School governing bodies (SGBs) are important democratic structures and can be used as vehicles to transform the education system in South Africa. The National Association of School Governing Bodies (NASGB) has its roots in the broad democratic movement, and believes in the democratic importance of SGBs, as well as their potential to transform schools.
Entrepreneurship studies and courses may seem to some like a theoretical straitjacket for creative business ideas. But a solid business background can give wings to ideas and ensure that practical hurdles in the life of new, growing and established businesses are more easily overcome.
The plight of Tunisian attorney Mohamed Abbou has been in the spotlight for several weeks now. The attorney received a three-and-a-half-year sentence last month for having made statements deemed likely to disturb public order, after he criticised Tunisian President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali’s invitation to Israel’s Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, to attend the World Summit on the Information Society.
It is significant that our schools are still classified as "former Model C", "urban", "rural" and "farm" schools. The national policies and laws for school governance have very different implications, depending on the type of school in which they are operating.
In one of the most shocking incidents in the teaching profession in recent times, an educator based at eMachakwini Primary School on the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal allegedly forced a five-year-old boy to drink his own urine.
First impressions of St Andrew’s College in the Eastern Cape could confirm negative assumptions about independent schools. With its handsome stone buildings and lush grounds, the all-boy school appears to embody the dubious values reserved for the rich: exclusivity, privilege and snobbery.
Poor support from district and regional structures is being blamed for sinking teacher morale and falling matric pass rates in a neglected area of the North West province. The Bophirima region, close to the border of the Northern Cape, encompasses 472 schools.
In the run-up to examinations, students frequently complain that teachers pile too much work on them. In Cameroon, however, the opposite is true. Since the academic year got under way in 2004, strikes by teachers have disrupted the education of millions of secondary-school pupils, and the sight of small groups of students roaming the streets when they should be in class has become common.
More than 1 000 historians, writers and intellectuals have signed a petition demanding the repeal of a new law requiring school history teachers in France to stress the ”positive aspects” of French colonialism. ”In retaining only the positive aspects of colonialism, this law imposes an official lie on massacres that at times went as far as genocide, on the slave trade, and on the racism that France has inherited,” says the petition.
On April 20 this year the Cape High Court gave judgement, dismissing the application by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa to access records of private donations made to the four biggest political parties in South Africa — the African National Congress, the Democratic Alliance, the Inkatha Freedom Party and the New National Party — under the Promotion of Access to Information Act.