THE Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has welcomed the successful first week of online admissions applications after more than 100 000 applications for Grade 8 were completed.

The department’s 2022 online admissions applications system opened last Tuesday for Grade 7 learners currently enrolled in the public school system in Gauteng to apply for Grade 8.

“We are vindicated that the two-phase process was in the best interest of both learners and parents,” Lesufi said.

“There have been three main problems, one being the issue of ID numbers where we are linked to the home affairs database but there were challenges and limitations but we managed to rectify that.”

The process for Grade 1s and 8s was split into two phases this year to ensure that the high demand for school placement was managed more efficiently.

By Friday, the number of successful applications from Grade 8 was at 104 504.

“Accordingly, this milestone is indicative of the hard work that has been put in by the GDE staff who are handling an average of 5 000 calls a day at the GDE contact and walk-in centres across the province. Our gratitude must go to parents and guardians whose patience and understanding have made this process smoother,” education spokesperson Steve Mabona said.

Learners who were outside the public schooling system and eligible for Grade 8 would have to wait until September 13 to apply, as well as eligible Grade 1 learners.

The system began smoothly last week with some parents and guardians having to overcome a number of challenges including incorrect ID numbers or home addresses – even after the parents had verified their details at schools. “Indeed our back-office support – including the districts and schools – has been extremely busy providing assistance to parents and guardians so that they are better able to navigate the system,” Mabona said.

The provincial department has encouraged parents who have not yet verified their information to communicate with their child’s school to check if schools have updated details.

If the schools do not prove to be helpful, parents have been urged to visit the GDE’s district office, walk-in centres or call the GDE’s contact centre.

The first phase of the 2022 online admissions process, which is for parents and guardians whose children are currently in Grade 7 at a public school in Gauteng and would be going to Grade 8 in 2022, will end on September 3.

Phase 2 would begin on September 13 and focus on parents and guardians whose children would be going into Grade 1 in 2022 or Grade 8 but were not in a public school in Gauteng. It would end on October 8.

* Own Correspondent

DESPITE concerted efforts to narrow the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, major inequalities persist. 

According to UNESCO, women account for a mere 28% of those pursuing STEM careers in Sub-Saharan Africa, below the global average of 30%.

On a positive note, South Africa is bucking the trend by producing more female ICT graduates. The country has the highest share of female graduates in Sub-Saharan African at 32%, and even more female ICT graduates, at 38%, according to a recent report. Supporting this positive trajectory are statistics from HyperionDev, South Africa’s leading tech education provider, which recorded a 60% increase in female students since the beginning of 2021.

HyperionDev CEO Riaz Moola says that although the number of women in tech is improving in South Africa, there is still much to be done to minimise barriers to entry, inspire girls to take STEM subjects and help young women take advantage of the opportunities that the tech industry offers them.

Giving women a competitive edge is vital, as they were the hardest hit during the first COVID-19 hard lockdown last year. Out of the 2,8 million jobs lost, two-thirds were women, according to the National Income Dynamics Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM). In the latest survey released earlier this year, although many have recovered their jobs, re-employment rates for men were greater than those for women.

“Considering that the job landscape is constantly evolving in line with the digital economy, it is essential for girls and women to ensure they are educated and upskilled to ensure their jobs are future-proofed, especially in the face of disruptions such as COVID-19,” comments Moola.

Female representation is critical

Despite the progress made towards gender parity, women still remain critically underrepresented in most STEM fields, both in tertiary education institutions and the workforce.

“It becomes apparent in more informal social settings that there are still fundamentally prejudiced nuances embedded in conversations around women in tech. The underrepresentation of women then equates to a lack of female ICT role models to inspire girls at an age where parental control, peer pressure and self-esteem can heavily influence their career decisions,” says Marianne de Vos, Lead Digital Designer at HyperionDev.

Others concur that gender representation makes a big difference. Onalerona Mosimege, Software Engineer at HyperionDev, recalls how large and diverse her first-year computer science class was at university. But it didn’t stay that way for long. “By my final exam in third year, there were only four girls left,” she says. “A lot of my female friends left computer science mostly because they felt as if they were struggling alone.”

Breaking down barriers to shatter glass ceilings

“While the issues women face in joining the tech industry are numerous and powerful, they’re not impossible to overcome,” says Moola. As such, he believes there are a number of strategies that schools, businesses, and parents can take to support girls and women as they pursue their passion and interest in technology. These include improving female representation in companies, celebrating female role models in tech, such as South African powerhouse Aisha Pandor, co-founder of Sweep South and American Whitney Wolfe Herd, 31-year-old founder of the global dating app Bumble, who was named the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire on Forbes’s Billionaires List 2021. Subsequently, it is crucial to ensure that the tech industry listens to women’s challenges and addresses gender inequality.

Tech education is the perfect starting point 

“Accessible tech education is the future of social upliftment and mobility,” asserts Moola. “As coding is an essential language for many 21st century jobs, it is the perfect starting point for women and girls to grow their careers in tech.

“Our coding boot camps give young women a fighting chance to become confident, job-ready developers in mere months rather than years. We have hundreds of proven success stories of students who became professional developers and engineers shortly after graduating,” he says. “Our focus on practical work skills and the human touch makes all the difference in helping young women achieve their tech dream and excel in their new career,” Moola concludes.  

Africa.com

In a two-day virtual colloquium, the Rhodes University Political and International Studies Department collaborated with Nelson Mandela University Centre for Women and Gender Studies and the University of Cape Town’s Historical Studies Department to bring together the voices and stories of women who participated in the armed struggle in South Africa.

Called “S’obashaya ngamatye”: Women and 60 Years of the Armed Struggle in South Africa, the event started on national Women’s Day 9 August 2021 and commenced on 10 August 2021.

Rhodes University student and programme chairperson Zikho Dana began the session by giving a brief introduction on the purpose of the day. Rhodes University Vice-Chancellor, Dr Sizwe Mabizela, issued an official opening and welcoming address. In his speech, Dr Mabizela said the colloquium provided everyone with the rare and valuable opportunity to spend time with and learn from some of the most remarkable women who made an immense contribution and selfless sacrifices in the liberation struggle. He acknowledged the significant role some of the guests played in the armed political struggle, honouring those who laid down their lives and gave their all to the cause. He added that it was an opportunity to document the history of the speakers’ contribution to a just society.

Dr Mabizela noted that by interacting with the veterans of our struggle, the youth could learn about the histories and gendered histories that will inspire and shape their future roles as researchers, practitioners, and future leaders of our society. “This platform allows us to learn from our elders, as they share their memories and the values that guided them as they prosecuted our liberation struggle,” he said.

Rhodes University senior lecturer and organiser, Dr Siphokazi Magadla, briefly introduced the keynote speaker, Honourable Thandi Modise. Honourable Thandi Modise left South Africa for Botswana as a teenager in 1976 to join the African National Congress (ANC). Modise was transferred to Angola, where she received her military training. Magadla noted that Modise was the first to return to South Africa to organise the women in the townships after receiving military training with uMkhonto we Sizwe. She was arrested in 1976 and received an eight-year jail sentence which she served at Kroonstad prison. “By the end of this colloquium, we hope to generate a systematic and connected archive of women’s lives, roles and techniques of leadership in the armed struggle in Southern Africa,” said Dr Magadla.

Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Thandi Modise began her keynote address by expressing her gratitude to the organising committee for their incredible work to give women a platform to tell their stories and shine a light on this crucial issue.

Modise applauded the organising committee for the initiative, expressing her disappointment with the deliberate efforts to blot out the contribution of women to the liberation of the nation in the past. She also honoured her “mother”, Ruth Mompati, who had paved the way for women in the struggle.

Modise then went on to give personal accounts and descriptions of her experiences in the armed struggle. She told stories of journeys to foreign lands and the struggles women like her had to endure in an organisation where they were the minority. She highlighted the many significant roles played by women in the history of South Africa.

Modise put great emphasis on the importance of giving credit to all those who played a role in the struggle, no matter how trivial it may have seemed.

“We must also thank those whose job during the armed struggle was just to ferry messages,” she said. So often, the stories that never get told are those of women.”

“We must also remember that in every armed struggle, the women were not just on the curbside; they were involved. Sometimes they were involved on both sides of the struggle,” she added.

Modise thanked the women who had come before her, saying: “We thank them for their courage to stand.”

She honoured the likes of mam’ Charlotte Maxeke for being at the forefront of educating women and leading from the front.

After the keynote address, attendants were allowed to ask questions. Modise responded and engaged with the questions posed, giving much insight into how platforms like this celebration and commemoration could help educate the youth about their history and hopefully pave the way to a much better future.

SEGUN ODEGBAMI|

SPORTS development in Africa is on my mind. I am asking myself probing questions. Uganda produced a John Akii-Bua in the early 1970s. He was the greatest hurdler in the world at the 1972 Olympics.

Tanzania produced Filbert Bayi in the mid- 1970s.  He was the greatest middle distance runner in the world in the early 1970s.

Zambia produced Samuel Matete in the 1980s into the 1990s. He was a World 400 metres hurdling champion for a spell. Of course, Kenya had its own long list of world and Olympic champions since the early 1970s.

These are all East African countries populated by blacks in a region with similar environmental features and conditions that influenced their athletes’ performances.

In the group, why is it that it is only Kenya that has had a record of consistent successes through the decades and, today, have become the foremost achiever on the African continent in global sports?

The Ethiopians, and occasionally the Moroccans and Algerians, have produced some of the best middle and London distance runners also. But not like the Kenyans.

What is common to all these countries that is helping them breed quality runners in this corner of the world?
I don’t intend to provide any of these answers here. What is of interest to me is what Kenya is doing right that the others are not doing, that made the country to have a name considered bigger as a global brand than Nike or Adidas.  ‘Kenya’ is a massive global brand.

The country’s athletes are achieving global success and visibility. They are in almost all middle and long distance races, including the marathons, cross country and grand prix all over the world. Thousands of Kenyan runners win most of the races and take home the trophies and the prize monies.

Many countries that intend to train their athletes to complete favourably in any of the middle to marathon races look towards Kenya for guidance. They go and train in the high altitude areas of the country for long periods of time.

In order to accommodate them, the Kenyans have built camps in the training areas of simple and unsophisticated sports infrastructure. The environment is their perfect training grounds. This has influenced the establishment of an authentic sports tourism business to compliment the well-established Safari-tourism that has been the mainstay of the Kenyan economy for decades.

These days, as the results from Tokyo confirm, Kenyans have become valued raw materials for countries that are offering them citizenship and using them for international competitions. Many Kenyans ran for many foreign countries. There are big opportunities for Kenyan runners to migrate abroad for studies and for running career in countries willing to adopt them.

Seeing how profitable the business of running is in the world, the Kenyan government commissioned studies and research into how to institutionalise the process and make it sustainable and a win-win for all Kenyans. 

Without going into the details of ‘how’, the whole of Kenya has gradually become the ‘running capital’ of the world, everybody runs (or walks).

I sat with a group of consultants many years ago at the Jomo Kenyatta University, working on the urban renewal project of the City of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coastline of Kenya. I watched them discuss their project – to make the city an environment where everyone is moving and exercising for general wellbeing and health purposes. The towns and cities now have special lanes on the roads, in the parks and gardens for runners, cyclists and even those that want to walk.

The motto of the project was unofficially tagged “Move or Die.”
With all these as deliverables, all Kenyans saw and embraced the opportunities that running creates for the young, the fit and the healthy, opportunities to be rich, famous and a celebrity, and started an endless production line of runners, honed by the environment in the high altitude areas of the country, and motivated by immeasurable opportunities in a business that is global and can take all comers.

So, when you look at the medals table of the most successful countries at the Olympic Games, Kenya would never be in the single digits, yet the whole world considers them a global force in the area of their specialisation.

It is interesting. It presents a model for other African countries to emulate, but are not. Why not?
In looking at the case of Kenya, another country, whose name is also bigger than most global brands these days, one sees a similarity with Jamaica.

Jamaica is the most successful country of Black persons of African descent in the world of the sprints event. The country is doing with sprinting what Kenya has been doing for decades with the middle and long distance racing, but navigating through a different route to a similar destination.

Jamaicans are loaded with the genes of the fittest and healthiest of the Black human specie from the West African sub-region.

From what we know of young persons from that part of Africa (Nigeria’s performances in the 70s to the 1990s are a shining example of the possibilities) they are born to sprint and to jump. They use their natural power, speed and strength to do well in some particular sports particularly sprinting and the jumps, in Track and Field.

Unlike what obtains in East Africa where open fields in high altitude areas are the only requirements to hone natural talents, for the sprints events, the requirements are more technical and sophisticated. Tracks are needed.

That’s a major difference
Jamaicans initially were like Nigerians, sending their best young sprinters to the American Collegiate system for better grooming and training. Like Nigerians, ultimate control of the athletes was not in their hands. Like Nigeria, the sports industry at home did not grow. Like Nigeria, sprinting did not grow astronomically, locally, suffering from the vagaries of the external interest of external forces feeding. Like Nigeria, they fed the American sports eco-system of development through Collegiate and professional systems with endless talent, the best of whom eventually competed in America and in Europe, driving one of the biggest industries in the world in the United States Industrial Sports and Leisure complex.

A few Jamaican coaches, working in conjunction with some African American coaches went to the US and received the required training in the San Jose University established tradition of training sprinters. They returned to Jamaica and, for close to to decade, struggled to convince the government to domesticate the process of developing this throng of natural sprinters within Jamaica by copying the Collegiate system that worked so well in America.

That story is not my interest here.
What followed, in a nutshell, is that Jamaica redesigned its discovery-of- talents and grassroots sports development strategy along the American Collegiate system, embraced the training methodology of the most successful American coaches out of San Jose University ‘school of sprinting’, imported some Black American coaches, did a train-the- trainers program, introduced measures that made sprinting in athletics a spectacle, and introduced measures that promoted sports as a culture for schools in Jamaica. They built simple inexpensive infrastructure for training and competitions and within a decade they succeeded in turning Jamaica into the sprinting capital of the World.

The result is what the world has had to confront since Usain Bolt.
Like Kenya, the sprinting tradition is now well established all over Jamaica in all schools, etched into the environment in parks and gardens, for health, recreational, educational and business purposes. Sprinting has become an integral part of life in Jamaica. Today there is an endless production line of sprinters being churned out of Jamaica’s sports complex now produces athletes that fill the Athletics tracks in nooks and crannies all over the world. Jamaicans have become exportable products raking in good revenue into the country, the country has developed a sports tourism industry, its camps have become training base for sprinters from other parts of the world desirous to learn from Jamaica, and the name of the country has become, like Kenya, a massive global brand.

The finals of the women’s 100 metres event had three Jamaicans. They won gold, silver and bronze medals, in one of the greatest sprints races ever held.

The thought of Africa, her present place in the world of sports, her potential and the possibilities of what sports could do for the continent in a world deliberately and unfavourably re-constructed by the West so that Africans never succeed, often deposits a heavy burden on my heart.

The tragedy is that the evidences are all around us of the possibilities of what could be achieved by these most-gifted of homo sapiens, if only their political leaders, those that control the levers of power, can see and appreciate these evidences, and chart a course that will move the continent, her people and the rest of the Black race, away from a ‘slavery mentality’ in a new direction of commanding heights in economic, social and political development, using the innocuous instrumentality of sports as a vehicle.

It will not take reinventing the wheel for the rest of African countries to take useful lessons from the examples of Kenya and Jamaica, focus their attention on some specific sports that they are gifted in and that would not require sophisticated infrastructure that they cannot afford, and can impact the whole country when successfully deployed.

Between Kenya and Jamaica, they have found the antidote to the exploitation of The Black man’s natural gift and talent.
Their focus is not on quantity, an expensive ‘competition’ that any Third World country cannot win, but on quality and maximum use of the natural gifts in physiology and the environment, deployed strategically, domestically, and without breaking bank vaults to fund infrastructure for maximum impact and socio-economic and political effects.

Nigeria, with a population of over 200 million Black persons that are designed by nature to run and jump at no cost, within an environment that spans through low and high altitudes, and with rich human capacity in knowledge, and history of successes and potential, with the resources to domesticate the processes, won only one medal at the 2016 Olympics, almost 20 places below a neighbouring poor country, Niger, that won 2 medals.

At Tokyo 2020, Nigeria won two medals. That is seen by some as growth. For a country that has become one of the richest sources of raw athlete-materials to the rest of the world (Nigerian athletes are representing several Western and even South-East Asian countries), it is a big shame to the Black race.

It does not require a degree in rocket science to see that what is missing and needed is the right kind of leadership, plus a clear direction.

The Guardian Nigeria

NEARLY 5,000 children, educators and school staff are quarantined in Mississippi after returning to classrooms at the start of the new school year, some under mask-optional policies.

The 69 outbreaks reported between Aug. 2 to Aug. 6, which was the second week of school for some districts, resulted in nearly 1,000 children and 300 teachers and staff testing positive for COVID-19, according to a weekly report from Mississippi’s Department of Health.

While many school districts adopted a mask mandate for the beginning of the school year, it was not universal throughout the state, despite pleading from the Mississippi State Medical Association last week for all districts to require students and staff to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status.

The highly contagious delta variant is ripping through Mississippi, which also has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, more than quadrupling case numbers since June and causing a deficit of ICU beds.

The state’s early start to the new school year is providing a grim bellwether for school districts set to return more than 50 million students to classrooms over the next few weeks, many under mask-optional policies.

In southern Mississippi, Lamar County School District shuttered two of its schools during the last week in July and returned students to virtual learning until Aug. 16 after a week-long staggered reopening resulted in one high school identifying six cases among staff and 41 cases among students, forcing the quarantine of roughly 100 people. Highlighting just how contagious the delta variant is, after one week of in-person learning last year, the school district recorded only five cases among staff and five among students.

Despite the early warning signs from states like Mississippi and Arkansas, where than 800 students, educators and staff from one school district were quarantined just days after they began the new school year under a mask-optional policy, a handful of Republican governors are refusing to reconsider executive orders and state laws barring school districts from requiring masks.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican governors are under increasing pressure this week as school districts defy their executive orders, some in the face of increased threats of financial penalties, and cities and counties take them to court over the matter. In Texas, school leaders in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio plan to require masks for students and school staff, as do Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in Florida.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki addressed the Republican governors blocking school districts from enforcing masks, saying the Biden administration is actively looking for ways to safeguard districts who challenge state laws and executive orders.

“We are continuing to look for ways,” she said, “for the U.S. government to support districts and schools as they try to follow the science, do the right thing, and save lives.”

“If you’re not interested in following the public health guidelines to protect the lives of people in your state, to give parents some comfort as they’re sending their kids to school,” she said, “then get out of the way and let public officials, let local officials do their job to keep students safe. This is serious, and we’re talking about people’s lives

USNEWS

Deputy President David Mabuza says without urgently resolving inequalities in society, South Africa cannot successfully build and grow as a nation.

“Without urgently and tangibly addressing inequalities in society, nation-formation becomes a statement of intention rather than a statement of fact,” the Deputy President said on Wednesday.

Mabuza was addressing the 4th Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) Summit underway at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand.

The Deputy President addressed the summit in his capacity as Chairperson of the HRDC, a national multi-stakeholder advisory body established with the objective of improving the foundation of human resources in South Africa.

Held under the theme ‘Skills required for the 21st century’, the three-day summit aims to facilitate building the foundational knowledge to respond to the dictates of the changing world of work shaped by the realities of technological advancements.

Mabuza said the theme of the summit is relevant in the South African context to ensure that no one is left behind, as “we implement measures to rebuild and grow the economy”.

The Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, Mabuza said, is premised on reviving the economy devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, through investment in employment creation initiatives, building the relevant skills and training for the economy, industries and jobs for the future.

“It is encouraging that the objectives of this 4th HRDC Summit focus mainly on building the foundation and skills for a transformed economy and society, and building a capable and ethical developmental state.

“These objectives are significant since the HRDC, as a multi-stakeholder advisory body, is uniquely positioned to ensure that we capacitate the unemployed, those in workplaces and those still in our schooling system, with requisite skills that can respond to new world realities and to make South Africa globally competitive,” Mabuza said.

The Deputy President said the HRDC should use the Revised HRD Strategy to address the four broad challenges of poverty and inequality, quality of education, absorptive capacity of the economy, and social cohesion that will cumulatively contribute towards the attainment of the National Development Plan’s outcomes.

“Before deliberating further on this 4th summit, let us reflect briefly on what was agreed to in 2018 at the 3rd HRDC Summit, to ensure that we underline policy and programmatic continuity, and avoid reinventing the wheel.  As social partners, we have to ask ourselves the question whether between the period of the last summit and this one, have we sizeably delivered on equipping and capacitating our young people with practical solutions.   

“If we are to recalibrate our human resources development efforts to be skills-based, innovation-led and entrepreneurial-focused, we must be deliberate in implementing resolutions that we take at each summit. That is why at the end of this summit, we need to emerge with a concrete plan of action that will demonstrate measurable progress by the time we meet for the next summit,” he said.

Mabuza welcomed the summit’s focus on building the foundation for a transformed economy.

“We presume there will also be strategic and thematic continuity between this 4th summit and previous summits in areas of implementing pathways and partnerships between training institutions, labour and industry.”

 – SAnews.gov.za

THE University of Johannesburg (UJ) has clarified allegations contained in an article that appeared in digital platform, News24, on Tuesday, under the headline “Senior UJ officials involved in attempted embezzlement of hundreds of millions in government funding”.

The article reported that hundreds of millions of rands in taxpayers’ money from the Department of Science and Technology, the Industrial Development Corporation of SA (IDC) as well as funding from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) went down the drain as senior UJ executives colluded to embezzle the intellectual property and main assets of Photovoltaic Technology Intellectual Property (PTiP).

PTiP is a once celebrated local technology development and intellectual holding company.

UJ, in a statement, said the article referred to a series of events preceding 2017 and that none of the people or entities mentioned in the article were currently UJ employees or have any association with the University.

“As for the matter regarding two former executives – Dr Roy Marcus (former chairperson of the University’s Council) (“Marcus”) and Jaco van Schoor (the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Finance) (“Van Schoor”) – this is a matter dating back five years ago,” the university said in a statement.   

“The University wishes to remind the public that the matter was vigorously investigated and in this regard the Council of UJ was quick to commission an investigation by SNG Grant (SizweNtsalubaGobodo) an independent audit, advisory and forensic services firm.  Also, the University then duly laid criminal charges.”   

The university said the Criminal case is currently being handled by the Hawks. 

Civil actions were instituted in the South Gauteng High Court against Marcus, Van Schoor and 9 others to repay the monies that they defrauded the University with. 

The matter is ongoing and being actively pursued by UJ.  

UJ said it takes claims of fraud and corruption seriously and that it does not tolerate these in any form. 

“When such claims are made or emerge, the University has internal processes to investigate and act accordingly, as it did with Marcus and Van Schoor,” the university said. 

“This is an ethical and moral obligation, and the University will not hesitate to act against any of its employees found to have been involved in any acts of fraud and corruption or any other transgression.”  

Inside Education

Cabinet has approved the release of the report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee into the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

The committee was appointed in May 2020 to look into the business processes, systems and capacity of the NSFAS to deliver on its mandate, acting Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said on Thursday.

“The investigation focused on the root causes of the problems experienced by NSFAS and the implementation of the new bursary scheme since 2018. The enquiry provided valuable recommendations towards improving the operations of NSFAS.

“Cabinet appreciated that some of these recommendations have already been implemented,” she said at a media briefing.

The report can be accessed through the Department of Higher Education and Training website on www.dhet.gov.za. 

National Infrastructure Plan 2050 

Meanwhile, Cabinet also approved the publication of the National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) 2050 for public comment.

The plan details the country’s infrastructure investment drive, which also integrates African economies through some of its regional projects.

In addition to driving economic growth, Ntshavheni said the NIP would also address the legacy of apartheid spatial injustices.

“It is anchored on the participation of government, business, State-owned entities and civil society.

“Its priority sectors include energy, freight transport, water and digital communication.

“The NIP 2050 will soon be gazetted for public consultation,” the Minister said.

Consolidating support for business 

Ntshavheni said Cabinet also approved the incorporation of the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) and Cooperative Banks Development Agency (CBDA) into the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA).

The merger of these entities will enable an integrated government support to small, micro and medium enterprises, as well as cooperatives with effect from 1 April 2022.

“A proposed single agency will provide both financial and non-financial support to these businesses. By pooling all the resources together, the agency will be more impactful and accessible in all the districts and metros,” Ntshavheni said.

The approved incorporation will result in the reclassification of SEDA (which will be renamed later) in terms of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act 1 of 1999) from a Schedule 3A to a Schedule 2 entity.

Cabinet approved the extension of the Board of SEFA to 31 March 2022 to enable the alignment to the commencement of the transitional arrangement. – SAnews.gov.za

THE judgment in the matter between Section 27 and the Department of Basic Education has been reserved.

The date of the judgment is expected to be announced by Judge Gerrit Mueller soon.

SECTION27 is asking the court to rule that the DBE’s and the Limpopo Department of Education’s “plan” to abolish pit toilets is unconstitutional.

Section 27 challenged the Limpopo Department of Education at the Polokwane High Court on Friday over its plan to completely eradicate pit toilets.

The civil society group says that the department has underspent on infrastructure at schools.

The state argued that it could only achieve the eradication of pit toilets at schools by March 2031.

“The judge’s office will be in touch with us to let us know when they will deliver judgement. We will certainly follow up because this case has been pending for seven years and we would like to see a final conclusion,” said Section 27.

“We have done research into the annual report of the DBE themselves, and they have said that they are underspending on their infrastructure budget.”

The case was prompted by the death of five-year-old Michael Komape who died after falling into a pit latrine at school in 2014 in Limpopo.

His father, James Komape believes they have presented a compelling case against the state.

“Today’s case went well. I am confident that Judge Mueller will rule in our favour and infrastructure will be taken to schools. There is still a lot of schools in areas like Ga-Mashashane and in Moletji that still have pit toilets,” said James Komape on Friday.

Section 27 has also asked the court to appoint an independent sanitation task team to look into the matter.

In 2018 the court ordered that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the Limpopo Department of Education (LDoE) must file plans to eradicate pit toilets and provide the court with an updated audit of sanitation needs at schools in the province.

Thousands of children in South Africa attend schools with filthy, dangerous toilets.

A reliable report in January said 37 Eastern Cape schools had no toilets at all, 1945 had plain pit latrines and 2585 had ventilated pit latrines.

Inside Education

IN many countries where many languages are spoken, English is often the language of teaching and learning in schools. Learners get their knowledge of school subjects through the use of English – be it reading and writing or speaking and listening.

Learners who are comfortable using specific English language structures, phrases and terms as they are used in each school subject have greater academic success. Some school systems therefore aim to teach language and subject content at the same time.

Organising the curriculum this way is known as Language Across the Curriculum. In South Africa – a country with 11 official languages – it’s referred to as English Across the Curriculum.

This is because English is the language of learning and teaching from grade 4, where pupils tend to be 10 years old.

The English Across the Curriculum strategy is to develop English language skills across all high school subjects, not just by studying English itself. It pays attention to how English is used for developing knowledge in other subjects such as Life Sciences, Mathematics or Geography.

Realising the importance of this approach, South Africa’s Department of Basic Education published a Manual for Teaching English Across the Curriculum in 2014. The manual provided high school teachers with subject-specific activities and lesson preparation demonstrations so they could follow the language strategy.

But in 2017, the department reported that high school teachers weren’t using this approach as was expected of them. This meant some high school learners would find it difficult to acquire subject knowledge. Subject concepts and skills can’t be understood outside the language they occur.

We decided to explore whether this problem arose from the training that teachers were getting. Our study explored how student teachers in different universities were prepared for integrating language and subject learning.

Student teachers in our study sample acknowledged the importance of developing English language in subject learning. But most of them indicated that their preparation to use the English Across the Curriculum strategy was largely incidental. Their curriculum didn’t ensure it.

Secondly, they rarely saw their own lecturers modelling the strategy.

We held several focus group discussions with 102 final year Bachelor of Education students from three universities in South Africa.

The Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation also supports the English Across the Curriculum strategy. It states that teachers who successfully complete an initial professional qualification should be proficient in at least one official South African language as a language of learning and teaching.

We found that at University A, there were no specific English Across the Curriculum courses or activities. A course that the student teachers mentioned as coming close was academic literacy. But this was a generic course that all first-year students took to develop academic language skills. It had little to do with English Across the Curriculum.

At University B there was a well-defined curriculum for the study of English Across the Curriculum. It allowed the students to choose between two languages of instruction, namely, Afrikaans and English.

Student teachers who selected English as the medium for teaching enrolled for a number of courses in their four years of study which modelled how to infuse language and subject learning.

The student teachers seemed confident that they would be able to do this in their future classroom. But they worried that during their teaching practice, they didn’t observe the mentor teachers using the strategy.

At University C student teachers were prepared as English Across the Curriculum practitioners using one course in their fourth year.

The aim of this course was to guide student teachers on how learners acquired language skills that would develop their thought processes in subject specific content. This course focused on how student teachers could use listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in subject learning.

Overall, we found that the student teachers weren’t confident that they could create the conditions for subject learning using English as a language of instruction. They didn’t have a thorough understanding of integrating English language skills and subject learning.

Some universities, like University B, are making efforts to prepare student teachers to follow the strategy. In others, like A and C, this preparation is largely fragmented, unintentional and left to chance. It shows a mismatch between policy and practice.

There’s no perfect teaching approach guaranteed to prepare student teachers to practise English Across the Curriculum. But there are a number of opportunities that universities can use.

Based on our research, we propose a specialised language knowledge for content teaching approach. This is different from the current strategy in teacher education, where English language is used for academic activities but not meant to enhance subject-specific proficiency.

In the approach we recommend, lecturers in different disciplines across the teacher education curriculum use language to represent content knowledge in an accessible way. This goes beyond linguistic forms such as vocabulary and grammar. It looks at how language is used for communication in a specific subject.

Learning activities such as lectures, microteaching, lesson planning, portfolio development, reflection exercises and teaching practice should all be used to develop student teachers’ specialised language knowledge for content teaching.

Our study initiates an important discussion that various universities through their faculties of education can have. But planning for the simultaneous development of student teachers’ subject and language knowledge isn’t easy.

It requires a review of the teacher education curriculum, reworking the knowledge base for student teachers and providing professional development for lecturers who teach student teachers.

With creative thinking, universities and government departments can find practical solutions that should enhance the academic success of school children through quality language and subject learning.

The Conversation