The Department of Education criticised the KwaZulu-Natal branch of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) on Friday for holding a meeting at 10am on a school day, leaving children unattended. Director general Duncan Hindle said a principal had expressed his concern that at least 10 classes at his school were affected.
South Africa can become a caring society despite the racist incidents at Skielik and Reitz hostel at the University of the Free State, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in Johannesburg on Wednesday. ”We are a wonderful country with many talented people,” Tutu said in launching an exhibition honouring struggle stalwarts Walter and Albertina Sisulu.
Games such as ”hit me, hit me” and ”rape me, rape me”, where schoolchildren chase each other and then pretend to hit or rape each other, are being played at South African schools, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said in a report on school-based violence, which was presented in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
For an American TV audience, he had all the credentials to be a successful celebrity chef. Robert Irvine was a Briton, apparently with royal connections, a knighthood and experience that included cooking for four United States presidents. His show Dinner: Impossible quickly became a favourite on the cable channel Food Network.
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/ 29 February 2008
Police are investigating a case of crimen injuria in relation to a racist video made by students at the University of the Free State. The video, which caused national outrage, features black university employees on their knees eating food that had apparently been urinated upon by white students.
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/ 25 February 2008
A ”significant” number of children drop out of the schooling system after grade nine, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said in Cape Town on Monday. ”South Africa is doing very well with respect to enrolment of children up to grade nine, but a significant number drop out at that point,” she told journalists during a Council of Education Ministers meeting.
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/ 20 February 2008
About 10 students from the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) were arrested on Wednesday following a protest that turned violent, said Pretoria police. Captain Dumisani Ndlazi said the 10, who were part of a protesting group, were arrested at the university’s main campus in Pretoria West.
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/ 20 February 2008
Classes were still suspended at three Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) campuses on Wednesday amid meetings to resolve matters, said a university spokesperson. The university suspended all lectures on all three campuses on Tuesday following ongoing violent protests over fee hikes and academic exclusion.
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/ 19 February 2008
Classes at all the Tshwane University of Technology’s campuses were suspended amid student protests on Tuesday, authorities said. ”The decision was taken due to the prevailing atmosphere on campus and the potential for violent clashes between striking and non-striking students,” vice-chancellor Errol Tyobeka said.
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/ 15 February 2008
Pointing out that Thursday February 21 is International Mother Language Day, the president of the African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, has called for the new schools’ pledge drawn up by the Department of Education to be recited in the different languages of the country — depending on the region.
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/ 13 February 2008
Investigations into more than 500 000 social-welfare grants in KwaZulu-Natal have saved the taxpayer close to R520-million that would have been lost to corruption, KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele said on Wednesday, delivering his State of the Province address in Pietermaritzburg.
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/ 13 February 2008
At least 284 schools in the greater Durban region owe the eThekwini Water Department over R5-million for unpaid water and electricity. eThekwini water and sanitation head, Neil Macleod, said none of the schools in question had their water or electricity supply disconnected because of the arrears.
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/ 11 February 2008
Durban police are investigating 10 cases of fraud linked to national insurance and investment giant Liberty Life. It is alleged that 10 people had chunks of their salaries taken out of their bank accounts, seemingly by Liberty Life, for premiums they did not owe the company.
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/ 8 February 2008
The mother of murdered King Edward VII (Kes) high school pupil Mfundo Ntshangase wept in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday when the case against seven teenagers was postponed. The seven accused have to produce their birth certificates at their next appearance.
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/ 7 February 2008
The director general in the Department of Education is in denial about a crisis in the school system, the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said on Thursday. This comes after Duncan Hindle on Wednesday ”attacked” the SAIRR for its statements highlighting the fact that most South African children do not feel safe at school.
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/ 6 February 2008
A report by the South African Institute for Race Relations, which said South African schools were the most dangerous in the world, is ”media hype”, the Department of Education said on Wednesday. The report ”is evidence that this once-credible institution has fallen prey to a political agenda”, said department Director General Duncan Hindle.
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/ 5 February 2008
South African schools are the most dangerous in the world, with only 23% of pupils saying they feel safe at school, the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said on Tuesday. Spokesperson for SAIRR Thomas Blaser said a Progress in International Reading Literacy study had ranked South Africa last in terms of school safety.
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/ 31 January 2008
Dozens of police officers and members of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union converged at a Durban school on Thursday, 48 hours after a former pupil went into the school and threatened teachers and pupils with a gun. The matter was only reported to police on Wednesday afternoon.
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/ 18 January 2008
Three Pretoria High Court judges have described the ”insensitivity” of Hoërskool Ermelo and its governing body to students who did not want to be taught in Afrikaans as ”shocking”. The judges last year dismissed the school’s application to set aside a decision to revoke the powers of its governing body to determine language policy.
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/ 15 January 2008
Parents, teachers and pupils staged a protest on Tuesday against the admission policy of the Kismet Combined Secondary school in Colridge near Vryburg in the North West. South African Democratic Teachers’ Union secretary Joe Molipa said the school had increased its fees by 37% in order to deny poor pupils enrolment.
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/ 11 January 2008
Three days into the school year and Gauteng’s teenagers are already hanging around on street corners rather than in class. Bunking classes and smoking outside buildings are a common problem in some high schools, and truancy rates are high in many disadvantaged areas.
There were about 1 000 fewer teachers in North West province at the opening of schools on Wednesday as the provincial education department had not renewed their contracts, a teachers’ union claimed. But an education department spokesperson said no teacher shortages are expected in North West.
Shortages of teachers and textbooks and belated efforts to enrol children were some of the problems plaguing public schools on the first day of term on Wednesday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said. ”It’s clear that the shortage of classrooms and teachers is dire. One teacher told us that there are between 60 and 70 children to one class.”
The number of fatalities on South African roads over the festive season decreased by 13,26%, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Tuesday. He was releasing the Arrive Alive campaign’s figures for the holiday season from December 1 to January 6. The number of people killed on the roads had declined to 1Â 419.
The weeding out of apparent corruption in the Gauteng education department was to blame for textbook order delays for the 2008 school year, Gauteng provincial minister of education Angie Motshekga said on Tuesday. ”We had our own internal challenges,” she said at a media briefing in central Johannesburg about the department’s readiness for 2008.
The Young Communist League will on Tuesday launch a ”Right to Learn” campaign in memory of Joe Slovo. Spokesperson Castro Ngobese said the purpose of the campaign was to to ensure that schools re-opened smoothly. ”He was a selfless and dedicated communist, a fighter par excellence for the working class and the poor,” he said.
If nothing else, the country’s matric results are a loud and painful reminder that the education system is in need of a major overhaul.
Grade 12 pupils from at least four schools in Mpumalanga are caught up in confusion as to whether or not they have passed their matric exams, the Sowetan reported on Wednesday. Instead of joining the throng of those who passed, Thokozani Hlatshwayo and several of his classmates were left ”confused and traumatised”.
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/ 28 December 2007
The decline in the matric pass rate is worrying, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said in Pretoria on Friday. The country needed to increase the number of candidates for entry to higher education levels, she said. Pandor said several reasons were responsible for the decline in the matric pass rate.
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/ 28 December 2007
The disappointing South African matric pass rate came as no surprise, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday. MP George Boinamo said it was, however, disappointing that the pass rate had deteriorated. ”During the past year our country’s education system, and more importantly, its learners, faced many challenges.”
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/ 22 December 2007
A dilemma confronts many Democratic activists in the United States. They respect Hillary Clinton’s intellect. They admire her performance in the debates. But it is difficult for them to commit to a candidate who not only voted in favour of the war on Iraq in 2002, but has refused to express contrition, or any deep emotion, about that choice.
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/ 20 December 2007
A team of psychologists in KwaZulu-Natal has been tasked to deal with ”stressed” matriculants when they receive their results, the provincial department of education said on Thursday. Spokesperson Chris Maxon said the department was concerned by an increase in the number of attempted suicides by pupils.