THE SA Schools teams return to action in Cape Town on Saturday having last played in 2019 and – judging by the excitement in the camps as they prepared at Hoër Landbouskool Boland near Paarl – the players and their management teams can’t wait for the opportunity to play again.

Two teams – SA Schools and SA Schools A – were named after the U18 Craven Week in Cape Town last week. At their blazer presentation ceremony on Tuesday night, Zachary Porthen (SA Schools) and Camden Schoeman (SA Schools A) were named as the respective captains.

Katleho Lynch, coach of the SA Schools side, says he was filled with gratitude at the opportunity to work with some of the best schoolboy players in the country.

“To witness the excitement among the players and how proud their parents are, is just wonderful,” said Lynch, who was appointed as SA Schools A team assistant coach in 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic halted the local season.

“For two seasons, we hardly had any schoolboys rugby and now we’re slowly returning back to normal. The boys are really in their element and their eagerness to learn, to make new friends and just to soak up this experience, is palpable.

“I’m honoured to be working with them and all of us are very excited about Saturday’s game.”

The clash between the two SA Schools teams is scheduled to kick off at 12:30pm on Saturday at Hamilton Rugby Football Club in Cape Town, after which the players and management will attend the third Test in the Incoming Series between the Springboks and Wales at Cape Town Stadium.

Cobus van Dyk, who was supposed to assist Lynch last year with the SA U18 team on a tour to Georgia in August, which was cancelled shortly before departure also due to Covid, echoed his colleague’s sentiments.

“It’s a great initiative to get these two teams to face each other and spend time together, work hard and enjoy the week,” said Van Dyk, head coach of the SA Schools A side.

“The talent in this group is special and the players will be better for the experience, but they are also experiencing what true rugby camaraderie is all about – getting to know players who you usually play against and forming friendships that will last for life.”

Due to injury, there were two changes to the SA Schools A side announced last Friday. Hanro Venter of the Blue Bulls will now start on the bench as a replacement hooker in place of Jan Botes, while loose forward Michael Maseti was also ruled out and replaced by Dewald Gerber (SWD).

he teams are:

SA Schools – 15 Michail Damon (Blue Bulls), 14 Alfondso Isaacs (Free State), 13 Litelihle Bester (Sharks), 12 Joshua Boulle (Golden Lions), 11 Joel Leotlela (Golden Lions), 10 Thurlon Williams (DHL Western Province), 9 Steven Nel (Blue Bulls), 8 Sibabalwe Mahashe (Border), 7 Lukas Meyer (Free State), 6 Matthew Fick (DHL Western Province), 5 JF van Heerden (Free State), 4 Thabang Mpafi (Golden Lions), 3 Zachary Porthen (captain – DHL Western Province), 2 Luca Bakkes (DHL Western Province), 1 Sifiso Magwaza (Golden Lions). Replacements: 16 Ethan Bester (Sharks), 17 Ruan Swart (SWD), 18 Casper Badenhorst (Free State), 19 Jack Waterhouse (Sharks), 20 Thomas Dyer (Sharks), 21 Caleb Abrahams (Free State), 22 Stehan Heymans (Blue Bulls), 23 Sha Jehaan de Jongh (DHL Western Province).

SA Schools A – 15 JT Strydom (SWD), 14 Gino Cupido (DHL Western Province), 13 Antonio Bruiners (SWD), 12 Alec McIntyre (Free State), 11 Jameel de Jongh (DHL Western Province), 10 Bradley Giddy (Free State), 9 Emrique Liedeman (DHL Western Province), 8 Camden Schoeman (captain – SWD), 7 Wandile Mlaba (Sharks), 6 Max du Pisani (Eastern Province), 5 Keanu Coetzee (DHL Western Province), 4 Daniel Botha (DHL Western Province), 3 Nic Snyman (Sharks), 2 Christian Everitt (Sharks), 1 Liyema Ntshanga (Sharks). Replacements: 16 Hanro Venter (Blue Bulls), 17 Willem Loubser (DHL Western Province), 18 Bradley Stanfliet (DHL Western Province), 19 Ulrich van der Westhuizen (Golden Lions), 20 Dewald Gerber (SWD), 21 Onelisiwe Fani (Border), 22 Sesethu Mpaka (Border), 23 Jaden Bantom (Valke).

SA Rugby Magazine

THE recently released Early Childhood Development Census revealed that the sector needs significant financial and training support in addition to infrastructure.

The census highlighted several challenges, including the lack of learning material and training and further revealed that only 60% of the ECD programmes surveyed have flush toilets, while around a third of all schools do not have taps to supply water for hand washing.
Ahead of Mandela Day, MySchool, together with Breadline Africa, have committed to continue allocating funds to upgrading classrooms, toilets, kitchens and office facilities at ECD centres across South Africa.

Breadline Africa is a non-profit organisation that uses funds donated from the MySchool programme.

Studies have shown that solid investment in ECD plays a significant role in whether or not children go on to achieve their full potential.

Children do not learn when they are hungry, and many ECD centres do not have adequate kitchen facilities available to prepare meals, the group said.

Children also do not learn optimally in dark, damp, unsafe, cold, unventilated, draughty, leaking spaces where learning materials and resources are in short supply.

The ECD sector has been one of the sectors most impacted by Covid-19, with many nursery schools and crèches having to close their doors due to the severe effects of the lockdowns. This situation was compounded by the Department of Social Development’s delay in paying out money from the R496 million allocated to the sector as part of an employment stimulus relief fund to help it recover.

The pandemic also temporarily halted Breadline Africa’s infrastructure project as its team couldn’t access community projects during lockdown.

Strategic Partnerships manager at Breadline Africa, Diane Laugksch, said that despite these challenges, Breadline Africa’s goal to erect 1 000 school infrastructure units by 2023 remained on track.

“Upgrading facilities is an important aspect to ensuring ECD centres meet requirements for registration with the Department of Basic Education. Once registered, centres are able to access government funding, which contributes to their sustainability,” Laugksch said.

Breadline Africa has so far placed more than 850 structures at community-run projects in resource-poor communities across South Africa, with the goal for this year to secure funding to place 193 structures at community projects. At some sites, the organisation also hopes to test a range of environmentally sustainable infrastructure solutions.

“On average, we have the capacity to place 150 structures per year. Since 1996, Breadline Africa has placed more than 850 structures at community-run projects in resource-poor communities across South Africa. These are predominantly container and prefabricated structures used as classroom, kitchen and toilet facilities at ECD centres and as libraries in quintile 1-3 (no fee-paying) public primary schools,” Laugksch explained.

She said that inadequate and poor ECD facilities impact learner performance and that this year, they hoped to secure funding to place 193 structures at community projects.

“Children do not learn when they are hungry, and many ECD centres do not have adequate kitchen facilities available to prepare meals. Children also do not learn optimally in dark, damp, unsafe, cold, unventilated, draughty, leaking spaces where learning materials and resources are in short supply,” Laugksch said.

At some sites, the organisation also hopes to test a range of environmentally sustainable infrastructure solutions.

Pieter Twine, General Manager at MySchool, said focusing on early childhood development now was crucial to the success of the country and youth.

“We have to ensure that we do our children justice in providing them with early learning opportunities in their formative years, which sets the stage for their success at school as well as later in life,” Twine said.

As MySchool celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, they share their commitment with Breadline Africa – one of its long-standing beneficiaries.

Over the years, Breadline Africa has allocated funds received from MySchool to upgrading classrooms, toilets, kitchens and office facilities at ECD centres across South Africa.

Shoppers can continue supporting Breadline Africa every time they swipe their MySchool, MyVillage or MyPlanet cards at participating retailers, and a percentage of their spend will be donated to the organisation.

For more information, visit www.myschool.co.za

AS part of honouring the legacy of former State President Nelson Mandela, the Justice and Correctional Services minister, Ronald Lamola, handed over a sports field restored by offender labour to Mchaka High School in Bushbuckridge on Friday July 8. Lamola said it would cater for sports such as football and netball.

The entertainment company MultiChoice partnered with the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) to provide much-needed resources for the sports field’s upgrade.

Lamola has often lamented the poor sporting infrastructure in public schools and rural communities, which he said deny young people opportunities to take part in sport.

“Some of our renowned sport icons were identified at school sport tournaments. It is our hope that our work of developing sport fields will revive the vibrant school sport culture and yield more champions,” he said.

“Some of our renowned sport icons were identified at school sport tournaments. It is our hope that our work of developing sport fields will revive the vibrant school sport culture and yield more champions. Projects of this nature are thus aligned to the DCS’s self-sustainability and sufficiency framework, by means of partnering with strategic stakeholders like MultiChoice in order to roll out infrastructure in disadvantaged communities,” said Lamola.

He said the department would also help schools in other provinces with sporting infrastructure. “This has resulted in some schools in Gauteng, Western Cape and Northern Cape benefiting from this project.”

Lamola said at least 40 000 youth are incarcerated in correctional centres, with some lured into crime due to failure to channel their youthful energy to positive activities like sport and recreation. “Such work will serve as a catalyst to promote sport, leading to positive lifestyles among the youth,” he concluded.

NOAM ANGRIST|

THE COVID-19 pandemic placed enormous pressure on education systems worldwide. At the peak of the crisis, school closures forced over 1.6 billion learners out of classrooms. This exacerbated a learning crisis that existed before the pandemic, with many children in school but learning very little.

Widespread school closures are not unique to COVID-19. Teacher strikes, natural disasters, other disease outbreaks and extreme weather conditions all result in lengthy school closures.

The cost of school closures has proved to be substantial, in particular for lower socioeconomic status households. When schools are closed, remote learning is rarely as effective as in-school instruction, and caregivers become the front-line educators.

In well-resourced households, learning material such as textbooks and online internet access might exist at home and caregivers are more likely to engage in their child’s education. But in lower income households, fewer resources exist to support educational instruction.

Reducing learning loss when schooling is disrupted requires outside-school interventions that can effectively deliver instruction to children at scale. But little evidence exists on cost-effective learning interventions during school disruptions.

It’s estimated that globally 70%–90% of households own at least one mobile phone. This suggests that the use of mobile phones has the potential to provide educational instruction in resource-constrained contexts and at scale. But this “low-tech” solution is less commonly used in education relative to “high-tech” approaches that rely on internet-based instruction. This is despite the fact that only 15%–60% of households in low- and middle-income countries have internet access.

To examine the potential of mobile phone-based instruction, we conducted a randomised controlled trial with 4,500 households across Botswana led by Youth Impact, one of the largest NGOs in the country. In Botswana, mobile phone access is high: nearly 1.5 mobile phone connections per person on average. Many individuals have multiple sim cards.

We tested two mobile phone-based methods as low-tech solutions to support parents and their children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The households were divided into two types of intervention groups. One group received SMS messages with a few basic numeracy problems of the week. A second group received these same weekly SMS messages plus a 15–20-minute phone call from a teacher.

Phone calls improve learning

We found that SMS messages alone had little effect on learning outcomes. But a combination of phone calls and SMS interventions resulted in large learning gains.

Learning levels, as measured by a test focused on foundational numeracy skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, increased by 0.12 standard deviations. This equates to more than a full year of high-quality instruction gained per $100 spent. This ranks among the most cost-effective learning interventions.

These results show that instruction through mobile phones calls can provide an effective, scalable method to provide education instruction when schooling is disrupted. The research also shows the importance of live, direct instruction to complement more automated SMS based approaches to provide effective remote education.

We further developed phone-based assessments, as a means to measure learning, and found that this enabled high-frequency data collection to target instruction to children’s learning levels in real-time. For example, children who did not know addition were taught addition; children who did not know subtraction were taught subtraction. The one-on-one phone calls enabled a cost-effective and scalable form of tutoring. They were also highly targeted to children’s learning levels. This approach to targeting instruction was inspired by a well-known model called Teaching at the Right Level.

We found improved parental engagement too. Parents became more confident and accurate in their beliefs about their child’s education as a result of the intervention. This shows they were engaged and involved in the instruction along with their child.

Our findings have immediate policy relevance as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt schooling. Many schools have reopened since the COVID-19 pandemic, but only partially. For example, in Botswana instruction time has often been reduced owing to social distancing measures such as double-shift systems where half of the students attend school in the morning and the other half attend in the afternoon. Many countries around the world have adopted similar double-shifting systems, necessitating urgent action to provide additional, high-quality educational instruction.

Low-tech education

Our findings also have broad implications for the role of simple, low-tech methods to support education beyond COVID-19. Schooling gets disrupted for many reasons such as public health crises, weather shocks, natural disasters, elections, summer holidays, and in refugee and conflict settings. During these moments, education systems need resilient approaches to continue to provide education.

It’s important to note that our study evaluated only a subset of potential interventions. Other popular low-tech methods of educational instruction, such as radio and TV, require further investigation.

Since the initial trial in Botswana, our research team has engaged in a series of follow-up studies in India, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda and the Philippines. Results will show how well this approach scales across diverse contexts.

(Noam Angrist, Executive Director, Youth Impact, Fellow, University of Oxford)

This is an edited version of an article that was originally published in Nature Human Behaviour.

KWAZULU-NATAL Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu has released damning findings from an investigation into claims of racism at Grosvenor Girls High School, south of Durban.

An independent panel was appointed to probe these allegations, and financial misconduct after protests broke out at the school in March.

The panel found that racism has been normalised at the school and is systematic and structural.

“The investigation has found that racism at Grosvenor Girls High School is systematic, structural and that white authority dominates all facets at the school. It also found that racism is normalised and that it is second nature at this school, that black people who are learners and employees at the school suffer in an atmosphere of being suppressed, oppressed and of being voiceless,” said Mshengu.

“The report lists a litany of instances where the principal has used derogatory, discriminatory, and dehumanizing language when dealing with race related issues.”

Earlier in February, angry learners took to the streets outside the Grosvenor Girls High School to protest against a school that allegedly treats black and coloured girls unfairly.

The learners alleged that racism was an ongoing issue at the school.

Parents shortly followed suit and joined their children who demanded change as well as the removal of the principal.

Mshengu said the report also mentions several instances where the principal has used derogatory and discriminatory language when dealing with students and employees.

“The principal has been at the cutting edge of entrenching racism in that school. Evidence was led where the principal constantly shouted at African learners, reminding them that Grosvenor Girl High is not a township school, and she must go back to these township schools,” said Mshengu.

“Educators are told and motivated to recruit more white learners because the school belongs to white learners according to the principal.”

Mshengu said the report has been forwarded to the Premier of the Province, Sihle Zikalala with a strong motivation that it should be used as a motivation for the appointment of a commission of inquiry into racism in schools within the province.
“Such a commission will assist us to uncover other racial sufferings and to develop norms and standards to prevent racial abuses in our schools,” he said.

INSIDE EDUCATION

THE provincial education department in KwaZulu-Natal has revealed that the number of unqualified teachers in classrooms has increased from 215 to 2,810 by May 2022.

This is according to parliamentary questions to the department.

The department revealed that in February 2020 it had only 215 unqualified teachers, a more than tenfold increase to 2810 by May 2022.

KZN Education’s response also revealed that the areas most affected in terms of unqualified teachers are:
• Zululand has 357 unqualified educators
• King Cetshwayo with 325
• UThukela 281
• Umgungundlovu 270 and;
• Pinetown 267.

The department said it was providing bursaries to the teachers to get their qualifications within the next five years.
If the qualification was not obtained within this period, the teachers would be replaced with qualified teachers.

According to KZN’s Democratic Alliance (DA), Education MEC, Kwazi Mshengu, in his February 2020 parliamentary reply, all unqualified teachers have been given 30 days notice from March 1 and will be reinstated by qualified teachers replaced by educators.

The DA said said grades still mattered as part of the overall educational process, and one of the biggest problems at the foundation stage was the inability to read meaningfully and a lack of fundamentals when it came to subjects such as maths.

“While these are not taught in grade R, this year forms the basis for developing cognitive skills for the following school year.”

The DA also questioned why unqualified R-rated teachers were hired when there was no shortage of qualified teachers at home.

“It is incomprehensible that the DOE chooses to keep ineligible individuals on its payroll while qualified teachers struggle with unemployment after years of study and debt,” the DA said.

INSIDE EDUCATION

THE Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on July 8 officially launched the Science Diplomacy Capital for Africa (SDCfA) initiative, at an event attended by diplomats and stakeholders at the CSIR International Convention Centre, in Tshwane.

The wide array of speakers all welcomed the initiative, asserting that it aimed to use collaboration to further South African and African science, technology and innovation to tackle global challenges, capitalising on available opportunities.
The SDCfA aims to promote multilateral collaboration to address the challenges facing humanity.

It aims to promote science collaboration across Africa and beyond, leveraging and connecting technology innovation with humanity.

Moreover, it aims to embed a culture of learning, underscored by good governance.

It also seeks to put science diplomacy at the heart of Africa’s socioeconomic development and growth.

A joint initiative between the DSI and CSIR, it is also open to partnerships.

The SDCfA, will, from this year to 2023, be in the development phase, during which it will aim to position the initiative as a strategic enabler and support for global scientific initiatives.

It will also aim to add value through quality education, reduced inequalities and partnerships for goals.

From 2023 to 2025, the initiative will focus on value-add interventions aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals – in the context of the Societal Grand Challenges.

This includes the hosting of lectures, seminars, networking and visits to science and technology centres, besides others.

Planning beyond 2025 includes the establishment of a legal entity for the SDCfA.

Common themes the speakers addressed included that the SDCfA had the potential to transform Africa into a global leader in science, with the potential to create a new cohort of global companies concerned with human development.

Moreover, it was noted that it could be used to advance scientific excellence in Africa and at a global level, embrace collaboration and upskill the next generation of scientists.

It was also mentioned that the SDCfA would build on established and entrenched partnerships that were already running with different entities and the CSIR and the DSI, to bolster these.

The importance of civil society participation was also emphasised, with this noted as key to ensuring dialogue in the sector.

Several key stakeholders from forums, departments, initiatives, companies, universities and organisations, welcomed the initiative and expressed their support and willingness to partner.

In a speech delivered on his behalf – the Minister being absent owing to other commitments – Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande said the SDCfA would be a valuable instrument to enhance the country’s contribution to pan-Africanism.

He lauded the collaboration it would engender and said key contributions from the initiative would include that the very best of African and South African scientific input and advice would be used to tackle key challenges such as climate change, poverty, inequality, unemployment and the energy crisis.

This, he said, would be done through enhanced networking with the diplomatic community and African science expertise.

Nzimande added that SDCfA would also promote and assist in science diplomacy partnerships and provide a platform to leverage experts to make new programmes.

He emphasised that, for partnerships to be truly inclusive, they must include previously disadvantaged people.

While this initiative aimed to bolster international collaboration, it was important that there was a hub for it, it was noted, that aligned with other countries globally undertaking city-led scientific diplomacy.

Therefore, the City of Tshwane will serve as such, with the initiative to be run out of the CSIR.

Tshwane, as executive capital city of the country, was said to be ideal for this, with its hosting of considerable foreign embassies and international organisations, science councils, universities, and a thriving community of private sector entities involved in science, research, development and industrialisation.

Engineering News

A senior professor at a well-known university in the center of Israel was arrested on Sunday on charges of selling drugs to his students, Israel Police said in a statement.

Police officers in the central Israel city of Yavne conducted a covert investigation for several weeks into the conduct of the professor, a laboratory head in his 60s, before raiding his home and detaining the suspect on Sunday.

The professor will be brought before a court in Rishon Lezion on Monday, with police set to request an extension of his remand while they investigate the matter further.

Police said they found a range of substances suspected to be dangerous drugs, in addition to various methods to create them.

Police allege that the man produced drugs in his home and then sold them to his students at the university that employs him.

In a statement, Tel Aviv University told Walla that it “hopes that the alleged suspicions will turn out to be untrue. We mention that every person is innocent until proven guilty.”

Speaking to Walla, one student called the allegations “completely absurd,” stating that “it does not match the culture in the [dental] school,” which he described as “more military than the military” and where “everything is according to the book.”

“Right now we’re laughing, but we’ll soon understand the magnitude of the incident. If it’s true it will shake the faculty,” another student told the news site. “It sucks that this exploded precisely where we are learning.”

Times of Israel

SOUTH Africa needs more artisans such as bricklayers, diesel mechanics, instrument technicians, riggers, auto electricians and millwrights.

The department of higher education, science & innovation says there is a high demand for tradesmen who are highly skilled and who primarily work in a technical field, doing skilled manual labour.

Minister Blade Nzimande says the department is working hard to encourage young people to become artisans
“In 2014, we launched the decade of the artisan, which seeks to promote artisanship as a career of choice for SA’s youth and highlights skills development opportunities for artisans.”

Mihle Mvelakubi, 25, from Flagstaff, owns Mvelakubi Civil Engineering and Projects, which does bricklaying, tiling, plumbing and paving.

Mvelakubi says his passion had started when he was a learner at Agulhas School of Skills in Napier in the Western Cape, where he specialised in bricklaying and plastering, woodwork, welding and agriculture.

After school, he chose the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) route, doing an NC (V) civil engineering and building construction level 2-4 programme. He eventually obtained a national diploma in civil engineering and building, after completing his N4 to N6 at the College of Cape Town.

In 2017, he represented SA in bricklaying at the WorldSkills international competition in the UAE.

“The competition helped me realise that bricklaying is not just a trade, but is also an art that I developed through consistent practice, great mentorship and guidance.

“Without skills, we wouldn’t have had any of the things we have, such as buildings, cars, planes and trains.

For the economy to grow, we need all these skills and critical thinking. It is the TVET institutions that create these skilled people
“For the economy to grow, we need all these skills and critical thinking. It is the TVET institutions that create these skilled people,” said Mvelakubi.

To enter a recognised learning programme to become an artisan, you must get at least 40% for mathematics (excluding maths literacy) and a grade 9 or national certificate level 2 pass.

You will need to attend a TVET college and then do workplace learning before being able to take a trade test, which will certify you as a qualified artisan.

Trade tests can be done at a national trade test centre which is accredited by the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations.

— This article first appeared in GCIS Vuk’uzenzele.

INDEPENDENT school group Curro Holdings, in partnership with Acer for Education, has launched Curro’s own eSports gaming platform in South Africa.

Utilising help and expert guidance from Acer, Curro’s innovative new platform reassures parents with an extra layer of cyber security to ensure learners’ safety while playing online video game tournaments as part of the school group’s pioneering eSports programme.

Curro’s eSports programme has already registered more than 1,900 learners from across 38 of the group’s primary and 28 of the group’s high schools since its launch in 2020.

Until now, learners playing any of the tournaments, including Apex Legends and Minecraft Squad, as well as traditional eSports games like Rocket League, have not had a central space to view information. However, the new Acer platform allows teams to view their rankings but also makes it possible for coaches to manage players, coordinate tournaments and also allow communication between players as well as between players and coaches.

The tournaments are live-streamed via Twitch which means everyone gets to watch.

“We are amazed at how quickly our eSports programme has taken off. Our parents now understand that eSports is not just about playing video games as an extracurricular activity, but in fact, provides an entire world of opportunity for our learners, as an integrated part of our curriculum,” says Angela Schaerer, Digital Transformation Manager at Curro Holdings.

Schaerer says the new platform allows them to take their eSports offering to a whole new level of learning and upskill their learners and staff even more.

“For example, they can now shout cast (MC) games on the platform which is an extremely exciting opportunity, and we are already working closely with Acer to introduce a shout casting mentorship programme soon. We are planning to host our inter-Curro Cup tournament later this year, to determine the best eSport school in the group,” Schaerer says.

Recent research has identified numerous benefits to playing eSports and video games. These include improving the players’ ability to process and prioritise information, and enhancing their critical and creative thinking skills while quickening decision-making and reaction time without sacrificing accuracy.

Regular gaming also helps learners develop self-confidence and calmness, as well as acquire 21st-century skills like social awareness, collaboration, adaptability, persistence, and resourcefulness. These competencies could have ongoing future returns, helping learners secure valuable careers, especially in areas of math, science, and engineering.

Curro says it has been forging ahead with its eSports programme after witnessing the popularity of virtual sports during the Covid-19 lockdown when traditional sports were prohibited. Since then, the independent education provider has quickly fostered a name for itself in the global eSports community, having claimed victory in an International Minecraft match against a school in California in June 2021.

ITNEWS