Lower student-to-teacher ratios often mean teachers can make timely interventions to improve academic performance COMMENT | ZUBAIR SULIMAN | We’re often told that education is the best way out of poverty, but for many in Sub-Saharan Africa, the path out is often broken, especially for those who need an escape …
Read More »Developing countries need debt relief
To act on climate change, the gap between their short-term debt and long-term investment must be closed COMMENT | ISHAC DIWAN & VERA SONGWE | If developing economies found it hard to manage their debts in 2023, they are likely to face even more formidable challenges this year. Though most …
Read More »What if I carry my pet to the bank?
COMMENT | Dr. Olivia Aketch | While running one of my day to day veterinary clinic routines recently, I received an urgent transaction. In a bid to meet my patient’s point of care therapeutic levels, I jumped on to a boda since the rains had hit so hard through the …
Read More »A cautionary tale of experimenting with genetically modified mosquitoes in Uganda
COMMENT | Barbara Ntambirweki | Last week the Ugandan media was awash with reports that a British firm, Oxitec, in partnership with Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) is set to develop a technique for inserting a lethal gene into mosquitoes to combat malaria. While Uganda has one of the highest …
Read More »Where will the global economy land in 2024?
Many stagflationary megathreats over the medium-term horizon could push growth lower and inflation higher COMMENT | NOURIEL ROUBINI | Around this time a year ago, about 85% of economists and market analysts including me expected that the U.S. and global economy would suffer a recession. Falling but still-sticky inflation suggested that …
Read More »Africa-China collaboration on TVET
A new type of South-to-South joint program promotes standards through mutually accredited joint programs COMMENT | XIAOYAN LIANG & COSAM JOSEPH | A common challenge faced by Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions is their inability to adapt curriculum and program standards that align with the evolving needs of …
Read More »The international order is dying in Gaza
The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has dealt a particularly crushing blow to the system COMMENT | MOHAMED ELBARADEI | After COVID-19 struck in 2020, creating chaos and misery, I hoped that some silver lining would emerge from this global tragedy. For a time, it seemed possible. The pandemic was …
Read More »Medical Council and medical training
Let Council support, not undermine, medical schools by not declaring their graduates `half-baked’ COMMENT | PETER NYANZI | Officials of the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council are bitter over a recent High Court ruling that ordered them to recognise medical graduates of King Caesar University and deploy them for internship …
Read More »Special needs children’s learning prospects; a glim in the shadows
COMMENT | CINDY RUGUNDA & DOROTHY K MUSIMENTA | As the world commemorates the International Day of Education January 24th, a sobering reality lurks beneath the celebratory surface. While schools welcome students back for a new term, thousands of children with severe intellectual disabilities remain isolated, their learning needs unmet …
Read More »COMMENT: Universal values at bay
Consider how the world has divided into rigid camps as the Gaza catastrophe has unfolded COMMENT | MICHAEL IGNATIEFF | Seventy-five years ago this week, United Nations member states meeting in Paris adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was not a binding law, only a statement of principle. But …
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