Malawi has launched a comprehensive five-year plan intended to foster rapid industrialisation through the use of science and technology. The plan, announced on 19 January, is the first of its kind, has a budget of one billion kwachas (US$8.3 million), and places a heavy emphasis on popularising science. The money will be spent in four main areas: capacity building (US$3.5 million), promoting and popularising science (US$2.3 million), developing and commercialising research (US$1.5 million) and administration (US$1 million), reports SciDev.

In one out of four African countries, half of the children enrolled at the end of primary school do not continue to the secondary level in the following year, according to the most recent factsheet produced by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). This percentage is far lower than the 85% of primary pupils who make the transition in most countries of Europe, Asia, North and South America. The factsheet “How many children in Africa reach secondary education?” gives a breakdown of the dire situation of secondary education in Africa.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) has announced the fourth session of its Annual Social Science Campus, and invites applications from African scholars for participation in the programme which was initially scheduled to hold in October 2005 but was subsequently been postponed with a view to convening it at the beginning of May 2006. The Campus is conceived as an advanced research dialogue which is both multidisciplinary and intergenerational in nature. It is organised around a specific theme and up to 15 scholars, drawn from different disciplines and reflecting the different generations of African social researchers, are elected to participate in the Campus.