By Sandra Ferrari*

Radio advocates believe there are barriers for community radio stations in Ghana, which are detrimental to press freedom. / Sandra Ferrari

ACCRA, Feb 1 (IPS) – There is a tension resonating through Ghana’s airwaves, an electric current fueled by rivaling interests between community radio advocates and Ghana’s National Communications Authority.

Recently, community radio [...]

By Abdurrahman Warsameh

A Somali youngster walks past a ruined building in Hodon district in Mogadishu. / Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS.

MOGADISHU, Dec 30 (IPS) – With vehicles and donkey carts packed with their belongings, Somalis are returning, four years after they fled, to their partially standing, bullet-scarred and mortar-shelled neighbourhoods in former Al-Shabaab controlled areas of [...]

By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar

Girls at most schools in Somalia are ordered to wear an Islamic dress. / Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar/IPS.

MOGADISHU, Dec 26 (IPS) – Schools are beginning to re-open slowly in areas of capital Mogadishu that were until recently controlled by the militant Islamic group al-Shabaab. But an estimated 80 percent of students [...]

By Travis Lupick and Emma Mwasinga
 

Malawi’s Vice President Joyce Banda recalls how her childhood friend Chrissie Mtokoma was always top of their class and how she struggled to beat her. / Katie C. Lin/IPS

BLANTYRE, Dec 16 (IPS) – On an elegant veranda adorned with a red carpet, Malawi’s Vice President Joyce Banda recalls how her [...]

By Kanya D'Almeida

A member of the Mundari tribe stands amongst cattle in Terekeka, South Sudan. / Jared Ferrie/IPS

WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (IPS) – While the United Nations climate talks in Durban enter their fifth day of political feet-dragging, researchers and peasants around the world are busy connecting the dots between so- called "green climate solutions", [...]

By Andrew Green

The National Library of Uganda needs improved technology. / Andrew Green/IPS

KAMPALA, Nov 11 (IPS) – Simret Mebrahtu has been an infrequent visitor to the National Library of Uganda in the centre of Kampala for nearly two years. A student, she stops by every couple of weeks to use the cheap internet [...]

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, Oct 31 (IPS) – As concerns deepen about the quality of education in Zimbabwe, parents can expect an indefinite extension of subsidising teacher salaries as the cash- strapped government struggles to meet the bloated civil service wage bill.

Teacher incentives – a stipulated amount of usually between two to five dollars, which is [...]

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 25 (IPS) – Arguing that an educated population is a country's greatest wealth, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) says there is no escape from poverty without a vast expansion of secondary education worldwide.

"This is a minimum entitlement for equipping youth with the knowledge and skills they need [...]

By A.D.McKenzie
PARIS, Oct 4 (IPS) – Making some simple, basic changes in education policy can result in many more girls attending school, experts said at a meeting here this week on Gender Equality in Education.

Take the case of Kenya. The United Nations says that the country has made huge strides towards the goal of education [...]

By Meena Bhandari

Government schools remained closed almost a week after the term was meant to officially start. / Meena Bhandari/IPS

FREETOWN, Sep 20 (IPS) – A formal strike of teachers has been averted and pupils in Sierra Leone returned to school on Tuesday, almost a week after the term was meant to officially start.

On top [...]

By Mantoe Phakathi

Ministry of Education and Training Principal Secretary Pat Muir (centre) said closing down schools until payment was made was not acceptable. / Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

MBABANE, Sep 16 (IPS) – The future education of Swazi children remains uncertain, as public schools across the country have not reopened for the new term because government [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu*

Mothers queue with their children at the Badbaado camp clinic. Except for a few Islamic schools, education at the camp is almost non-existent. / Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

NAIROBI, Aug 18 (IPS) – Jamaal Abdi, an eight-year-old boy at the Badbaado camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, would like to have an education. He [...]

By Mantoe Phakathi

Information is one of the most important tools citizens need to make informed decisions, especially about education. / Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

MBABANE, Aug 5 (IPS) – Many public officials in Swaziland do not think that access to information is a public right, but rather a privilege – which can be withdrawn at anytime.

And [...]

By Abderrahim El Ouali
CASABLANCA, Jul 29 (IPS) – Despite 12 years of reform, Morocco’s universities continue to fall short of expectations, with students complaining that the training they get does not meet the demands of the job market.

Professors in this North African country of 32 million people echoed their students’ grievances, adding that Moroccan universities [...]

By Protus Onyango

The issue of education in South Sudan is so critical that most leaders are calling on the youth to go back to school.
/ John Robinson/IPS

JUBA, Jul 19 (IPS) – Being educated during the country’s civil war was almost impossible. But Victoria Maja wanted to become a doctor, and in order [...]