This research explores the development of non-government provision of secondary education in South Africa and Malawi, reviews experience in other Sub-Saharan African countries, and identifies lessons that can be learned of relevance to policy and practice. The research draws attention to some of the differences which exist in South Africa and Malawi and can be found in other SSA countries.

SANGONeT's second annual "ICTs for Civil Society" Conference and Exhibition drew to a close on Thursday, with many delegates expressing their enthusiasm for this event and requesting that it become a regular feature in the annual SA NGO calendar.

The African Research and Resource Forum (ARRF) is a non-profit, non-governmental, research, resource, reflection and discourse organization devoted to enhancing thinking on African development. The ARRF invites you to a Public Debate on “Why Corruption Continues Unabated: The Real ‘Speed Governors’ in the war against Graft in Kenya”. The event is scheduled for Thursday 16th March 2006 from 5.00 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. at the Kenya National Theatre Auditorium.

Computer Aid International is seeking to appoint two new Africa Programme Officers based in their Nairobi office but travelling widely in the region to serving existing and potential new partners in West and Central Africa.

Zimbabwe police Wednesday arrested several student leaders in the city of Bulawayo to thwart plans by students at a state university and three other institutions in the city to stage street protests against the government's decision to hike fees at state tertiary colleges. ZimOnline was unable to confirm the exact number of students that were being held by the police by late last night but other sources indicated as many as 25 students could have been arrested as they attempted to march through the city.

When James Kouma completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Lome University 15 years ago, he tried and tried but failed to find “a proper job”, he says. Now 38 and a father of two, he earns a perilous living driving a motor-bike taxi or “Zemidjan”, along with thousands of other young people. While West Africa’s big cities are jammed pack with jobless graduates who would agree with him, student life is far tougher nowadays across the region than it ever was.

TrustAfrica is looking for an exceptional individual to serve as its Program Coordinator. The successful candidate will have extensive experience in philanthropy in Africa and a deep understanding of the challenges TrustAfrica seeks to address. The position is based at TrustAfrica headquarters in Dakar, Senegal. Qualifications, Skills, and Characteristics required include: a good graduate degree; at least five years of successful grant-making experience at the international level and experience in at least two subregions of Africa; management experience in a nongovernmental organization in Africa is a plus; good understanding of African affairs. The successful candidate will also have knowledge of the main issues relating to TrustAfrica’s program areas (peace and security, regional integration, and citizenship and identity) and a good network of contacts from across Africa.

1 March 2006 - A stalwart of Black struggle in Britain, John La Rose, has died. As a writer, publisher and political organiser, his contribution to the development of Black cultural expression in the UK cannot be rivalled. It is with great sadness that the staff of the Institute of Race Relations heard the news of John's death on 28 February from a heart attack. As a member of IRR's Council, and its Chairman in the early 1970s, he helped to guide the organisation during a particularly turbulent time in its history; its transformation from an establishment body into a radical think-tank.

John was born in Trinidad in 1927 and, after leaving school, became involved in the work of radical political, trade union and cultural organisations. Having joined a Marxist study group, he became an active member of the Federated Workers Trade Union and held meetings throughout the oil belt of southern Trinidad. In 1952 the FWTU, joined by other radicals, formed the West Indian Independence Party and John was appointed its General Secretary- contesting a seat in Arima, his home town, in the 1956 elections. In 1958 he left Trinidad for Venezuela, where he worked as a teacher and in 1961 left for Britain.

In 1966 John founded New Beacon Books, a bookshop, publishing house and international book service, (which, despite the demise of so many alternative bookshops in the UK, uniquely, remains to this day). The same year he also helped to found the Caribbean Artists Movement, which was to launch the careers of many of the greatest of West Indian artists, writers and film-makers.

During the 1960s, John became concerned about the poor education Black children were receiving in school and ran from his home the George Padmore supplementary school which went on, in 1975, to expand into a Black Parents' Movement.

There was hardly an important Black issue that John was not involved in, agitating over or bringing to public notice. His achievements read like a potted history of Black struggle itself. For example, in 1973 he made a short film on the Mangrove trial, in 1981 he joined the New Cross Massacre Action Committee, in 1990 he co-founded the European Action for Racial Equality and Justice. But John's greatest contribution was probably the unique Black book fairs from 1982 to 1995.

The International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books, of which New Beacon was a central co-organiser, would rock London's cultural world for three or four days each year, attracting audiences from Europe and farther afield. For these events, run in inner-London town halls with volunteer staff from bookshops and black organisations, did exactly what their description said. Contributors to the fairs' many public events of discussion, talks, films shows, plays, poetry, dance, were not just Black, but also Asian, not just First World, but also Third.

And the politics was never narrowly nationalist, but invariably incorporated a socialist perspective. In 1991, realising how important it was to record and chart the Black history that he and others had made in Britain, John, with Sarah White (his partner of over thirty-five years), founded the George Padmore Institute to act as an archive and education centre. And it is, no doubt, through its activities that the dynamism and commitment enshrined in his life's work will live on.

John gave of himself unstintingly. He was one of the most incorruptible of men. With his intellect, range of contacts, skills as an orator and gentle, easy-going style, he could have carved out a niche for himself anywhere - in the media, in academia, as 'a spokesman' or a cultural critic. But he was interested not in status or position, but service. And that's his legacy to us all.

* This article first appeared on the website of the Institute for Race Relations. Visit their website at

* Please send comments to [email protected]

"Our biggest problem is that we have no school; none of the children can study," says Edmond Tadahy, as his five-year-old daughter clambers across his lap. "None of the villages around here have schools or teachers, except Anjinjako - they have a small school, but the parents have to pay for it." On this vast Indian Ocean island, stories like Tadahy's are common. According to the Institute for Statistics of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), just under a third of adults and youths are illiterate (these figures are an average for data collected from 2000 to 2004.

The Strategies for Hope website has been updated in recent weeks. You can now download the first two titles in the 'Called to Care' toolkit - 'Positive Voices' and 'Making it Happen'. Strategies for Hope materials are used for information, training, planning and advocacy purposes by a wide range of organisations and individuals, including health institutions, NGOs, community groups, international agencies, faith-based organisations, employers' associations, trade unions, women's organisations, youth associations and organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS.

This paper focuses on sub-Saharan Africa and considers some of the most significant obstacles that African girls face in achieving the education that is their right. The paper reviews the most significant initiatives - those that are 'gender-neutral' and those that have a specific focus on gender equality - that have enabled African countries to overcome these obstacles. The paper argues that the education system needs to be accessible to both boys and girls, it needs interventions that specifically targets girls, and to reduce costs of education.

Teachers will go on strike to press for the speedy implementation of their salary increment. Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary general Francis Ng'ang'a asked the Government to conclude the payment this year or brace for a countrywide strike. While marking the start of elections of officials to serve for another five-year-term, Mr Ng'ang'a told Education minister Noah Wekesa to begin talks with the union on how the payment could be speeded up.

UNESCO has launched a high-priority Initiative on Teacher Training in sub-Saharan Africa (TTISSA) for 2006-2015. This Initiative will assist the continent's 46 sub-Saharan countries in restructuring national teacher policies and teacher education. It aims to increase the number of teachers and improve the quality of teaching. Seventeen countries are participating in the first phase of the initiative.

It was with sadness that I learnt of the death of Dr Bekololari Ransome-Kuti. Beko died at the time in our life as a nation that we needed him more that ever before. His contributions to the enthronement of democracy, respect for the rule of law and human rights were monumental. He was both a leader and a follower. His passion for fairness, justice and due process were legendary. His love for the ordinary Nigeria was unimaginable. No wonder his doors at his Imariam close residence in Lagos were open to all and sundry. His loss is a national loss and a personal one for me and for most of us.

Beko will be remembered for his struggles against military dictatorship in Nigeria. These struggles earned him stints in various prisons and dungeons across Nigeria. To date, he remained one of the most arrested, assaulted and imprisoned human rights activists in the annals of the nation. Beko had been in and out of prison not on account of criminality but on account of his dogged determination to speak truth to power at all times.

He, together with his older sibling the late legendary Afro beat superstar Fela Anikulapo Kuti, faced constant harassment by the rouge bands of military and of security operatives at different times in our national history. In 1977 under the military dictatorship of General Obasanjo, the military assaulted and burnt down the family’s home in the Moshalashi area of Lagos. The patriarch of the family later died as a result of the injuries that she sustained during the attack and arson on the family’s home. These events, rather than weakening Beko, made him stronger as he continued his crusade for a better Nigeria till the very end. In furtherance of the military agenda of cowing critics and opponents of their misrule, Beko was in 1995 charged with the most ludicrous charges - faxing defendants' statements to persons unknown and "trying to manage an unmanageable society". The Abacha junta gave him a double life sentence in the infamous “phantom coup mistrial”. The term was later commuted to 15 years imprisonment following popular outcry over the trail and sentence.

In his lifetime, Beko was accomplished in his endeavours. He qualified as a medical doctor at the age of 22, having graduated from the University of Manchester, England in 1963. Whilst at Manchester he was President, Nigerian Students, in Manchester. Beko was a fellow of the Medical College of Nigeria and General Medical Practice and West African College of Physicians, while also doubling as a member of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and Nigerian Medical Council. He held several other national posts in the Nigerian Medical Association and was member and later chairman of Lagos University Teaching Hospital Board.
As a human rights and pro-democracy activist, Beko belonged to several Non-Governmental Organisations some of which he either founded or helped to found. He was chairman of Campaign for Democracy; President, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, and Executive Director, Centre for Constitutional Governance, which he founded a few years after his release from prison in 1998. He was prominent in the struggle against the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections.

On a personal note, I remember how Beko assisted us with his facilities when I returned to Nigeria in 1999 to help set up the Nigeria office of the Centre for Democracy & Development (CDD). At that time when communication in Nigeria was most problematic, Beko generously offered us the use of his office facilities ranging from telephone, facsimile, Internet etc. He played a great role in helping CDD establish its presence in Nigeria. Even programme wise, he was always there for us when we needed him, offering all kinds of support that we needed at that teething period. It would have been difficult for us to achieve the remarkable success that we did if not for people like Beko, who believed in the vision of CDD of being a prime catalyst for change as well as the need to bridge between activism and academy.

After he founded CCG a few years later he never failed to consult with colleagues on any issue that he had doubts about. This is a clear demonstration of his humility and openness.

His fame and sharp intellect did not deter him from being a calm and patient listener. Though he had the opportunity of living a privileged life; he chose the path of struggle and lived a Spartan life.

Let me in concluding this tribute to Beko borrow the words of my brother, Chidi Odinklalu: “Beko was witty, cheeky, irreverent, talented, courageous, determined, logical, artistic, honest. And in all this and more, the best.”

Rest in perfect peace Dokky. You paid your dues to your country and all your sacrifices will be etched in our memory until the fullness of time.

* See http://www.tribune.com.ng/120206/news03.htm for more information about Dr Bekololari Ransome-Kuti.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

One of the major weaknesses of contemporary social research in and about Africa is its lack of careful attention to epistemological and methodological issues. This weakness has made itself manifest at a time when the increasing complexities of the social dynamics that shape livelihood on the continent and the wider global context call for a greater investment of effort in the refinement of the procedures and instruments of investigation and analyses with a view to achieving a more accurate and holistic assessment of rapidly changing realities.

The House of Assembly has adopted amendments made by the Upper House to the Education Amendment Bill after a heated debate as parliamentarians were divided over the contentious issue of school fees. The Lower House was divided with 45 Zanu-PF lawmakers voting in favour of the adoption of the amendments and 25 MDC legislators opposing. The Bill was read for the third time and it now awaits Presidential assent for it to become law. It seeks to provide for the charging of fees and levies in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as published by the Central Statistical Office (CSO).

Education Minister, Mrs. Chinwe Obaji said for sustainability of Education For All by the year 2015, the Federal Government has set up Federal Teachers' Corps Scheme (FTCS) as well as earmarked the sum of N6 billion for training of 40,000 teachers. Mr. Oshiomole had blamed the dwindling of qualitative education in the country on the Federal Government saying, "we must link our education policy to our developmental policy. The strength of a nation does not lie on numbers but on quality of human capital".

President Olusegun Obasanjo has agreed to consider the request by Ethiopia for 671 university teachers in addition to the 31 already sent from Nigeria to enable that country to cope with the new universities being opened. The President who stated this when he received the out going Ethiopian Ambassador, Mr. Yohannes Guinda Ginbi on 28 February at the State House, Abuja said the request would be considered under the Technical Aid Corps (TAC) scheme in addition to sending some experts on cassava.

Mthatheni Sibanda scribbles in an untidy notebook as he watches over his family's vegetable stand at a mini-market in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city. The 19-year-old is a final year advanced-level student trying to balance the needs of school work with finding the money for his transport to school. Like several Zimbabwean students, Sibanda can only afford to attend class twice a week. "I really would love to be at school with other children, especially since I am preparing for my final examinations," he said.

Students in the rebel-held north of Cote d’Ivoire, their educations stopped cold by conflict, have begun sitting school exams after more than two years of doubt. The exams opened to mixed reactions in the northern city of Korhogo, most students and parents happy to move past years of limbo, but others complaining that after such a long wait the government – who announced less than two weeks ago that the exams would go forward – should have given more notice.