Category: Education

The Chinese government is promoting Chinese language and culture through Confucius Institute programs worldwide, including in Africa. Some educators say they’re concerned about what they say is censorship in Chinese-funded programs.

Steve Wakoli has been working for three years to perfect his skills in kung fu, a popular martial art taught at the Kenyatta University Confucius Institute.

He’s also a teacher at the institute, where hundreds of students are learning about Chinese culture and language at the facility named after the ancient Chinese philosopher whose teachings are a cornerstone of life in East Asia.

There are about 525 Chinese-funded Confucius Institutes worldwide, including 54 in Africa, according to a 2019 U.S. Senate report by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Jacob Ratemo is one of more than 500 students enrolled here.

He says learning about Chinese language and culture will help him find better work. But Ratemo acknowledges the classes avoid subjects that are politically sensitive in China.

“But the advantage is, especially when you are at the university level, you can access such matters. I can go to VOA News on a regular basis and see what is going on in China. I can go to Google and get that information. So, yes, I can admit there are a few challenges when you ask those questions to the Chinese themselves,” Ratemo said.

According to the Senate report, “Confucius Institute funding comes with strings that can compromise academic freedom.” For example, the Chinese teachers sign contracts with Beijing pledging not to damage China’s national interests.

Confucius Institute management turned down VOA’s requests for comment.

Teacher Steve Wakoli says the institute’s syllabus does not allow much time for politically sensitive topics and debate.

But analysts say the Confucius Institutes suppress discussions on topics like Taiwan and Hong Kong to protect their funding from the Chinese government. Martin Oloo is a political analyst in Kenya.

“Indeed, there have been issues around whether or not the institute is being used to propound what would be seen as anti-democracy, anti-human rights, and those concerns are founded in terms of what is the official Chinese policy on Taiwan, on Hong Kong,” Oloo said.

China considers Taiwan a wayward province and has not ruled out the use of force to reunite it with the mainland. Beijing imposed a national security law for Hong Kong in 2020 and many forms of dissent are criminalized.

Educator Jonathan Waseya told VOA that the institutes are doing an injustice to students by limiting their learning and exposure to different ideas.

“Yes, the opportunity comes in through the Confucius Institutes funded by China — that is OK. But can you get as an individual to talk about Taiwan, to talk about Hong Kong, talk about Korea, talk about North and South Korea and how the whole bigger picture fits into the geopolitics of today,” Waseya said.

With so many signing up for classes at the Confucius Institutes, education experts say it is critical that students find other avenues to learn about topics that Beijing may consider politically sensitive.

Source: Voice of America

Two astronauts with the U.S. space agency, NASA, left the International Space Station (ISS) Thursday to conduct a spacewalk to replace a broken antenna system, two days after the walk was postponed over concerns about space debris.

NASA astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron stepped out of the ISS airlock early Thursday to replace the faulty antenna, used to communicate voice and data to ground control. The operation was expected to last six-and-a-half hours.

The spacewalk had originally been scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed late Monday after NASA said it had received a notification of space debris that it needed to assess. The space agency said once it determined the debris did not pose a risk, the operation was rescheduled for Thursday.

It was not immediately clear whether the debris field that prompted the spacewalk to be postponed was related to a Russian anti-satellite missile test two weeks ago. That event created a debris field that forced ISS crew members to seek shelter in their escape capsules as a precaution.

Source: Voice of America

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects that 100,000 Americans died of drug overdose between May 2020 and April 2021 — a nearly 30% increase over the previous year.

While not an official count, the CDC says it can confirm 98,000 deaths so far during the period and estimates the total number will likely be around 100,300 after causes of death are made official. It can take months to investigate and finalize drug fatalities.

Experts say the increased availability of the deadly opioids, particularly fentanyl, is a major driver, accounting for 64% of overdose deaths.

Another factor is the COVID-19 pandemic which made it hard for drug users to get treatment or support.

“What we’re seeing are the effects of these patterns of crisis and the appearance of more dangerous drugs at much lower prices,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told CNN. “In a crisis of this magnitude, those already taking drugs may take higher amounts and those in recovery may relapse. It’s a phenomenon we’ve seen and perhaps could have predicted.”

In a statement, President Joe Biden called the number a “tragic milestone,” and said his administration “is committed to doing everything in our power to address addiction and end the overdose epidemic.”

Overdose deaths are now more common than deaths from car crashes, guns and the flu. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the U.S., killing 660,000 in 2019.

Source: Voice of America

YAOUNDÉ, CAMEROON — On Thursday, fewer than 2,000 of the 14,000 students enrolled at the University of Buea showed up for class, a day after about a dozen students were injured when police say someone set off an explosive device at the school in western Cameroon.

The governor of Cameroon’s southwest region, Bernard Okalia Bilai, urged everyone to return, saying the military has been deployed to protect students and staff members.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the government blames separatist groups. Buea is an English-speaking town in Cameroon’s southwest region. Government troops and separatists have been fighting each other in the region since 2017, when teachers and lawyers protested alleged discrimination at the hands of the French-speaking majority. The military reacted with a crackdown and separatist groups took up weapons, saying they want the western regions to be an independent country.

Horace Ngomo Manga, the vice chancellor of the University of Buea, said the IED exploded at the school’s amphitheater on Wednesday evening.

“So far, we have one male student and eleven female students at the solidarity clinic, where they are following up treatment,” he said. “The students are being carried one by one for X-rays for further investigations into the depth of their injuries.”

The military said that last month, separatists warned all schools and universities in Buea to seal their doors but gave no further explanation.

Bilai said students should not be intimidated by the explosion, and that education is crucial to the country’s future and must be allowed to continue without interruption.

“We must bear in mind that we are dealing with the education of our children who are the leaders of tomorrow,” he said. “I therefore expect everyone to support the educational sector by denouncing any form of disorder which could disrupt the smooth functioning of our schools.”

However, some on campus are uneasy after the explosion. Ekane Manga, a lecturer at the university, said the presence of soldiers on campus may have invited fighters to attack the institution.

“There should be coordination amidst the ranks of the soldiers because having people with guns around students is not the best thing,” he told VOA.

Separatists in Cameroon have attacked and closed hundreds of schools in recent years, but authorities say this is the first time they have set off an IED at a university.

Source: Voice of America

An estimated 35 schools across Kenya have been set on fire in the last month, forcing many to shut down. Authorities say the fires are being set by students, and have warned that any student caught in an act of arson will be locked out of the education system.

The wave of arson began about a month ago and has gotten increasingly worse. On Sunday alone, five schools were burned.

In one incident, a girls’ boarding school in Nairobi caught fire in the middle of the night. Sixty-three students needed medical attention.

The Kenyan government has issued a strong warning against students who are burning schools, and authorities are making arrests.

On Tuesday, six students were arrested, following the burning of a high school in Nyeri county, in western Kenya. A total of 11 were arraigned in court on charges of attempted arson.

Visiting a school in eastern Kenya, Education Minister George Magoha said the parents and students would rebuild the affected schools. He said those found to have participated in the arson will be banned from attending public schools.

“Anybody who is planning to burn the building, just remember that if you are caught, you are not going to go to any other school, definitely not a public school in this country. You will go back and ensure your parents contribute to the rebuilding of the school that you have burnt,” Magoha said.

Officials are blaming drug abuse, stress, curriculum overload and poor student-teacher relations for the unrest.

Sam Ndunda, secretary-general of the Kenya National Association of Parents, said teachers are not properly dealing with discipline cases.

“There are a number of students who have already been sent out of school in the form of suspension. These students have been kept out of school for quite a long time. These students who are out there feel so bitter that our colleagues in the school are learning and whereas we are given a definite suspension so that they can feel the pinch we are feeling, then they come up and organize for the fires,” Ndunda said.

Tomkins Baraza, a boarding school teacher, said the school calendar is short and a lot of learning is expected from the students which have made some unhappy with their studies.

“These learners may fear exams and remember the second term is when most of the schools the students sit for mock exams. Also, the pressure which is mounted on those learners. They are supposed to cover a wide syllabus within the shortest time possible, so maybe learners feel that there is a lot of academic work which is being pushed on their side,” Baraza said.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Kenya in March 2020, schools were closed for several months, until late last year.

The education systems in the country have been putting more pressure on teachers and students to recover the time lost.

Some experts are pushing for open forums in schools, where teachers and students can discuss their issues, before students feel the need to take drastic and destructive measures.

Source: Voice of America

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said 12 million children are scared to go to school in the country, where jihadis and heavily armed criminals have kidnapped hundreds of students for ransom.

The first mass school abduction in Africa’s most populous nation was in the northeast in 2014, when Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from Chibok, triggering a global campaign called #BringBackOurGirls.

Since then, attacks on schools “have grown in number and spread across the northern part of the country,” said Buhari on Tuesday, addressing a conference on safety in education in the capital, Abuja.

Gunmen in northwest and central Nigeria have increasingly targeted schools, kidnapping more than 1,000 students since December.

As a result, Buhari said, “there are more than 12 million children currently traumatized and afraid of going to school.” Girls were particularly affected, he added.

Young girls who leave school early are at risk of being married off, experts warn.

Save the Children said earlier this month that an “estimated 44% of girls in Nigeria are married before their 18th birthday, one of the highest rates of child marriage globally.”

Most kidnapped students are released after negotiations with their captors.

But “even when the abducted students are released,” Buhari said, “the trauma of the incidences remain long in their minds.”

The retired general, first elected in 2015, said the government was “highly committed to prioritizing safety in schools.”

“We have identified and put mechanisms in place … to ensure the safety and security of schools in Nigeria,” he said.

But it “has been tough dealing with these security challenges and their effect,” the 78-year-old added.

Military operations are underway across the country, but security forces are often described as overstretched and overwhelmed.

Source: Voice of America