FortySouth

I was reading Bankelele‘s post on tech education in Kenya (rather, it’s gradual plummet to irrelevance) and ended up on Strathmore School‘s website while in the quest to find out how pervasive its teaching in our high school’s is. So that’s how I stumbled upon the Help Kenya Project (HKP).

There are a number of organizations out there trying to help drive down poverty in Africa, in general. That’s a good thing, depending on the approach the development partners and such NGO entities use. On a macro scale, the audacious Andrew Mwenda argues strongly against international aid and a “Marshall Plan” counterpoint in Africa.

What Jude Ndambuki, founder of HKP, does perhaps differently is he helps empower school-going children with skills to compete in the global marketplace and also teaches environmental conservation. HKP collects and refurbishes computers, textbooks, clothing and sports equipment, and then sends them to schools in Kenya. All recipient schools are asked to plant a number of trees for every donation received.

As of July 2008, The Help Kenya Project has shipped over 1700 computers, over 15,000 books, and approximately 20 pieces of medical equipment. In response, beneficiaries have planted over 50,000 trees.

Would you like to help? See what the needs are or perhaps if you’re interested in volunteering with them.

Photo credit: Strathmore School

Neil Turok certainly believes so. As he accepted the TED Prize, as is customary to say a wish:

My wish is that you help us unlock and nurture scientific talent across Africa, so that within our lifetimes we are celebrating an African Einstein.

A celebrated physicist, he founded the Africa Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Cape Town, SA as a postgraduate educational center to support development of mathematics and science in Africa and as a model for the Next Einstein from Africa initiative.

Turok’s vision is to expand AIMS by opening 15 new centers across Africa in five years. A network of progress can be created to foster entrepreneurship in the continent.

His TED Prize Wish:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNbP7O6jasw&hl=en&fs=1]

Would you like to be a part? A to-do list.

Photo credit: TED

Reading this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education presents a reality check on the looming decline in academic minds in African universities:

African universities are rapidly losing their faculty members to retirement and industry, and their capacity to educate new Ph.D. holders is eroding, raising deep concerns about the continent’s ability to produce new generations of academics

While student enrollment numbers are growing at very high rates, faculty recruitment lags drastically. What’s more the number of newly recruited faculty offsets those retiring.

Many African institutions have disproportionate numbers of instructors at the two ends of the experience spectrum — many instructors are in their 50s and nearing retirement, and many are younger academics who often lack advanced degrees

Young faculty are asked to do more with less, narrates Susan Balaba Tumwebaze, a lecturer at Makerere University who is:

.. overwhelmed by teaching demands. As the only statistics expert in the department, she .. teach(es) three different courses at the undergraduate and master’s level, leaving her with no time for writing or research.

Dr. Keguro Macharia relates his experiences while conducting research for a project in Kenya and offers his thoughts on the dark clouds hovering over higher education and their silver linings.

And as I had pondered on his post on Gukira, it would be interesting to observe what incentives University Administrators are willing to offer newly minted PhDs, at home and abroad, to recruit and retain them.

Your thoughts?