A round up of news from Africa…<\/p>\n
Wits University uses lasers to deliver high-speed Internet connections<\/strong><\/p>\n A team of researchers at Wits University have developed a way of carrying internet data at speeds far greater than conventional Wi-Fi. Called a\u00a0free-space optical (FSO) solution for internet connectivity, the technology functions like a laser, transmitting a focused beam of light to a receiver through the air.<\/p>\n \u201cOur FSO solution is based on optical frequencies, which are many orders of magnitude faster than radio. So this means faster speeds,\u201d team leader Andrew Forbes from the Wits School of Physics told My Broadband in a recent interview. The technology is able to transmit data at a dizzying speed of up to 10 GB per second, but it is limited in that it requires direct line of site to work properly. – For more details on this exciting development, you can read the full interview on the\u00a0My Broadband<\/a>\u00a0site.<\/p>\n World Bank loan to benefit 30,000 Tanzanian students<\/strong><\/p>\n A loan of $120 million\u00a0(<\/em>R1.5 billion)<\/em>\u00a0will be used for a five-year Education and Skills for Productive Jobs (ESPJ) project aimed to strengthen the institutional capacity of Tanzania\u2019s skills development system.\u00a0The World Bank loan will also be used to establish a competitive, results-based Skills Development Fund (SDF) open to skills training proposals from public and private providers, to help address critical skills gaps in key sectors.\u00a0Only accredited higher education, technical education, vocational education, and registered employer-based training organisations will be eligible to apply for funds.\u00a0The 30,000 targeted beneficiaries of the programme will include trainees enrolled in university, technical, vocational and alternative training programmes in the six key sectors.<\/p>\n Tanzania Private Sector Foundation executive director Godfrey Simbeye applauded the government’s move to invest in training youth to meet investors\u2019 needs. \u201cWe had missed this component for a long time and our people had failed to secure jobs,” he said.\u00a0Studies show that about a million youth enter the labour market in Tanzania each year. – Read the full article on the University World News<\/a> site.<\/p>\n Moroccan government denies \u2018silence\u2019 over deadly campus clashes<\/strong><\/p>\n The Moroccan government has denied that it had been \u2018silent\u2019 over the recent deaths of students in university-based clashes as concern mounts over rising political tensions between students.<\/p>\n The violence stems from disputes of the Western Sahara.\u00a0\u00a0Morocco lays claim to the Western Sahara region, but there has been ongoing conflict since 1970 with the Polisario Front seeking independence. Currently the Polisario Front controls about a quarter of Western Sahara. This tension has resulted in the highly charged environment in which these student deaths have taken place.<\/p>\n The most recent violent incident erupted between the Saharawi students group,\u00a0which supports Western Sahara national liberation movement the\u00a0Polisario Front, and Amazigh students cultural movement at Ibn Zuhr University, leading to injuries and the death of a Saharawi student.\u00a0Photos of the student clashes went viral on social media<\/a>. He was the fourth student killed in university violence after\u00a0two students were killed<\/a> in campus clashes earlier in 2016\u00a0in Marrakesh.<\/p>\n Khalid Al Samadi, a senior Moroccan education department official, denied there was \u201csilence\u201d over the student deaths. \u201cThere is a clear strategy for the ministry for dealing with it,” he said, adding that the goal was to “remove the causes of congestion in universities, facilitate access to social services, and support communication with students.”<\/p>\n He announced that his ministry was \u201ccontinuing to implement the joint memorandum with the Ministry of Interior to contain university violence”, stressing the need to \u201cremove the union and political cover for all those who practise violence in Moroccan universities”.\u00a0– You can read the full article on the University World News<\/a> site<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A round up of news from Africa… Wits University uses lasers to deliver high-speed Internet connections A team of researchers at Wits University have developed a way of carrying internet data at speeds far greater than conventional Wi-Fi. Called a\u00a0free-space optical (FSO) solution for internet connectivity, the technology functions like a laser, transmitting a focused […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":4711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[66,310,30,59,199,68],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentnews.africa\/sng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}