The Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) seems to be losing the plot in addressing the problem of declining enrolment at some schools in Soweto.
The doors of learning creaked open with some difficulty as schools re-opened last month. While provincial heads insist the start of the school year went well, reports from around the country told a different story. Work on the ground suggested illegal exclusions, as well as classroom conditions that do not promote learning, still affected thousands of children.
Thousands of Eastern Cape schools opened for the new school year late last month without essential stationery, including basics such as pencils and paper. A lack of planning by the province’s education department is to blame for the blunder.
Freshly painted in yellow and blue, Kamohelo Preschool in the township of Rammolutse at Viljoenskroon in the Free State, stands out from the row of shacks that surrounds it. This early childhood development (ECD) centre is, like so many dotted around South Africa, struggling to provide an education foundation to preschoolers in the bleak terrain of dire poverty.
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/ 14 December 2004
When is a stone not just a stone? When it is a weapon, an historical relic – or an ornament for sale. Creative ways of seeing things is one of the learning objectives of the Business Ventures (BV) programme. Taking business theory off the pages of dusty books and into life experience is doing it for teachers and learners alike.
It’s a matter of official record: matric exams are becoming easier. This was confirmed last week by Peliwe Lolwane, CEO of Umalusi, the independent body tasked with certifying the matric exams. A report released on September 21 on Umalusi’s research into standards of the matric exams stated that ”higher pass rates are not a sign of examinations becoming easier”.
Girl learners as young as 12 are being injected with contraceptives at schools by nurses from the North West department of health — sometimes without their parents’ consent. The Child Care Act states that no medicine may be administered to any child under the age of 14 without a parent’s informed consent.
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/ 28 November 2003
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa stated on Friday that 120 retrenched workers of the Chinese-based Hisense electronics company would on Friday protest against the retrenchments. The union has accused the company of using South Africa as a dumping ground for cheap electronics products.
Instead of spending her twilight years in armchair cogitation, octogenarian Anna Gomba has taken up the spade and wheelbarrow. As part of the Mamelodi Greening Committee, Gomba leads a group of 36 volunteer pensioners who work in the Pretoria township’s flourishing food garden
Increasing numbers of voters are supporting independent candidates. If results of by-elections since are anything to go by, support is growing for independent candidates in some areas, showing disenchantment with traditional party politics.