Experts and education officials from 20 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa are calling upon governments and development agencies to pay greater attention to the large number of children who fail to proceed to secondary school because of limited opportunities.

Thirteen years ago a secondary school in Soweto, South Africa's most populous black urban residential area, was little different from the majority of the country's schools: dilapidated, under staffed and crime ridden, with the vast majority of its students struggling to pass their exams.

Zimbabwean parents not only have to contend with fees they cannot afford, but also with expensive essentials like uniforms, which now cost 600 times more than they did in 2006.

The government of Liberia revoked the operational license of "The Independent" newspaper in Monrovia for one year. The decision was announced at a press conference in Monrovia by acting Information Minister Laurence Bropleh. Minister Bropleh said the decision was in response to "The Independent's" publication of a photograph showing former Presidential Affairs Minister Willis Knuckles in a sex scene with two ladies.

The Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO) and the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), in cooperation with the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, is organizing the African Civil Society Forum “Building UN/NGOs Partnerships for Democratic Governance through the MDGs” that will take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 22 – 24 March 2007.

Human Rights Watch has released a report - “Keep Your Head Down” Unprotected Migrants in South Africa - in which it details how South African officials involved in the arrest and deportation of undocumented migrant workers often assault and extort money from them, and commercial farmers employing them routinely violate their basic labor rights.

ZOA is an international NGO operating in more than 10 countries worldwide. ZOA supports refugees, internally displaced persons, returnees and others affected by conflict or natural disasters. Deadline for applications is Friday 9th March 2007

The objective of this post is to assist, facilitate and secure the management of all Strategic communications related functions attached to the Conference Secretariat and to enable the Executive Secretary of the CS to deliver the services also for other levels of action as defined in the RFM e.g. the Summit level, the Troika as well as on the Ministers level.
For further information contact: [email][email protected]

A Nigerian-based organization is looking for candidates to fill the post of CEO. Send all CVs and evidence of research experience to [email][email protected] on or before 5 p.m. on March 6th, 2007. Preferred Start Date: On or before May, 2007.

Gauteng Province Premier Mbazima Shilowa has said education and skills development were essential if people were to escape the poverty trap and improve their standard of living, but there were inequalities in the schooling system that were detrimental to black pupils.

The African Leadership Institute (AfLI), a not-for-profit network, was established in 2003, following two years of planning, with some seed funding by Novartis International AG. The primary focus of AfLI is to build the capacity and capability for visionary and strategic leadership across Africa, especially among the promising leaders of the future.

Nigeria is cracking down on "illegal aliens" from neighbouring countries whom the authorities call a "nuisance". Niger and Chad seem to have been singled out in the clampdown with thousands of their nationals packed into lorries and taken to the border.

Uganda has undertaken educational reforms that will see the country offering free secondary education to 250,000 students. The government programme began on Monday February 19, aiming at getting 90 per cent of children who pass their primary school exams to go on to secondary education.

A new report by Book Aid International looks at the role libraries in Africa play in relation to two areas: literacy and enabling people to access relevant and useful information to enhance knowledge. Based on a survey of library networks in Malawi, Uganda, Somaliland, Tanzania and Kenya, the study lists findings and key challenges for libraries and information centres in Africa.

It is of utmost importance that if you care to understand what is happening in Guinea, you rely on a news source that will give you a fair and balanced report or analysis of the situation on the ground. Most websites I have read over the past days (I will not name any but if you are Guinean you may be familiar with some of them) have what I call a novel like or surreal depiction of what is happening here. Most of the times the sources cannot even be identified. It feels like these are coffee table discussions that are being reported. They probably have their own anecdotal value but they are everything but news reports.

I recommend to you Reuters Conakry for an example and I actually know the qualified journalist who writes for Reuters (he was arrested a few years back for investigating a high profile story so you may weigh in his professional commitment). Simply google Reuters Conakry and you can read some balanced analysis and perspectives.

Please be careful on reports coming out of RFI or BBC or some other donor country's mainstream news agency. I am not sure about why their reporters carry this one dimensional reporting where serious facts are being omitted. Where reports try to present an idealistic revolution or movement from the people when the fact is that yes, there is a cry for change but what kind of change and for who? Guinea has a rich soil, underexploited with infinite potential, and some people outside of Guinea know it better than those inside; especially the peoples of Guinea. So who wants what for whom and by whom? And it seems to me from calls, chatrooms and discussions that the Guinean Diaspora is somewhat misinformed about what is happening here.

My own thoughts are that the current process is a result of the strike and has forced a dialogue between the government, the workers unions, and leaders of civil society in the presence of international institutions. The victims of 22 January and over the past weeks are unmistakably victims of this push for change, with a military regime or repressive state. However when the attacks and looting turned the strike into a war of classes, between the rich and the poor, not just targeting government officials, and also when the strike exacerbated ethnic tensions the threat of a civil war was serious and insecurity was high. Anyone could pull you out of your car just because you were driving a car, burn the car and take everything you had. This is exactly what was happening. They were attacking people in their homes and out in the streets where there were roadblocks. The declared state of emergency was the most appropriate response to restore civil order and give back the state its authority. After all Conte is still an 'elected' official. And since Monday they are back at the negotiations table.

So Guinea, in my analysis, is going through its own process of transition and change. The region is explosive already. We do not want another Liberia, another Sierra Leone or another Cote d'Ivoire. We have lost over 100 victims. That is too many, but that is in no comparison with over 250,000 in Liberia, 1,000,000 in Rwanda or over 4,000,000 if I am correct in the Great Lakes.

My message to all 'young' Guineans in the diaspora or friends of Guinea: this is a good time to form alliances and build your strategic and collective role in the new leadership and the new Guinea. Guinea needs a new mentality, and a new work culture. The change will happen I believe from within and not without. There is a huge need for dynamism, innovation and integrity. It is taking time but I am witnessing a few young people here demanding their rightful place in the new Guinea. The Forum des jeunes de Guinee, the Alliance des cadres et entrepreuneurs de Guinee, and others... That is a more realistic and positive reporting to me than all the news I read on the various websites. There is hope in Guinea.

* Mariam Yansane is on the Community Council of 'Women of Africa' (www.wafrica.org)

Increasing computer literacy in Kenya's secondary schools is a prerequisite for improving ITs in the education system, education minister Prof. George Saitoti has said. And if Kenya wants to attain the Millennium Development Goals of reducing literacy levels, the government education policies must embrace the spirit of "technology" by introducing an ICT syllabus in all secondary schools.

An American student and his Rwandan colleagues in the U.S. and Rwanda have joined forces to build a public library in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. The American Friends of the Kigali Public Library (AFKPL), a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, is committed to working with the Rotary Club of Kigali-Virunga, Rwanda, to spearhead the construction of the library.

The school year kicks off in Mozambique with more children enrolling for primary school than ever in the past. But, as Ruth Ansah Ayisi of IPS reports, educational prospects remain bleak for orphans like Regina Massango.

The Education and Training Unit runs a free website with over 80 guides for development activists in South Africa. ETU is a non-profit training organisation committed to development and democracy. The guides are simple and practical and written by experienced community organisers. The site is used by more than 100 000 people per month from all over the world.

In "Female Circumcision: Multicultural Perspectives" Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf (Ed) brings African women's voices into the discussion on female circumcision, foregrounds indigenous processes of social and cultural change, and demonstrates the manifold linkages between respect for women's bodily integrity, the empowerment of women, and democratic modes of economic development.