Sub-Saharan African countries show high rates of informal employment reaching up to 95%, while existing and interacting with relative weak economic development in the region. In addition, youths find difficulties entering into formal employment. Yet, unemployment rates and youth unemployment are only one indicator of the vulnerable position of young people in these labour markets […]
education
Posted inNews/Politics
Davos: Why isn’t education higher up on the agenda?
By Pauline Rose This week business leaders are gathering in Davos to debate global priorities at the World Economic Forum. The forum declares itself to be “committed to improving the state of the world”. So why isn’t education higher up on the agenda? On the face of it, there should be little need to make […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why isn’t Angie the new Manto?
So there I was, having dinner with my family, talking about Lance Armstrong and yellow bracelets, when I had a random thought: is Angie the new Manto? They do have an awful lot in common. Both instantly recognisable by a single name. Both spectacularly bad at their jobs. Under Angie, we’ve embraced chronic and possibly […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The ‘uneducated’ Zuma…
The notion that a person with no formal education possesses no intellectual faculties and thus must be dismissed as a hapless intellectual zombie is so antiquated and unscientific such that even those who once held it as a basis to oppress Africans are now embarrassed when reminded of such nonsensical views. Seemingly Prince Mashele harbours […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The politics of teaching
By Athambile Masola There is a largely negative perception about teachers as being quasi-professionals, overworked, underpaid, intellectually complacent and, if they are members of the largest teacher union, often jeopardising the education of their learners by going on strikes. The image of teachers is also largely dependent on the school culture a teacher is working […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Matching reforms to institutional realities
Social service delivery is weak across the developing world. While there is substantial heterogeneity across regions and countries, the picture of failing services is a familiar one. Challenges such as systematically high levels of absenteeism among teachers, doctors and nurses, persistent rates of drug stock outs — particularly in rural health clinics, rates of leakage […]
Posted inGeneral
Books on wheels
By Noella Moshi The Development and Debate Dinner group people are a motley bunch but they have two things in common: a penchant for active citizenship and a fondness for wine. We meet for dinner once a month and discuss how we can be the change we wish to see. It was during one such […]
Posted inNews/Politics
I benefit from the failure of the basic education system
It’s time to admit it. You’re white and you benefited. This is the challenge that Roger Young and Leonard Shapiro have set for white South Africans. The pair created and is selling T-shirts that read across the front: “I benefited from apartheid.” They say the T-shirts are their attempt at beginning “an important conversation about […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics, Tech
The importance of technology in economic and social development
Technological innovation and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) represent a way for developing world nations to foster economic development, improve levels of education and training as well as address gender issues within society. Entrepreneurship is crucial for economic development around the world. In countries such as Nigeria, Egypt and Indonesia, micro-entrepreneurs generate 38% of the gross […]
Posted inEquality
What does it mean to be a feminist in Women’s Month?
Many people spend a lot of their time making straw-women arguments about what it means to be feminist. Feminists, they assume, are all unshaven, definitely don’t wear make-up or do their hair, and perhaps are a bit overweight. Feminists, they think, are all militant and anti-men. Feminists do not have a sense of humour, and […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Africa on track for millennium goals
The African continent’s progress in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 has gathered pace and credibility over the past few years. Africa continues to make incremental progress on the majority of the eight development goals aimed at improving social and economic conditions in the world’s poorest countries, which all 193 UN member […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
ANC stance on DA school closures hypocritical
In 2007, Angie Motshekga, the then Gauteng MEC for education embarked on an unpopular operation — to close what she called “non-performing schools” in the province. The move angered learners, parents, teachers, unions and even some people in the ANC. Motshekga reasoned that the schools facing closure come January 2008, were schools that were badly […]