The landscape of education is rapidly changing. Open source courses, new technology systems, and social media are influencing how information is received and processed . An increasingly globalized society is contributing to more competition and more access to valuable learning resources. Teachers and learners alike must constantly keep abreast with information flow. This calls for periodical in-service courses and assessment.
It is quite sad for example, that out of the 400 universities ranked in The Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2011-2012; only 2 African countries featured- South Africa and Egypt. In the QS World University Rankings 2011-2012 that involved 700 universities, only South Africa and Egypt featured. Africa did not fare well either in the Shanghai based Academic Ranking of World Universities 2011 where out of the 500 universities that were ranked, only South Africa. In a ranking of 100 African universities based on an algorithm including three unbiased and independent web metrics extracted from three different search engines:Google Page Rank, Yahoo Traffic Links and Alexa Traffic Rank, Universities in South Africa and Egypt took the first 10 slots.
Africa's Century will not be realized when the continent's academicians are a mere parasites dependent on research outcomes and methodologies from the rest of the world. We must refocus our mission towards developing enlightened men and women through a complete overhaul of the continent's educational institutions to enable them be key driver of research and thought leadership.
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