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/ 10 October 2007
<iBrenda has a dragon in her blood by Hijltje Vink (Garamond; distributed by Biblionef SA) R35
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/ 20 September 2007
Thousands of unemployed South African youths and an embattled social services sector will benefit from a bilateral cooperation agreement signed between the department of social development and the government of Cuba. Under the agreement just more than 9 000 auxiliary social workers will be trained in the next year in a move to provide relief to overworked social workers.
For the first time since 1994 the government has rolled out a comprehensive literacy plan and campaign, which will enable millions of people to write their names, tell the time and understand the instructions on medicine bottles. This follows Cabinet’s approval of a R6,1-billion literacy campaign, which is poised to make far-reaching inroads into South Africa’s skills deficit.
The monthly amount that teachers receive to service their bonds has not been increased for 22 years despite a staggering increase of 256% in property prices in the period from 1994 to 2007. An increased housing subsidy has been a key demand in ongoing negotiations between teacher unions and the government.
Golf has been undergoing a quiet transformation. It is shedding its tag as an elitist sport, overwhelmingly played by affluent white folks. Indications are that in years to come there will be more black faces at local and major international golf tournaments. This will be thanks to the South African Golf Development Board, which runs a programme that aims to make the sport accessible to more young black children from disadvantaged communities.
The national education department has identified district offices as key instruments in its pursuit of improving the quality of education, said Palesa Tyobeka, deputy director general for general education and training.
Sejankabo High School hogged the headlines last year for producing an overall matric pass rate of only 9,21%.
Mounting tensions between the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) and the National Teachers’ Union (Natu) in KwaZulu-Natal have been blamed for the recent kidnapping and murder of two teachers in the province. The presidents of both Sadtu and Natu have undertaken to hold a summit involving both unions following the deaths of Philile Mthenjane, the deputy-principal of Hlokohloko Primary School in Jozini near Empangeni, and Phindile Ntuli, a department head.
Families, colleagues, friends and the community gathered together to pay their respects to the 13 teachers from Diphetogo Primary School in Mafikeng, North West, who died in a horrific road accident last year. The teachers died on the Mafikeng/Lichtenburg road while on their way to bury a parent of one of their colleagues.
Mapaseka Khanye (12) was disqualified as the winner in the SABC’s Lights Camera Action Story Writing Competition. <i>the Teacher</i> published an interview with Khanye last month. Khanye, a learner from Mampudi Primary School in Vosloorus on Gauteng’s East Rand, was disqualified after it was found that her story, titled <i>There was a boy called little boy</i>, had been lifted word for word from an already published work by Rita Phillips Mitchells.