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INDEPENDENCE FEATURE
Your Guide to Education
• November 2013
theeducator@alphamedia.co.zw
BABWEA
100 Best Secondary Schools in Africa
St. George’s College Zimbabwe
There has been a marked rise of very I should state here that ranking high NewsDaysecondary will be running a special feature entitled "Proud to be Zimbabwean". feature will be published on 17 April 2013, good schools all over the The schools from different countries to mark 33 years of independence. We invite all corporations within the private and public sector, all non-governmental continent. Whilst government schools across the continent organisations, all government departments and public bodies/offices, and all embassies representing their respective countries to is always going place messages commemoratingcountries this occasion. “Proudstarted to be Zimbabwean" the power of courage and as pride that we within African offwill celebrate to be difficult different countries all share through the accomplishments of extraordinary individuals and organisations who have made Zimbabwe a symbol of the best, following independence, follow different curriculums and take resilience, hope and innovation. much has changed. For the most part, part in completely different regional We are offering you an opportunity to advertise in this commemorative feature. Because of the special nature of this feature, Alpha private schools (we consider mis- normal price $1 420 you pay $710 and a half Media Holdings is offering up to 50% discount on all adverts as follows; full pageassessments. page normal price $710 you pay If you wish to include a write-up with your advertisement this will be considered and will the be sionary school as$355. private) outperform •The author selected list of schools free of charge. For bookings Contact: Landline: 04-755123 and speak to Tania (0773 224 397), Lois (0774 329 315) and Loyola schools. In addition, ingovernment that have historical prominence at a (0775 202 251). ternational schools have taken Africa national and regional level. That is the by storm. Below is the list of 100 best reason most schools that featured on secondary schools. the list are also quite old, some started well before their corresponding The Ranking Methodology countries became independent. This Expectedly the rankings of the “100 is especially the case for most public Best Secondary Schools in Africa” secondary/high schools. Here it is imwere met with displeasure from most portant to note that not all schools take of the people who left their comments part in regional assessments. Yet, not a on the article. Most people emailed the single school was eliminated for lack editor regarding the methodology that of regional accomplishments. Schools was used in compiling the list. that were very good at a national lev-
UN Secretary General. • The article mentioned, “Most of these schools are old, with tremendous wealth of history. The performance of such schools did take consistency into consideration to eliminate the quick rise and quick fall cases. In addition, great schools such as the African Leadership Academy have yet to prove themselves over years. Only time will tell whether they will remain at the highest level they are at.” •Some readers may disagree with the way we construct our rankings methodology. Let us know if we missed an important component below in comments. While we should always celebrate success of private enterprise and involvement of the private sector in education, it is important to ask the question; “Is the high performance of private schools at the cost of public schools?” This is an important question since the majority of the continent lack the means to pay for the skyrocketing costs of private institutions and choose instead to rely on public schools notwithstanding the fact that each African deserves good quality education. While I do not believe that a cap on secondary school fees will help, I stand convinced that African governments need to spend more on secondary school education.
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Celebrating 33 Years Of Independence
el, yet lacked regional presence were also considered given that they did not have any regional assessments to partake. • The author then went over the list of a few hundred schools selecting the schools that continued to lead at a national and regional level especially in the past few years when there has been national and regional rankings for secondary/high schools. It is also important to state that countries have different rakings and they rank different criteria which made it difficult to harmonize the list. •In addition to how the different schools have performed at a national level, schools whose students win prestigious scholarships and fellowships at a national and international level earned points above those that did not. On this, some schools had an advantage over others in that the data was readily available on their own websites or their Wikipedia pages. International schools are a case in point. •And success of individuals did not translate into success of the school that that particular individual attended. For instance, Koffi Annan was not enough to have Mfantsipim School (Ghana) on the list. Performance of a school is much more than what one individual had done. Mfantsipim School (Ghana) has done much more than nurturing a
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