“HONESTLY, I don’t know how to operate a computer. I’m a WhatsApp exam-refiner,” said Maxwell Chimedza. The 27-year-old prepares students who are on the threshold of sitting for Zimbabwe’s ultra-competitive high school exams, the A-Levels. The tool of his trade? A cellphone with a modest 32GB of storage.

In 2021, Chimedza captured attention locally after his class of 64 WhatsApp students between them snagged 41 A-grade marks, ostensibly placing them in the same league with students from Zimbabwe’s expensive elite boarding schools.

Up to 50 000 students across the southern African country sat for the A-Level examination in 2020.

Popularly known as “Dr Maxx,” Chimedza operates from Mbare, which is the oldest township in the capital Harare, and one of the country’s poorest. “I’ll be clear,” he said, “I’m an unqualified teacher.”

Chimedza himself scooped 14 A-Level examination distinctions in 2012, but his family didn’t have the money to send him to university.

Joining the 136 000 formal teachers in Zimbabwe requires a three-year degree.

Facing the hard slog of unemployment in a country whose economy has been in the doldrums for over a decade now, Chimedza began his WhatsApp “student-polishing” endeavours in 2019.

He created WhatsApp class timetables and added audiovisual material for students in WhatsApp classrooms where he runs mock tests and grades their assignments.

Unlike traditional school teachers who get paid around US$260 monthly, Chimedza’s skills are reserved for the “last-mile” preparation of students. “Three months before exams, I can polish a student to get A-mark distinctions,” he said.

Chimedza started earning a living from his efforts as a gratuity. In 2019, Zimbabwean diaspora parents in South Africa began to wire him $10 per subject each month because he needed roughly 25GB of monthly data (which costs US$40)  to host a WhatsApp classroom.

But when the Covid-19 outbreak grounded Zimbabwe’s schoolteachers, it also increased the demand for Chimedza’s WhatsApp classrooms.

In March 2020, Zimbabwe shut down schools and curtailed public transport in an attempt to beat back a rising number of Covid-19 infections. Because of the low availability of high-speed Wi-Fi in Zimbabwean households, in June 2020, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, supported by Unicef, began to broadcast school lessons over local radio to keep students engaged.

Traditional radio was chosen because internet-enabled education — which has richer educational resources, videos, apps, databases, and fact-checking interfaces — is still considered out of reach for many lower-income families in Zimbabwe.

Indeed, Zimbabwe’s mobile internet is quite expensive compared with many sub-Saharan African countries, but WhatsApp-specific bundles are fairly affordable.

Weekly, limitless data bundles are priced in ranges of US50 cents to US$1. WhatsApp is effectively the internet in Zimbabwe, as it accounts for nearly half of all internet traffic.

This perhaps explains why Zimbabweans have developed an informal WhatsApp-led ecosystem. For instance, as early as 2014, Zimbabwean startups like 263Chat were experimenting with innovative toolkits to deliver news and advertising to subscribers in WhatsApp messaging groups.

This month, Zimbabwe’s first WhatsApp-exclusive interactive television drama series went live, with viewers serenaded by emojis, stickers, audio, video, and GIFs. Even the country’s typically conservative banks now deliver artificial intelligence-enabled financial services via WhatsApp bots and human responders.

So, when Zimbabwean schools briefly opened for examinations in September, Chimedza trimmed his WhatsApp class from 200.

“I was left with 64 students. Those are the ones who finally wrote the exam under my care, making tongues wag because I got a 100% pass rate from them,” he said.

Chimedza said he’d like Zimbabwe’s government to incorporate WhatsApp school curriculums to broaden the legacy education framework. “Consider registering these cheap WhatsApp schools,” he said. “WhatsApp schools mean no expensive uniforms or desks.”

WhatsApp can be a fast and nimble tool to aid student enrollment, management, and course dissemination from primary to college, said O’bren Nhachi, an independent social scientist.

“WhatsApp has over five or six million users in Zimbabwe,” he said.

“Some classrooms can be brought to students sitting in the kitchen via cellphones.”

But Josiphat Gwezhira, research secretary for the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, disagrees.“Even in Zimbabwe’s cities, zones exist where WhatsApp signals are very difficult,” said Gwezhira, who said that to speak to Rest of World, he had to first drive back to his school where Wi-Fi exists. “In rural districts, we have 150 square km zones that have no WhatsApp or dial-up call signals; you have to climb a hill to ring a call.”

As a unionist, Gwezhira encounters teachers who can’t afford WhatsApp data bundles, and believes WhatsApp lessons can only make sense if internet reach is extended.

“I teach 80 A-level students in the city,” he said.

“Half of them don’t have cellular phones. Those that have mobile phones are not regularly online unless they have a benefactor.”— Rest of the World

COSATU in KwaZulu-Natal has slammed the decision by the provincial department of education to retrench over 4 000 educators as a result of the budget cuts amounting to R6.3 billion.

The trade union federation said the move would have catastrophic socioeconomic consequences for the province, in particular the poor and impoverished. 

COSATU said on Monday that it had long warned government against the austerity measures that undermine public spending and service delivery.

“It is the continuation of the neoliberal agenda which was advanced by the former Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni,” said the federation.

“Our union, SADTU has last month staged a picket and submitted memorandum of demands, which cautioned government against its failure to fill vacant positions and to honour its commitment as far as the payment of salaries of educators is concerned. The pronouncement by the KZN MEC of Education is a sign of a government that is not willing to see to the needs of its workers.”

SADTU’s NEC also raised its concerns about the matter during the weekend.

The teachers union slammed austerity measures that ‘are being brought through the back door without a popular mandate’.

“The union has seen this in the education sector with, for instance, in KwaZulu Natal Department of Education announcing that its budget would be cut by no less that R6,4 billion over the next financial year,” said SADTU.

“This could adversely affect the employment of no less than 6 114 education workers and education support personnel. The learners cannot be denied the right to education because of austerity measures.”

SADTU added: “Austerity measures are cause of instability and the education system cannot be subjected to any form of instability because our learners have already suffered huge time losses and trauma due to the pandemic.”

“To grow an inclusive and sustainable economy that will create decent jobs for all, means we cannot allow any austerity measures in education because SDG8 which is about decent jobs requires global competencies and this is only achievable if we invest in the SDG4 which deals with education.” 

The recent quarterly labour report indicates that a significant number of jobs have been lost and this trend has been re-enforced by the COVID pandemic, said SADTU.

*Inside Education*

THE Department of Basic Education says it has trained 507 advisers from all provinces to address the under-performance of grade 12 learners in Maths and Physical science over the past years.

Representatives from the DBE made presentations to the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education last week.

To address this problem, the DBE established the Teacher Capacity Building and Support in Maths, Science and Technology programme. The content in the training programme focus was guided by the National Senior Certificate Diagnostic Report.

“The training programme was designed to address the under-performance of the 12 districts that were targeted. The department worked closely with Cuban specialists to develop the Science and Maths material,” the portfolio committee heard.

Training for subject advisers, which covered grades 8 and 9 Maths, Science and Technology, was conducted online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The DBE said 507 advisers from all nine provinces were trained, of that number, 212 were trained in Maths, 164 in Natural Science and 131 in Technology.

Chairperson of the portfolio committee Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba said she was concerned over the possible implication the budget cut may have on the sector, most specifically on the second roll-out of the Second Chance NSC matric rewrite.

Meanwhile, the two-day Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) workshop with Gauteng School Management Teams and School Governing Bodies is under way.

The workshop is targeting the Johannesburg District.

According to the DBE, the aim of the CSE was to ensure that the department assists learners to build an understanding of concepts, content, values and attitudes related to sexuality, sexual behaviour change, as well as leading safe and healthy lives with the purpose of protecting learners.

Although the CSE curriculum has been in existence since 2000, these workshops were imperative to ensure learners are protected.

Research indicates that 35.4% of girls and boys experience sexual violence before the age of 17.

DBE’s director for health promotions, Muzi Ndlovu, said: “This has necessitated the great need of the department to provide appropriate child abuse prevention education that builds resilience, confidence and assertion among young people who often do not know they are being violated by sexual predators.”

* ANA

PARENTS are not happy about how things are handled at Manala Mgibe Primary School, Mpumalanga Province.

This comes after an incident that has occurred recently, where it was alleged that a teacher assaulted a nine-year-old boy, who is a learner at the school.

It is believed the boy was swearing in the class and the teacher enforced corporal punishment. The boy went home with a bruised lip and blood on his shirt.

The boy’s mother then went to the school to enquire about the incident, “but they kept on dragging their feet instead of telling me what has exactly happened,” the mother said.

The school called a parents’ meeting, but unfortunately, the teacher did not pitch to tell her side of the story.

Parents demanded that the teacher must be suspended with immediate effect because they believe that she has anger issues.

They also demanded that the principal must get the Mpumalanga Department of Education involved.

“We are tired of teachers who are bullying children at school, especially where they are supposed to be protected,” said one of the parents.

The mother of the boy said her son is scared to go to school.

WITBANK NEWS enquired about the incident from the Department of Education who in response said that they did send an official to the school on Friday, September 17 to conduct a preliminary investigation.

The official confirmed that a process to institute charges against the teacher who allegedly assaulted the learner has been initiated by the department. The department reiterates its position that corporal punishment is prohibited and anyone who is found using it to discipline learners will be guilty of violating the legal framework of the department.

* Witbank News

THE High Court in Polokwane, Limpopo, has delivered judgment in the matter brought forward by advocacy group Section 27 against the Basic Education Department’s plan towards the complete eradication of pit toilets.

Judge Gerrit Muller ruled that the Limpopo Education Department was in violation of an order handed down during the Rosina Komape versus the Minister of Basic Education and others in 2018.

Section 27 spokesperson Ntsikelelo Mpulo said the ruling will compel government to revise its initial plan.

“The judgment is a vindication of the rights of learners in Limpopo to safe and dignified sanitation. It follows a six-year legal battle to ensure that the Limpopo Department of Education and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) eradicates pit toilets in that province,” according to Mpulo.

“We requested the court to direct the Member of the Executive Council in the Limpopo Department of Education (“MEC”) to remedy the shortcomings of the plan to ensure that it is constitutionally compliant. We are delighted that the court has recognised the urgent need to eradicate pit toilets in our schools.”

In 2018, the court handed down a structural order which directed the DBE and LDOE  to supply each school in Limpopo with safe and dignified toilets, to conduct a comprehensive audit of sanitation needs – detailing the names and locations of all schools with pit toilets in the province – and provide a comprehensive plan for the installation of new toilets.

Since the structural order, the LDOE and DBE have filed two affidavits with the court – on 31 August 2018, and another on 12 May 2020.

SECTION27 returned to the High Court on 6 August 2021, seeking an order, declaring that the LDOE and DBE’s plans were unconstitutional and in breach of the structural order.

“We requested the court to direct the Member of the Executive Council in the Limpopo Department of Education (“MEC”) to remedy the shortcomings of the plan to ensure that it is constitutionally compliant and file a revised plan in both physical and electronic format with the Court within 45 days. We requested that the Court retain its supervisory jurisdiction in relation to this updated plan,” said Faranaaz Veriava, Head of the education rights programme at SECTION27.

“We are delighted that the court has recognised the urgent need to eradicate pit toilets in our schools and directed the DBE and LDOE to fulfil the constitutional rights of learners to safe and dignified sanitation,”

Inside Education

  

DUE to take place at Ruimsig Athletics Stadium in Roodepoort on the West Rand on Wednesday September 29, the Twizza Super School Series Regional Qualifier #1 has caused a stir amongst schools in the Free State, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West.

Launched in 2019, the Twizza Super School Series has very quickly become a highlight on the schools athletics calendar and has one clear goal in mind – to crown SA’s best athletics school. The winning school will take home bragging rights for one year.

To date 84 teams have entered the Regional Qualifier #1, among them Bethlehem Voortrekker Hoërskool/ High School (Free State); Hoërskool Secunda (Mpumalanga); Hoërskool Menlopark and Helpmekaar College (Gauteng); Potchefstroom Gymnasium and Hoërskool Rustenburg High School (North West); and Hoërskool Ellisras High School (Limpopo).

“The Twizza Super School Series is a very exciting, energetic athletics series,” said Andi Wolmarans, Bethlehem Voortrekker High School Sports Organiser.

All the best schools in the country participate at this meeting, so the competition is strong. This level of competition is very important as it prepares our athletes for the season. Our goal is to build and improve on our standards. Our strongest events will be the field events.”

“To be the best, you have to compete against the best,” added Mike van der Walt, the Hoërskool Secunda biokineticist/ Athletics Director.

The winning school will take home bragging rights for one year. Photo: Tobias Ginsberg.

“The Twizza Super School Series is an awesome initiative that allows schools from across South Africa to compete against each other at a well-organised series of events. We firmly believe in developing our athletes. By taking part in the series we are able to do just that. Our goal is to make it to the final.”

According to Hoërskool Menlopark’s Academic Head: Athletics, JJ Smith, the Twizza Super School Series is a great opportunity to show the class of SA’s upcoming athletes, while Helpmekaar College Senior Deputy Headmaster JP van der Merwe said the Twizza Super School Series is an innovative concept.

Willem Coertzen, the Potchefstroom Gymnasium Athletics Organiser said the Twizza Super School Series features great competition with great opportunities for athletes.

For more information on the Twizza Super School Series please email info@superschoolseries.com or visit www.superschoolseries.com.

* Krugersdorp News

ACROSS Africa, many young people are battling an economic downturn caused by COVID-19. The second yearly African Youth Survey found people aged 18-24 in 15 countries are losing jobs and changing their education goals.

Early findings of the study show the pandemic increased the already-high level of unemployment among the group.

Nearly 20 percent of the 4,500 people in the study said they became unemployed because of the pandemic. And 37 percent were forced to stop their education permanently or temporarily. Eight percent saw their pay reduced and 18 percent had to move back home. Finally, ten percent said they had to care for family members.

The study was carried out by the Ichikowitz Family Foundation based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Founder, Ivor Ichikowitz, runs Paramount Group, a company that works with space, security, and military organizations.

Of the 1.3 billion people in Africa’s 54 countries, an estimated 250 million are aged 18-24. The study was carried out in large cities and trading centers in Angola, Congo, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia.

The researchers were from PSB Insights, an international research company. They were citizens of each country and went door-to-door for detailed, face-to-face interviews.

The people interviewed said the pandemic causes great, difficult changes to their schooling, showing the need for more computers and internet access in Africa for online education.

Bola Badejo, who is 29, says her work earnings at a broadcast station where she worked in Abuja, Nigeria, were cut in half. She said she could not make it on her pay, $146 a month.

She said, “I was already poor, and I was working just for the sake of doing the job.” Then, in April 2020, she was let go.

“I fell into depression because the whole thing was really sad. I felt I had nowhere to go,” Badejo said.

After seven months without a job, she started a home cleaning business, and that has increased her hope, she said.

Badejo is one of many who have found different ways to survive financially.

The study found that in 2020 about 40 percent of those who were asked had hope for the future. The pandemic changed that number, lowering it to 31 percent.

People make their way down a busy street in the Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021. A study of people aged 18-24 in 15 African countries found that many have lost jobs or have seen their education stopped or changed by the pandemic. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

Uganda has had two shutdowns since April 2020, the second was eased in July. But businesses where people are in close contact, like bars and gyms, remained closed by presidential order. This leaves many young people without work.

Ronald Maathe is 25 years old and a janitor at a gym outside Uganda’s capital of Kampala. He shook his head sadly when saying that his monthly earnings is now what equals $43. It is half of what he used to make before the pandemic.

He said, “After I pay the rent, I am left with almost nothing.” He commented the half pay, “… doesn’t do anything.”

His face lights up when describing how he makes extra money by selling a fruit called grenadillas. He buys them from farmers near the border with Congo. He makes a small profit on every sack of fruit he sells in Kampala.

“My business is still small. But I have a dream,” he said. “If I can get someone to hold my hand, and give me a loan to expand my business, that’s what I want. I am not waiting for the government to help me.”

AP

Botswana is set to introduce 11 new local languages in schools to be used as mediums of instruction, as from January 2022 for the purposes of inclusivity and equity, an official said Wednesday.

Botswana, which has been using only Setswana and English, as mediums of instruction in its schools for many years, recognizes the importance of introducing local languages in schools for purposes of inclusivity and equity, Botswana’s Minister of Basic Education, Fidelis Molao, said when addressing community leaders at a consultative meeting in Francistown, Botswana’s second largest city.

Molao said the introduction of these languages is to be realized through the creation of an enabling framework by way of developing the Botswana Languages Policy in Education saying a draft language policy in education has been so far developed with a view of reforming education.

“The main intent of the Botswana Languages Policy in Education is to promote language development and quality education that is accessible, equitable and relevant to all learners,” said Molao.

According to Molao, the policy will also serve as a democratic and unifying factor for a proud and self-respecting nation and promote languages’ development and facilitate access to relevant quality education by all learners. The Draft Policy is expected to facilitate systematic transition from home to school using mother tongue for instruction.

“It will furthermore provide a framework to guide the development and use of different languages not only as medium of instruction but also as subjects in the long term,” he said.

He said research has demonstrated that teaching children in their mother tongue or local language, during their formative years, creates a crucial foundation for their conceptual, cognitive, and affective development.

The 11 languages to be introduced are Sheyeyi, ThiMbukushu, Ikalanga, Shakgalagari, Chikuhane (Sesubiya), IsiNdebele, Afrikaans, Naro (Sesarwa), Shona, Otjiherero and Sign Language.

* Xinhua Agency

THE Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Professor Hlengiwe Buhle Mkhize has passed away at the age of 69.

She was Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and People with Disabilities.

Mkhize was an ANC NEC member, chairperson of the Progressive Women’s Movement of South Africa, and the treasurer general of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL).

She previously served as Minister of Higher Education and Training and as deputy minister in the Correctional Services and Telecommunications ministries.

Mkhize was also ambassador to the Netherlands from 2005 to 2008.

She was also a founder member and a trustee of the Children and Violence Trust and had been a trustee of the Malibongwe Business Trust from 2005.

Mkhize held a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Social Work and Sociology from the University of Zululand; Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology, and a Master of Clinical Psychology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Inside Politics

THE start date for the National Senior Certificate examination has been moved to 27 October 2021 from the initial starting date of 1 November 2021, to accommodate the upcoming local government elections.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Department of Basic Education said that the English Paper 1, Business Studies Paper 1 and the non-official languages Paper 1, which were originally scheduled for 1 and 2 November, will now be written on 27 and 28 October respectively.

The decision comes after the Council of Education Ministers held a special meeting following a series of consultations with key stakeholders in the basic education sector.

“The changes were necessitated by the local government elections which will take place on 1 November 2021. Learners eligible to vote will now be able to cast their ballots,” the department said.

The Council of Education Ministers had approved the 2021 NSC examination timetable in May, however, last week the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, announced that the local government elections would take place on 1 November 2021.

“On Friday, 10th September 2021, consultations took place with key stakeholders that included teacher unions, school governing body associations and professional bodies.

“The purpose of the consultation sessions was to deliberate on what would be the most appropriate option regarding a change to the timetable, given that there are five weeks from the commencement of the examination,” the department said.

The department added that there are 207 question papers to be written over 25 days (5 weeks) and there no vacant sessions in the current timetable. Therefore, the re-scheduling needed to be confined to either prior the commencement date or post the conclusion date.

“The best interest of the learner was a key consideration in addition to ensuring that a minimum change to the current timetable was made to avoid confusion,” the department said.

The department has urged candidates preparing for the examination to keep working hard.

In a bid to offer support and assistance to learners, the department has made available a wide range of resources with support materials on different platforms through the remote and digital learning programme Woza Matrics.

The learning materials will be delivered across these channels DBETV channel 122 on Openview, SABC1, DSTV CatchUp & Showmax, on Mondays and Thursdays from 23h00 to 00h00, Saturdays from 06h00 to 10h00 and Sundays from 07h00 to 08h00.

The Woza Matrics programme also offers learners with some psycho-social support, tutor support and exciting competitions.

To access more information on the Woza Matrics programme go to www.wozamatrics.co.za or https://www.facebook.com/wozamatrics/ or https://twitter.com/wozamatrics or https://www.instagram.com/wozamatrics/ or https://www.youtube.com/wozamatrics or on WhatsApp on 061 505 3023.

– SAnews.gov.za