/ 29 August 2012

Schools in crisis: Live video

Limpopo textbooks.
Limpopo textbooks.

Proposed school closures in the Western Cape, the onging textbook saga in Limpopo and other problems affecting South Africa's schools have left the public with many questions, while our leaders provide poor answers.

Every Friday the Mail & Guardian Online hosts a live video chat on a news topic of the week. This week we chat to our education reporters Bongani Nkosi and Victoria John, who will tackle our audience's questions on the growing crisis facing schools.

South Africans were outraged earlier this year when Limpopo learners failed to receive their textbooks thanks to government bungling. The incident revealed a number of concerns about our schools, and now we're seeing more problems across the country.

Also, about 16 000 learners have been prevented from attending their schools in the Northern Cape for three months due to intimidation by service delivery protesters.

And the Western Cape education department announced earlier this year that it would consider closing down 27 schools across the province citing dwindling learner numbers and underperformance, among other reasons. The move has sparked outrage from civil society.

Verashni Pillay will pose your comments and questions to our reporters on Friday, August 31 at 12.30. We will also take your tweets in real time sent to @mailandguardian. You can watch the video on this link when it happens at noon, and the recorded version afterwards.

You can also join us via video for our weekly live chats every Friday using Google Hangouts – a technology similar to that of Skype. All you need is:

  1. A computer; a webcam, audio and mic facilities (standard on most laptops); and a reasonably good internet connection.
  2. Set up a Google Plus account which you can do using your existing Gmail account.
  3. Download the software here.
  4. Email your name, contact details and questions here and we will get in touch with you to take part in our live chat via video.

Watch last week's video chat with our reporters featuring your questions about the Marikana Massacre.