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/ 23 September 2008
New report on academic freedom calls for a greater transparency around funding allocations, writes Primarashni Gower.
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/ 23 September 2008
Finally, the contribution that private higher-education institutions can make is being recognised, writes Felicity Coughlan.
Pandor sends investigators to Mangosuthu University after suspension of vice-chancellor
Our interesting female politicians are almost all in the opposition. Why is that?
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/ 16 September 2008
Failed universities mergers are being examined for possible solutions, according to ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe.
Only 22% of higher-level students complete their undergraduate degree within the required period, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said on Monday.
The Young Communist League has taken issue with Education Minister Naledi Pandor’s stance on free education.
South Africa’s education system underperformed and failed to support pupils in acquiring skills for learning, says Education Minister Naledi Pandor.
Education Minister Naledi Pandor and her predecessor, Kader Asmal, took a hard line on private universities, introducing tough legislative controls.
Our Minister of Education tends to come up with unscripted remarks that are by turns strangely provocative, out of the ball park or insightful.
Minimum admission requirements for programmes to be set
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union on Thursday rejected the proposed public-service annual increase of 10,5%.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) is arranging a series of protests to stop the use of a grade 12 history book it describes as ”biased propaganda … poisoning the minds of children”. National protest organiser Albert Mncwango said on Tuesday that the book, titled In Search of History, is currently being used by schools throughout South Africa.
The government’s decision to reopen teacher training colleges — announced this week by Education Minister Naledi Pandor — indicates that despite programmes to increase the number of teachers trained, there is still a shortage in key areas, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday.
The Education Department is considering reopening teacher training colleges, says Education Minister Naledi Pandor. In a written reply to a question in Parliament by Desiree van der Walt of the Democratic Alliance, Pandor said the department is investigating options for expanding the provision of teacher education.
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma criticism of the closure of teacher training colleges in the mid-1990s received backing from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Tuesday. An IFP education spokesperson urged Education Minister Naledi Pandor ”to urgently consider the reopening of teacher training colleges”.
It is ”distasteful” to tell students that toyi-toying does nothing to improve the country, the Young Communist League (YCL) said on Thursday. It rejected as unfortunate recent remarks to this effect by Education Minister Naledi Pandor. ”The YCL views these remarks as nonsensical and distasteful,” the league said in a statement.
Improved toyi-toying skills will not improve the country, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor told students at the University of Zululand on Tuesday. Speaking at a ceremony marking the official opening of three student residences, Pandor said: ”We haven’t come here to improve our toyi-toying skill. It doesn’t improve South Africa.”
The South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) on Monday rejected an apology in a weekend newspaper by the University of the Free State and called for the resignation of Education Minister Naledi Pandor. The full-page advertisement in the Sunday Times came after a racist video that sparked a national outcry.
South Africa’s tertiary education system is operating at close to capacity with limited infrastructure and academic staffing resources available for expansion, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said in Durban on Thursday. Pandor said that the government hoped to achieve a higher education enrolment of 820 000 students by 2010.
Nationalising the University of the Free State (UFS), ”to protect the national asset”, must start immediately, the African National Congress and its alliance partners said on Friday. About 1 000 workers from various unions marched to the UFS to hand over the demand, contained in a memorandum on racism at the institution.
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/ 28 February 2008
Two University of the Free State students apologised on Thursday for their involvement in a racist video which has sparked a national outcry. RC Malherbe and Schalk van der Merwe said they acted without malicious intent, and expressed sorrow for the embarrassment they might have caused any individual or group.
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/ 28 February 2008
A video made by white students that shows them humiliating black university employees on Thursday continued to draw angry protests as well as criticism that racism remains entrenched in South Africa 14 years after the end of apartheid, with the Democratic Alliance questioning the role of the Freedom Front Plus in the matter.
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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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/ 18 February 2008
South African schoolchildren will be taught a Bill of Responsibilities along with the Bill of Rights, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said in Pretoria on Monday. Unveiling the Bill of Responsibilities, Pandor said: ”It is to say how we exercise rights, with the understanding that rights come with responsibility.”
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/ 17 February 2008
A draft loyalty pledge has plunged South Africa into a new identity crisis as it mulls its common values 14 years after discarding apartheid to forge a united society under a single flag. As the motley rainbow nation quibbles over a government proposal to introduce a pledge of allegiance in schools, some ideological battle lines are being redrawn.
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/ 13 February 2008
The pledge the government intends having all schoolchildren recite during morning assembly is a good start, but more is needed to instil values in children, experts said on Wednesday. The proposed pledge was unveiled by Education Minister Naledi Pandor on Tuesday.
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/ 13 February 2008
The government has not yet decided whether it will be compulsory for school children to recite a pledge each morning. Lunga Ngqengelele, Education Minister Naledi Pandor’s spokesperson, said: ”From the department’s point of view, we would want each and every school to recite it.”
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/ 12 February 2008
Universities will receive R3,6-billion in government money for increasing graduates and improving infrastructure following a finding in 2004 that subsidy levels have been declining, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said in Cape Town on Tuesday.
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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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/ 7 February 2008
According to a <i>Finweek</i> report last week, South African education is in crisis mode.
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/ 6 February 2008
Minister of Education Naledi Pandor on Wednesday condemned the recent student protests that have led to the closure of the Durban University of Technology. ”It is entirely unacceptable that a democratic right to protest is being perverted in this way,” Pandor said in a statement.