Teacher Shortages, Mali: Teacher Contracts and their Impact on Education in Africa

Posted by sociolingo on January 5, 2008

Source: ISN Publishing

Teacher Shortages, Teacher Contracts and their Impact on Education in Africa

Author(s): Jean Bourdon, Markus Frölich, Katharina Michaelowa
Publisher(s): Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS), Zurich, Switzerland
Date of publication: 4 May 2007
Issue number: 28
Format: PDF
Pages: 67
URL: www.cis.ethz.ch
Series: CIS Working Papers
Description: This paper addresses the policy of Niger, Togo and Mali to recruit large numbers of teachers using fixed-term contracts instead of civil servant positions, analyzing the impact on educational quality by estimating non-parametrically the quantile treatment effects. The paper explores the link between incentives, teacher contracts and working conditions, introduces the available data and presents the evaluation of the impact of the contract teacher program on educational quality.

General note: © 2007 Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS)
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Mali cocaine haul after firefight

Source: BBC NEWS

Mali cocaine haul after firefight

West Africa has become a key drug-trafficking route

Officials in Mali say they have seized 750kg of cocaine valued at $45m, after a two-hour gun battle on Thursday. The cocaine, one of the country’s biggest drug hauls, was found near the town of Tin-Zaouatene in two four-wheel-drive vehicles.

The smugglers abandoned the vehicles and reportedly fled over the Algerian border nearby, carrying their wounded.

Correspondents say West Africa has become a major trafficking route for Colombian cocaine bound for Europe.

“The seizure took place… following a car chase and gun fight, or a battle, you could say, as they had military weapons,” a senior Territorial Administration Ministry official told Reuters news agency.

“After two hours of fighting, the smugglers, who were driving three Algerian-registered off-roaders, abandoned two of them, loaded their wounded into the third vehicle and fled over the border,” he said.

The past year has seen large cocaine seizures in other West African countries including Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Sierra Leone.