JULIUS Malema’s EFF has rejected the Constitutional Court’s decision to reinstate the Afrikaans language as learning and teaching medium at the University of South Africa (Unisa).

In a statement on Friday night, the EFF said it was not impressed by the Constitutional Court decision that Afrikaans should be reinstated at Unisa by 2023 after AfriForum successfully argued for its return.

The EFF said the court ignored the nexus between race and language in the context of South Africa’s history.

“The selective choice of Afrikaans as a superior language perpetuates superiority over indigenous languages, and is an insult to the standing of Africans and their heritage of rich languages,” the EFF said.

“In the grace period to 2023 determined by the court, we call on Unisa to retrace its steps correctly and with lawful and procedural precision, do away with the 1976 language of national oppression, racial segregation, exclusion and supremacy.”

The red berets said that if the Afrikaans language was reinstated at Unisa, then the university must use African languages as a medium of instruction, including Swahili.

The Concourt gave Unisa time until the beginning of the 2023 academic year to revise its language policy, which abolished teaching and learning in Afrikaans.

The Concourt upheld a ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) last year following a dispute between Unisa and the AfriForum lobby group.

The university changed its language policy in 2016, abolishing Afrikaans as a dual teaching and learning medium.

AfriForum then reversed the university’s decision and resumed Afrikaans.

AfriForum said that it would continue to monitor Unisa’s language policy to ensure that it complied with a Constitutional Court judgment.

The legal team representing UNISA says even though the Constitutional Court ruled against their client, the university has every intention of complying with the judgment delivered during the week.

According to Alana Bailey, AfriForum’s Head of Cultural Affairs, this judgment which followed after legal processes spanning more than five years, is of great importance to all Afrikaans-speaking students in the country, but also for the future of Afrikaans as a high-function language.

“This marks the beginning of a new chapter in the empowerment of all who are not first language speakers of English in tertiary education. It is fair to say that private educational institutions have freedom to offer education in any language of their choice, but to be used as the language of instruction at a tertiary institution is of great importance for the survival and continuous development of a language,” said Bailey.

“Therefore, when any language is phased out at an institution, the decision has huge ramifications and the decision cannot be readily accepted. The court today confirmed this point with the ruling and confirmed the right to access to Afrikaans mother-language education at both public and private institutions for students of all income groups.”

* Inside Education

MOST South African parents and learners are familiar with the school practice of rewarding learners for academic achievement visibly, tangibly and publicly. Schools tend to reward in ways that are both traditional and unique. Some rewards can be seen on the learners’ school uniform – like a special kind of tie or blazer.

Other common forms are pins worn on the lapel bearing words such as “Mathematics” or “English”. These serve as a daily reminder of a learner’s achievement, lasting well beyond the ceremony in which they were presented.

Schools assert that reward programmes recognise hard work and scholastic achievements and that they motivate learners to achieve. One might be inclined to believe there’s no harm in this practice, given that the underlying intention is to motivate and recognise learners.

But it’s not as simple as one might think. Rewarding learners for academic achievement can be problematic on many levels. Who decides who gets rewarded? What achievements are considered valuable and worthy? Do the achievements of some matter more than others? Who decides the criteria for awards? Is every child not worthy of recognition?

In South Africa, rewards need to be considered in the context of inclusive education. Inclusive education is concerned with the learning and achievement of all learners in the classroom regardless of background, socio-economic status and (dis)ability.

This can be achieved through collaboration between learners in the classroom, addressing social injustices by providing access to all learners, promoting democracy over a hierarchy and upholding the rights of all learners. The constitution clearly states that everyone has the right to basic education, and this encompasses all children regardless of their abilities.

My PhD research explored the ways in which visibly rewarding learners for academic achievement is consistent with the aims and ideals of inclusive education.

I looked at the impact of visible rewards on all learners to assess whether they served as a barrier to the participation and achievement of some.

I found that the current rewards system was inconsistent with the aims of inclusive education. Schools should revisit the ways in which learners are encouraged to achieve.

A total of 141 participants at two high schools in Gauteng province were involved. First I surveyed learners’ parents and then I interviewed teachers, school management and the grade 11 learners themselves. In this grade they tend to be 17 years old.

Of the 104 learners who completed surveys, 66% were award-winners. I found that they overwhelmingly felt that their award-winning status had an effect on their identity.

Who they were and how teachers treated them depended on the awards they won.

Many learners felt that their hard work and talents went unrecognised, as the criteria for being visibly rewarded were narrow, and didn’t take into account a broad range of talents.

Learners also felt that creativity was overlooked in awards, which were mostly based on results from tests and exams. Some learners found it difficult to work towards awards, and became demotivated. Some expressed their desire for a social life, like spending time with their friends, instead of spending every weekend studying for a possible reward.

The study found a disparity between the competitive environment present in these schools and the ideal of inclusive education. Visible rewards perpetuate exclusionary beliefs and attitudes, acting as a barrier to inclusive education. Ideally, learners should not be working for a reward, but because they enjoy learning. Then the schooling system would be creating lifelong learners.

These findings are important because South African schools are working within a context that is premised on correcting the mistakes from a historically disgraceful past where schools separated learners based on race.

Helping all children learn and achieve to their full potential means fostering a school environment that’s built on collaboration and the sharing of ideas.

Learners need opportunities to work together to achieve educational outcomes, with clear emphasis on the success of all learners, versus the success of a few.

Competitiveness pits one learner against another in a zero sum game. For a learner to be the best, and to win awards for that outstanding achievement, his or her peers must lose. This kind of expense is far too great to ignore in a country fraught with inequalities.

Highlighting the sterling achievements of a few learners privileges some over others, whether intentionally or not. This hierarchical structure found in schools has implications for learners who seek opportunities post-school as well.

During the focus group interview of my study, learners described university scouts who came to school and immediately focused on those learners who wore pins on their clothing indicating their award status. The rest of the learners were ignored.

In the words of one grade 11 learner:

“Children who are smart are shown to be better than everyone else, and the learners who try and work hard to achieve their best are shunned.”

Many countries in the European Union, such as Germany, Sweden and Finland, have no award systems for recognising learner achievements.

Yet schools in these countries produce excellence in academic achievement. In addition, alternative schooling models such as Montessori, Waldorf and Reggio Emilia don’t support the competitive schooling style and the success of these methods is well-documented. These so-called alternative methods of teaching and learning focus on self-regulation, self-motivation and life-long learning.

To make education inclusive and to make schools conducive to the learning of all children, rewards systems must be questioned. 

(Shakira Akabor, Postdoctoral Research Fellow , University of South Africa)

The Conversation

THREE Gauteng Department of Education officials are facing a disciplinary hearing following a report by the Special Investigating Unit into the awarding tenders worth R431 million. 

The department has charged three senior managers over the use of funds for the decontamination and cleaning of schools in the province.

The charges were served as part of a process to implement recommendations received from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

The tender was meant to pay for sanitisation, decontamination, and deep cleaning of schools in Gauteng.

The senior officials fingered are Head of Supply Chain, Chief Director for Infrastructure Development, and Acting Director for Auxiliary Services.

The department’s spokesperson Steve Mabona said the hearings will start on 5 October.

Mabona said as investigations continue, there is possibility of more people being charged.

“It has been recommended that the Head of Supply Chain, Chief Director for Infrastructure Development, and Acting Director for Auxiliary Services be charged in accordance to the findings in the investigation report,” said Mabona.

“It is important to note that the GDE intends for this process to be facilitated by an independent body outside the department and, thus, has approached the Office of the State Attorney to assist. Even though we do not want to pre-judge the outcome of the disciplinary hearing, it is paramount to reiterate our position in this matter, that the officials who caused this expenditure, need to be taken to task.”

At the time, the Democratic Alliance called for Gauteng Premier, David Makhura, to take urgent special leave, pending the outcomes of SIU investigations into another scandal involving the procurement of Personal Protective Equipment.

In a statement, the DA said Makhura had failed to prevent the PPE corruption scandal, which allegedly happened under his watch.

The DA said the former Gauteng Health Department Chief Financial Officer, Kabelo Lehloenya, had implicated Makhura in the awarding of the multi-million PPE tenders, after she stated in an affidavit that Makhura gave her the names of the companies to appoint, supply and deliver PPEs in the province.

* Inside Education

THE South African Union of Students (SAUS) has condemned the gruesome killing of two students from the University of the Free Sate, Qwaqwa campus.

According to the police, a group of students from the Qwaqwa Campus residing off campus were involved in a “senseless attack” in Phuthaditjhaba, which resulted in the death of one student, and two others in a critical condition in hospital.

SAUS national spokesperson Asive Dlanjwa said the death of these students further highlights the devastating state of student accommodation in the South African Higher Education sector, particularly off-campus or private student accommodation.

“In fact, the lack of adequate housing in the sector, by implication, makes the department of higher education and universities co-conspirators in the senseless killing of students of this nature,” said Dlanjwa.   

“In the early hours of today, 22 September 2021, four (4) students were attacked and shot at their student residence in Botjhabela Village, Qwaqwa. Whilst two of the students suffered critical injuries and have since been taken to hospital where they’re reported to be in a perilous state, fighting for their lives, regrettably two (2) of the students were fatally killed on the spot.”

Dlanjwa added: “We have spoken to the investigating officer, Captain Boy Makubu whohas made us to believe that the robbers came in demanding money, laptops and phones, to which the students did not demonstrate any resistance when they were mercilessly gunned down by three unknown suspects.”

“We wish to offer our most sincere and heartfelt condolences, prayers and thoughts to the family, friends and fellow students of the deceased students. We further would like to wish the two students who are currently in hospital, fighting for their lives, a speedy recovery.”

Dlanjwa said the union will be visiting the family, fellow students and the community of Botjhabela village this weekend.

“We would also like to make a call to the University of the Free State and Higher Health to make available psychological support to the students who have been left traumatised and distraught by these upsetting events,” said Dlanjwa.

Dlanjwa said on average, universities have only been able to accommodate less than 20% of students in safe and acceptable student accommodation, ‘leaving around 80% at to non-affordable and atrocious living conditions and exposing them to interminable criminal elements’.

The recent killing of Nosicelo at the University of Fort Hare could also be directly attributed to the abhorrent state of student accommodation within the broader Higher Education Sector, SAUS added.

“The targeting of student accommodation by criminals also speaks to the inactive and feeble efforts of the South African Police Services and University Protection Services to bolster security and police visibility in and around student accommodation,” said Dlanjwa.

“We must however, call on the SAPS, to rest at nothing in bringing those who have waged an attack on the student community, to swift justice.”

* Inside Politics  

BASIC Education Minister Angie Motshekga has expressed shock and sadness at the gruesome murder of a teacher at Heinz Park primary school in Philippi, Western Cape.

The teacher was gunned down on the school premises on Tuesday.

Motshekga has condemned the number of violent crimes taking place against teachers in schools and else in the communities.

“We condemn any form of violence in our schools. We are working with the police to ensure the safety of our teachers, learners and the entire school community against criminals who continue to terrorise them in a safe environment that school premises are supposed to be,” Motshekga said.

The Minister said the department’s programme of safety in schools continues to advocate for no violence of any form in schools.

“Government, led by the Deputy Minister of Basic Education, Dr Reginah Mhaule, and other Deputy Ministers from the South African Police Service, Justice and Constitutional Development, Social Development and many other partners will intensify the campaign against violence in schools, including gender-based violence, in Limpopo on 15 October 2021,” the Minister said.

She said the safety of teachers, learners and staff is a collective responsibility of the entire society and everyone must play their part to end the violence and criminal activities that occur, especially on school premises.

The Minister conveyed her condolences to both the family of the deceased teacher and the school.

Motshekga has called upon the police to ensure that those who carried out this brutal murder are arrested, charged and jailed as soon as possible. – SAnews.gov.za

THE DA in Limpopo welcomes the judgment passed down on the 17th of September in the case of Komape v Minister of Basic Education that compels the Limpopo Department of Education (LDOE) and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to develop a comprehensive plan to urgently eradicate pit toilets at schools in Limpopo.

This comes after LDOE and DBE had failed to comply with a 2018 court order that directed them among other things to supply each school in Limpopo with safe and dignified toilets, to conduct a comprehensive audit of sanitation and provide a comprehensive plan for the installation of new toilets.

DA’s acting Limpopo spokesperson on education, Risham Maharaj said the party believes that a much more aggressive approach must be taken if the province is serious about eradicating pit latrines.

“The slow rate shown by the department in addressing this crisis means that some children in Limpopo will finish their schooling years without ever having experienced decent and appropriate sanitation facilities,” said Maharaj.

Maharaj said that in her 2019 budget speech, Education MEC Polly Boshielo made an empty promise to eradicate pit toilets. Boshielo stated: “In this financial year, the Department will eradicate pit latrines in all the 507 schools and replace them with proper sanitation facilities… There will be no talk of pit latrines in the next financial year.”

“This was in 2019! Since then, very little has been done in ensuring proper sanitation facilities in schools and pit toilets remain a reality for many of our learners. Limpopo has historical challenges of school infrastructure and infrastructure maintenance backlogs that would cost in excess of R20 billion to eradicate,” said Maharaj.

“MEC Polly Boshielo has a responsibility to prioritise and ensure all schools in Limpopo have a sufficient number of proper sanitation facilities in line with the Norms and Standards regulations. There should be no pit toilets allowed at schools.”

Maharaj added: “We have constantly raised the issue of inappropriate sanitation and the clearing of the infrastructure backlog over the years. It is time for the needs of learners and their dignity to be prioritised by the department.”

* Inside Education

A GRADE 6 Heinz Park Primary School teacher in Philippi, Cape Town was shot and killed inside his vehicle on Tuesday morning.

The teacher had just parked inside the school premises at about 7.45am and was still sitting in his vehicle when he was shot dead allegedly by two suspects who fled the scene.

Police spokesperson Andrè Traut said circumstances leading to the teacher’s death were being investigated.

“The circumstances surrounding the death of a 52-year-old man are being investigated after he was shot and killed in the parking area of Heinz Park Primary School at around 7:45.”

No arrests have been made yet.

She said counselling support has been arranged for pupils and teachers at the school.

MEC Debbie Schäfer said she was shocked to hear of the shooting.

“I offer my deepest condolences to his loved ones, colleagues and school. To lose a long-serving teacher in this way is a senseless tragedy. We do not have more details at this stage, but it is vital that SAPS do everything in their power to find and arrest the perpetrator/s as soon as possible.

“It is unacceptable that our teachers, who are providing one of the most vital services for our country, cannot be safe at work,” said Schäfer.

Anyone with information about the incident can anonymously contact Crime Stop at 0860010111 or SMS Crime Line at 32211.

THE Taliban said on Tuesday Afghan girls will be allowed to return to school “as soon as possible”, after their movement faced international fury over their effective exclusion of women and girls from education and work.

The hardliners’ spokesman meanwhile announced the remaining members of Afghanistan’s all-male government, weeks after the militants seized Kabul in an offensive that shocked the world.

The Taliban were notorious for their brutal, oppressive rule from 1996 to 2001, when women were largely barred from work and school, including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.

One month after seizing power and pledging a softer version of their previous regime, the Islamists have incrementally stripped away at Afghans’ freedoms.

“The work is continuing over the issues of education and work of women and girls,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at a press conference, saying schools will reopen “as soon as possible”, without providing a timeframe.

“More time is needed… instructions on how to deal with their work, their services and their education are needed because the system has changed and an Islamic system is in place.”

At the weekend, girls and female teachers were excluded from returning to secondary school, while boys and male teachers were ordered back to the classroom.

The Taliban have also slashed women’s access to work, with officials previously telling them to stay at home for their own security until segregation under the group’s restrictive interpretation of sharia law can be implemented.

The group imposed a harsh interpretation of sharia law during their last rule and this time round have said progress in women’s rights will be respected “within the framework of Islamic law”.

Many women however are deeply suspicious about the Taliban’s pledges.

“This happened last time. They kept saying they would allow us to return to work, but it never happened,” a woman teacher told AFP on Monday.

NO FEMALE MINISTERS
New additions to the Taliban’s government were also announced on Tuesday, with businessmen and engineers added to the line-up, as well as a doctor appointed as health minister.

The Taliban had promised an inclusive administration, but no women were added on Tuesday, and it remains largely drawn from loyalist ranks.

A member of the Hazara community, which is majority Shiite and has long been persecuted by the Sunni Taliban joined the health ministry as a deputy minister.

Although still marginalised, Afghan women have fought for and gained basic rights in the past 20 years, becoming lawmakers, judges, pilots and police officers, though mostly limited to large cities.

There was no mention in the press conference of the recently shut down women’s affairs ministry, with its offices replaced with a department notorious for enforcing strict religious doctrine during the Taliban’s last rule.

Women have been at the forefront of several small, scattered protests across the country, a show of resistance unthinkable under the last regime, demanding to be included in public life.

The Taliban have attempted to shut them down, slapping rules on any form of assembly.

The Taliban now face the colossal task of transitioning from insurgent force to ruling Afghanistan, an aid-dependent country whose economic troubles have only deepened since the Islamists seized power and outside funding was frozen.

Many government employees have not been paid for months, with food prices soaring.

“We are working on a mechanism for the payment of salaries. Salaries will be paid to all the employees in coming days,” Mujahid said.

While many Afghans are relieved that the Taliban victory has brought an end to the ongoing fighting, air strikes and bomb attacks, the Islamic State group branch of Afghanistan remains a security risk.

It has claimed a handful of bomb attacks in their former stronghold of Nangarhar province, as well as a devastating suicide blast that killed scores of people outside Kabul airport during the chaotic US-led evacuation.

AFP

“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*