Most higher education institutions currently make use of a points score to summarise performance in the grade 12 or “matric” examination. A points score helps institutions to make admission decisions based on school performance in an efficient, transparent way.
Universities, which now supply about 98% of all new teachers for the schooling system, have in the past few years qualified fewer than a third of the teachers needed to replace those leaving the profession. We know that teacher shortage is acute in some learning areas (such as literacy, mathematics, science and technology) and in some geographical regions (particularly in rural schools).
True freedom will come the day the aphorism “talk is cheap” becomes literally true. With that in mind I checked out the various pre-paid cellphone packages to see who offers the best deal. Virgin Mobile is a recent addition to the cellphone family. It shook up the market last year when it based all its offerings on per-second billing.
The National Credit Act came into affect on June 1. The Act is aimed at curtailing reckless lending and encourages debt counselling for people who find themselves in a debt trap. Owing to changes brought about by the Act, consumers will now have to be far more aware of their credit risk, because this will determine the rate at which they can borrow.
Football fans could not believe their eyes when the “man in black” for the Kaizer Chiefs versus Santos match turned out to be a woman. No, they weren’t in dreamland, Deidre Mitchell (31) was refereeing the game. If anyone had any doubt about Mitchell’s ability, the flawless and professional manner in which she handled the match saw them eating humble pie.
Girls thrive in single-sex schools, but boys do not. It is a common assumption and new research from London’s Institute of Education (IoE) suggests, to a certain extent, that it is true. Researchers have found that girls who go to girls’ schools will later earn more than those from mixed schools — partly because they are less likely to make gendered decisions about their studies and are, therefore, more likely to take maths and science subjects.
After three days sitting in a dusty clearing, Ibrahim is beginning to wonder if a European tourist will ever hire one of his camels for a tour of the rose-lined boulevards of Marrakesh. ”The number of visitors has dwindled to nothing in the past week,” said the 21-year-old Moroccan, his lips pale and dry in the summer heat. ”I’ve been waiting for three days but not a single tourist has come for a ride.
On instruction from Premier Ebrahim Rasool, Senior Superintendent Jeremy Veary was made station commander in Mitchells Plain in April this year to head one of the most difficult police stations in the Western Cape. Mitchells Plain is bigger than Bloemfontein, covering a vast area between the R300 highway and False Bay. It is home to about 1,7-million people — yet it has only one police station.
Political diaries can be a damn good read — and they can also deepen our understanding of how power works. How nice by now to have had an insider’s account of the Mandela administration, or Mbeki’s. What a pity that someone like Pallo Jordan or Kader Asmal has not mustered the energy to produce a political memoir that sheds light on the choices made in the early years of democracy.
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