There’s been a lot for me to reflect on in the last while. It’s not just that it’s the beginning of another year and so a time for new resolutions and all that. It’s also because I am moving on from <i>the Teacher</i>.

Voices of opposition are mounting to some of the changes to education laws proposed by the Department of Education (DoE). The Education Laws Amendment Bill, which was presented to Parliament’s education portfolio committee earlier this month, seeks to amend certain aspects of the South African Schools Act (Sasa) and the Employment of Educators Act.

<i>The teacher</i> spoke to the new Director General of Education, Duncan Hindle, about his life in education so far. Hindle started teaching in 1979 at Maritzburg College, where he was also a student. He has also served as president of the South African Teacher’s Union for a year in 1995.

The next best thing to travelling to other countries is meeting foreigners in your own. So, even before the International Confederation of Principals (ICP) convention began earlier this month, I was relishing the prospect of gathering with more than 2 000 principals from 33 countries as diverse as Ghana, Canada and Singapore.

‘Half-naaitjies [little bastards].” This is one of the stinging labels that children of farm labourers in South Africa have endured for generations. Children like these have, for centuries, been denied any value beyond the cheap muscle-power they provide to farm owners.

Heated words are flying between the Department of Education and teacher unions as they blame each other for the faltering process of teacher appraisals. The snail’s pace at which the Integrated Quality Management System has unfolded is the crux of the trouble, as time frames agreed to in 2003 have not been met.

Why is it that the public gets so silly and hysterical when the issue of language in education is raised? Suddenly there’s an unholy tizz played out in the media, shrieks of incoherent distress that you’d expect only when the cockroaches finally take over the world.