture of peace in the region as their ultimate goal.

Basic Education

As part of the Regional Programme for the Eradication of Illiteracy, the IFOMA Project (Innovation, training, educational materials) concerns the relations between education and the world of work in rural areas, and education for the quality of life and the environment.

Subregional programmes in support of education for all are being established for western and central Africa, eastern and southern Africa and the countries of the Sahel. A regional programme is aiming to improve the capability and qualifications of heads of schools in administrative and educational management.

Science and Technology
Education for All

The key components in science and technology education for all have been identified by the Regional Consultative Committee. Special attention is focused on the inclusion of endogenous and traditional technologies, which are an integral part of the African cultural heritage.

Population Education

Population education has made spectacular progress in Africa. Almost all the African countries have, or are about to have, population education programmes, which are expected to help them to overcome the two major handicaps facing Africa - the deterioration of the environment and over-rapid population growth - and to combat the spread of AIDS.

Post-apartheid Education

With a view to contributing to the reconstruction of a post-apartheid education system in South Africa, UNESCO is endeavouring to lay the foundations of a major educational project designed to ensure that high-quality education is available to all. A first priority will be the training of educational managers and planners, the development of new curricula and the reform of teacher-training programmes.

Teacher Education in Namibia Some 4,600 teachers in Namibia's schools (about 35 per cent of the total) have never had teacher training or completed a basic education cycle. UNESCO has been instrumental in setting up an in-service teacher education project to complement pre-service improvement of teacher training and at the same time reform basic education. The first phase, which started in December 1992, entails the development of in-service teacher education policy, the training of senior staff and the production of modules to be used for up-grading teachers. The second phase will entail the expansion of a formal structure for in-service teacher education curriculum development and the preparation of additional modules, the training of school principals and experienced teachers to conduct the programme, and the beginning of the in-service teacher education programme.

Radio boosts educational quality in Africa Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tomé and Príncipe have one problem in common, in that their children do not learn enough during the first four years at school. Much of this problem is due to poor teaching arithmetic and Portuguese, which is the second language of most pupils. With the help of UNESCO, the five countries have decided to use radio to complement classroom teaching, because radio is picked up by most the schools, and can easily be upgraded to reach all of them. The Interactive Radio Instruction Project aims at producing radio programmes in arithmetic and Portuguese for the first four grades of primary education and at developing national programme-production capacities. Radio is used in an innovative, interactive way. Students respond to the radio verbally or by following instructions every ten to fifteen seconds. The programmes are based on the principle that learning small portions of content is more effective than concentrating on large chunks of subject matter. To keep the learners' attention, activities are changing every few minutes. Children enjoy these programmes; teachers usually learn from them as well, and their own teaching style accordingly becomes more active.

Rural Women and the Environment The purpose of this project is to make women in rural areas in Mali more aware of environmental problems and ensure that they are better informed. The project activities chiefly consist in producing teaching materials in the country's national languages in the form of booklets, posters and inserts on environmental subjects, such as deforestation and re-afforestation, agriculture, animal husbandry and water, for use in campaigns to promote awareness and provide information.