Zimbabwean officials late on Wednesday defied a judge’s order to release two British journalists on bail, two weeks after they were detained near a polling station during Zimbabwe’s parliamentary election. Toby Harnden and Julian Simmonds, of The Sunday Telegraph, have pleaded not guilty to charges of violating Zimbabwe’s Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
The Emerging Voices Report explores the lack of democracy affecting rural schools. The report raises concerns about the lack of a united view within communities regarding schooling and education. Apparent rifts among community members, among generations within the community, between communities and schools and within schools are having a negative affect on education.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation recently released its Emerging Voices report on
education in rural communities. <i>TheTeacher</i> visited another lost village in southern KwaZulu Natal where poverty, illiteracy and unemployment have a major effect on children’s education.
Roy Killen of Australia and William Spady have created a tool – the Curriculum Design Matrix – that directly helps educators organise their curriculum thinking around any set of complex role-performance outcomes. They explain how they have applied the OBE concept of “Outcomes of Significance” to South Africa’s 12 Critical Outcomes (COs).
The Novalis Ubutu African Drum ‘n Dance programme celebrates African culture and heritage and the therapeutic power of music and movement. A group of learners from seven Western Cape schools enjoy moving through a sequence of traditional drum rhythms and African voice and dance.
President Robert Mugabe’s refusal to sign into law the controversial NGO Bill and his pledge to compensate farmers for assets and improvements to seized land are the result of international pressure, say observers. They add that he is pandering to his rural constituency, whose votes handed Zanu-PF a two-thirds majority in the March 31 parliamentary elections.
The violence that once tore KwaZulu-Natal apart continues to haunt the survivors. But an alternative therapy seems to be putting those ghosts to rest, helping people heal their psychological and emotional wounds. TheTeacher investigates this new therapy, called The Journey, which is being piloted at six schools.
The Emerging Voices report provides a mixed picture of “experience of the classroom”. Curriculum 2005 was introduced in 1997 to remove the “bias, discrimination and social injustice” that underpinned apartheid’s Christian National Education and Bantu Education. However schools are still struggling with the new curriculum methodology – OBE.
With the nation’s unemployment rates hovering around the 40% mark, learning
institutions have their work cut out for them to give their learners a shot at becoming active in the economy. <i>TheTeacher </i>visits an independent school intent on nurturing confident learners.
A breakthrough in resolving Western Cape taxi violence — in which two more commuters were wounded on Thursday — has been achieved, the provincial transport department confirmed. Provincial transport minister Mcebisi Skwatsha will address a media briefing with the leaders of the warring taxi groups on Friday.