The COVID-19 pandemic might not have hit Africa as badly as other parts of the world, but with schools and universities closed because of lockdowns across the continent, many children are turning on the TV to keep up with their studies.
Home School, Teachers’ Room and School on TV are just some of the distance education programs that private channels have launched to try to compensate for the closures.
“This is to prevent COVID-19 from winning where it hurts the most, in the area of knowledge,” said Massamba Gueye, a teacher-researcher in Senegal.
In Burkina Faso, Burkinainfo private television broadcasts four times a day for students preparing to take qualifying exams.
“We record the lessons, which we broadcast on television, basically the core subjects — mathematics, physics-chemistry, philosophy and French,” Burkinainfo director Ismael Ouedraogo said.
Experienced teachers volunteer to teach the classes, he said.
Several private African institutes and universities are exploring distance learning via the Internet.
“We plan to finish the school year at the end of May,” said Burkina Faso’s Amed Moussa Diallo, chairman of the board of directors of the African Institute of Management, which has set up online courses.
Despite the optimism, distance learning faces several pitfalls, notably poor Internet coverage in many of Africa’s rural areas, as well as the cost.
“Most students do not have access to the Internet, especially since many have been asked to return to their homes, often in remote locations,” said Henry Tumwiine, a professor at the Mountains of the Moon University in Fort Portal, Uganda.
“In sub-Saharan Africa, 89 percent of learners do not have access to home computers and 82 percent do not have [the] Internet,” UNESCO said in a statement, noting a “worrying digital gap in distance learning.”
“I can’t afford a computer, so I’m missing online courses,” said Alexander Mubiru, a 29-year-old student at Makerere Public University in Uganda’s capital, Kampala. “We’re going to wait for the university to reopen.”
The General Association of Pupils and Students of Ivory Coast questions the practicality of trying to get students to do 1,300 hours for the year and is also worried about pupils who struggle to keep up with the lessons.
“Will they be able to master distance learning, especially those in the poorer districts where there is sometimes no electricity, no television, no radio or Internet?” the association said.
Students in Cameroon face chronic power outages.
“The city has been without electricity for a week,” said an official from Mozogo, a remote city in the far north of the nation.
“The children are distraught,” said Mozogo resident Gil Mahama, a father of eight. “Not everyone has a television. We are worried because our children do not have the same opportunity to follow lessons on radio and TV.”
Some are trying to make the most of the current arrangements.
In Burkina Faso, high-school student Khalil Nonguierma is delighted with being able to “keep in touch with the school,” but he is worried about the “lack of interactivity with the teacher, who just does a lecture or corrects homework.”
“If we understand, it’s good, but if we don’t understand, we can’t keep up,” he said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese