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Africa’s educational systems are suffering from growing pains.  More students than ever are enrolling in school, but the supply of teachers and infrastructure have not kept up with demand. Educators say about 80 percent of African students are completing primary school -- thanks in part to the push to meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. They call for universal primary education by the 2015. John Daniel, the president and CEO of the intergovernmental organization the Commonwealth of Learning, says success is bringing more challenges. SCOPESecondary school students at KwaMhlanga High School in Mpumalanga, South Africa. “The African countries achieved in 10 years what it took many developed countries 100 years to do two centuries ago," he said, "and they don’t have many resources left over to do secondary.”

“Girls who have secondary education … have on average worldwide one-point-eight fewer children than girls who don’t," he said. "That’s a difference of two or three billion to the population of the world by 2050. There is [one educational researcher, Joel Cohen] who says therefore girls’ education is best way of stopping population growth and climate change.”

The Commonwealth of Learning proposes open schools, using new technologies and new ways to meet the needs of school aged children, drop-outs, mothers who want to learn at home and working adults. He said the schools cut costs and save time by using new technologies, including cell phones. Secondary school curricula can be created and shared among schools without costly intellectual property rights.

According to a report released by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) on Wednesday, South Africa is in dire need of good, skilled teachers. "South Africa's education system is underperforming, especially in terms of maths and science results. When compared to many other developing countries, our expenditure on education is not matched by the results, and research shows decisively that good teaching is vital for better results," Ann Bernstein, the founding director of CDE, told journalists.

Research dating back to 2005 demonstrates that 16 581 mathematics teachers were present in the Eastern Cape but only 7 090 were teaching the subject. But 5 032 were teaching mathematics who were not qualified to do so.

Of those who are pursuing a career in the classroom, only two-thirds spend 46% of their time actively teaching and of those hardly any teach on a Friday.

South Africa's education and finance ministers are being taken to court over poor standards at state schools. The BBC's Karen Allen investigates the education crisis and why some parents in Eastern Cape province are opting to send their children to private schools despite the cost. "We are not a flashy family - I'm just an ordinary kid," says Simanye Zondani, 17, as he pores over his maths homework in the subdued light of his home. Since his parents died, his aunt has given up her smart "bachelorette" flat in Queenstown and opted instead for a house in the township. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote We used to have good results, but we are short of maths teachers [and] science teachers” End Quote Khumzi Madikane Head teacher at Nonkqubela Secondary It means she can now just about afford the £700 ($1,100) to send her nephew to private school. Five thousand children, most of them from black families on modest incomes, are switching to independent schools annually. The quality varies, but in Gauteng province alone, South Africa's economic hub, more than 100 new schools have applied for registration in the past year. It is a response to a sense of failure in the state sector, argues Peter Bosman, the principal of Getahead High School, the low-cost private school which Simanye attends. "Parents want consistency and quality," he says - not with a sense of schadenfreude but resignation.

The irony is that significant numbers of parents who send their children to private schools are themselves teachers in the state sector.

"We used to have good results, but we are short of maths teachers, science teachers and when staff look at our facilities they decide not to come here," head teacher Khumzi Madikane laments.

A plan to introduce HIV testing for children as young as 13 at schools in South Africa has been fiercely criticised by student and teacher unions.The government believes that enabling sexually active pupils to know their HIV status could allow early access to life-saving treatment and help prevent the spread of the infection. But opponents of the voluntary programme say children may not be psychologically prepared to deal with a positive result or the stigma likely to follow.The tests are expected to begin at secondary schools next month during weekends and holidays. Allen Thompson, deputy president of the National Teachers' Union, said: "We suspect we may be heading for disaster. Even parents are afraid to take HIV tests, so you can imagine a 13-year-old. Some will be afraid to say no to their teachers."

CAPE TOWN, 11 May 2011 (IRIN) - Instead of providing much needed opportunities, South Africa’s ailing education system is keeping children from poor households at the back of the job queue and locking families into poverty for another generation.

The study, "Low Quality Education as Poverty Trap", found that the schooling available to children in poor communities is reinforcing rather than challenging the racial and economic inequities created by South Africa’s apartheid-era policies.

The government allocated R190 billion (US$28 billion) or 21 percent of its 2011/12 budget to education, but 80 percent is spent on personnel and the remainder is not enough to supply thousands of schools in mainly poor areas with basic requirements like electricity and textbooks.

Kokolo is 20, just a few years older than her audience of 11th grade students at the Manzomthombo Senior Secondary School. The law student is part of a peer education effort that has young people teaching other young people about AIDS and prevention. "It works best when they get down to the real reasons why these kids are engaging in these behaviors and trying to warn them about the risks," said Melani-Ann Cook, a project manager for the program. "What we've found is that when our peer educators go (to the schools) ... they really look up to them." The success of the program and others like it is vitally important to the future of South Africa, which has the largest population of HIV-positive people in the world.

Peer education is only one of a wide array of programs under way to combat the problem. Some stress safe sex, use of condoms and care in selecting partners. Others stress abstinence. Some try to curb drug and alcohol use. Still others take aim at changing attitudes, gender roles, after school activities and erasing the stigma that attached to AIDS.

Three institutions from Nepal, South Africa and Venezuela will be recognized for supporting and improving teachers’ effectiveness in developing countries, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced today. The Rato Bangala Foundation, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Schools Enrichment Centre, and the Banco del Libro will be awarded the UNESCO-Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Prize for Outstanding Practice and Performance in Enhancing the Effectiveness of Teachers during a ceremony in Dubai in April. The three institutions will be recognized for their outstanding work in the education field in developing countries or within marginalized or disadvantaged communities, UNESCO said in a news release.

WESTERN EQUATORIA, South Sudan, 27 October 2011 – Access to education is one of the key priorities for the government of the world’s newest nation, South Sudan. Seventy per cent of children aged 6 to 17 have never set foot in a classroom. The completion rate in primary schools is only 21 per cent, one of the lowest in the world.

Baya Primary School in Western Equatoria has become the envy of other schools in the state. The school is successfully using its own child clubs, not only to increase girls’ enrolment but also encourage dropouts to join the Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP).

UNICEF and the Ministry of General Education and Instruction have been providing supplies such as school bags, notebooks, training, learning and essential teaching materials to support the initiative in South Sudan.

JOHANNESBURG — Staff absenteeism, sexual harassment of students and misuse of funds ranked as South African schools' top problems, in a survey released Wednesday by graft watchdog Transparency International.Of the 45 local school boards surveyed, 35 percent cited absenteeism by teachers and other staff as the top risk of corruption, with 29 percent citing sexual harassment of students and 27 percent the misuse of school funds.

Among its findings: one out of two students doesn't always have a desk; 15 percent of schools have no electricity; 10 percent have no running water.Lax security left students and teachers afraid for their safety, with one in four students citing rape and violence as major problems, the survey said.

"The government needs to strengthen governance controls both at the provincial and school level and ensure that education budgets are used correctly," said Letshego Mokeki, National Programme Coordinator for Transparency in Service Delivery in Africa.

DOGO NA HAWA, Nigeria — Nightmare images haunt this dusty sun-baked village, fresh memories of tall young men emerging from darkness to slash the unarmed with long knives in a frenzy of ethnic and religious hatred.

On Tuesday, a day after hundreds were buried in mass graves here, groups of villagers in this Christian farming community a few miles south of the central Nigerian metropolis of Jos sat mutely among their mud-brick homes, remembering Sunday’s horror.

Some of the small houses had been burned in the attack: tin roofs were caved in and twisted, facades were charred and carbonized hulks of vehicles littered the dirt streets. Traces of blood were evident in the sandy soil.

Despite pouring billions of dollars into education, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has little to show for its money except for public primary schools regarded as among the worst in the world and millions of students destined for a life in the underclass. "If you don't have an education, you don't have a chance in life," said Netshiozwe, who is unemployed with little prospect of finding regular work. She and her HIV-infected aunt live together and scrape by on about $100 a month in welfare benefits. Nearly half of South Africa's 18 to 24 year olds -- the first generation educated after apartheid ended in 1994 -- are not in the education system and do not have a job, according to government data. Academics have called this group the "lost generation" and worry it will grow larger unless the government fixes a system riddled with failing schools, unskilled educators and corruption that stops funding from reaching its intended destinations.

Corruption eats away at money. Teachers are poorly trained and challenged by a constantly shifting curriculum. Schools are often shut by teachers' strikes.

Once almost exclusively white, universities now reflect the racial composition of the country with more people from groups disenfranchised by apartheid climbing the ladder with a degree or diploma. But at the same time, the number of people living in poverty has changed little since apartheid ended, with no remedy in sight given the structural problems in education.