The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) held its sixth national congress, in Midrand, Gauteng, in a politically charged environment owing to the ongoing succession battle within the ANC. Sadtu has been very vocal about where its sympathy lies regarding who should lead the ANC. With its massive following of 230 000 members, it is key in deciding who wears the crown come 2009.

When Nico Wiggil, a mathematics teacher at Laer­skool Secunda in Mpumalanga, was told he was among the teachers who had won a trip to a prestigious United States-based space and rocket centre in Alabama earlier this year, he thought he was dreaming. “Incredible, overwhelmed, too good to be true” were the words Wiggil used to describe his feelings.

Every teacher should be competent in HIV/Aids education and skills by 2015. This was one of the resolutions reached following a three-day meeting held in Boksburg on Gauteng’s East Rand. About 40 delegates from Commonwealth countries attended. The aim of the event was to share ideas on how to address the growing negative impact of the HIV/Aids pandemic on the education sector.

Schools should be run like businesses with principals playing the role of chief executive officer, said Clem Sunter of the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund. Sunter was one of the speakers at the South African Principals’ Association annual conference held in Bloemfontein, Free State, last month.

The Open Learning Systems Education Trust (Olset) received a double boost for its ground-breaking initiative of using radio as a tool to support teachers and promote multilingualism in classrooms. Its interactive radio-learning series English in Action is broadcast to schools through the SABC’s regional radio stations.

An ambitious “high performance programme”, aimed at identifying young, talented soccer players and enabling them to reach their full potential, has swung into action. Part of the programme will focus on strengthening the life skills of the players, and teachers will be enlisted to help achieve this.

He used to be one of the stars in your classroom, an energetic and hard worker who always achieved top marks. But suddenly his performance slumped; he is aloof, arrives late at school, visits the toilet endlessly, is untidy and rebellious. You sense there is a problem, but you just cannot put your finger on it. "Dig deeper," urged Captain Jan Combrinck, "as these are some of the tell-tale signs of drug abuse."

The last thing Elijah Mathibela expected when his phone rang on Easter Monday was to be told of deaths in the community. The broken bodies of three young women were lying behind a shopping centre in Mamelodi West, Pretoria. They were murdered. Mathibela, the principal of Jafta Mahlangu High, could not help but wonder whether they were among his charges.