Paper short abstract:

At the independence time , the PALOP education systems, are constrained by many problems and many expectations. The improvements were mainly in the sense of formal education massification, remaining quality problems . However Good Practices have been implemented. Some are the object of this communication.

Paper long abstract:

Educational systems of PALOP, since the decade of 70 ,have profound constraints: populations with high rates of illiteracy, high demography, lack of human and material resources, deficit of identity. With high politic expectations, their evolution has been in the sense of the massification, especially in primary education, giving less importance to pre-school and vocational education.

In recent years, enrollment rates are 100% (or almost) in primary school and was enlarged the compulsory age of attendance at school. There are not institutionalized practices of evaluation systems and the indicators reflect a lack of quality.

However, programs and actions for the quality (creating legislation, introduction of evaluation, resource affectation, for example) has been implemented.

The communication presents some of the best practices of PALOP education systems, describing them and indicating their impact.

Paper short abstract:

We’ll analyze the school at congregation space of the various socio-educational agents that interferes directly or indirectly in the lives of children and families

Paper long abstract:

The creation of networks and local working groups is an important strategy that can help teachers to overcome the issues facing on a daily basis. These networks can operate at the dynamic level, as spaces for training and exchange of knowledge and at structural level, with the organization of resource centers that support the school work and the materials resource's exploitation. At this level, São Tomé e Principe has already a good base to work, particularly in the pre-school and basic education, with the support of the directors of the schools. Based on this model defined by the central government, how to developed at local level the role of schools as community development spaces, integrating initiatives of other institutions (non-governmental) that develop initiatives in the community? We'll analyze the school at congregation space of the various socio-educational agents that interferes directly or indirectly in the lives of children and families.

Keywords: education, development; community; non-governmental organizations

Paper short abstract:

Tanto a reforma educativa em curso em STP como a intervenção das OCS em projetos de formação/educação complementares procuram melhorar a qualidade da educação/formação do país. Esses projetos, os seus objetivos e os resultados obtidos deverão ser objeto de avaliação

Paper long abstract:

A especificidade de São Tomé e Príncipe, como pequeno Estado insular, confere-lhe redobrados desafios no sentido da integração e do desenvolvimento socioeconómico das suas populações.

Enfrentando os desafios da modernidade, visando a melhoria da oferta educativa e procurando responder ao aumento da procura, o setor educativo do arquipélago tem sofrido reformas, em resultado da cooperação estratégica e política entre elementos endógenos e exógenos que procuram ir ao encontro das metas propostas por instituições internacionais. Diversos parceiros da sociedade civil, nacionais e internacionais, têm vindo a intervir e a participar em projetos educativos com o objetivo de melhorar a oferta educativa e a formação dos jovens santomenses.

A especificidade do setor educativo e os constrangimentos da educação do país exigem uma visão holística, reformista e integradora de todas as suas partes, que considere o contexto e a sociedade do arquipélago, e integre instituições oficiais, parceiros externos e diversos atores e organizações da sociedade civil, que assumam compromissos não só com a quantidade, mas também com a qualidade, a sustentabilidade dos projetos e a criação de dinâmicas de avaliação.

Nesta comunicação pretende-se analisar a reforma educativa em curso no país e a complementaridade, participação e intervenção das OCS na melhoria da oferta educativa do país.

Este paper insere-se na linha de pesquisa que o autor está a desenvolver para o projeto O papel das Organizações da Sociedade Civil na educação e formação: O caso de Angola, Moçambique, Guiné-Bissau e São Tomé e Príncipe do CEA/ISCTE.

EDUCAÇÃO, FORMAÇÃO, REFORMA EDUCATIVA, SOCIEDADE CIVIL

Paper short abstract:

Based on two and half years of teaching experience as at Addis Ababa University the author will try to discuss personal experience related to the visible decline in the quality of education at Ethiopian government universities as a result of official policy of prioritizing quantity over quality.

Paper long abstract:

In Ethiopia the number of government universities has grown from 5 to over 30 in less than 5 years. The government is putting pressure on the universities to produce a large number of graduates every year, regardless of the resistance of the universities and departments and the arguments that such pressures are proving to be detrimental to the quality of the education received by the graduating students. Issues of plagiarism are rampant at but are often swept aside as irrelevant in the aim of achieving the education related millennium goals that the government is committed to. Korea is often cited a model of such push for quantity over quality which was successful. New policies and teaching systems are regularly implemented in ways that seem urgent to the university administrators but often unreasonable those teaching in the various programs.

Based on two and half years of teaching experience as at Addis Ababa University the author will try to discuss the issues related to the visible decline in the quality of education at Ethiopian government universities as a result of official policy of prioritizing quantity over quality. The paper is based auto-ethnographic material and informal conversations with expatriate and local staff of the period of two and a half years.

Paper short abstract:

This paper expects to bring some in-depth analysis on the Ethiopian philosophy of learning from which the modern educational system in Ethiopia should glean and adapt for use.

Paper long abstract:

My career as a young instructor in Axum University started with immediate amazement about my students' rather inadequate level of articulation. I teach them logic and hence I require that they construct sound arguments, criticize others' statements on form and content bases. Yet, unsatisfied with their progress, I started trying to locate the source of their passivity and silence. I have now felt the intensity of my old professors' comments on the 'deteriorating quality of education in Ethiopia'.

My wonder grew even higher when I go to the market place and other social gatherings to observe people termed as "uneducated' and 'illiterate' peasants. I noted the high eloquence and advanced communication skills these people exhibit; being on the lookout to articulacy. I found their use of language and their clarity in expression so excellent. Thy mostly interweave their points with proverbs, anecdotes, brief couplets, and whatnots taken from the oral literary traditions.

I realized the different pedagogical traditions involved in making the divide: African oral systems and the modern educational institutions.

I am now determined to delve deep into the pattern of the indigenous oral traditions, their structures, their underpinning philosophies in order for the modern Ethiopian educational system to glean and adapt for use. I hypothesize that life-centered indigenous Ethiopian philosophy of learning plays a fundamental role in the modern Ethiopian educational system in fulfilling the purpose of education making men and women think intensively and critically and be efficient in achieving goals of their lives.

Paper short abstract:

As mudanças sociais e a imposição dos modelos externos conduziram a reformas no sistema educativo em Moçambique que alteraram o estatuto, os conteúdos e os currículos do subsistema de ensino técnico-profissional e das escolas islâmicas em Moçambique.

Paper long abstract:

O sistema de educação moçambicano tem acompanhado as transformações politicas, sociais e económicas do país. Desde a sua independência até aos dias de hoje a grande preocupação tem sido o crescimento do acesso a educação da sociedade moçambicana (escolaridade obrigatória e universal), começando por nacionalizar o ensino, passando o Estado a assumir inteiramente a responsabilidade da educação e da instrução. Com a liberalização política e económica, devido a pressões e mudanças internacionais, o Estado deixou de ter o monopólio da educação, dando lugar ao aparecimento do sector privado na área da educação e da formação em Moçambique.

Nesta comunicação, pretende-se analisar o modo como as mudanças sociais e a imposição dos modelos externos conduziram a reformas no sistema educativo em Moçambique que alteraram o estatuto, os conteúdos e os currículos do subsistema de ensino técnico-profissional e das escolas islâmicas em Moçambique. Será dada atenção especial às questões da quantidade, da qualidade e do mérito das instituições públicas e privadas de ensino, em contexto de pressão para o crescimento e desenvolvimento económico-social de Moçambique.

Este paper insere-se na linha de pesquisa que as autoras estão a desenvolver para o Doutoramento em Estudos Africanos e para o projecto O papel das organizações da Sociedade civil na educação e formação: o caso de Angola, Moçambique, Guiné-Bissau e São Tomé e Príncipe do CEA/ISCTE.

EDUCAÇÃO, FORMAÇÃO, SISTEMAS, SOCIEDADE CIVIL

Paper short abstract:

Secondary education offers an essential preparation for employment at a medium level being a basis for higher education, including teacher training.

Paper long abstract:

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENTATION

GEOGRAPHY TEACHING IN SECONDARY EDUCATION IN MOZAMBIQUE

Secondary education offers an essential preparation for employment at a medium level being a basis for higher education, including teacher training. The fast growth of the economy in Mozambique throughout the nineties of the 20th century lead to a significant rise in the search for qualified workers, especially in the private sector. However, secondary schools haven't provided enough qualified workers. On the other hand, the expansion of the admissions at an elementary school level foreseen by the Education Strategy Plan will increase the search for new teachers. At the end of the nineties, the number of applications presenting ten school years (ESG1) was lower than the number of teachers necessary for the Mozambican primary schools in the following decades. It is likely that the search for young people who have finished the ESG1 in the labor market will exceed, for some time in the future, the supply of graduates. On the other hand, it is obvious that the rise of admissions and the improvement of the quality in Primary Schools will necessarily pressure the increase of the access to secondary education. This clearly justifies some expansion to this extent (Ministry of Education of Mozambique, 1998).

Keywords : Geography, Citizenship, Geography teaching, Secondary Education.

AUTHOR: CARLOS MARTINS

Paper short abstract:

Qualitative educational policies in Post-Aparthied South Africa have been marked by repercussions of racial discrimination. This raises a significant argument of possibilities of a compromise between quantitative and qualitative educational policies in South Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Post-Apartheid South African society marked by distinct history of segregation and discrimination has felt the repercussions even in the educational sector. Completion of nearly two decades of planning in Post-Apartheid South Africa has considerable success in the quantitative educational policies but qualitative educational policies have not been able to provide an answer to racial discrimination and its effects on educational outcomes. World Education Report (2000)-UNESCO declares that child's performance needs to be treated as an indicator of systematic quality. Quality is not merely a measure of "efficiency"; it also includes a "value dimension". The attempt to improve quality of education succeeds when it is clubbed with steps to promote equality and social justice. Hierarchies of race, culture and uneven economic development deeply influence access to education and participation. Empowered by the Right to Basic Education conferred by Chapter 2 of the Constitution (Bill of Rights), government of South Africa has initiated quality specific educational policies such as National Qualification Framework, Higher Education Act and South African Qualifications Authority. Burden of the past dominated by white minority rule however has posed great challenges in ensuring an evaluative and holistic application of educational policies. It also prohibits contextualized culture of teaching and learning. Quality, Quantity and Equality is considered to be an "elusive triangle of education" which is continuously being challenged by globalised and market oriented neoliberal strategies adopted in South Africa.

Paper short abstract:

This fieldwork-based research highlights the struggles of the Sierra Leone Teachers Union to use leverage generated by current interest in meeting MDG targets to improve the long-term quality of education in the country.

Paper long abstract:

This research, based on fieldwork undertaken during 2012, highlights the struggles of the Sierra Leone Teachers Union to use leverage generated by current interest in meeting MDG targets to improve the quality of education in the country. Since the end of the civil war in 2002, education has been the focus of much attention and investment. Improving the quantity, in terms of increases in student enrolment rates and numbers of trained teachers has been prioritized by the government and international donors. The Sierra Leonean Teachers Union (SLTU) has been increasingly concerned with the quality of education provided. The SLTU regards the heightened interest in education as an opportunity to drive qualitative improvements nationwide. It has been working with NGOs to provide certificated training courses for Untrained and Unqualified (U-U) teachers. It has also been collaborating with the Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF), in order to introduce compulsory studies aimed at enhancing knowledge of Sierra Leonean cultures, thereby fostering greater trust and understanding between different ethnic groups. Inevitable trade-offs have ensued between increasing the quantity and the quality of education provided and the SLTU is concerned that the focus among donors and the government is overly geared towards the former. Its attempts to prioritize improvements in the quality of education are having some success but are hampered by structural factors (lack of financial and institutional resources in the regions) and the perception of rank-and-file members that senior union officials are not commitment to improving their situation.

Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses in which way and to what extent teacher motivation affects the quality of basic education in Burkina Faso.

Paper long abstract:

Since the 1990s it is possible to observe a normative double bind inherent to Burkina Faso's educational objectives. On the one hand, structural adjustment programmes pressurize the state to diminish unit costs for education. On the other hand, Education for All (EFA) policies result in a rapid increase of enrolment rates of children, which leads to increased public expenditures. Allocation deficiencies of public expenditure led to poorer working conditions for teachers. Because of lack of facilities and teaching materials these interface bureaucrats are bound to purchase materials from their own pocket if they wish to minimally deliver the educational service. Faced by these constraints the conditions that determine the "loyalty" of the staff employed disappear gradually. Demotivated teachers adopt a strategy of gradual disengagement from the profession. They show a lower commitment, which is associated with high absenteeism. The paper argues that lower teacher motivation indicates poorer level of service performance. In conclusion the paper discusses how corporate interests are expressed in the political system. Institutional responsiveness to these expressions of dissatisfaction could help improve the quality of the service. The paper is based on standardized statistical data and draws on complementary ethnographic data, collected from 2010 to 2012 in the city of Boromo and in rural villages of the province of Balé in Burkina Faso.

Paper short abstract:

One of the points in which it is possible to investigate the compromise between quantity and quality of an educational system, it is in its educational sustainability. Therefore, we wanted to investigate if there is connection between regulatory documents of pedagogical practice.

Paper long abstract:

The dynamics of any educational system requires the creation of conditions for a sustained education, grounded in Curricular Programs, Textbooks and other documents that regulate pedagogical practice. However, not always these "documents" are articulated, culminating in the register of weaknesses, particularly in what concerns to the developing of writing skills. Indeed, in our view, this is one of the points in which it is possible to investigate the compromise between quantity and quality, insofar as there are African countries that have a program and a unique manual for each grade, like the case of Cape Verde.

Thus, taking into account the context of Cape Verde, our study has two essential objectives: i) verify how the Portuguese textbooks - 7th and 8th grades - promote the development of writing skills, having as base of analysis the items of the Portuguese program, ii) investigate the relationship between textbooks and the Portuguese Language program for 7th and 8th grades.

Since our corpus is made up of documents that constitute experimental versions of the curriculum revision of Cape Verde (Strategic Plan of Education, 2003), the results of our analysis point to: i) insufficient written proposals - 13 in the 7th grade and 24 in the 8th grade - ii) disarticulation that exists between Portuguese Programs and Textbooks. We believe that this situation brings negative consequences from the point of view of teaching and learning and also allows to infer that "the compromise between quality and quantity" maybe is not working.

Paper short abstract:

This paper intends to discuss the methodology to be adopted regarding the collection and analysis of data within a current doctoral research on Guinea-Bissau, aiming to evaluate the impact and effects of the PASEG which was promoted by Portuguese aid in local schools in Guinea-Bissau.

Paper long abstract:

Educational systems, particularly in peripheral or semi-peripheral countries, such as in the African context are prone to the influence of international organizations. These condition educational systems by promoting their convergence at the global level.

This paper intends to discuss the methodology to be adopted regarding the collection and analysis of data within a current doctoral research on Guinea-Bissau, aiming to evaluate the impact and effects of the PASEG which was promoted by Portuguese aid in local schools in Guinea-Bissau.

The methodology selected is quanti-qualitative, using a case-study approach. Drawing on Stake (2006) comprehensive paradigm, the investigation will use the respondent model and will be organized in two different phases leading to three empirical studies in order to obtain both a more general view and a more focused one concerning the impact and effects of PASEG.

PASEG seems to present a set of very specific features: has its origins in a semi-peripheral country; the emphasis of the intervention is laid on curricular decision at micro level; a significant number of expatriates are involved in the implementation; Guinea-Bissau is presented as a fragility context and investigation concerning Portuguese aid is scarce. All this appears as an additional interest to the research project. On the other side, preliminary data show that PASEG has exerted an influence on the three curricular decision levels, with special relevance to the meso and micro levels, stressing quality in detriment of quantity due, inter alia, to the dimension of the educational system.

Paper short abstract:

Acomunidade de Tame foi descriminada em termos de acesso a educação, se comparada com a sua vizinha de Canhobe. A população residente e a sua diáspora se uniram os esforços no sentido de criar condições para aumentar o nível educacional da sua população.

Paper long abstract:

Durante muito tempo a comunidade de Tame, no Sector de Canchungo, Região de Cacheu sentiu desfavorecida em termos de acesso a educação, principalmente, se comparado com a sua vizinha de Canhobe. Consciente desta realidade e decidida em mudar este cenário, a população residente e a sua diáspora se uniram os esforços no sentido de criar condições para aumentar o nível educacional da sua população e melhorar a sua qualidade.

Baseado num trabalho mais amplo (o papel das remessas dos emigrantes para o desenvolvimento das sociedades guineenses), no âmbito da tese do doutoramento em Estudos Africanos, em que se faz uma comparação de tês espaços geográficos (Sectores, um no Norte, outro no Leste e o terceiro no Sul) habitados maioritariamente por diferentes comunidades tribais, tentar compreender o destino dado às remessas dos emigrantes.

Retirado nas primeiras conclusões do referido trabalho, este artigo tenta demonstrar como a união de esforços entre a diáspora e a população que ficou na terra tem sido benéfico quer na construção de infra-estruturais escolares, criação de incentivos para atrair bons professores e gestão das escolas tem sido a alavanca para o desenvolvimento do ensino no regulado que, em muitos aspectos substitui o próprio Estado, que raras vezes cumpre com a sua obrigação de educar os jovens do seu país.