Thabo Mohlala

The monthly amount that teachers receive to service their bonds has not been increased for 22 years despite a staggering increase of 256% in property prices in the period from 1994 to 2007. An increased housing subsidy has been a key demand in ongoing negotiations between teacher unions and the government.

Golf has been undergoing a quiet transformation. It is shedding its tag as an elitist sport, overwhelmingly played by affluent white folks. Indications are that in years to come there will be more black faces at local and major international golf tournaments. This will be thanks to the South African Golf Development Board, which runs a programme that aims to make the sport accessible to more young black children from disadvantaged communities.

Mounting tensions between the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) and the National Teachers’ Union (Natu) in KwaZulu-Natal have been blamed for the recent kidnapping and murder of two teachers in the province. The presidents of both Sadtu and Natu have undertaken to hold a summit involving both unions following the deaths of Philile Mthenjane, the deputy-principal of Hlokohloko Primary School in Jozini near Empangeni, and Phindile Ntuli, a department head.

Education Minister Naledi Pandor has appointed a Ministerial Committee that would examine the issue of how to retain learners at schools. This is meant to help the education department pinpoint the reasons why learners drop out of school. The committee comprises high-powered experts and its main task would be to “provide definitive information” on learner retention rates from grade 1 to 12.

Families, colleagues, friends and the community gathered together to pay their respects to the 13 teachers from Diphetogo Primary School in Mafikeng, North West, who died in a horrific road accident last year. The teachers died on the Mafikeng/Lichtenburg road while on their way to bury a parent of one of their colleagues.

Mapaseka Khanye (12) was disqualified as the winner in the SABC’s Lights Camera Action Story Writing Competition. <i>the Teacher</i> published an interview with Khanye last month. Khanye, a learner from Mampudi Primary School in Vosloorus on Gauteng’s East Rand, was disqualified after it was found that her story, titled <i>There was a boy called little boy</i>, had been lifted word for word from an already published work by Rita Phillips Mitchells.

Maudley Mabokela (23) is soft-spoken, petite, intelligent, young and determined to add her name to the pool of young women excelling in fields that are traditionally male-dominated. Mabokela studied electrical engineering, a qualification that has just earned her a sought after place in Motorola’s flagship programme for the development of young talent.

Jubilation was written all over the faces of this year’s 14 recipients of the much-coveted Nelson Mandela Scholarship for post-graduate studies abroad. A Unilever initiative, the only "payback" condition is that “recipients must return to South Africa and apply their skills and knowledge here”. Auditing firm Deloitte is funding four of the scholarships.

The faculty of education at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), formerly known as Randse Afrikaans Universteit, in Auckland Park, Gauteng, is transforming itself into a home that promotes a humane and caring ethos that would inspire students to value teaching as a profession.

Cisco, an international and specialist leader in IT networking has teamed up with the national department of education to accelerate the development of critical networking skills in the country. As part of its corporate social responsibility programme, Cisco has created a facility called Networking Academy Programme to teach learners to acquire skills on how to design, build and maintain computer networks.

Schools and communities around Mooi Nooi in North West will be major beneficiaries of an ICT in education programme recently launched by the Lonmin Community Development Trust and Microsoft South Africa (MSA). MSA has already, through its Partners in Learning programme, “funded and provided the national teacher professional development model for the initial training of teachers”.

Like all parents, Matthew and Nora Khanye sent their daughter Mapaseka to school so that she could take her place among the best in the world. Their wish was that at the end of her schooling she would help contribute towards the development of her country. But, perhaps, more importantly, that she would help them overcome their current economic difficulty.

Letsatsing High School’s recent good performance may have something to do with the fact that it is situated near the University of the North West. But if this were the case, then logically Sejankabo High School — also a spitting distance from the university — which made headlines with an appalling 27,9% matric pass rate last year, could also have excelled.

‘You are what you eat.” This is a familiar slogan used to advise people to be careful of what they sink their teeth into. Nutritionists have warned, on several occasions, that people should refrain from eating “junk food”, as this could expose them to chronic diseases such as hypertension, sugar diabetes and obesity, to mention a few.

SABC Education and the Plastics Federation of South Africa have launched a fantastic plastics competition for grade 10, 11 and 12 learners to promote environmental awareness among school­children. The competition fits in well with worldwide initiatives to encourage communities and com­panies to curb activities that increase environmental pollution.

Innovation is the operative word these days within the teaching community. Teachers are called on to come up with fresh ideas and to explore unorthodox strategies to make learning both an exciting and enriching exercise. Laurie Butgereit, a computer programmer, is among those who are pushing the envelope of ­creativity.

Macmillan South Africa, one of the leading publishing houses, has announced a groundbreaking empowerment initiative to help the Gauteng education department tackle problems around literacy and the mobilisation of resources. Called READ Empowerment Trust, the initiative is Macmillan’s broad-based BEE structure that is intended to benefit learners and teachers in Gauteng.

Cadbury South Africa and the national departments of sports, recreation and education joined hands to launch a sports initiative that will “get our youth active” by taking part in sports activities. The launch comes against the backdrop of increasing rates of obesity among school children mainly because of a lack of physical activity.

Microsoft South Africa (MSA), a global software leader, has introduced a pioneering language programme that will give a massive boost to initiatives aimed at pro­moting multilingualism in South Africa. The programme, called the Language Interface Pack, will initially be available in Afrikaans, isiZulu and Setswana and may be accessed through Microsoft’s latest version of Office 2007.

Nikiwe Bikitsha is one of very few talented female “newshounds” in the world of TV journalism. She is confident, eloquent and comes across as well-prepared and sussed about her subject matter. She was born in Cape Town but grew up in Umtata before the family moved back to Cape Town.

The days of bogus private further education and training colleges operating without meeting the necessary legal requirements are numbered, according to the department of education. This is a development that most parents and stakeholders in education would applaud.