Grade 10 and 11 learners in Kwazulu-Natal may finally be able to open their new textbooks at the end of April. The textbooks make their arrival a whole term behind schedule because of a face-off between the provincial department of education and major book publishers at the beginning of the year. A group of three […]
Two years ago Natalie* (14) called a crisis line to say her teacher had been sexually and emotionally abusing her since she was 12. The crisis line, Childline in KwaZulu-Natal, reported the incident to the province’s department of education and culture, and followed up with a monthly reminder. Two years later, the department has taken […]
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. The legal age of consent for sex is 16. But 12-year-old Lerato* from Kloofwaters Intermediate School near Rustenburg is one of about 10 girls injected with Nur-Isterate, a contraceptive that lasts […]
espite past criticism that its primary school feeding schemes were not reaching remote areas of the Eastern Cape, Bisho says that it is satisfied that the programme is back on track. And, adds the provincial government, bread suppliers are soon to receive outstanding payments. Many bakeries have been facing a cash crisis because the provincial […]
If South Africa’s education system can be compared to a volatile river, then schools in Stellenbosch are distant streams, meandering separately, at a pace of their own. The schools reflect the town. Issues of transformation and integration surface only occasionally, briefly interrupting its otherwise peaceful flow. Or so it seems. A recent protest at Stellenbosch […]
Mayhem marked the start of the new school year at Gelvandale Senior Secondary School in Port Elizabeth when an African National Congress leader took drastic action against the school’s admission policies. Christian Martin, an ANC MPL in the Eastern Cape who serves on the legislature’s standing committee on education, brought locks and chains to the […]
‘An educationist should never be made a minister of education, just like a military person should not be made minister of defence,” Kader Asmal, then water and forestry minister, told the Sunday Times in 1996. ‘They bring their own activist ideas, but there is more to it than that [activism].” President Thabo Mbeki, who has […]
‘My father … passed away on 1 January 1999. I live with my grandmother. She pays for my school fees from her pension, which is not enough since she also has to look after my aunt’s children and my uncle’s son. We are suffering and there is hardly any food. We request that you give […]
Naledi Pandor, the new Minister of Education, has proved through her years as community activist, academic and politician to be as calming an influence as she is an authoritative presence. No doubt these qualities are going to come in handy as the former chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) steps into an arena […]
Despite achieving the best matric results in the country for three years in a row, the Northern Cape is not benefiting from the knowledge of school-leavers in the province. ‘We are suffering from a massive brain drain,” a worried Tina Joemat-Pettersson, provincial minister of education in the Northern Cape, told the Mail & Guardian. ‘But […]