LIKE a bolt out of the blue, what was once a stable, happening school in the affluent area of Bryanston in Gauteng suddenly became a hotbed of racial violence and controversy. Or was it so out of the blue? Some would argue the signs that all was not well at Bryanston High school had been […]
A CHILD is caught smoking dagga during break. How should the school respond? All too often it’s by suspending, sometimes expelling, the offender. In one Western Cape school a first-time dagga user was expelled. The school merely moved the problem on. National guidelines leave the details of drug policy to provincial departments or individual governing […]
New measures help schools in the Western Cape deal with drug problems NO doubt about it, Jake definitely has a nose for narcotics. In fact the very scent of cocaine, dagga or mandrax sends him into a frenzy. But Jake is no junkie. He belongs to Detector Dogs – a security company using sniffer dogs […]
”THE best thing that’s ever happened to schooling was the banning of corporal punishment,” says Graham Bailey, headmaster of Pinetown Boys High. ”Under the old system a kid could misbehave or not do his homework and he’d get a couple of whacks. Come the end of the year when he failed, his parents would jump […]
The Constitutional Court upholds the ban against corporal punishment THERE’S no more getting around it: corporal punishment has no more place in our schools, and educators are going to have to get serious about finding alternatives. This follows the Constitutional Court’s dismissal of an appeal by Christian Education of South Africa (Cesa) to have corporal […]
The youth run amok intent on dealing out their form of own justice. RECENT events once again demonstrate the youth’s conviction that mob action is the best way to express grievances and demand ”justice”. The past lives on: Numerous incidents of students running riot in the name of ”justice” suggest that this generation has more […]
The HIV/Aids epidemic threatens to destroy our education system. THE figures for Aids in education are becoming terrifying — two teachers are dying each week, and within the next 18 months teachers will be dying faster than they can be trained. At a function in Johannesburg teachers compared notes about HIV infection rates and how […]
The curriculum is likely to be marked by changes for some time THE period of transition from the dreaded apartheid-based form of education to a curriculum that complements and nutures our new era of democracy is due to continue for some time to come. Linda Chisholm, who headed up the Curriculum 2005 review committee,does not […]
Proposed labour law changes will affect teachers negatively AN array of amendments to existing legislation on labour relations has recently been proposed by government — which, should they be passed, will have a significant impact on the working conditions and rights of teachers. The amendments range from those governing labour relations generally, to others which […]
Life Line Johannesburg gives youth space to explore important issues AFTER receiving counselling from Life Line’s youth programme in Alexandra and Dobsonville in Soweto, Nhlanhla Khonzeka is now equipped to help other youths in his community. Khonzeka, who says his life has always been unpleasant and frustrating, is involved in Life Line’s Wise Choices, a […]