It looks like a contraption out of a science fiction movie, with its heavy-duty hammer and chains, and it is used for destruction — of the best kind.
The labour market discriminates against graduates from historically disadvantaged institutions. These graduates have a higher unemployment rate than those from historically white institutions. In addition, African graduates find it harder to secure employment than their white counterparts and they earn less than other race groups.
Senior researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council, Moeketsi Letseka, hits the nail on the head when he says that historically disadvantaged universities are not doing enough to market themselves or to change how the labour market regards them.
Education minister Naledi Pandor has asked her advisory body, the Council on Higher Education, to look into the viability of a four-year undergraduate degree as a response to South Africa’s 50% university drop-out rate. This emerged from a Presidential Working Group meeting this week, comprising the university vice-chancellors’ association, Higher Education South Africa, education officials and President Thabo Mbeki.
University vice-chancellors will engage in discussions with President Thabo Mbeki and education decision-makers about the viability of a four-year undergraduate degree that addresses students’ academic shortcomings and prepares them for the working world.
The government’s policy of providing free education to South Africa’s poorest children is failing and should be scrapped, argues a newly released report by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa). In his study of government funding policies since 2000, Idasa senior researcher Russell Wildeman said that support for public schools had grown from R4,3-billion in 2006 to R5,7-billion last year.
The house looked beautiful and the garden was leafy. It met most of our requirements — but still it was not as nice as our home in Johannesburg.
It felt strange walking through this upmarket suburb of Athlone, Pietermartitzburg, looking for a house to buy.
Some don’t, some do, some divide by two. A child’s riddle? In fact, it captures the situation among universities over life orientation (LO), a novel feature of the National Senior Certificate syllabus. Some universities recognise LO for admission purposes; some refuse to recognise it; one gives it half the weighting of other subjects.
Learners and teachers remain uncertain about their preparedness for the new national senior certificate. Teachers and representatives of all four teachers’ trade unions have sounded the alarm on this year’s school-leaving exam, saying they have not been adequately prepared to teach the new curriculum. The national senior certificate, to be written in about 190 days’ time, will replace ”matric”.
Japanese and South African universities are expected to formulate joint projects in science and technology at a high-level meeting in Cape Town later this month. From these meetings a South Africa-Japan Universities’ Forum was set up to identify priority collaborative areas that would be of benefit to both countries.