During last month’s Budget speech, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel announced new funding for projects that put education and housing at the heart of the government’s social development plans. Education officials said they had won a number of victories, in the form of new funding for further education and training colleges, improved salaries for teachers and more financial aid for tertiary students.
"While I agree with Malegapuru Makgoba’s view of spoiling by some white men and women (‘Wrath of dethroned white males’), I find his solution — the ‘imitation’ of the new dominant Africans by the subordinate whites — problematic and dangerous," writes deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Venda Professor Marcus Ramogale.
The news that MTN staff and executive management are to repay the loan used to purchase an 18,7% stake three years ahead of schedule sounds like a reason to celebrate. But on closer inspection, the feat came at a huge price for empowerment and represents a loss of long-term vision. Newshelf 664, a company made up of 2 400 MTN staff members, purchased the stake two years ago at an average price of R13,90 a share.
Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin’s shake-up of the state sector — designed to locate it at the centre of a more vigorous economy — is moving into top gear. Developments this week made it clear that managers and officials who cannot match the pace are get-ting short shrift as he overhauls the Department of Public Enterprises and turns the screws on tardy parastatals.
Efforts to address adult illiteracy have amounted to almost nothing. Ten years into our democracy, nearly one in two adults are still functionally illiterate in South Africa.
The Bloemfontein High Court has again ruled in favour of a northern Free State school that the provincial government wanted to close. This ends a two year struggle for the Bopasetjhaba Primary School’ who with the assistance of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies took the department of education to the Bloemfontein High Count in mid 2003.
<i>TheTeacher</i> looks at how laws regulating the textbook industry are failing education. The education system is paying too much money for books and is enriching the publishing industry. The cost of books in general is high in South Africa compared to other countries and this is affecting the development of South Africa into a reading nation.
William Spade describes a framework for understanding learning outcomes that he has shared across the world. He looks at how these outcomes can be the grounding pillars and a design blueprint for all of the other kinds of learning an education system might want to foster.
More than R11-billion flowed into unit trusts in the March quarter, as investors remained bullish on prospects for equity markets, figures released by the Association of Collective Investments on Thursday show. This was nearly double the December quarter’s inflow. Di Turpin, the association’s CEO, said domestic equity funds and asset allocation funds were the most popular destinations.
According to findings released by the Education Relations Council (ELRC) more than half the country’s teachers intend leaving the profession. The figures appear in a comprehensive study of teachers in public schools that the ELRC commissioned two years ago “following worrying anecdotal reports that indicated that educators seem to be leaving the education profession in large numbers.”