The oldest culture in Southern Africa faces huge changes if it’s to survive LOOKING like odd anthills, the hundreds of dark brown army tents set up between the scraps of bush and vast stretches of dusty nothing add to the outlandish appearance of this harsh Northern Cape area. This is a tent-town called Schmidtsdrift. It […]

While learners at Volkskool Orania receive an education for the 21st century, they’re also taught a philosophy tied to the racial divisions of the past. LEARNERS at Volkskool Orania seem to embody two contradictory forces: that of the future, with their extremely modern schooling system; and that of the distant past, with an exclusively all-white […]

Adult Basic Education and Training aims to ”break the back of illiteracy among adults in five years”. MINISTER of Education Kader Asmal recently announced that he will ”break the back of illiteracy among adults in five years”. Twelve-and-a-half million South African adults are functionally illiterate, according to a survey by the University of Natal’s Centre […]

For many South African adults a matric certificate is seen as vital in the competitive job market — and it’s never too late to go back to school and get it SINCE January 1996 Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) has been declared a priority in this country. Campaigns and institutes offering learning pathways to […]

The Federated Union of Black Artists offers classes in drama, dance, visual arts and music. SINCE its establishment in 1978 as the Federated Union of Black Artists (Fuba), the union has expanded to become an academy that offers classes in drama, dance, visual arts and music. But the lack of funding in the 1980s forced […]

The Music Industry Development Initiative is lobbying for music to be taught in every school as part of Curriculum 2005. THE Music Industry Development Initiative (Midi Trust), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that contributes to the development of the music industry, is lobbying for music to be taught in every school as part of Curriculum 2005. […]

In a shanty town, pupils achieve 100% pass rate. By CHRIS MCGREAL in Orange Farm MOEKETSI Molelekoa began turning potential pupils away from his school after the number of new applicants topped 300. The headmaster of Leshata secondary school had room for only half that number. There were places at other schools in the area […]

Education Minister Kader Asmal visited Soweto’s Meadowlands High on the first day of school … and came away ‘disappointed and shamed’. ON the first day of the new school year, Education Minister Kader Asmal descended on a Soweto school with one of the worst records in the country. Meadowlands high school had a 13% pass […]

Some parents are deciding not to have their children immunised, but the World Bank believes that after clean water, immunisation is the most cost-effective public health measure available. EVERY few years vaccinations get a bad press. This time, the deaths of a number of babies within a week of receiving the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus) […]

What the youth are saying about sex should make us sit up and listen YOUTH are speaking out candidly — perhaps for the first time — about what sex means to them. ‘I have watched S’cumto and it’s quite cool. We were given sex education at school where we learnt a lot of things we […]