Posted inBusinessEqualityGeneralHealthLifestyle

Social and emotional skills will improve education and grow our economy

Dr Gloria Marsay People faced with adversities in developing countries struggle to bridge the gap between education and work. A key challenge for 21st century schools involves serving culturally diverse students with appropriate transferable skill domains, i.e. deep human skills and advanced technical skills essential for economic empowerment in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (#4IR), as described […]

Posted inGeneral

Add reality to the instructional core

By Lehlohonolo Mofokeng There are ample traditions of educational change, that is, how we can make every school function. One can think of the school effectiveness, social movements and markets, among others. The proponents of each one of these traditions argue convincingly that there isn’t a better way in which every learner in a school […]

Posted inEqualityGeneral

My ideal township school

By Lehlohonolo Israel Mofokeng There is no doubt there is a hive of township schools that continue to show signs of holistic excellence. By holistic excellence, I mean developing conscious learners who are not detached from the realities of their lives — learners who will engage with hegemonic structures, learners who will understand that their […]

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The calling

There are very few professions that are referred to as “a calling”. The few I know: teaching, being a doctor (traditional healers included) and becoming a religious teacher. There are super-spirituals connotations with the idea of “a calling”. The first time I heard about the idea of “a calling”  was in the context of someone […]

Posted inEquality

Kids have dreams…

By Simamkele Dlakavu We all know apartheid history too well but unfortunately it persists in the present. As Zwelinzima Vavi said: “Apartheid will not end and black people will not have real freedom until free and high quality education becomes a reality.” I am a product of township education like most black youth in SA. […]

Posted inNews/Politics

The politics of teaching

By Athambile Masola There is a largely negative perception about teachers as being quasi-professionals, overworked, underpaid, intellectually complacent and, if they are members of the largest teacher union, often jeopardising the education of their learners by going on strikes. The image of teachers is also largely dependent on the school culture a teacher is working […]

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Where the textbook teachers?

By Athambile Masola I’ve been following the Limpopo textbook saga with half an ear. The furore unfolded while my learners and I were undergoing the arduous and exhausting process of mid-year exams. The debacle has been yet another crude reminder of the compromise of a constitutional right as well as the incompetence of the department […]