Staff Reporter

In my family it is common practice that every evening we ask each other: “How was your day?” When I asked my daughter, Lesego, this question, she replied: “Tell me first how yours was, Dad.” As an educator, it is obvious that seven to eight hours of my day are spent at work, writes Simon Modiba.

A principal from KwaZulu-Natal has been named Super Teacher of the Year for his efforts to take information technology into his community. Caleb Bhengu, principal of Esigodini Primary School in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, received his award from the Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa (ISPA) in Johannesburg.

This year marks the 12th year we have celebrated World Teachers’ Day with the theme “Quality Teachers for Quality Education” guiding activities. But the idea of having a special day to mark the enormous contributions of teachers everywhere is much older than that.

International inclusion education expert Dr David Mitchell visited South Africa. Following his travels, Cornia Pretorius asked him to share his observations with <i>the Teacher</i>

In 1994 I had the privilege of being seconded to a small school for deaf learners. Never in my wildest dreams could I foretell the impact it would make on all my colleagues and my life. We had only 18 learners then and we were four teachers of whom only the principal could speak sign language.

During her speech at the Multimedia and e-Education Conference held on April 6 this year, Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, said: “Our goal is to equip every manager, teacher and learner in general and further education and training with the knowledge and skills to use ICT confidently, creatively and responsibly by 2013.”

In June the Teacher published information about two agreements between the Department of Education and teachers’ unions that will affect the salaries of teachers and principals. The response to these articles from you, our readers, has been tremendous.

The Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory Authority on Thursday announced a 270% hike in power tariffs, a move certain to trigger a fresh round of price increases across the board and push the cost of living beyond the reach of many families. The tariff hike comes barely five months after a previous price increase of 95%.

The auditor general has recommended that legal action and other disciplinary measures be taken against senior officials at the state-controlled Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office for their careless implementation of government procurement policies. The lax management style of these officials has led to tenders worth millions of rands being awarded illegally.

South Korea’s "fashion police", who prowled the streets in the 1970s measuring the length of women’s skirts, will soon officially be consigned to oblivion. Showing too much skin in public places will no longer be classed as indecent exposure and will be deleted from the Minor Offence Act, the National Police Agency has said.

It is a testament to the power of money that Nicholas Stern’s report should have swung the argument for drastic action, even before anyone has finished reading it. He appears to have demonstrated what many of us suspected: that it would cost much less to prevent runaway climate change than to seek to live with it, writes George Monbiot.

Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander left New Zealand onlookers bemused on Tuesday after telling a journalist with a friendly inquiry to mind his own business. Willem-Alexander and his wife, Princess Maxima, were leaving a hotel in Queenstown, New Zealand’s tourism capital, after a three-day private visit ahead of the official programme.

War veterans in the Zimbabwe Midlands have asked President Robert Mugabe to help stop senior ruling-party officials from evicting the few remaining white farmers in the province. The war veterans were at the forefront in spearheading the government’s violent land-seizure programme that began in 2000.

An announced but not yet "cemented" BEE deal allows me to hold up to the light an interesting facet of BEE involving foreign investors. Some have asked whether the intended sale by Swiss cement company Holcim of most of its stake in its South African subsidiary to a BEE consortium is "disinvestment", writes Reg Rumney.