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 […]

Trevor Manuel’s maths teacher helped develop his head for numbers Who was your favourite teacher? My favourite teacher was Peter Meyer — he actually only became my favourite in retrospect. I had much too difficult an adolescence to have really considered school or particular teachers favourite, but even then, there was a grudging admission that […]

Curriculum adviser EMILIA POTENZA answers questions from teachers about outcomes-based education (OBE) and Curriculum 2005. Q: How do you implement OBE when you are teaching combined classes, e.g. grade one and two together, etc. Our school is a three teacher school with classes from grade one to six. Which syllabus should I follow for a […]

CHARLES PERKEL, who is a consultant psychiatrist at Riverfield Lodge Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centre, addresses some commonly asked questions about alcohol and drug addiction Have you ever said or done something that you later regretted because you were drunk on alcohol or stoned on another substance? Have you ever neglected to do something, missed […]

WITH the memories (and scars) of apartheid still so strong, most of us flinch at notions of loyalty and nationhood. Loyalty to what? Should all South Africans share a common vision of this nation? A blind allegiance to a nation can be dangerous, not to mention insulting to our intelligence and ability to make independent […]

Sexual abuse, rape and unwanted pregnancy are robbing young girls of an education and a future HORRIFIC stories of child abuse have surfaced in Driefontein, a community in Mpumalanga that made headlines during the apartheid era when residents refused to be moved to a black area. Driefontein has now become a village of shame. A […]

An East Coast radio DJ presents fun and educational science shows EVERY day at 9am East Coast Radio disc jockey Daryl Ilbury says goodbye to his one million Breakfast Show listeners, and goes off to what he considers his real job — presenting zany science shows to schoolchildren all over KwaZulu-Natal. ”I’ve always loved science […]