Suzan Chala

What’s the big difference between the youth of 1976 and the youth today? Some say the 1976 youth were disciplined and fought for truth while today’s youth are indulged and into nothing more than labels. But everyone will agree that a major difference is that the youth of today have more choices. Gugu Nxumalo, chief […]

How old are you and what grade are you in? I am 18 years old and currently in Grade 12 at Lyttleton Manor in Pretoria. When and how did you first realise your passion for words? Have you always been a good public speaker? I have always been interested in languages and even studied French […]

Where and when did you matriculate? From Gandhi Desai High School in Durban in 1966. What was your favourite subject? My favourite subject was mathematics as it was both stimulating and challenging. Who was your favourite teacher? My favourite teacher was Mr Hasim, who taught me biology. He had a passion for his subject, and […]

When and where did you matriculate? From Mafori-Mphahlele in Soweto, in 1996. Did you have a favourite teacher? My geography teacher, Bonolo Seolonyane. She is an angel, you know. All the learners liked her. She always brought a stick with her to class but it didn’t threaten or scare any of us. She was always […]

When the kwaito group Trompies produced their song Fohloza – in which they sing the praises of full-figured women – they could have been thinking of teenage girls who starve themselves, sometimes to death, in an attempt to look beautiful and sexy. These teenage girls define beauty by the shape and size of the body […]

There wasn’t a moment when Lisa Harding didn’t fear that her teenage son, Joshua, would be brought home in a body bag. Sometimes she even prayed that he would. ‘His sickness infected the whole family,” she says. ‘I didn’t understand what had caused it or how to stop it. I felt helpless and guilty and […]

This is a must-have reference book for South Africans and foreigners alike who wish to delve into the nuances and homebrew flavours of the local version of English. Described by the publishers as ‘the most substantial and comprehensive English dictionary available and one that is more up-to-date that any other local adult dictionary”, this version […]

So you dream about taking a little bit of dis and a little bit of dat and recording your groove on your very own CD? Well, you may as well dream of flying to the moon because you have to be rich or plain lucky to have that kind of technology available to you – […]

An unlikely place to find a technology training centre is at the top of a hill in Limpopo which is home to more monkeys than people. But educators at Ramaano village, who had previously not even had access to a typewriter, now have a technology centre where they can plan lessons and learn improved ways […]

It’s a chilly day at Fezeka Senior Secondary School in the Western Cape township of Gugulethu and nothing can stop the freezing gusts blowing through broken classroom windows. But not even the sudden cold front and drizzle can dampen the spirits of the school’s educators:a new maths and science centre has just been donated to […]

Christine Hutton* decided to study further after passing matric with exemption and taking a two year break. ‘It was too late to apply at a state university or technikon, so we started looking for a private higher education institution,” says Tracy. Christine enrolled for what the prospectus described as a ‘two year diploma in advanced […]

You are in a very strange place: the weather is odd, the language just a jumble of weird sounds and the food almost inedible. If all this does not bother you, then you are the right person to apply for an overseas learner-exchange programme. These are programmes that allows learners to expand their world by […]

A microchip company that brought South Africa the first-ever computer clubhouse is once again investing in the development of the country’s youth, this time through teachers. Intel is introducing an educator development programme called Teach to the Future to train teachers how to integrate technology effectively into their current lesson plan, so as to enhance […]

Q: What is the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC)? The HEQC is a permanent sub-committee of the Council on Higher Education (CHE), accredited by the South African Qualifications Authority (Saqa) in 2001. What does the HEQC do? The HEQC is the Education and Training Quality Assurance Body (ETQA) for higher education. This means that it […]

‘What is information literacy?” This is the title of one of the modules in the literacy courses offered by Technikon South Africa (TSA). The faculty, called Literacies Plus, offers four certificate programmes: English Language Literacy (ELL), Library and Information Literacy (LLL), Academic Literacy (AL) and Computer Literacy (CL). ‘Each course is designed to be completed […]

To a group of United States honours students, Cape Town’s Langa township is a home away from home. They have lived and studied there, learned the local lingo and dance routines, visited shebeens and parties, and simply hung out with their local buddies. These students are the 2003 intake for the International Honours Programme (IHP) […]

The Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) and Oracle are helping disadvantaged learners solve for ‘x” in their newly established mathematics school. Three hundred and sixty youngsters from grades 9 to 11 no longer wander the streets on Saturday mornings, and RAU tutors are getting down to the business of science, mathematics and technology with them. The […]

Medical University of Southern Africa (Medunsa) Transformation Status: Will merge with the University of the North in January 2004 Faculties: Dentistry, medicine, science, public health Contacts: Director: Student Administration PO Box 189 Medunsa 0204 Online address: http://www.medunsa.ac.za Tel: (012) 521-4058 Potchefstroom University (PUK) Transformation Status: Will merge with the University of North West to form […]

Twelve-year-old Noluthando Mahlathi-Zikalala is one of them. She introduces herself as Xebisa, ‘my ancestral name”. Although she looks 10, she behaves nothing like a usual child. She spends her time with a woman in her twenties whom she trains as a sangoma. When she’s not treating patients, she spends her time beading bracelets as she […]

Political tempers are rising as the Democratic Alliance (DA) adds its criticism against the Department of Education’s (DoE) proposed changes to education laws. The Education Amendment Bill was released for comment in May, and was under discussion in Parliament last month. The underlying implication of several of the proposed amendments, says DA education spokesperson in […]

School principal Jackson Hadebe says he has about 60 orphans at his school. ‘Most of them are children whose parents died either of Aids-related diseases or just natural deaths, while others are children whose parents left to look for work in Johannesburg and haven’t returned since,” he says. Hadebe says some of these orphans have […]

The boys, aged between nine and 13, were allegedly also selling drugs at the school. They handed over 56 mandrax tablets they’d hidden in the school toilets to police, later leading them to two dealers at a nearby train station. Although the school’s principal refused to speak to the media about the matter, he confirmed […]

A Magaliesburg African National Congress councillor who started an independent school for underprivileged children is embroiled in a protracted legal battle after he allegedly failed to pay his teachers’ salaries. In May this year, the Teacher reported on Cornelius Cloete’s Magaliesburg Group of Schools, which has 275 learners. The 12 teachers currently employed at the […]

What would you do for a trip to one of the country’s famed national parks – with the added bonus of a photographic hamper that includes a camera? If you are lucky enough to be a South African learner, all you had to was be part of a team and come up with the most […]

A KwaZulu-Natal educator has not had a school to report to since March 2001 and his salary had been frozen since last November. He blames witchcraft and the incompetence of a district manager for his problems. Duduzela Yeni started teaching in 1986 and in 1992 was promoted to deputy principal of Mkhaliphi High School in […]

Paula Niel cannot take any of her four children to school because she does not have money to feed her family, let alone for expenses like their registration fees or school uniforms. She has repeatedly gone to the local school to beg the principal to allow her eldest son, Nathan and daughter, Felodine, to be […]

Mohlomi Dintsho, is a youngster with no faith in life and little hope in his future.The 15-year-old from Freedom Park in Gauteng prefers to stay home, smoke dagga and sniff glue, rather than go to school. He dropped out of school when he was 13 years old in Grade 6.Mohlomi and his sister were orphaned […]

The Congress of South African Students (Cosas) has threatened to boycott the June examinations if the Department of Education (DoE) fails to meet its demands. Addressing about 15 000 learners at a march in Pretoria last month, Cosas president Julius Molema warned that Cosas will defy Minister of Education Kader Asmal in the same way […]

On the face of it, Morongwa Primary School in Mogwase, North West province, could be a model of inclusion. Every morning the school is flooded by learners who not only represent a variety of social backgrounds but also a range of learning abilities and special education needs. But in reality it is a case of […]

Education is widely acknowledged as a key element in alleviating poverty. It is also important, especially in developing countries, to advance the democratic transformation of society. As Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni put it, ‘It [education] expands abilities and opportunities. It is a great freedom in itself, and opens the doors to other freedoms.” The […]

Clayton Sherry was having a jol with his friends, smoking dagga and sniffing glue at their usual corner, when suddenly a police van stopped in front of them. Fearing arrest, they fled in different directions, but the uniformed men caught up with them. This was the day that Clayton’s life changed forever. It was the […]

An institution that’s been in the education game for more than 150 years has embarked on a journey to transplant its cultural roots from its colonial origins back into Africa. In 1849 Robert Gray, the first Anglican bishop of Cape Town, established Bishops College for proper Christian young men. Since then it has succeeded in […]