Category: English

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Solaja Mayowa Oludele, Lecturing, Olabisi Onabanjo University

Plastic waste in Nigeria presents a dual challenge: cleaning up environmental pollution, and tapping into its economic potential.

Many countries worldwide face similar challenges. India, for one, has chosen policies that give producers of plastic the responsibility to manage their waste. Rwanda has banned single-use plastic and promoted recycling initiatives led by communities.

These approaches show it’s possible to address plastic waste issues while fostering economic opportunities.

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Read more:
Nigeria’s plastic ban: why it’s good and how it can work

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In Nigeria, informal collectors of plastic bottle waste are central to achieving both of these goals. They turn waste into monetary value.

Previous research has highlighted the environmental and economic benefits of collecting plastic bottle waste. There’s been less attention on what shapes perceptions of waste collection as a business, particularly in Nigeria.

This article explores that gap, looking at the socio-cultural, economic and environmental influences on those perceptions.

I am a researcher in the areas of plastic waste management, environmental governance and sustainable development. My work includes studying homes made from recycled plastic bottles in sustainable community-based housing projects.

Here I’ll be drawing from an exploratory survey conducted in the Ijebu area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Using a questionnaire, we surveyed 86 participants who had at least five years of experience in the plastic waste industry.

The study identified factors like education, family size, religion, gender, age, and economic dynamics as relevant to participation in the business of plastic bottle waste collection.

Understanding these influences might help the government to target policies.

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Read more:
Nigeria is the world’s 2nd biggest plastic polluter: expert insights into the crisis

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Education level and information

Our study found that participants with higher education levels better understood the economic benefits of plastic waste collection as a systematic form of business. The less educated participants viewed waste collection more as a hand-to-mouth way of earning a living.

Education programmes built into waste management campaigns could improve recognition of waste collection as a structured and profitable business opportunity and develop a business-like culture among the collectors.

Parenthood, family size and financial obligations

Family size was a factor affecting perceptions of plastic bottle waste collection as a business. People with large families saw waste collection as a feasible way to provide food, housing, education and other essentials.

However, the association of waste collection with income instability highlights the need to formalise and stabilise the sector. Waste collection must be made into a sustainable and reliable business model.

Religion and cultural norms

Religion and cultural beliefs emerged as influences from our survey. This was evident in the responses of people who followed African traditional religions and Islam.

These respondents viewed waste collection as financially feasible, aligning with religious teachings that emphasise resource management and stewardship. For example, Islamic teachings on israf (avoiding wastefulness) and zakat (charity) promote efficient resource use and economic activities that benefit communities.

Similarly, African traditional religion often emphasises communal responsibility and the sustainable use of resources. These religious principles underscore the cultural acceptance of waste collection as both a practical and a morally guided economic activity.

Other cultural norms, such as the value placed on communal responsibility and cooperation, also influenced attitudes towards waste collection. In communities with a strong tradition of collective action, where unity and mutual support are highly valued, waste collection is often viewed as a collaborative effort.

These cultural norms reinforce the idea that waste collection is not just an individual task, but a collective duty that benefits the entire community.

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Informal waste management in Lagos is big business: policies need to support the trade

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Gender dynamics

Gender plays a role in perception and practice in waste collection. Our survey found that male participants were more likely than female participants to perceive this activity as a business.

As constrained as they are by lack of access to resources, women are involved in separating and marketing reusable items. Measures like microfinance could increase women’s engagement and business opportunities.

This would empower women and make waste collection a more inclusive and sustainable business.

Age and desire to be an entrepreneur

Perceptions were influenced by age in our study. Younger individuals, up to 14 years old, viewed plastic bottle waste collection as a gateway to employment. Adults aged 33-38 used their experience to get better returns on the business.

This age-based distinction suggests that different stages of life bring unique motivations and approaches to waste collection.

Policy actions that support entrepreneurship at various life stages can promote long-term engagement in the industry. This will help formalise waste collection as a sustainable and profitable business.

Economic and social factors

Income opportunities affected participants’ experiences more than social factors. Oftentimes, this determined how long they stayed in the business. Those earning more were likelier to reinvest and grow, while lower earnings often led to disengagement or exit. This highlights the importance of financial incentives in shaping waste collection practices.

Social connections also play a role in fostering collaboration. It facilitates teamwork and the exchange of ideas, and creates a sense of shared purpose and collective outcomes among participants.

Strengthening these economic and social bonds can formalise plastic bottle waste collection, making it a more efficient and profitable business.

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Read more:
Waste disposal in Nigeria is a mess: how Lagos can take the lead in sorting and recycling

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Looking ahead

The study has significant application to Nigeria’s waste management industry. Adding education programmes into waste management programmes will improve people’s business skills.

Well-coordinated intervention strategies can remove cultural and gender-specific barriers. For instance, cooperatives and microfinance may make waste collection more financially appealing.

Strategies can also draw on cultural norms to increase community acceptance of waste collection and make it more inclusive.

Samuel Oludare Awobona, a doctoral student at Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria, contributed to this research.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Nigeria’s plastic bottle collectors turn waste into wealth: survey sheds light on their motivation – https://theconversation.com/nigerias-plastic-bottle-collectors-turn-waste-into-wealth-survey-sheds-light-on-their-motivation-247819

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Rachel Wynberg, Professor and DST/NRF Bio-economy Research Chair, University of Cape Town

African Perspectives on Agroecology is a new book with 33 contributions from academics, non-governmental organisations, farmer organisations and policy makers. It is free to download, and reviewers have described it as a “must read for all who care about the future of Africa and its people”. The book outlines how agroecology, which brings ecological principles into farming practices and food systems, can solve food shortages and environmental damage caused by mass, commercial farming. We asked the book’s editor and the South African Research Chair on Environmental and Social Dimensions of the Bio-economy, Rachel Wynberg, to set out why this book is so important.

What’s wrong with the current system of food production?

The dominant model of modern agriculture in the world is based on monoculture, where one crop is grown across large areas using chemical fertilisers and pesticides. It relies on seeds that are owned by big corporations and are often subsidised by governments at a high cost.

The book outlines how this approach to growing food is flawed. Firstly, it carries major costs. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s State of Food and Agriculture 2024 report, the costs of diet-related disease, hunger and malnutrition and other costs amount to about US$8 trillion a year. Countries in the global south carry much of the burden.

Secondly, the current approach is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. This happens through deforestation and land degradation, livestock and fertiliser emissions, energy use, and the globalised nature of agriculture. Food is often produced far from where it is consumed.

Huge farmlands also wipe out biodiversity and degrade one third of all soils, globally. Industrial agriculture has many negative impacts on ecosystem health, livestock and human wellbeing.

What’s the alternative?

Agroecology is a good alternative. It uses natural processes such as fixing nitrogen in the soil by planting legumes, and conserving natural habitat to encourage beneficial predators that keep pests in check. It includes planting a diversity of crops, rather than just one, to prevent pest outbreaks, and avoiding synthetic pesticides and herbicides.

Agroecology places importance on building natural, local, economically viable and socially just food systems. It aims to support farmers and rural communities.

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Africa’s worsening food crisis – it’s time for an agricultural revolution

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As a result, it fosters more equal social relations and improves food and nutritional security.

Agroecology also recognises local ways of knowing and doing things, and respects the rights of Indigenous people to seeds and plants that they have planted for many generations. Transforming research and education are an important part of agroecology.

What are the advantages?

Agroecology increases the capacity of farming systems to adapt to climate change. Studies show how agroecology increases crop yields, regulates water and nutrients, increases agricultural diversity and reduces pests.

It gives farmers more choice about what to grow and eat. This enables them to produce a wider variety of healthy food.

Can agroecology grow enough food for everyone?

Agroecology can be scaled up through:

• farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchanges

• creating professional networks of agroecology practitioners

• local seed-saving networks or groups that share different seeds that are adapted to local conditions

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Read more:
Indigenous plants and food security: a South African case study

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• solidarity networks: community-based groups or movements that aim to support each other, cooperate and take collective action.

• the revival and use of indigenous and under-utilised crops and livestock breeds such as pearl and finger millet, sorghum and Nguni cattle

• linking producers with consumers and markets.

What needs to be done?

Urgent actions are needed, especially in the climate “hotspot” of sub-Saharan Africa. Agroecology needs supportive policies and funding. South Africa has had a draft agroecology strategy for more than 10 years but this has not yet been adopted.

Development aid for farmers often undermines agroecology. It typically promotes a “new” African Green Revolution that uses hybrid seeds, agrochemicals, new technologies, and links to markets. However, hybrid seed, especially genetically modified seed, can contaminate local seed systems that are better adapted to local conditions.

The book illustrates what can go wrong. Maize is said to have “modernised” development and promoted foreign investment in Africa. But it has displaced indigenous crops such as sorghum and millet which are more nutritious and drought-resistant.

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Read more:
Amazing ting: South Africa must reinvigorate sorghum as a key food before it’s lost

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Subsidy programmes and state support for hybrid maize also back multinational agrochemical and seed companies.

Governments, industry and those funding research, innovation and consumer marketing must actively move away from a maize culture and invest in a bigger range of crops.

For millions of smallholder African farmers, there is a deep understanding of how animals, plants, soil, people and weather patterns are connected to and affect one another. Agricultural development programmes, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and herbicides, and genetically modified seeds disrupt these relationships. They can devalue local knowledge and skills in favour of “expert”-led innovations. This means that farmers lose their capacity to understand their environment and their ability to react appropriately.

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Agriculture training in South Africa badly needs an overhaul. Here are some ideas

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Lastly, agriculture research and training needs to be rethought. Research and development is now mostly shaped by market-led approaches that favour crops grown by large-scale commercial farmers. A public sector research and development agenda for agroecology needs to be developed. It should be based both on scientific knowledge as well as traditional and local knowledge.

What would help?

Agricultural research should be co-created by everyone involved. Farmer-led research and innovation can support food system transformations.

New ways of seeing and doing research are evolving. Western scientific and traditional knowledges are mixing in ways that can transform farming. Our book points out that social movements are emerging as a powerful force for change.

We hope to support these efforts through a new, four year, European Union supported initiative to establish a research and training network: the Research for Agroecology Network in Southern Africa. New agroecology knowledge networks in South Africa and Zimbabwe have also been started to coordinate research and develop curricula.

Rachel Wynberg’s research is supported by a grant from the Seed and Knowledge Initiative and South Africa’s National Research Foundation. She is a Board member of the NGO Biowatch South Africa.

– ref. Industrial scale farming is flawed: what ecologically-friendly farming practices could look like in Africa – https://theconversation.com/industrial-scale-farming-is-flawed-what-ecologically-friendly-farming-practices-could-look-like-in-africa-245579

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Jannes Landschoff, Marine biologist at Sea Change and Research Associate at Stellenbosch University’s Department of Botany and Zoology., Stellenbosch University

South Africa’s marine realm is globally unique because of the two major ocean currents that meet here. The cold, slow-moving Benguela and the warm, fast-flowing Agulhas currents create a special environment that supports high levels of biodiversity. Over 13,000 marine species are currently known to live in these waters. About 30% of these are endemic, meaning they occur nowhere else.

Biodiversity metrics (the number or abundance of species) are dominated by invertebrates such as sponges, bivalves and crustaceans. These are usually small, which makes them adaptable and versatile. In terms of numbers, invertebrates make up a vast majority of marine life.

I have been involved in marine biodiversity research for the last 10 years and have worked with teams of researchers, biology students and citizen scientists from across the country. I have also been involved in the naming and classification of organisms.

In South Africa, where there is still much to discover, one focus of my work is identifying new species.

Looking at subtle differences and finding similarities in how tiny organisms evolved in different regions is a global effort. In my own work, carried out together with many experts, there are three finds that have been particularly exciting – a “walking sponge” (Suberites ambulodomos), a tiny clam (Brachiomya ducentiunus) and a rare and miniature isopod (Pseudionella pumulaensis).

Long-term efforts to identify new species like these guide effective conservation. They help to ensure that critical habitats are protected.

These three newly described species may seem small and insignificant individually. However, small species make up the foundation of the food chain and play vital roles in nutrient cycling and in promoting biodiversity.

The walking sponge

First, there’s Suberites ambulodomos, or the “walking sponge”. This animal forms a unique partnership with hermit crabs. It settles on the tiny shell of a very young hermit crab. As the sponge grows it overgrows the shell completely, many hundred times in size and volume.

As a result, the crab – which usually needs to search for a bigger shell as it grows – never outgrows its home. Instead, it carries the sponge with it.

This is the first symbiotic relationship of its kind recorded in South African waters. This hermit-crab associated sponge was described in a collaborative effort by South African researchers at several institutes including the universities of the Western Cape, Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The tiny clam

Next is Brachiomya ducentiunus, a small clam that lives in the spaces between the spines of a heart urchin. The heart urchin burrows into shallow gravel and spends its life largely hidden, feeding on food fragments trapped in the sand.

This tiny clam highlights the richness of life beyond what is easily visible to the human eye. It was discovered
through the 1001 Seaforest Species project, a science and storytelling initiative in Cape Town by the Sea Change Project. It was described and named, meaning scientifically proven to be new, by local researchers from the universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town, and experts from Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and the University of Colorado Boulder.

The rare and miniature isopod

Finally, the third new species is Pseudionella pumulaensis. This is a parasitic isopod – a tiny crustacean.

It was discovered in Pumula, KwaZulu-Natal, a region known for its high biodiversity. This isopod has a rather sinister survival strategy: it attaches to the gills of hermit crabs and feeds on their body fluids. Only two specimens have ever been found: a female measuring 2–3 millimetres and an even smaller male, so tiny it was almost missed entirely during the discovery process. I discovered it by chance during my PhD research on hermit crabs, while photographing and zooming in to the smallest details to carry out this work.

Parasites tend to be small and hidden on, or inside, their hosts. They can be overlooked. However, they are vital to understanding biological processes as they regulate populations and are main drivers of evolution.

Pseudionella pumulaensis is the first of its genus in the entire Indian Ocean, a testament to how much more marine life we have yet to uncover. With my local support the isopod was described by an international expert at Hofstra University, New York, and published through the Senckenberg Ocean Species Alliance, a collaborative global initiative to advance marine taxonomy.

Biodiversity knowlege can help save our heritage

The majority of species on Earth remain unidentified. Over 242,000 marine species have been described globally, but the actual number of living ocean species may exceed one million. Many species remain undiscovered, and a large proportion of those already identified are poorly understood. We’re now racing against extinction to learn about and from them before it’s too late.

There is a lack of funding and job opportunities in discovering new species. In fact, the field of taxonomic expertise may now be as endangered as many of the ecosystems and species it seeks to document.

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Read more:
Tiny and mysterious: research sheds light on sub-Saharan Africa’s seahorses, pipefish and pipehorses

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There are no simple, fast-track solutions to the biodiversity crisis – the threat of species extinction combined with vast, unexplored diversity, and the lack of expertise and resources to address this at scale. However, biodiversity initiatives that work collaboratively locally and globally to share expertise offer hope.

Discoveries like these three new species from South Africa emphasise the need for continued exploration. Each species described brings us one step closer to understanding our oceans’ rich biodiversity and finding new ways to protect it.

(Tatjana Baleta, a University of Exeter Wikimedia Fellow for Climate at the Global Systems Institute, was instrumental in producing the first draft submission of this article.)

Jannes Landschoff works for the Sea Change Project, leading the science and storytelling initiative “1001 Seaforest Species” that is primarily funded by and in collaboration with the Save Our Seas Foundation

– ref. New discoveries: three tiny species added to South Africa’s spectacular marine life – https://theconversation.com/new-discoveries-three-tiny-species-added-to-south-africas-spectacular-marine-life-239315

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, Research Fellow at the Centre for Planetary Health and Resilient Conservation Group, Griffith University

Lions are a symbol of Africa’s last wild places. It’s a species central to many of the continent’s cultures and religions. But lion populations have reportedly declined over the past 50 years, especially in parts of west and east Africa.

Concern over this decline has prompted large financial commitments to shore up numbers. These investments must go hand in hand with the critical work of closely monitoring lion populations. It’s important to understand how their numbers and their distribution respond to conservation actions such as anti-poaching, managing conflicts with cattle farmers, and securing protected areas.

Many traditional methods used to count lions can produce unreliable results. And many existing estimates are based on assumptions about vast expanses which have not been surveyed.

We are researchers with over 50 years of combined experience in conservation, big cat ecology, and the complexities of people and wildlife living together. We have long suspected wildlife tourism rangers operating within our study locations in Uganda could help us find lions in hard-to-reach places and map their distribution. After all, tourism rangers are government employees whose primary role is to guide tourists in observing and photographing wildlife daily. They have a deeper understanding of animal behaviour than most others.

We therefore set out to study the efficacy of wildlife tourism rangers in collecting data necessary for estimating lion population numbers. We compared their performance to another commonly used field method to count big cats: remote infrared camera traps. We found that an approach led by wildlife rangers could be very useful in counting lions in many parts of their African range.

Counting the lions of the Nile River

As the morning sun rises on the banks of the River Nile in north-western Uganda, two wildlife rangers turn on their iPhones, preloaded with tracking software which will help them monitor where they have searched for lions. Lilian Namukose and Silva Musobozi head into the heart of Murchison Falls National Park. Here, their daily work is to locate and photograph the region’s largest predator: the African lion.

The study area is the Nile Delta region (255km²) of the park, Uganda’s largest protected area. The region flanks the upper reaches of the Nile River, Africa’s longest waterway. It is a biodiversity hotspot but faces immense human pressures, from commercial oil extraction and wire snare poaching.

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The fast, furious, and brutally short life of an African male lion

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For these reasons it is critical to establish robust measures of how many lions still exist there, and develop monitoring schemes which will be long lasting.

Over 76 sampling days we collaborated with Namukose and Musobozi, who drove 2,939km searching for lions. At the same time, we deployed infrared camera traps across 32 locations in the same study area. This allowed us to compare how these two methods performed head-to-head in exactly the same study area and time period. What we measured was the number of individually identifiable lions through their unique whisker spot patterns, suitable for advanced scientific analysis called spatial capture-recapture modelling.

At the end of our survey period the rangers detected 30 lions 102 times, generating an estimate of 13.91 individuals per 100km² with acceptable precision. By contrast, the infrared camera traps could not reliably identify lions. There were only two usable detections because of poor image quality.

One of the most important results of our surveys was that the ranger-led survey was 50% cheaper than running camera traps, and each detection by a camera trap was 100 times more expensive than a detection by a ranger.

What rangers could mean for lion conservation across Africa

Our survey of Murchison’s Nile Delta region showed us two key things. First, rangers’ intimate knowledge of lion behaviour (especially specific thickets, and regions of high lion activity) helped us achieve high lion detection rates. Second, using tourism rangers as lion monitors gives rangers an entry point into the conservation science field.

This approach not only empowers rangers as active conservation stakeholders, but builds the local capacity that’s needed in many of the places where lions still roam. This science capacity is key if lion populations are to be monitored accurately and regularly (ideally yearly).

This is all the more critical in key source sites of lions in Uganda which have experienced significant declines in recent years, especially Kidepo Valley and Queen Elizabeth National Park. The current lion population in Uganda is estimated at 291 individuals, far lower than many other places in east Africa (the Maasai Mara alone holds about 400 lions).

Silva Musobozi, one of the rangers who did the fieldwork of the scientific study, adds:

Rangers are arguably the closest group to wildlife on the ground and have good knowledge of animal behaviour. Through capacity building and training, rangers can be better incorporated into the scientific and management process.

Nicholas Elliot of Wildlife Counts in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to the research on which this article is based.

Alexander Richard Braczkowski receives funding from Northern Arizona University and Griffith University.

Duan Biggs is a member of the IUCN (World Conservation Union).

Arjun M. Gopalaswamy and Peter Lindsey do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Counting Uganda’s lions: we found that wildlife rangers do a better job than machines – https://theconversation.com/counting-ugandas-lions-we-found-that-wildlife-rangers-do-a-better-job-than-machines-244206

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Jules Gazeaud, Chargé de recherche CNRS, Université Clermont Auvergne (UCA)

Reprinted by permission from VoxDev

The spread of conditional cash transfer programmes in low- and middle-income countries has been described as perhaps the most remarkable innovation of recent decades in welfare programmes. These programmes provide regular cash transfers to poor families contingent on specific behaviours. These include school enrolment and regular attendance.

The programmes started in the late 1990s in Mexico and quickly became the public policy of choice to fight poverty and low enrolment. Today, more than 60 countries operate education conditional cash transfer programmes, often at a national scale.

There is plenty of evidence showing that conditional cash transfers boost enrolment. But evidence on their impacts on children’s learning is mixed. Explanations for the lack of learning gains relate to the short-term nature of the evaluations, which may not provide enough time for the learning effects to materialise.

In recent research, conducted in Morocco, we show that conditional cash transfers can constrain learning when no accompanying measures are taken by governments to account for increased enrolment. We found that the introduction of a programme can deteriorate school quality and thus constrain learning for children who enrol in school.

Conditional cash transfers in Morocco

We looked at a programme implemented at scale in Morocco. Known as Tayssir, it began operating in 2008 and quickly became the flagship education policy of a government strongly committed to reducing school dropout rates.

Earlier research showed that the pilot version of Tayssir had substantial positive effects on enrolment, but not on learning.

Following this evaluation, Tayssir was quickly scaled-up to reach annually up to 800,000 children in 434 municipalities. Because the allocation of transfers remained remarkably stable over time, the scaled-up version of Tayssir offers an ideal setup to study how conditional cash transfer programmes affect learning, with enough time for the effects to materialise.

Tayssir targeted all municipalities with a poverty rate above 30% and all households with children aged 6-15 within these municipalities.

To study the impacts of the programme, we used data from the information system of Morocco’s ministry of education.

In the first part of our analysis, we assessed Tayssir’s effects on dropout rates and checked for possible differences with the research done in 2015 on the pilot version of the scheme.

We confirmed that the grade-specific dropout rate decreased by 1.3 percentage points on average (41% of the sample mean). This is equivalent to an increase in enrolment of about 9 percentage points by the end of grade 6.

We found a greater decrease for girls: 1.8 percentage points, or 50% of the sample mean.

Remarkably, these estimates were in line with those on the pilot, despite the nationwide expansion of the programme and the ten-fold increase in the number of beneficiaries.

The impact on quality

The reduction of the dropout rates induced by Tayssir may have affected both class size and class composition by retaining lower-ability students. This could potentially lead to negative effects on learning outcomes through peer effects and less effective teaching practices.

Our estimates show that class size in targeted areas increased by 3.6 students by the end of primary school, equivalent to 12% of the sample mean.

Variation in class composition increased by 0.30 standard deviations (SD) by the end of primary school.

Figure 1 shows that these effects are stronger in higher grades. This suggests that the reduction in dropout rates accumulated over time and progressively overburdened school resources. Large effects in grade 1 likely reflect the fact that children in targeted municipalities started school earlier – possibly to benefit from the transfers – and repeated grade 1 more often.

Figure 1: Effect of Tayssir on class size and heterogeneity

Notes: Each bar reports the coefficient estimate of the local average treatment effects of Tayssir. The dependent variables are class size (number of students per class) and class heterogeneity (standard deviation of the GPAs within a class). 95% confidence intervals are reported.

Larger class sizes and increased differences in class composition had negative impacts on children’s test scores.

In the final part of our analysis, we looked at the effects on test scores at the end of primary school exam. We found that Tayssir had negative effects on test scores. We estimated that the programme reduced test scores by 0.12 standard deviation for the full sample.

What needs to be done

Our insights should not be interpreted as evidence that policymakers should not pursue conditional cash transfer programmes. Such programmes, including the one we study, have proven particularly effective at increasing access to education, which is a crucial first step to enhance learning.

These programmes also have many other benefits. These include delayed marriage and childbearing for adolescent girls.

However, our results, together with evidence showing alarmingly low literacy and numeracy levels among students in low- and middle-income countries, indicate that the attendance gains from the programmes alone are unlikely to equip students with the foundational skills they need to thrive.

In fact, our results show that conditional cash transfer programmes can have adverse effects on learning when schools lack the necessary resources to accommodate the influx of new students. Such insights may be particularly relevant for other interventions aiming to increase school attendance without complementary investments in school capacity.

Recent decades have seen a surge in evaluations focusing on the learning effects of education interventions in low- and middle-income countries. Although there is no silver bullet to raise learning, some “great buys” emerged from the 2023 report of the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel:

• providing information on the benefits, costs and quality of education;

• supporting teachers with structured pedagogy;

• pedagogical interventions that tailor teaching to student learning.

In Morocco, where our study takes place, other scholars have demonstrated that an intervention combining two of these three “great buys” – targeted instruction based on learning level and structured pedagogy – yields large gains in learning.

Claire Ricard received funding from Agence Nationale de la Recherche of the French government through the program “Investissements d’avenir” (ANR-10-LABX-14-01).

Jules Gazeaud does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Moroccan schools are fuller thanks to cash grants. The problem now is the quality of their education – study – https://theconversation.com/moroccan-schools-are-fuller-thanks-to-cash-grants-the-problem-now-is-the-quality-of-their-education-study-243298

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Heidi Matisonn, Senior Lecturer in Bioethics, The EthicsLab, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town

Whenever school holidays loom, many parents find themselves caught in an emotional tug-of-war: on the one hand, relief at bidding farewell to homework battles, bedtime struggles, and the lamenting of lost lunchboxes; on the other, terror at the daunting prospect of a barrage of “whys” and “buts” from their relentless interrogators. To avoid logic-defying arguments and endless debates, it is often not long before they find themselves playing the ultimate parental trump card: “because I said so”.

As a parent, I can relate. But I’m also a moral philosopher with almost two decades of teaching experience. In philosophy classes, students who question ideas – and sometimes, in doing so, challenge authority – are praised. Why isn’t the same true for children? Is a child who questions their parents “being cheeky”? Or are they flexing the mental muscles that are necessary for their intellectual growth and ability to navigate the world?

The job of a moral philosopher is to grapple with ideas about right and wrong, good and bad, seeking to answer the ultimate question: “how ought we to live?” While we use a range of strategies to tackle these fundamental ethical questions, one of the most important tools at our disposal is critical thinking.

Critical thinking is the ability to analyse and evaluate information and arguments in a clear, rational and objective manner. When we are confronted with information, critical thinking requires us to consider why this person is saying that. What could be their motive? Is there a different possible explanation?

I’m not suggesting that the goal is to raise argumentative children. Rather, as philosopher, strategic thinker and author Peter Facione explains, it is to nurture inquisitive minds that can interpret, analyse, evaluate and infer from information. In other words, parents should raise their children to be curious, critical thinkers who question everything, even if this means they question us in the process.

How can parents teach critical thinking at home? Here are my five top tips:

1. Ask open-ended questions and encourage children to do the same.

2. Provide children with opportunities to make decisions and solve problems rather than doing it for them.

3. Discuss the reasoning behind rules and decisions you make for them.

4. Encourage children to consider alternative perspectives rather than just their own.

5. Model critical thinking by thinking aloud when approaching problems.

Thinking about our thinking

Critical thinking requires metacognition: thinking about our thinking.

Reflecting on our own views gives us a chance to recognise that they too should be scrutinised and evaluated. If we choose to be vegan, for example, is it because we care about reducing harm to animals, the environment, or both; or because it’s fashionable to be vegan? Once we’ve worked out our reasons for something, we can then evaluate whether these are “good” reasons or not.

Critical thinking also means evaluating other people’s reasons. This requires us to be open to others’ points of view – including our children’s – rather than being blinded by our own biases. At the same time, to be a critical thinker is to take seriously the fact that everyone “has an agenda” (which may not be explicit) and we should therefore not take everything at face value. We can teach our children to be critical thinkers by getting them to consider the quality of the evidence presented for a position.

Put simply, parents and caregivers can promote critical thinking in children by encouraging them to ask questions, challenge assumptions and explore alternative perspectives. Critical thinking requires us not to passively accept everything we read, hear and see but rather to question, evaluate and make judgments.

Here’s what that might look like in practice.

A practical example

Let’s say your child asks why she needs to eat vegetables.

You could respond by saying “That’s a good question. What do you think? Why do you suppose we eat vegetables?” This encourages the child to start thinking about the issue herself.

She replies: “Because you said I have to.”

To get her to think about whether there are reasons beyond parental authority that may be important, you might want to ask: “Is that the only reason? Let’s think about it some more. Do you know anyone else who thinks we should eat vegetables?”

Then, to encourage her to explore alternatives, you could ask: “What do you think would happen if we never ate any vegetables? What if we only ate sweets instead?”

It might also be useful to do some research with your child, to introduce the idea of seeking evidence and reliable information. You could suggest that the two of you look up some facts about what vegetables do for our bodies.

Finally, you could pose the original question back to your child, giving her a chance to synthesise what she’s learnt and form her own conclusion.

Throughout the process, you are guiding your child to question, think about, and arrive at a reasoned understanding, rather than simply accepting a statement at face value.

Other resources

Does this sound daunting? Relax – it’s not all up to you.

Many schools incorporate critical thinking skills across their curricula. Some excellent programmes have been implemented in schools around the world. One example is Philosophy for Children (P4C), developed by educator and philosopher Matthew Lipman in the 1970s. This approach uses structured discussions about open-ended questions and can be used to develop critical thinking skills in children as young as six.

I also like the work of Critical Thinking Consortium (TC2), a Canadian organisation which provides resources and professional development to help educators embed critical thinking in their teaching. Project Zero is another good resource. This research group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has developed several thinking routines and frameworks, such as “visible thinking” and “artful thinking”.

You could also advocate for your child’s school to introduce critical thinking skills into their curricula. Schools could partner with university philosophy departments to offer classes for low or no cost as a community engagement or social responsibility initiative.

Ultimately, whether children are exposed to these skills at home or at school, the key is to create an environment where questioning, reasoning, and exploring ideas are encouraged and valued. The goal is to make critical thinking a natural part of the way we interact with our children so that it becomes a natural part of the way they interact with the world.

Heidi Matisonn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Kids should be encouraged to talk back – 5 tips for teaching them critical thinking skills – https://theconversation.com/kids-should-be-encouraged-to-talk-back-5-tips-for-teaching-them-critical-thinking-skills-238125

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Lloyd Hill, Lecturer, Stellenbosch University

When South Africa became a democracy in 1994, five of the country’s universities used Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. There were also two bilingual universities teaching in Afrikaans and English.

Stellenbosch University, about 50km from Cape Town, is the oldest historically Afrikaans university. Over the past three decades English has gradually replaced Afrikaans in the core functions of teaching and research.

The status of Afrikaans at formerly Afrikaans or bilingual universities remains the subject of considerable debate. This has led to litigation and three judgments in South Africa’s apex court, the constitutional court.

Afrikaans is commonly categorised as an Indo-European language, related to Dutch. It can be more accurately described as a Creole language that developed after the Dutch colonised the Cape in 1652. In 1925, standardised Afrikaans became an official language alongside English. It subsequently became associated with white Afrikaner nationalism and, from 1948, apartheid education policies. In 1976, Black students mobilised against attempts to make Afrikaans a compulsory medium of instruction in schools.

I’m a sociologist who studies language and communication in science and higher education. In a recent article and presentation I examined the three phases in which the language shift and the decline of Afrikaans at Stellenbosch University has unfolded.

The first phase (1994-2002) involved an attempt to defend Afrikaans institutional monolingualism. The second (2002-2015) saw a shift to institutional bilingualism. Afrikaans and English were used in undergraduate classes. The final and current phase began with the 2015-16 #FeesMustFall student protests. Pressure for the transformation of a predominantly white campus escalated. This triggered a rapid shift to English.

In 2024, the university’s language policy is, on paper, a scaled-down version of institutional bilingualism (Afrikaans and English). However, in practice English is the main medium of instruction. Afrikaans is, increasingly, not used across all disciplines. This reflects the trend at other formerly Afrikaans or bilingual public universities.

There is a case to be made for defending Stellenbosch University’s position as a centre of Afrikaans language and culture. But the centralised language planning apparatus it has developed over the past two decades is simply unsustainable. This case study prompts a broader reflection on languages and language planning within South African higher education.

First, for reasons related to its global academic status and its national second-language status, English has emerged as the dominant language of teaching and research at South African universities.

The second issue has to do with the nature of “language” at different levels of the education system. The official languages adopted in 1994 are not uniform “mother tongues” or “vehicles” moving from basic education to PhD.

Languages are more than individual “competencies”: they are political and economic projects. They are also particularly expensive and difficult to “plan” in university teaching and research.

First phase (1994-2002)

In 1994, South Africa’s then-interim constitution recognised 11 official languages. It committed “the state” to “practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of these languages”.

Afrikaans universities faced a particular dilemma. How could they retain Afrikaans as a medium of instruction and open enrolment to formerly excluded Black students? These are generally second-language English speakers who opt to study in English.

Other historically Afrikaans institutions adopted parallel medium instruction. Stellenbosch University resisted this trend and asserted its autonomy as a monolingual institution. Postgraduate teaching and research, however, shifted to English. Afrikaans was reframed as an undergraduate teaching issue.

The university argued that the predominantly Afrikaans-speaking Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces needed an Afrikaans-medium university.

Two factors undermined this demographic argument. First, the university enjoys national status. This can be traced back to an elite Anglophone college system in the 19th century British Cape Colony. Second, after the 1994 transition, the university focused on internationalisation. It also established itself as a leading research-intensive institution. As a result it has increasingly attracted students and academics with little or no Afrikaans competency.

Second phase (2002-2015)

In the early 2000s South Africa’s higher education system was overhauled. This involved institutional mergers, which coincided with the adoption of the 2002 Language Policy for Higher Education. The policy effectively disestablished monolingual Afrikaans universities, stating:

The notion of Afrikaans universities runs counter to the end goal of a transformed higher education system.

Stellenbosch University adopted its first language policy and plan in 2002. Afrikaans was reframed as one of four undergraduate language options and described as “the default language of undergraduate learning and instruction”. A heated debate erupted in the Afrikaans media. In this first public – and acrimonious – taaldebat (language debate) many criticised the new “default” status of Afrikaans. That’s because, like a default setting on a computer, this option could be switched.

The new policy introduced formal language planning as an institutional process that would involve periodic policy updates. It also presented three module “options” that represented possible routes away from institutional monolingualism.

First, dual medium instruction involved using both English and Afrikaans in one lecture. Second, parallel medium instruction involved separate lectures in English and Afrikaans. Third was an English medium option. However, the second and third options were reserved for “exceptional circumstances”.

Within a few years, most modules shifted to the dual medium option. The university shifted to a dual medium form of institutional bilingualism. But a tacit racial assumption underpinned this model. The language policy ignored the growing enrolment of Black students and the appointment of Black staff members who didn’t have the required bilingual proficiency.

A new language policy, adopted in December 2014, tried to address the bilingual proficiency problem. It prioritised parallel medium instruction and “educational interpeting”. It never got off the ground.

Third phase (2015 to date)

Beginning in March 2015, a series of “Fallist” movements mobilised on South African campuses. A predominantly Black student movement called Open Stellenbosch was established. It aimed “to challenge the hegemony of white Afrikaans culture and the exclusion of Black students and staff”. Language policy was a key point of contention.

The university responded by redrafting its language policy. In June 2016 it established English as the primary medium of teaching at the undergraduate level.

This moment also marks the shift to what I term the second taaldebat. Afrikaans language activists now argued that English and Afrikaans ought to enjoy equal status. Institutional bilingualism became the new ideal framework for defending Afrikaans at Stellenbosch University.

Language activism included litigation, which ended in a constitutional court ruling. The court upheld the 2016 language policy review process. It also noted the “hard racial edge” to the evidence produced by Stellenbosch University. It remarked that:

Seen as a bloc, the new entrants for whom Afrikaans is an obstruction are not brown or white, but overwhelmingly Black.

Today, Stellenbosch remains notionally committed to “multilingualism”. In practice, this means a scaled down version of institutional bilingualism. It involves very limited parallel medium instruction and some simultaneous interpreting. English is the compulsory medium in modules where no duplication occurs.

Lloyd Hill received funding from the South African National Research Foundation (Grant #111845).

– ref. What one university’s 30-year transformation reveals about Afrikaans and language planning in South Africa – https://theconversation.com/what-one-universitys-30-year-transformation-reveals-about-afrikaans-and-language-planning-in-south-africa-242709

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Oluwatomilayo Omoya, Lecturer in Nursing (Teaching and Reseach), Flinders University

Over the past 15 years there’s been an increasing demand from within and outside the higher education sector for African countries to produce more PhD graduates. For this to happen, it’s important to know what’s holding people back from pursuing or completing their doctoral degrees. The authors of a new review article did just that, with a focus on South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Nigeria. Five themes emerged from their work: PhD candidates’ sociodemographic profiles, access to funding, the availability of resources and training, experiences with PhD supervisors, and personal coping mechanisms.

The Conversation Africa spoke with the paper’s authors, Oluwatomilayo Omoya, Udeme Samuel Jacob, Olumide A. Odeyemi and Omowale A. Odeyemi, to learn more about their findings.

Why is it important for African countries to produce PhD graduates?

PhD programmes have been shown to play a crucial role in advancing research, innovation, and economic and scientific progress.

That’s because the more research capacity a country has, the more likely it will be able to address gaps in healthcare, economic barriers and food insecurity. This point has been emphasised by, among others, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the African Union.

Doctoral education builds academic expertise. This drives growth across multiple sectors, such as health, education and technology. It also fosters an environment where creative and practical solutions to local challenges can thrive.

What are some of the main obstacles PhD students faced in the countries you studied?

Our study was a scoping review. This research method allowed us to broadly survey existing studies and identify key concepts, evidence types and knowledge gaps. The review included articles from different African countries, among them South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Nigeria.

One of the biggest hurdles we identified for PhD students is a lack of resources. Many of the continent’s universities are underfunded. They struggle to offer their staff and students adequate research facilities, libraries and even internet access.

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Read more:
Want to do your PhD in Africa? Here’s what you need to know

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Another major challenge is the shortage of quality doctoral supervision. In many African universities, the number of qualified supervisors is far lower than the number of doctoral candidates. This imbalance means that some students receive little attention. Their progress may suffer as a result.

A PhD is, by nature, a solitary pursuit. But without the proper support, students can feel disconnected from the academic community. This sense of isolation can increase dropout rates and hinder the completion of research projects.

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Read more:
South African universities need to better support doctoral supervisors

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Supervisors are frequently overwhelmed with other responsibilities – their own research, administrative duties, or teaching large undergraduate classes. This leaves them with limited time to mentor PhD students. The students they’re tasked with supervising can end up feeling isolated.

Personal funding is also hard to come by. Scholarships are rare and, when they are available, they don’t always cover all the student’s expenses over the course of their research. Many students must work full-time jobs to support themselves while pursuing their doctorate. This can severely affect their ability to dedicate time to their studies.

Even in cases where funding is available, it’s often linked to short-term projects or grants that don’t allow students to finish their research without interruption. This leads to long delays in graduation rates, which creates a bottleneck effect: students remain stuck in the system for years, clogging the flow of new researchers entering academia.

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Read more:
PhDs are important for South Africa’s growth: more support for doctoral candidates who work full-time is key

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Another challenge is that African doctoral students who do succeed may leave their home countries for better opportunities abroad. The so-called “brain drain” phenomenon has a profound effect on Africa’s ability to build a strong academic community. While many African PhD students go on to do groundbreaking research in Europe, North America or Asia, their departure means their home institutions – and countries – lose valuable knowledge and experience.

Brain drain is not just about better salaries or living conditions; it’s also about the availability of cutting-edge research opportunities. Once abroad, many students are able to access better resources and then choose to stay in environments that allow them to thrive professionally.

What role does gender play in the likelihood of completing a PhD?

Women pursuing PhDs face additional challenges that their male peers do not. We found that women PhD students frequently face gender biases, both socially and professionally, that make it harder to fulfil their academic goals.

Over the past decade, the number of women enrolling in PhD training in some countries, such as Ethiopia and South Africa, has increased.

However, women are less likely than men to complete their doctoral studies, partly because of the cultural expectations and responsibilities they bear. Female students who are married or have children must often balance managing their households and care-giving responsibilities with pursuing their studies.

In regions where family is traditionally prioritised over career aspirations, women may feel an added layer of guilt or societal pressure, which can lessen the time they have to focus on research.

Moreover, in areas where colonial or apartheid legacies still influence societal structures, Black women in particular report additional barriers. They say they feel overlooked or underestimated in academic spaces.

There has been some progress. Organisations like the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (Carta) offer programmes that support women throughout their academic journeys. However, a greater, gender-responsive approach is needed to ensure that women have access to resources, mentorship and flexible support systems that address these unique challenges.

Increasing support for women in PhD programmes isn’t just about numbers. It means institutions and the wider society must address the structural and cultural barriers that hold women back.

Are there solutions to the issues you’ve identified?

The challenges facing doctoral students in Africa are complex, but not impossible to overcome.

With the right investments and a commitment to reform, universities on the continent can grow into global centres of excellence in research and development. It’s vital for societies not to lose sight of the importance of higher education. As we’ve said, and as a large body of evidence shows, strong doctoral training programmes and investing in research and innovation to address the challenges faced by the African continent are key to ensuring that the next generation of researchers and innovators can lead the way in solving some of the world’s most pressing problems.

Governments, universities and funding organisations can collaborate by providing scholarships and research grants, creating gender equality policies, and introducing mentorship programmes or improving those that already exist.

Udeme Samuel Jacob is affiliated with The South African Research Chair: Education and Care in Childhood, Faculty of Education, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Olumide A Odeyemi, Oluwatomilayo Omoya, and Omowale A Odeyemi do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. African countries need more PhD graduates but students are held back by a lack of money and support – https://theconversation.com/african-countries-need-more-phd-graduates-but-students-are-held-back-by-a-lack-of-money-and-support-243946