There are many useful Internet sites devoted to professional development ALL over the world teachers are using the Internet to help each other, by posting lesson plans and advice totally free of charge. Here are some of the most popular websites dedicated to teaching and teachers. Aimed at primary school teachers, TeachNet is a treasure […]

Communication between schools and libraries is a massive stumbling block. ”GO get information from the library” is a phrase students commonly hear from their teachers. ”And that,” says Nohra Moerat, ”is usually the end of the story, as far as the teacher is concerned.” Moerat is a librarian who has recently been appointed media liaison […]

Important information gathering skills can be learnt outside school THE Valhalla Park public library near Elsies River in the Cape Flats serves an estimated 16 000 people. Like many libraries in disadvantaged areas, it is crammed with schoolchildren in the afternoons, ranging from the smallest grade ones to the largest and most threatening kind of […]

The safe schools program aims to reclaim schools from gangsters IN 1997, a standard 8 pupil named Howard McKenzie become the 20th victim of a bitter gang war in Gugulethu. Howard was shot dead at school, in his classroom. The school violence impacted heavily upon Eugene Daniels, circuit manager for Howard’s school at the time. […]

The Department of Education’s Values, Education and Democracy report looks at new ways of dealing with diversity at school level. THE release of the Values, Education and Democracy report by the Department of Education last month should trigger some interesting and long-overdue debate on the nation’s value system — or on what the nation’s priorities […]

Minister of Education Kader Asmal held a conference to assess the state of farm schools last month. IN an effort to find a solution to the problems of farm schools, Minister of Education Kader Asmal convened a national conference on farm schools in Midrand on May 13. ”The Schools Register of Needs survey conducted by […]

The National Literacy Initiative aims to teach 3,3-million people to read JOHN Samuel has been picked by Minister of Education Kader Asmal to be the commander-in-chief in the fight against illiteracy. Last year Asmal declared his intention to ”break the back of illiteracy” in the next five years. The education budget has made funds available […]

Unicef’s global partnership has been launched to deliver on promises made in the Convention on the Rights of Children. NELSON Mandela, his wife Graca Machel, and United Nations Children’s Fund’s (Unicef) executive director Carol Bellamy together launched Unicef’s global partnership to deliver on promises made in the Convention on the Rights of Children. The programme […]

URSULA HOADLEY reviews A Dictionary of Education and Training, edited by Steward Mothata, with contributing authors Steward Mothata, Eleanor Lemmer, Thobeka Mda and Fanie Pretorius (Hodder & Stoughton, R99,95) A TEACHER I know recently told me about a consultant who visited his school to lead a workshop on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) for the […]

PENNY MACLACHLAN reviews Setting Up and Running a School Library by Nicola Baird (Heinemann and VSO ECOE Programme, R52,50) VOLUNTARY Service Overseas (VSO) is a British charity which sends expert volunteers to developing countries to share their skills and build capabilities by working with local communities. The experience of VSO workers, who have been working […]