While learners at Volkskool Orania receive an education for the 21st century, they’re also taught a philosophy tied to the racial divisions of the past. LEARNERS at Volkskool Orania seem to embody two contradictory forces: that of the future, with their extremely modern schooling system; and that of the distant past, with an exclusively all-white […]
Should Shakespeare retain his hallowed place in our curriculum? ”MARRY, before he fell down, when he perceived the common herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet and offered them his throat to cut.” Pardon, Shakespeare? Did someone who’s getting married fall down among the cows? What exactly is going […]
One woman could no longer stand by and watch the children suffering. Julia Grey went to see what her efforts produced It all started because Theresa Mkhwanazi couldn’t carry on just witnessing the daily abuse that children face in the miserable squalor of Cato Manor, an informal settlement packed on the hillslopes of Durban. Mkhwanazi […]
Educators due to teach in the new reception-year classes have been promised a pittance by the department. Julia Grey reports Picture this: an educator at a public primary school gets down to the business of teaching grade ones, while in the classroom next door, the grade R teacher guides the five- and six-year-olds through their […]
The past is far from over as an online database revisits South Africa’s past. Julia Grey reports History’s a funny business: the politics of capturing the past can lead to so many interpretations of one event that you would be forgiven for wondering if any of it really happened at all. Omar Badsha, director of […]
Julia Grey found uncertainty on the ground about what it means to be a dedicated maths and science school Letsibogo Girls Secondary school in Meadowlands, Soweto, is one of the 102 schools identified nationally to specialise in maths, science and technology education. In many ways, the school is an obvious candidate for the role, according […]
The long-awaited policy on early childhood development (ECD) is not all it was hoped to be. Julia Grey reports Critics of the ECD white paper, released in May, believe weaknesses in the government’s plan ”takes provisioning backwards rather than forwards”. So says Salim Vally from the Education Policy Unit at Wits University, who identifies ”children […]
The boys compete and make new friends, while the organisers battle efforts to stop the tournament. Julia Grey reports Opportunities for youngsters mad about soccer may be cut down because of a political wrangle between rival organisers. At stake is the future of a 30-year-old football tournament, the Bill Stewart Invitation Tournament. This interprovincial tournament […]
The Eastern Cape finally seems to have come up with measures to improve education delivery. Julia Grey reports The steep learning curve that the Eastern Cape Department of Education has been struggling along may at last be leading to some stability, as weaknesses in the system are tackled in earnest. Efforts to weed out corruption […]
Forty-five years after thousands marched in protest against pass laws, women are still second class citizens, write Julia Grey and Edwin Naidu South African women are still fighting to be accepted as equals and given the same opportunities as males in the workplace, including in the teaching profession. Discrimination continues to undermine the status of […]