In 2000, the Review of C2005 recommended that in-service training of teachers for the new curriculum should be conducted by higher education institutions. As a result, in 2001, the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) formed a strategic partnership with eight higher educations institutions in the province to train Grade 5, 6 and 9 teachers due […]
My last few columns for this year are aimed at heads of departments (HODs) and particularly school principals who are often left out of the curriculum training loop. What should you be telling your teachers about the planned changes to the curriculum? The revised National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for General Education and Training (GET – […]
The revised National Curriculum Statement (NCS) will be implemented in the whole of the Intermediate Phase in 2005. The national Department of Education is in the process of sending copies of the NCS to schools. So far, schools should have received the Overview to the NCS in all 11 official languages, the Learning Area Statements […]
The new school year is underway and teachers and learners in Grade 10 are struggling to accommodate one other. Many Grade 10 teachers are being exposed to OBE for the first time while their learners have three years’ of experience of OBE under their belts. In addition, Grade 10 learners have knowledge gaps in subjects […]
The Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS) will be implemented in the whole of the Foundation Phase next year and in the whole of the Intermediate Phase in 2005. From a training perspective, there are good arguments for implementing by phase rather than by grade. But these implementation time frames are likely to have a negative […]
In his magnificent (and largely uncelebrated) jazz suite, <i>A Drum is a Woman</i>, Duke Ellington lets go with both barrels by telling us that "rhythm came to America from Africa". It is a bold and uncompromising statement…
Where and when did you matriculate? In 1974 from South Peninsula, a high school in Cape Town. Who was your favourite teacher? Mr Murphy, my English teacher, was my favourite, because he made special effort in presenting the language. He used to bring a portable record player to the classroom and this made the lesson […]
I was recently asked to talk to the staff of a primary school in Gauteng about curriculum change. To begin with, I invited teachers to raise any questions or concerns they have with the curriculum. In this way, I was trying to ensure that I addressed issues that were relevant to them in the presentation […]
In isolated hamlets of Africa, 12-year-old girls are convincing their parents to allow them to postpone marriage until they graduate from school. As such, they will belong to the first generation of educated girls in their communities. In rural regions of Bangladesh, girls’ enrolment in secondary school has doubled in less than a decade. Mali’s […]
The International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) held its annual conference in South Africa in July. The title of the conference was School Libraries: Breaking Down Barriers. This conference was particularly pertinent to the South African context where only 27% of schools have library facilities. For many delegates, the highlight of the conference was having […]
Investing in education can be very profitable for individuals and societies. People were once skeptical, but now there’s proof: investment in education and economic growth really do go hand-in-hand. And it’s true for secondary and university level education as well as for primary, according to a survey enititled Financing Education — Investments and Returns that […]
At the end of this year, for the first time in the history of South Africa, there will be one national History examination for the Senior Certificate. Grade 12 History learners will be examined on critical aspects of our history, including the history of apartheid. For the first time, the period from 1948 to 1976 […]
Twelve schoolchildren from different areas of the country gathered in Cape Town recently for the launch of this glossy new book. The volume — comprising text and photographs by the 12 children — is the brainchild of compiler Han Lans of Amsterdam, and has a foreword by Nelson Mandela. The latter writes: ‘Whether they come […]
I was highly offended by your editorial in the August edition of the Teacher (‘Ideals get in reality’s way”). You cynically suggest that we accept our lot and reconcile ourselves to the inevitable. As an educator in the Eastern Cape, I will never accept the low standards of work done by our provincial education department. […]
The June 2002 edition of the Teacher ran an article about drug prevention programmes in schools, which contained inaccuracies about an organisation called Narconon. Narconon is a secular organisation licensed to use some of the research discoveries made by L. Ron Hubbard (author and humanitarian) in the field of drugs. Mr Hubbard spent over half […]
It is such a tragedy that nowadays touch is banned from classrooms. I know why, but still I will continue to touch my learners. They need it. But ‘touch” has become a dirty word. And touching someone appropriately requires sensitivity. Children need appropriate touching at the right time. Not just the little ones. When a […]
Limpopo economic development, environment and tourism minister Collins Chabane says small business is to receive special attention in his province. In a report by the government news agency, BuaNews, on Friday, he is quoted as telling the provincial legislature that small businesses has a high potential for job creation.
A United States juror got a rude awakening when an angry judge fined him $1 000 for letting out a loud yawn during an attempted murder trial, a media report said on Wednesday. The juror’s ennui interrupted the selection of the panel ahead of opening arguments in a trial in Los Angeles.
Lonely people longing for pictures of their loved ones to speak will now have their dream answered by raising a finger. A Tokyo day-care company will next week begin marketing a "talking picture", which can play messages when the reader uses a scanner that reads invisible barcodes on the photograph.
Twin brothers from Russia were due to set off from Western Australia on Friday in a bid to cross the Indian Ocean in a rowboat, Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio reported. Alexander and Sergey Sinelnik (31) hope to be the first to row the 7 400km from Australia to South Africa.
Monkeys at Tel Aviv zoo will be fed unleavened bread during Passover week, as workers at the menagerie cannot touch yeast, which is religiously prohibited during the Jewish holiday. The zoo, situated in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, shelters a family of five orang-utans, six gorillas and several chimpanzees.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance on Friday threw its support behind "the pyjama protest" action taken by South African nurses over their uniform allowances. DA spokesperson Diane Kohler Barnard said that the allowances in all provinces are far too low to actually buy uniforms.
The turnaround at Transnet — close to insolvency last year — has been so rapid that it can finance a R40,8-billion infrastructure investment programme entirely off its own balance sheet, says Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin. Erwin told Parliament last Friday that a government-coordinated financing strategy for parastatals is no longer needed.
“Distance” was the operative word at a high profile education conference in early February in Cape Town – and not simply in terms of its geographical connotations. The All-Africa Ministers’ Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education served to underscore the chasm between policy and delivery on distance education. But participants – including ministers of […]
Once upon a time there was an old mill by a stream. Built 1870-ish. It is now in need of restoration. The stream is the Ouseburn, which meets the river Tyne as it flows through Newcastle to the North Sea. And once upon another time, three children fled from a care home on a rickety […]
Johnson Kinyago, a sun-dried Masai herder, has two sons. “One is a genius – he can identify every animal and find water anywhere. So he’s with the goats,” he says proudly. “The other is stupid, and maybe not mine. He’s in school.” At Dol Dol cattle market in Laikipia, northern Kenya, a group of blanket-wrapped […]
– Spies snare cheats: Lithuania’s intelligence service has been called in to snag students trying to cheat on graduation exams. ‘Education Mnister Algirdas Monkevicius has requested the special investigation service and national police to report to him any cases identified of exam questions being sold,” the ministry said in a statement. The measure is aimed […]
My life is tilling the soil. I don’t need to read. The Bible? They tell us about that at Mass. The news? I listen to the radio. The newspaper costs the price of a kilo of salt for my kids,” says Godfroid Bimenyimana, a 57-year-old Rwandan farmer. Bimenyimana and millions like him have no desire […]
When his father became an alcoholic, fell into debt and was in no position to work, 11-year-old Veeramallu Kesaboina Biksham from India had to leave school to become a bonded labourer. Biksham is not an isolated case. Today there are more than 250-million working children aged five to 17 in the world, according to the […]
Zeena Hussein (11) sits in an empty classroom at the Qairuran school in Kirkuk, Iraq. Teachers at the school said it has been open for days but only a handful of students have shown up for class. The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) director Carol Bellamy said ‘One of the best things you can do […]
"I tend to treat the internet like just an extension of the real world, and I’m not alone in this approach. The net is just a virtual suburb of real time. It has its own main roads, corporate areas, civilian suburbs, secret ‘black project’ workshops, factories, military sections, news and data sources, entertainment areas, as well as assorted government webs," writes Ian Fraser this week.
Unlike some newly developing countries, Mongolia is not burdened with a low literacy rate which could hamper its economic growth. In fact, at 87%, Mongolia can claim one of the highest literacy rates in the world. However, with the transition from a Russian soviet-dependent economy to a market-driven one, Mongolia’s education systems and its envied […]