Here is another item from Africa concerning primary education in English, this time in the east. It comes from the Kampala daily New Vision was seen on AllAfrica.com at http://allafrica.com/stories/200511210844.html .
A couple of aspects caught our attention. 1) The reference to the differences in performance in urban and rural schools. What is not stated but might be a key factor is that among the advantages that many urban children may have is a greater exposure to English to cope with the English language of instruction. (It sounds like that is the approach taken in the schools, but I don't have more info.) Rural children may be better grounded in indigenous languages but have less exposure to English. One of the solutions mentioned, "enforcement of the use of English language in rural schools" would not seem on the face of it to be an ideal way of resolving this. (It is interesting that some countries in Africa are making efforts in the direction of first language & bilingual education and others seem to be staying with the official-language-only approach.) 2) At the end of the article it mentions that "pupils perform better in tasks, which don't involve reading prose and those which require recall of facts than in those involving ability to think out solutions to real life problems" and then concludes that "This was attributed to non promotion of creativity in some training institutions, poor questioning techniques by teachers who fail to probe and refocus the pupils." Could another reason be that the curriculum is taught in an L2 (second language, i.e. English) rather than L1s (first languages) that pupils use more easily? DZO UPE Quality Improves New Vision (Kampala) http://www.newvision.co.ug/ November 21, 2005 Posted to the web November 21, 2005 Carol Natukunda Kampala THE heavy investment in the Universal Primary Education (UPE) has finally started to pay off. The latest report by the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) shows that the competence level in UPE schools has recorded great improvement since the last assessment three years ago. The study done under the National Assessment of Progress in Education (NAPE) found out that the Primary Three competency in literacy had climbed to 39% up from 34.1% in 2003, while that of Primary Six was 30% compared to 20% over the same period. "In numeracy, performance of pupils reaching defined levels of competency at P3 rose from 42.9% to 45%, while that of P6 went up from 20.5% to 33%," says the 2005 NAPE report. "Although a big percentage of pupils have not yet acquired necessary competencies, the over all performance is beginning to improve," added the report released at last week's 12 Education Sector Review Conference at Speke Resort, Munyonyo. Francis Lubanga, the permanent secretary in the ministry of education attributed the improvement to the several interventions by the Government to improve learning achievement. He said the interventions included defining of roles for districts and headteachers of primary schools in order to ensure high competency levels in literacy and numeracy. Florence Malinga, the commissioner for education planning said the heavy investment in textbooks, the policy of putting the textbooks in the hands of the pupils, the construction of more classrooms and the recruitment of more teachers were other factors for the improved competency. While up-country schools also registered some improvement, the glaring disparity between urban and rural schools still remains. Children who attended kindergartens were found to perform better while younger pupils also outperformed older ones. Achievement levels of children from educated parents were also found to be higher while girls performed better than boys in literacy. In the urban-rural divide, the report says the proficiency level of pupils in urban schools stood at 60% compared to 21% in rural schools. In 2003, however, the competence level was at 40% and 8% in urban and rural schools respectively. The report said urban schools outclassed rural schools because it has more educated parents who are keen on the education of their children. It also said pupils in rural schools do not have mid-day meals and that urban schools had access to other learning resources through the newspapers, the television and the Internet. The report recommended that social services like electricity be extended to rural areas, supervision intensified and teachers' houses constructed within the schools. Other recommendations include the enforcement of the use of English language in rural schools and the provision of mid-day meals. The report found out that pupils who reach P6 at the recommended age of 11 performed better than the older ones. As high as 63% of the pupils aged 11 were rated proficient compared to 44% of those aged 12 and 22% of those aged 14 years. The percentage of the 10 year olds with the desired rating was also found lower, at 37%. "Either older children are given more domestic work to do compared to the younger ones or they have their priorities elsewhere. Home environment issues like slums, were exposing the older children to bad behaviour than focusing on their studies," the report said. It added that older children often felt embarrassed when they studied with younger ones. It was recommended that the policy of the P1 official entry age of six years be enforced. In gender, 45% of the girls were rated proficient in literacy compared to 36% of boys. In numeracy, however, 35% of the boys were found proficient compared to 30% of the girls. Florence Kanyike, the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) coordinator said embarrassment was more evident with the girl child, who seemed to be older than the rest of her classmates. "More than a half of the school girls shy away, or are absent and ultimately perform poorly because of lack of sanitary towels during menstruation," she said. NAPE attributed the low level of girls' achievement in numeracy to negative attitude about the subject, lack of role models, fewer female maths teachers to inspire the girls and abusive language by teachers that discourage the girl child. They recommended that successful female mathematicians be invited to address pupils, female teacher be encourage to teach maths at the higher primary level and that parents and the communities be sensitised on how to handle girls. The report revealed that pupils perform better in tasks, which don't involve reading prose and those which require recall of facts than in those involving ability to think out solutions to real life problems. This was attributed to non promotion of creativity in some training institutions, poor questioning techniques by teachers who fail to probe and refocus the pupils. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Know an art & music fan? Make a donation in their honor this holiday season! http://us.click.yahoo.com/.6dcNC/.VHMAA/Zx0JAA/TpIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
