Cornia Pretorius

"My first year was accompanied by excitement — finally I reached what I had wanted. But I was aware that I was in an environment riddled with turbulence and had to address issues without causing too much resistance. As a new person I knew I would be faced with decision-making traps. It was a humbling experience," Professor Irene Moutlana tells Cornia Pretorius.

In many respects Desmond Makhanya (72) is the living memory of Adams College. When he attended the school in the late 1940s and early 1950s he was the fourth generation in his family to be educated at the mission school. His great grandfather, his grandmother and his mother were all alumni.

The higher education system and individual institutions need to act on the practice whereby some senior academics allegedly plagiarise the work of students. So say Dr Fulufhelo Netswera, a research director at Unisa, and Ndinannyi Malada, a higher education researcher at the Centre for Education Policy Development.

Growing up in the NG Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) some of us have come to believe that dominees (ministers) come in prototypes. After years of careful observation from the benches of NG Kerk places of worship, all ministers appear to be moulded during their extended theology education to sport the same look and project the same sound.

The first group of 400 school principals has been enrolled for the South African National Professional Qualification for Principals. This is part of an initiative by the department of education to professionalise principalships and reclaim the status once attached to the position.

The Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysers­unie is seeking legal advice over the government’s implementation of the Government Employees’ Medical Scheme. The union said the government’s implementation of Gems was undermining the economic rights of its members.

The man credited with leading the turnaround of student numbers at the University of the Witwatersrand has resigned. Peter Bezuidenhoudt, director of marketing and communications and chief executive of Wits Enterprise, joined the institution in 2000, when student numbers had plummeted since the mid-1990s.

The National Research Foundation (NRF) is investigating ways to increase significantly the monetary values of annual grants for honours, masters and doctoral students as part of its plan to produce more researchers. Professor Mzamo Mangaliso, president and chief executive of the NRF, told Higher Learning that the allocations to honours and masters students, in particular, “were woefully inadequate”.

The more than 60 000 grade 11 repeaters in KwaZulu-Natal have been given another option to help them finish school. This follows an investigation by the KwaZulu-Natal department of education which found that most of the 62 000 learners repeating grade 11 this year are not coping and that schools cannot provide them with the help they need.

The education department in KwaZulu-Natal is recruiting teachers who retired and who accepted voluntary severance packages as part of its strategy to relieve educator shortages in certain subjects. Christi Naudé, spokesperson for the department, said 426 teachers have already been registered on the provincial database.

School principals, school governing bodies and representative councils of learners have signed “contracts” with the provincial department of education, undertaking to improve the achievement of grade 10, 11 and 12 learners. Persistent failure to meet these contractual obligations could, in severe cases, lead to the redeployment or even dismissal of principals, according to the Western Cape department of education.

When it comes to debating Afrikaans in society and in science –something that has become a defining quality of Stellenbosch University (SU) in recent times — Professor Russel Botman can wear a been-there-done-that T-shirt comfortably. The new vice-chancellor of SU was spokesperson for the student representative council of the University of the Western Cape in 1976.

The education department’s R5,9billion recapitalisation of the higher education sector comes in the wake of a realisation that "you cannot expect to produce students of the 21st century with 20th-century equipment," according to Dr Molapo Qhobela, deputy director general of higher education.

The government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa has identified skilled artisans and vocational skills as critical for sustained economic growth. The new curriculum for further education and training colleges that will lead to National Certificate (Vocational) qualifications is a comprehensive and coordinated response to this skills development agenda.

One million further education and training (FET) college students by 2014 — this is the target of the department of education in its quest to create skills in South Africa. FET colleges have become a major thrust in the government’s plans for skills development since 2004.

Terry Volkwyn, CEO of Primedia Broadcasting, has been named the 2006 Boss of the Year. The award, which is organised by Career Success (published by Dictum Publishers) and cele­brates its 17th anniversary this year, recognises bosses’ attention to the needs of their workforce and their leadership skills.

Grade 11 learners will write a national examination at the end of next year as part of the national Department of Education’s efforts to prepare learners, teachers and parents for a “tougher” school-exit qualification. Schools will receive examples of what the examination, set by the department, would look like beforehand.

The South African school principal of the future will have a special qualification in school management to prepare him/her for the job. The position will come with special conditions of service that mean if he/she does not perform, he/she can be removed from the position by the Department of Education.

In this edition you will meet Patrick Sikhumbana, the inspirational principal of Meetse-a-bophelo Primary School, in Mamelodi, Pretoria, and his team of 60 plus teachers. Like most of you, they are miracle workers.