I hate being associated with people born after 1990. I was born in the late 1980s but people often think I am part of the “born-free” generation — the most misunderstood group of young people. They are often accused of being entitled, lazy, narcissistic, lost, apolitical, apathetic and confused. Young people — who are not […]
education
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Sadtu must pull up its panties
The first thing I came across on SADTU’s website when I visited it on 18/05/2013 is an announcement on “improvements in the working conditions” of teachers. This particular improvement relates to annual cost-of-living adjustments for educators. This is all well and it is needed, and granted SADTU is a union for teachers and not the […]
Posted inEquality
Turning Africa’s ‘resource curse’ into a blessing for education
By Pauline Rose It is no secret that many developing countries are sitting on a “gold mine”, whether it is gold, or oil, or diamonds, copper or ore. It is also true that natural resource discovery is expected to grow significantly in the near future, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. What is confusing is why, with […]
Posted inEquality, General
Whose language is it anyway?
By Athambile Masola The language question has reared its ugly head again. Recently Rebecca Davis wrote an article about research that confirms “English is leading the way as the most preferred teaching language”. As an English teacher this ought to make me happy. However, I am not convinced that the findings from this research account […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics, Tech
Africa’s mobile revolution in education
For a continent that has historically been largely unconnected via land-based telecommunications, mobile telephony uptake over the last few years has been nothing short of a revolution on the African continent. In 1995 there were an estimated 600 000 mobile phone subscriptions in Africa. A decade later this number rose to 87 million and in 2012 it […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
There are many Oranias in SA
By Athambile Masola As a product of a Eurocentric, former white educational institution, I was once very quick to embrace non-racialism (that race should no longer be used as a marker to understand our experiences). I’ve been living in Cape Town for over a year and have come face to face with the politics of […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Why all Afrikaners should go to Europe
By Mark John Burke Europe is a great place, it really is. You step off your plane onto a train that takes you to your destination and once there trams and buses stand ready to take you to wherever you want. Europeans have perfected recycling and they go to great lengths to ensure everybody’s safety. […]
Posted inNews/Politics, Tech
The importance of technology for education
In a globalised economy with a high degree of competition among countries, the success of a nation depends on the educational level of its workforce. This is true not only for those just entering or already integrated into the labour market but also for the unemployed, who may lack the qualifications required by the growing […]
Posted inGeneral
UKZN is failing its students
By Matthew Beetar If Monty Python were still in business they would need look no further than the University of KwaZulu-Natal for material. The absurdity of the management of the institution, ironically pitched to be “inspiring greatness”, has reached a new level of disregard for the staff and students. The coping mechanism of laughing instead […]
Posted inNews/Politics
School kids pay the cost of political schizophrenia
The African National Congress is inclined towards self-defeating behaviour. Nowhere has this political schizophrenia been as glaring as in the government’s inability to deliver a sound basic education. The right to education is a cornerstone of the Freedom Charter, the founding document of the modern ANC. Appropriately so, since there is a surfeit of research […]
Posted inGeneral
South Africa’s culture of mediocrity
South Africa’s primary and secondary education system is breeding a culture of mediocrity and entitlement that will ultimately undermine the growth of the country, both socially and economically. This culture of entitlement is not simply limited to the education system however, but has been surreptitiously reappropriated by our rights-based discourse so that it has become […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Education the key pillar in Madagascar’s development agenda
Sub-Saharan African countries are increasingly recognising the contribution of post-basic education to economic growth and social development. However, policy makers in many developing world nations struggle to balance expansion and upgrading of post-basic education reform against competing development priorities. They must consider how — and sometimes whether — to fund post-basic education in the face […]