The struggle for free, quality, basic education continues, despite the Cabinet’s endorsement this month of a comprehensive action plan to address cost-related barriers that still hinder full access to basic education. The action plan is the product of the government’s review of school education costs, which Minister of Education Kader Asmal released in March. ‘Sixty […]
No new curriculum is yet in place for next year’s Grade 10 learners. Nor has there been any teacher training at this level, and no new textbooks and other support materials have been developed. Teacher unions and other educationists express bewilderment and frustration at the national Department of Education’s (DoE) paralysis on the matter. ‘The […]
According to findings released by the Education Relations Council (ELRC) more than half the country’s teachers intend leaving the profession. The figures appear in a comprehensive study of teachers in public schools that the ELRC commissioned two years ago “following worrying anecdotal reports that indicated that educators seem to be leaving the education profession in large numbers.”
According to a paper by University of KwaZulu-Natal academics Professor John Aitchison and Anne Harley, the government has been accused of misleading the public for 10 years about its progress in combating adult illiteracy.
Premier Sibusiso Ndebele, provincial education minister Ina Cronje and Durban mayor Obed Mlaba plan to eliminate adult illiteracy in KwaZulu-Natal by March 7 2008. A task team has been established to present a plan of action to achieve this.
Was it R50-million? Or R90-million? And whatever the public money allocated to it, what happened to the major adult literacy scheme, Ikhwelo? The Department of Educatio’’s attempts to explain Ikhwelo’s fate have sharpened scepticism about its capacity and will to tackle the country’s vast illiteracy problem. It was recently reported that experts say 10 years of democracy have done little to alleviate the crisis inherited in 1994.
The doors of learning creaked open with some difficulty as schools re-opened last month. While provincial heads insist the start of the school year went well, reports from around the country told a different story. Work on the ground suggested illegal exclusions, as well as classroom conditions that do not promote learning, still affected thousands of children.
More than half the country’s teachers intend leaving the profession. And as low morale, job dissatisfaction, HIV/Aids and premature mortality devastate public schools, the number of teachers has declined over the past seven years. By 2002/03, 21 000 teachers (about 6%) were leaving the system annually. The Education Labour Relations Council released these findings in Cape Town on Thursday.
The national government has been accused of misleading the public over a 10-year period about its progress in combating adult illiteracy. The astonishing litany of misrepresentation is set out in a paper by University of KwaZulu-Natal academics Professor John Aitchison and Anne Harley.
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/ 24 February 2005
A witches’ brew of grievances — including fees, transport costs, language demands and state plans to slash student numbers — underlines this week’s turmoil on newly merged campuses. Students and university managements clashed as police cracked down at the universities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Tshwane.