In Sub-Saharan Africa, innovative approaches are constantly being developed to address the region’s acute education challenges. Low literacy levels, inadequate school facilities, and high dropout rates are felt acutely, particularly in rural areas. Despite government initiatives to tackle these issues, accessing education remains difficult for some, especially those who have abandoned their studies and find it difficult to re-join school or gain employment in a competitive job market that favours the best qualified. But through a pioneering eLearning for Youth project, which utilises social media and mobile learning, positive changes are taking place.
The project is currently being tested in Namibia, and addresses the large number of learners who abandon their studies at a young age. The reasons for dropping out of school vary from person to person and throughout Africa – while poverty, pregnancy, family or social commitments and the hidden costs of education constantly present obstacles, short-term events can also critically interrupt the progress of a child’s education – such as the recent drought in the Kunene region of Namibia, which forced many families to move to more fertile pastures, away from schools. What is certain is that returning to formal education after dropping out is doubly difficult. Schools in Namibia are frequently understaffed and overstretched, with class sizes often between 70 and 80 pupils, and the personal touch erratically educated children need simply cannot be provided.
Maurice Nkusi of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Polytechnic of Namibia, explains the dire situation facing school dropouts in Namibia, and the essential lifeline m- and eLearning offer them.
“The unemployed – and perhaps almost unemployable – millions of African youth, on the street
