The pandemic is hastening neoliberal universities’ moves towards platform pedagogy, where lecturers become participants in the “just-in-time” gig economy and students become “clients”
education
Posted inEquality
Connecting the gap: An open letter to the major cell networks, from a teacher
As government employees at a public school, the material we produce should be available to all in South Africa. You hold the key to sharing this invaluable treasure trove with the country.
Posted inNews/Politics
A pandemonium of Nzimande’s making
The higher education sector should be the most innovative in a crisis, but the minister failed dismally
Posted inNews/Politics
Is Angie Motshekga reducing teachers’ and learners’ lives to nothing?
If the DBE cannot assure children that their lives will not be compromised, how do you expect effective teaching and learning to happen? Have effective teaching and learning ever triumphed where fear reigned?
Posted inEquality, Health
Too little too late for schools facing multiple deprivation during lockdown
By Lehlohonolo Mofokeng When President Ramaphosa proactively announced a country-wide lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus and to allow hospitals to gear up for the inevitable onslaught, vulnerabilities that exist in our schools facing multiple deprivation (rural and township schools) were exposed. As the rest of the world has been brought to a […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, General, Health, Lifestyle
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 inEnvironment, Equality, General, Health, Lifestyle, News/Politics, Tech
Education policy and the future of water
On Tuesday, I watched a video on the deteriorating water situation in the Arabic state of Jordan, which foregrounded to me the imperative, that countries give a central place to essential concerns such as the continued availability of water in their education programmes, from primary school through high school to universities. Unless they pay urgent […]
Posted inEquality, General, Health, Tech
A question of balance…
Two days ago my partner and I went on a whirlwind visit to Gauteng and North-West Province – flying to Johannnesburg and driving from there in a rented car to the Potschefstroom campus of North-West University, where I had been invited to participate in a debate on the question: ‘Is God still necessary for morality?’ […]
Posted inEnvironment, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Roger Collins: A Higher Education
Recently, I sat down with Roger Collins, Development Manager of NewBridge, in Durban, to find out about the challenges and opportunities that exist in the further and higher education establishment. (Q1) Roger, is the standard model of post-school education in crisis? The simple answer is No. The standard model works well for the purpose it […]
Posted inEquality, Health, Lifestyle
What parents can do to make up for gaps in our basic education?
By Lehlohonolo Mofokeng Here is a reality many of us do not want to talk about: our basic education encourages surface learning than deep learning. One of the reasons I encourage my learners to enter for Accounting Olympiads is to show them that our content is weak; by consequence, disadvantages them when they enrol at […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics
The Place of Sara Baartman at UCT
The label “Hottentot Venus” continues to haunt our memory of Sara Baartman. This moniker, used in Jean Reaux’s posters to advertise the exhibit of Sara, may have been repudiated by renowned scholars such as Pumla Dineo Gqola, Zine Magubane, Yvette Abrahams, Patricia Hill Collins, Sander Gilman among others, but it has persisted as the lens […]
Posted inEquality, General, Health
Committed to teaching in the midst of smog: Five turnaround strategies for rural schools
By Lehlohonolo Mofokeng There is no shortage of evidence that our basic education is in shreds. That being said, the question that we should be asking ourselves is: how do we get out of this mess? How do we ensure that our learners, in spite of an already established culture of mediocrity, start to believe […]