Friday 24 August 2012
The future of education in Africa is mobile
It is a problem felt in many parts of the world, but in Africa, the strain is even more acute.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 10m children drop out of primary school every year. Even those fortunate enough to complete primary school often leave with literacy and numeracy skills far below expected levels.
In addition, there is a major shortage of trained and motivated teachers. It is estimated that to ensure that every child has access to quality education by 2015, sub-Saharan Africa will need to recruit 350,000 new teachers every year. It seems increasingly unlikely that this will happen.
Throw in one of the highest concentrations of illiterate adults in the world, and you begin to understand the scale of the problem.
In the last decade many African countries have, against these significant odds, made solid progress in improving their education levels. However, the challenges are often too large. The “usual” tried and tested methods of delivering education are not enough.
Yet there is a potential solution.
While education struggles to cope, mobile communication has grown exponentially. Africa is today the fastest growing and second largest mobile phone market in the world. While in some countries – including Botswana, Gabon and Namibia – there are more mobile subscriptions than inhabitants, Africa still has the lowest mobile penetration of any market. There is plenty more growth to come. Over 620 million mobile subscriptions mean that for the first time in the history of the continent, its people are connected.
These connections offer an opportunity for education. Already, we are starting to see the beginnings of change. An increasing number of initiatives – some large-scale, some small – are using mobile technologies to distribute educational materials, support reading, and enable peer-to-peer learning and remote tutoring through social networking services. Mobiles are streamlining education administration and improving communication between schools, teachers and parents. The list goes on. Mobile learning, either alone or in combination with existing education approaches, is supporting and extending education in ways not possible before.
Numbers game
For millions of Africans, much of their daily reading and writing happens on mobile phones in the form of SMS and instant message (IM) chats. Mobiles are also increasingly being used to access long-form reading material – not only 160 character text bites. For example, projects such as Yoza Cellphone Stories, which offers downloads of stories and novels, has shown impressive uptake amongst young African readers who enjoy mobile novels or ‘m-novels’. On Yoza, users not only read stories but comment and vote on them. In its first 18 months, Yoza had 470,000 complete reads of its stories and poems, as well as 47,000 user comments.
Since 2010, the non-profit organization Worldreader has provided school children in a number of developing countries with access to digital books through donated Kindle e-readers. Recently, it has begun to publish the books via a mobile phone-based e-reader. The Worldreader app and its library of stories is already on 3.9 million handsets, with active readers in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana, to name a few.
In many countries, mobiles are the only channel for effectively distributing reading material, given the high cost of books and their distribution, especially to rural areas. Reading on a mobile device is different to reading in print. Mobile devices offer interactivity, the ability for readers to comment on content, the ability to connect with other readers and to publicly ask questions and receive support. Mobile devices can be used to deliver appropriate and personalized content, in ways that print books cannot. Of course, print books have their strengths – such as not having batteries that need to be recharged. A complementary approach that draws on the strengths of each – print and mobile books – is ideal.
Social networking sites, accessed primarily or only via mobile devices by most Africans, are also on the rise and offer another opportunity. Already they are being used by teachers and learners to share resources and provide support in open discussions. For communities that are geographically dispersed and cannot afford to meet in person, the support from such virtual communities is invaluable.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 10m children drop out of primary school every year. Even those fortunate enough to complete primary school often leave with literacy and numeracy skills far below expected levels.
In addition, there is a major shortage of trained and motivated teachers. It is estimated that to ensure that every child has access to quality education by 2015, sub-Saharan Africa will need to recruit 350,000 new teachers every year. It seems increasingly unlikely that this will happen.
Throw in one of the highest concentrations of illiterate adults in the world, and you begin to understand the scale of the problem.
In the last decade many African countries have, against these significant odds, made solid progress in improving their education levels. However, the challenges are often too large. The “usual” tried and tested methods of delivering education are not enough.
Yet there is a potential solution.
While education struggles to cope, mobile communication has grown exponentially. Africa is today the fastest growing and second largest mobile phone market in the world. While in some countries – including Botswana, Gabon and Namibia – there are more mobile subscriptions than inhabitants, Africa still has the lowest mobile penetration of any market. There is plenty more growth to come. Over 620 million mobile subscriptions mean that for the first time in the history of the continent, its people are connected.
These connections offer an opportunity for education. Already, we are starting to see the beginnings of change. An increasing number of initiatives – some large-scale, some small – are using mobile technologies to distribute educational materials, support reading, and enable peer-to-peer learning and remote tutoring through social networking services. Mobiles are streamlining education administration and improving communication between schools, teachers and parents. The list goes on. Mobile learning, either alone or in combination with existing education approaches, is supporting and extending education in ways not possible before.
Numbers game
For millions of Africans, much of their daily reading and writing happens on mobile phones in the form of SMS and instant message (IM) chats. Mobiles are also increasingly being used to access long-form reading material – not only 160 character text bites. For example, projects such as Yoza Cellphone Stories, which offers downloads of stories and novels, has shown impressive uptake amongst young African readers who enjoy mobile novels or ‘m-novels’. On Yoza, users not only read stories but comment and vote on them. In its first 18 months, Yoza had 470,000 complete reads of its stories and poems, as well as 47,000 user comments.
Since 2010, the non-profit organization Worldreader has provided school children in a number of developing countries with access to digital books through donated Kindle e-readers. Recently, it has begun to publish the books via a mobile phone-based e-reader. The Worldreader app and its library of stories is already on 3.9 million handsets, with active readers in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana, to name a few.
In many countries, mobiles are the only channel for effectively distributing reading material, given the high cost of books and their distribution, especially to rural areas. Reading on a mobile device is different to reading in print. Mobile devices offer interactivity, the ability for readers to comment on content, the ability to connect with other readers and to publicly ask questions and receive support. Mobile devices can be used to deliver appropriate and personalized content, in ways that print books cannot. Of course, print books have their strengths – such as not having batteries that need to be recharged. A complementary approach that draws on the strengths of each – print and mobile books – is ideal.
Social networking sites, accessed primarily or only via mobile devices by most Africans, are also on the rise and offer another opportunity. Already they are being used by teachers and learners to share resources and provide support in open discussions. For communities that are geographically dispersed and cannot afford to meet in person, the support from such virtual communities is invaluable.
Forensic test can predict hair and eye colour from DNA
Scientists have developed
a forensic test that can predict both the hair and eye colour of a
possible suspect using DNA left at a crime scene.
The team that developed the test says it could provide
valuable leads in cases where perpetrators cannot be identified through
DNA profiling.The Hirisplex system could allow investigators to narrow down a large group of possible suspects.
Details appear in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics.
Predicting phenotypes - outward traits such as hair colour or eye colour - from DNA information is an emerging field in forensics.
An important current approach, known as genetic profiling, involves comparing crime scene DNA with that from a suspect or with a profile stored in a database.
But this relies on the person either being among a pool of suspects identified by the police or having their profile in a DNA database.
Tools such as Hirisplex could be useful in those cases where the perpetrator is completely unknown to the authorities, said Prof Manfred Kayser, who led the study.
He said the test "includes the 24 currently best eye and hair colour predictive DNA markers. In its design we took care that the test can cope with the challenges of forensic DNA analysis such as low amounts of material."
Prof Kayser, from Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, added: "The test is very sensitive and produces complete results on even smaller DNA amounts than usually used for forensic DNA profiling."
He told BBC News that the journal article described everything needed to establish the test in a forensic lab, but that the team was also in touch with industry regarding their knowledge about hair and eye colour prediction.
The test system includes the six DNA markers previously used in a test for eye colour known as Irisplex, combining them with predictive markers for hair.
In the study, the authors used Hirisplex to predict hair colour phenotypes in a sample drawn from three European populations.
On average, their prediction accuracy was 69.5% for blonde hair, 78.5% for brown, 80% for red and 87.5% for black hair colour.
Analysis on worldwide DNA samples suggested the results were similar regardless of a person's geographic ancestry.
The team was also able to determine, with a prediction accuracy of about 86%, whether a brown-eyed, black haired person was of non-European versus European origin (excluding some nearby areas such as the Middle East).
The findings were also outlined at the sixth European Academy of Forensic Science conference in The Hague this week.
Super-fertility offers clue to recurrent miscarriage
They say the wombs of some women are too good at letting embryos implant, even those of poor quality which should be rejected.
The UK-Dutch study published in the journal PLoS ONE said the resulting pregnancies would then fail.
One expert welcomed the findings and hoped a test could be developed for identifying the condition in women.
Recurrent miscarriages - losing three or more pregnancies in a row - affect one in 100 women in the UK.
Doctors at Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton and the University Medical Center Utrecht, took samples from the wombs of six women who had normal fertility and six who had had recurrent miscarriages.
Quality testing High or low-quality embryos were placed in a channel created between two strips of the womb cells.
Cells from women with normal fertility started to grow and reach out towards the high-quality embryos. Poor-quality embryos were ignored.
"But we have discovered it may not be because they cannot carry, [but] it is because they may simply be super-fertile, as they allow embryos which would normally not survive to implant."
He added: "When poorer embryos are allowed to implant, they may last long enough in cases of recurrent miscarriage to give a positive pregnancy test."
This theory still needs further testing and will not explain all miscarriages.
Dr Siobhan Quenby, from the Royal College Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told the BBC: "This theory is really quite attractive. It is lovely. It's a really important paper that will change the way we think about implantation."
"It had been thought that rejecting normal embryos resulted in miscarriage, but what explains the clinical syndrome is that everything is being let in."
She said research would now need to discover whether this could be tested for in women and whether their receptiveness to embryos could be altered.
The UK-Dutch study published in the journal PLoS ONE said the resulting pregnancies would then fail.
One expert welcomed the findings and hoped a test could be developed for identifying the condition in women.
Recurrent miscarriages - losing three or more pregnancies in a row - affect one in 100 women in the UK.
Doctors at Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton and the University Medical Center Utrecht, took samples from the wombs of six women who had normal fertility and six who had had recurrent miscarriages.
Quality testing High or low-quality embryos were placed in a channel created between two strips of the womb cells.
Cells from women with normal fertility started to grow and reach out towards the high-quality embryos. Poor-quality embryos were ignored.
Prof Nick Macklon
Princess Anne Hospital
However, the cells of women who had recurrent miscarriages started to grow towards both kinds of embryo.
Prof Nick Macklon, a consultant at the Princess Anne
Hospital, said: "Many affected women feel guilty that they are simply
rejecting their pregnancy. "But we have discovered it may not be because they cannot carry, [but] it is because they may simply be super-fertile, as they allow embryos which would normally not survive to implant."
He added: "When poorer embryos are allowed to implant, they may last long enough in cases of recurrent miscarriage to give a positive pregnancy test."
This theory still needs further testing and will not explain all miscarriages.
Dr Siobhan Quenby, from the Royal College Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told the BBC: "This theory is really quite attractive. It is lovely. It's a really important paper that will change the way we think about implantation."
"It had been thought that rejecting normal embryos resulted in miscarriage, but what explains the clinical syndrome is that everything is being let in."
She said research would now need to discover whether this could be tested for in women and whether their receptiveness to embryos could be altered.
Syria crisis: Number of refugees rises to 200,000
The UNHCR said the figure was already more than its projection of 185,000 for the end of this year.
About 30,000 arrived in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan in the past week.
Meanwhile, activists say Syrian army tanks have reached the centre of the Damascus suburb of Darayya, after shelling killed about 20 people.
The reported offensive is part of a government military campaign launched this week to regain control of outlying areas of the capital.
Lebanon fears The violence in Syria has taken a toll on civilians, with more than 200,000 registering with the UNHCR in neighbouring countries since security forces began suppressing pro-democracy protests in March 2011.
The total reflects an increase of about 30,000 in the past week, but also takes into account a change in the way refugees are counted in Jordan.
Mr Edwards said the deteriorating security situation in Lebanon, where 51,000 refugees are registered, was "hampering our work to help refugees fleeing Syria's conflict, though operations are continuing".
There are also thought to be more than 1.2 million internally displaced people in Syria, and 2.5 million in need of humanitarian assistance.
Guerrilla tactics The main battle fronts are currently in the second city of Aleppo and in Damascus, where the government this week launched a fierce military offensive to crush rebel resistance on the outskirts of the capital.
Opposition activists said troops backed by tanks had entered
the south-western suburb of Darayya on Friday afternoon, and had been
seen on al-Thawra Street, in the centre.
"The rebels have mostly slipped away. The fear now is that the army will round up young men and summarily execute them, as it did in Muadhamiya," activist Abu Kinan told the Reuters news agency, referring to a nearby suburb where the bodies of as many as 40 men shot at close range were reportedly found in buildings after troops pulled out.
Earlier, the army had used multiple rocket launchers located at the nearby Talat Qawqaba military base and artillery at Mezzeh military airport to bombard Darayya.
It has targeted the town for several days, shelling it from afar and clearing it with ground troops, trying to sweep it clear of rebels, reports the BBC's Barbara Plett in Beirut.
But rebel fighters are using classic guerrilla tactics, making it difficult for the army to defeat them despite its use of massive force, our correspondent adds.
Activists said at least 70 people had been killed in Darayya in the past 72 hours, most of them civilians.
Opposition sources also reported fighting on Friday in other suburbs of Damascus, as well as heavy shelling on several districts of Aleppo.
About 30,000 arrived in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan in the past week.
Meanwhile, activists say Syrian army tanks have reached the centre of the Damascus suburb of Darayya, after shelling killed about 20 people.
The reported offensive is part of a government military campaign launched this week to regain control of outlying areas of the capital.
Lebanon fears The violence in Syria has taken a toll on civilians, with more than 200,000 registering with the UNHCR in neighbouring countries since security forces began suppressing pro-democracy protests in March 2011.
Adrian Edwards
UNHCR
"We are now at a much higher
level of 202,512 refugees in the surrounding region," UNHCR spokesman
Adrian Edwards told a news conference in Geneva on Friday.
"In Jordan, a record 2,200 people crossed the border overnight and were received at Zaatari camp in the north," he added.The total reflects an increase of about 30,000 in the past week, but also takes into account a change in the way refugees are counted in Jordan.
Mr Edwards said the deteriorating security situation in Lebanon, where 51,000 refugees are registered, was "hampering our work to help refugees fleeing Syria's conflict, though operations are continuing".
There are also thought to be more than 1.2 million internally displaced people in Syria, and 2.5 million in need of humanitarian assistance.
Guerrilla tactics The main battle fronts are currently in the second city of Aleppo and in Damascus, where the government this week launched a fierce military offensive to crush rebel resistance on the outskirts of the capital.
"The rebels have mostly slipped away. The fear now is that the army will round up young men and summarily execute them, as it did in Muadhamiya," activist Abu Kinan told the Reuters news agency, referring to a nearby suburb where the bodies of as many as 40 men shot at close range were reportedly found in buildings after troops pulled out.
Earlier, the army had used multiple rocket launchers located at the nearby Talat Qawqaba military base and artillery at Mezzeh military airport to bombard Darayya.
It has targeted the town for several days, shelling it from afar and clearing it with ground troops, trying to sweep it clear of rebels, reports the BBC's Barbara Plett in Beirut.
But rebel fighters are using classic guerrilla tactics, making it difficult for the army to defeat them despite its use of massive force, our correspondent adds.
Activists said at least 70 people had been killed in Darayya in the past 72 hours, most of them civilians.
Opposition sources also reported fighting on Friday in other suburbs of Damascus, as well as heavy shelling on several districts of Aleppo.
England v South Africa: Rain forces Cardiff abandonment
South Africa won the toss and elected to field but play only started at 15:00 BST with a reduced 24-over game.
After one wide was bowled, more rain reduced the game to 23 overs per side.
The rain began to fall shortly before the scheduled start time of 10:15 BST, and the game finally got underway at the fifth attempt at 15:00.
After another brief interruption, a 23-over match commenced only 20 minutes before the cut-off time off 13:32.
England could only score four runs off the first three powerplay overs, but Bell then stepped up the scoring rate as he and captain Alastair Cook hit 12 from left-arm seamer Lonwabo Tsotsobe's second over and 16 off the final over of the powerplay.
Bell, who is not in the England squad for the ICC World Twenty20, hit two fours and two sixes in his 18-ball innings, the pick of which was a straight hit six over mid-off off the bowling of Morne Morkel.
After one wide was bowled, more rain reduced the game to 23 overs per side.
Ian Bell hit two sixes in his 26
not out from 18 balls as England progressed to 37-0 before the rain
returned and this time, no resumption was possible.
The "no result" means England remain above the Proteas at the top of
the International Cricket Council's one-day rankings table.
The rain began to fall shortly before the scheduled start time of 10:15 BST, and the game finally got underway at the fifth attempt at 15:00.
After another brief interruption, a 23-over match commenced only 20 minutes before the cut-off time off 13:32.
England could only score four runs off the first three powerplay overs, but Bell then stepped up the scoring rate as he and captain Alastair Cook hit 12 from left-arm seamer Lonwabo Tsotsobe's second over and 16 off the final over of the powerplay.
Bell, who is not in the England squad for the ICC World Twenty20, hit two fours and two sixes in his 18-ball innings, the pick of which was a straight hit six over mid-off off the bowling of Morne Morkel.
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