BAIFA has launched its annual program for 2019: “Africa Talks Education: For a Better Tomorrow!”, with the theme: “Higher Education in Africa”. Africa is facing lots of challenges in the domain of Higher Education. However, a World Bank report indicates that university enrolments in Sub-Saharan Africa increased from 200,000 to 4,500,000 between 1970 and 2008/9. In 2020, it is expected that Africa will have 9,600,000 students.
It is worth mentioning that higher education is mentioned in target 4.3 of goal 4 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which aims to “By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university.”
Through this program, BAIFA aims to highlight the current status of higher education in Africa, the challenges it faces, the efforts deployed to enhance the situation of higher education in different countries in Africa. The program will shed light on different success stories, and highlight the important and vital role of informal education delivered by libraries. In addition, it will emphasize how librarians are contributing to education using digital technology in innovative ways, and developing different information dissemination tools to fulfil the scholarly needs of the knowledge society. This program comes in alignment with Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s interest in activities and programs that support its ties with the African continent. Moreover, 2019 was announced by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi as the year of education’s advancement.
The first phase of the “Africa Talks Education” program is conducted through BAIFA website as well as different social media channels. It aims to promote BAIFA resources which best cover the program topics and greatly help the interested researchers and the postgraduate students.
Selected resources from BAIFA’s collection that best cover the topic:
- Building research capacity : enabling critical thinking through information literacy in higher education in Africa
2012 , Hepworth, Mark and Duvigneau, Siobhan Report
- Education & development : Africa : education for action
2008 , Schellekens, J. E-article
- Partnership for higher education in Africa
cop. 2010- , Web-resource
- South Africa : analysis of vocational education and training
2006 , Woltjer, L. Report
- Building library leadership in Africa : a proposed education initiative
2007 , Britz, Johannes J. and Lor, Peter Johan and Bothma, Theodorus Jan Daniël E-article
Further information will be provided soon.
The program's closing event was held on the 24th of September 2019, at Bibliotheca Alexandrina Conference Center, Small Theater. All concerned parties were invited, including decision makers in the domain of Higher education, university professors, researchers, students, postgraduates and others from Egypt and other African countries.
The conference tackled the challenges facing higher education in Africa, and the strenuous efforts which are made to foster education in different African countries. It also highlighted the vital role of non-formal education presented by libraries and other information institutions.
A number of prominent African experts in education took part in the conference, in addition to several specialized international organizations including the UNESCO, Senghor University, Université française d’Égypte, Vaal University of Technology in South Africa, and the Center of Entrepreneurship at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport. The conference also witnessed the participation of “Study in Egypt” initiative, which was launched by the Ministry of Higher Education in May 2019.
Conferences' Sessions:
Opening session
Keynote speaker - Professor Ghada Abdelbary
Session 1
The State of Higher Education in Africa and the Challenges It Faces
Session 2
Role of informal education and libraries in Supporting higher education
Session 3
Target 4.3 of Sustainable Development Goal 4
Extra links: