How Volkswagen Is Encouraging Education In South Africa?

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Recently, Volkswagen donated more than 600 bicycles to the students of over 11 rural schools across the Nkonkobe district in Eastern Cape. This initiative was a Volkswagen and its partners World Vision Switzerland, World Vision South Africa and Qhubeka.

 

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The BEEP Initiative

This donation has increased the number of bicycles sponsored by Volkswagen to 1100 that were offered to rural schools in the region in the last 2 months. In April, over 500 bicycles were handed over to 9 rural schools in Umzimkhulu,KwaZulu-Natal. According to recent reports, it was found that almost 11 million kids of the approximate 17 million school children across South Africa, walk to their schools every day. Around 500,000 of these children walk more than 6 km or an hour to school. The huge walking distance which the learners need to commute every day is believed to be one of the prime reasons from rising rate of school dropouts in rural areas, specifically fro girl students.

The BEEP (Bicycle Education EmpowermentProgramme) was originally started by World Bicycle Relief in Zambia in 2009. The programme established that bicycles are an affordable, reliable and safe transportation mode for the students. BEEP was introduced in South Africa in 2013 by Qhubeka in association with World Vision South Africa. Since then, more than 8100 bicycles have already been donated across 5 provinces.

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Encouraging Education 

Thomas Schaefer, Managing Director ofVolkswagen Group South Africa, said “Education is one of our key pillars in our quest to be a company with meaning and impact through our Corporate Social Investment initiatives under the banner of Volkswagen for Good. As the maker of people’s car, we are passionate about South Africa. This drives us to working towards making a sustainable difference in the fight against poverty and community upliftment.”

He further added “Through our partnership with Qhubeka and World Vision South Africa, we seek to make a small difference but with big impact on the lives of young boys and girls in the most rural parts of our country. We are very hopeful that these bicycles will change the learners’ approach to their schooling and encourage them to work harder to be the best that they want to be.”

Similar sentiments were shared by Qhubeka as both establishments are primarily focused on helping African students access learning opportunities in an easier and better way. Sarah Phaweni, executive director at Qhubeka, said “Qhubeka is delighted to be partnering with Volkswagen to provide access to education through bicycles to children in South Africa. Thanks to Volkswagen’s generous donation distance no longer needs to be a barrier to education for 1100 school children in Nkonkobe and Umzimkhulu. Research shows that education is an essential element in the fight to end the cycle of poverty in developing countries.” She added “With BEEP, we can make an immediate difference to school attendance as well as improve children’s well-being with reliable and affordable transportation.”

 

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Expanding Education's Reach

Each of the students are awarded a bicycle along with a helmet, combination lock, spanner, and pump. The students, as well as their parents, need to sign a contract which explains the rules and regulations for using the cycles. The bicycle will considered as the personal property of the students after the stipulated 2 years.

Paula Barnard, national director of World Vision South Africa, said “With BEEP 2015 well underway we’re undoubtedly meeting what we set out to achieve, reaching the most rural of communities to enable these children to attend school on time and so improve their overall educational outcomes.”

What are your thoughts on this? Will it encourage African learners to stay in school? Share your opinions with us by commenting here.

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Online Education Allows Millions of African Learners To Study Higher Education

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If you want to earn a degree from a US or UK university, then you can do it in an affordable way without even leaving your home. How? All thanks to the facilities and benefits offered by online education.

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Better learning Opportunities : 

Zuhur Yasin owns a bachelor’s degree from a reputed US university although she has never visited America. Most of 29-year-old's education in Somaliland (located in Somalia) were completed in a unique classroom that consists of several computers connected with microphones and webcams. Yasin participated in live digital classes and watched videos offered by Indiana University while pursuing her journalism course from the University of Hargeisa. She said “We had discussions and shared any challenges or questions.”

Yasin was connected with the Indiana University through the African Virtual University (AVU), which is an inter-governmental establishment. According to the AVU, the institute has utilised digital learning to train and educate more than 43,000 learners since its establishment in 1997. The university declared 29 new distance learning centres last year. The educators use various apps and programmes like WhatsApp and Skype to interact with the learners. However, the classes are conducted by using particular software.

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Expanding reach of Education : 

The African Virtual University is also planning to offer lectures through smartphones and increasing their accessibility, so that it can be offered to the estimated 112m smartphone users in Africa. Many learners, like Yasin, in sub-Saharan Africa are searching for learning opportunities at recognised universities. The region saw the lowest university attendance worldwide back in 2008 with merely 6 per cent of secondary school graduates pursuing higher education. This figure was much below the global average of 26 oper cent, as per the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Recently, the African Union (AU) launched the eLearning Africa conference on ICT which aims at development, education and training and plans to close that gap and improve the human resources required for economic progress. It is believed that around 1,200 business representatives and government ministers attended the conference. Founder of eLearning Africa, Rebecca Stromeyer, says “Now is the time when technology can really help to entrench the progress many African countries have made in education. If the right decisions are taken now, they will help to sustain long-term economic growth.”

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eLearning is the Ideal Solution :

Education experts believe that online learning tools can help students in Africa to connect to MOOCs (massive open online courses), like Coursera which offers free online tuition from several leading universities worldwide. Earlier this year, the African Virtual University enrolled over 1,698 African learners in their first MOOC that explored different aspects of technology to enhance the learning experience. Mark West, a mobile learning expert at UNESCO, says, “[Online learning] is a portal into educational opportunities that, frankly, hadn’t existed before, and some of those opportunities, if you can afford the broadband connection and the hardware to use that connection, are free. For really self-motivated learners, it’s remarkable.”

But the fact remains that online universities are still facing the challenge of high dropout rates. West believes it will be best if we could combine online education with practical learning and assessment. He says “A lot of people start but they never finish – they don’t finish individual courses and they definitely don’t finish entire areas of study.” Yasin, who worked hard for her online degree, says “In a regular class you have a teacher who is in front of you who makes you concentrate. With the online environment, you have to have discipline, make your own timetable to listen to the lectures, and submit the assignments online.

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The bottom line :

Virtual learning is undoubtedly the ideal solution to the difficulties of students in Africa in pursuing university education. Online courses help to address the bigger issues related to learning in Africa.

What do you think? Share your thoughts with us by commenting below.

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Is Online Learning The Right Solution For Students In Nigeria?

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The northeast region of Nigeria is frequently highlighted by occurrences of arbitrary bombings, kidnappings and militant attacks, especially since the rise of violent campaigns in 2009 led by the insurgent group Boko Haram.

Learning Challenges In Northeast Nigeria

 

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If you are a parent in the cities of Bauchi or Damaturu located in northeast Nigeria, how would you react when Boko Haram insurgents plant to attack local schools in the region? Sadly, parents in the uncertain regions of north-eastern Nigeria have to deal with such heartbreaking decisions. So should you send your child to school?

Irrespective of what you decide, the decision for most parents in the area has already been made with closing down of more than 800 schools due to insurgency and insecurity. A separate assessment and analysis made by the CCSG (Coalition of Civil Society Groups) has revealed that more than 194,664 students are compelled to discontinue attending their schools due to the threats of militant attacks. The President of CCSG, Etuk Bassey Williams, believes that as a result of the closing down of schools the nation will fail to meet the benchmarks set for primary school enrolment in 2015, with below 80% enrolment of children who are old enough to attend schools.

However there is still hope for Nigeria. Many academic experts have suggested that online education should be adopted in school curricula as a prominent tool that can help in teaching students who are unable to attend schools, specifically in the northeast regions of Nigeria.

Can Online Education Offer The Required Solution?

 

Dr. Dipo Fashina, the previous President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), recently said that the education system followed in the country is counterproductive and flawed. It is in a strong need of renovation and reorganisation. Fashina said “Education is the major thing that promotes being at the height of development and we are not there yet.”

Online education has already gained significant popularity among learners from different regions of Nigeria. The number of students enrolling for online learning programmes is increasing constantly, especially due to the ineffective education system. This only creates unprepared graduates who are unable to find any employment opportunities.

If you are a Nigerian student who wants to pursue quality education and earn accredited qualifications from recognised institutes, then online programmes are undoubtedly the best option for you. Moreover, online programmes are highly affordable and cost only a fraction of traditional college tuition fees.

Expanding The Reach Of Education

 

Nowadays, it has becoming even easier for Nigerian students to pursue online study as the country has more than 175 million monthly mobile phone subscriptions. The fact is now online education programmes are being customised for African learners and you can find numerous online platforms from around the globe, including Africa. Beni American University, founded by Gossy Ukanwoke, is the first online learning university in Nigeria.

Another popular African online learning application is the MTN mAcademy, which caters to students throughout Africa. It provides various courses such as teaching, banking and information technology. The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has also endorsed the mAcademy platform which is considered as a model for how an online platform should be executed for teaching students in the northeast region of Nigeria.

As the telecommunications sector is developing in the country with growing capabilities for internet broadband connectivity, the reach of online learning will spread even further to help learners in uncertain regions pursue quality education effectively.

What do you think about online learning? Can it help students in Nigeria’s northeast? Share your thoughts and views with us by commenting in the box below.

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Online Education: A Trend Changing The Nigerian Education

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Internet learning, Online Education, or Distance Learning – whatever you prefer to call it, is a big trend in today’s academic world. For most it’s a flexible knowledge enhancer programme that hardly demand any sacrifice in your professional and personal life. Moreover, it is making education available for all overcoming the physical, geographical and financial predicaments. From students in China who can’t afford to fly abroad to the learners in African continent living below poverty level – online education is bringing hope for everybody.

Helping to overcome the barriers

Demand of the employers is increasing. They want smarter performance at workplace. So, employees who want to improve their performance are keen on attaining higher level degrees. Hence, demand for higher and effective education is increasing all over the world.

People residing in developing continents are opting for study abroad as their educational resources aren’t satisfactory enough. For example a surging popularity for the courses available in UK Universities is being noticed among the Nigerian students over the last few years and it’s increasing at a rapid rate. The Higher Education Statistics Agency in the UK (HESA) shows that 17,640 Nigerians enrolled to study at UK universities during 2011/12 compared to 5,385 for 2003/04. Selma Toohey, international recruitment officer for Sub-Saharan Africa at Nottingham Trent University, says - “More people are realising that studying in the UK is a realistic option and many find it to be a real benefit to experience living in another culture while studying for their degrees.”

Fresh avenues toward brighter future

Well, if your commitments and responsibilities are keeping you away from such pleasures then new age learning options are ready to help you. In addition to that, visiting a foreign land to pursue a degree is still a far cry for many people around the world. So, the best Universities are opening online curriculum to reach out to those who are unable to afford higher education.

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It’s not that Nigerians don’t have good educational institutions but they don’t operate properly as the government doesn’t fund for them. Moreover, most of them are over-populated and have more than enough academic staffs. So, students are gradually moving toward online education. Initiatives are being taken and renowned institutions are coming forward to change the present environment. Of late, Intel launched an online solution for the new age learners in Nigeria. Their mission is to help them access economical and free digital learning resources. The education solution, Learn Marketplace, and Intel Explore are introduced and designed to facilitate the traditional complications of learning. Speaking about the collaboration with Intel, Ehizogie Binitie, Co-Founder And Chief Technology Officer of Rancard, said,

“We recognise education as a major challenge across the continent and believe the platform we have deployed together with Intel for the African market is an important step in solving this challenge, equipping both educators and content creators with the tools they need to create and distribute high quality educational content.”

Attaining education through online can be a great technique for learners with busy schedule or having geographical and financial constraints. Including the options of flexible scheduling, audio-video instructions, and relevant choices in courses, internet classes offer you to be a part of global classroom and participate in discussions where your mates will be commenting from different parts of the world with you. It couldn’t be more exciting than this for the students of developing countries like Nigeria.