THE KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education (DoE) has accumulated R468 million worth of debt owed to municipalities for services such as water, electricity, sewage and refuse removal from April 2021 to January 2022.

From the R468 million, R445 Million is owed by schools in the province while R23 Million is owed by the department itself.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KZN said that it tried to raise the alarm regarding financial mismanagement in teh department.

DA KZN Spokesperson on Education, Dr Imran Keeka said despite warnings of poor management of funds the department returned unused funds to the provincial treasury.

“The DA has consistently raised the issue of the poor management of funds by the DoE. That the province’s municipalities are being crippled as a result of such massive outstanding sums from KZN’s largest government department is shameful,” Keeka said.

“To aggravate the situation, the recent budget close-out report showed that the Department had areas of under-expenditure with the result that funds were returned to provincial treasury. These funds should have been re-directed – according to proper PFMA guidelines. In particular, they could have been used to pay outstanding domestic accounts of the numerous schools that have recently been disconnected,” said Keeka.

 According to the replies, KZN’s worst affected municipalities are|

· Ethekwini – with R372 Million outstanding;
· Msunduzi – R44.3million;
· Umgungundlovu at R15.8 million; and
· Ugu at R7.5 million.

The DA said it visited two schools in Msunduzi where water had been disconnected due to a municipal billing error and faulty procedures.

 “In all of these instances, schools and therefore learners suffer the most while the kleptocrats sit around twiddling thumbs.”

 The DA has now written to the former MEC with recommendations aimed at reducing domestic accounts.

These include;
• Changing ordinary light bulbs to LED’s;
• Installing solar panels where possible;
• Placing water restrictors on taps;
• Identifying and repairing water leaks; and
• Interacting with municipalities to ensure that proper meter readings are taken rather than relying on estimated bills.

INSIDE EDUCATION 

MINISTER Angie Motshekga’s Department of Basic Education is, according to the Office of the Auditor General (AG), one of the “worst offenders” among government departments when it comes to fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

A briefing to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Appropriations last week by AG Tsakani Maluleke’s office brought to light that 21 of 41 departments at national level “consistently incurred fruitless and wasteful expenditure over the past five years” according to a Parliamentary Communication Services statement.

The Department of Basic Education, according to the Parliamentary statement, is the biggest contributor to the overall R1.52 billion in fruitless and wasteful expenditure over the past five years.

The AG told the committee that some departments had consistently incurred fruitless and wasteful expenditure over the past five years.

“Out of 41 national departments, 21 of them incurred R1.52 billion in fruitless and wasteful expenditure during this time,” it said.

The Auditor-General during the meeting highlighted that the biggest contributors to this large sum are the Departments of Defence at R460.09 million, National Treasury at R339.47 million, Basic Education at R106.85 million and Tourism at R92.59 million.

Most of the wasteful expenditure occurred in procurement, payment and resource management.

The Auditor-General said that 29 percent of national departments are in good financial health, 62 percent are cause for concern and nine percent require urgent intervention.

INSIDE EDUCATION

A learner from Sovetjheza Secondary School in Siyabuswa, Nkangala District in Mpumalanga province will be representing South Africa’s National Volleyball team in Malawi.

Sarah Karabo Mnguni is set to represent the country in December 2022. Mnguni started playing volleyball at a young age.

“She started playing at a tender age and participated in the Volleyball League Games at the age of 13,” the Department of Education in Mpumalanga said.

Mnguni was subsequently selected to play for the Mpumalanga under 15 Team.

“Through her hard work, she was selected to play in tournaments which were staged in Mozambique, Lesotho and this year’s selection became a cherry on top for her.”

The Department said that Mnguni is an inspiration to young girls.

“She is truly an inspiration to other young girls who are from humble beginnings seeking an opportunity to make a name for themselves in sports.”

The Department took to its Facebook page to congratulate her and to wish her well in the tournament in Malawi.

“You Go Girl, the sky is the limit,” said the Department.

INSIDE EDUCATION

THE state believes that its new higher education draft policy, which will lead to all South African institutions of higher learning being classified into three types, is not the major disruption some perceive it to be.

The reaction to the Draft Policy for the Recognition of South African Higher Education Institutional Types, published in the Government Gazette of 8 August 2022, has ranged from shock to caution. Yet the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) says if the implications of the draft policy were being measured as an earthquake, it would be a minor tremor.

Mahlubi Chief Mabizela, Chief Director responsible for Higher Education Policy and Research Support in the DHET, said last week that the draft policy was minor in magnitude compared to the mergers of public higher education institutions of about 20 years ago, which reduced them from 36 to, initially 23, and now 26 universities. That would have ranked a major to severe impact of about 6 to 8 on the Richter Scale, which, although no longer operative, remains the famous phrase to refer to the magnitude of an earthquake. In comparison, this draft policy was about a 3 or 4, which, in earthquake terms, signified being felt by many, but recording no damage.

“What is major about this draft policy is the introduction of two new types of institutions: higher education colleges and university colleges,” he said. Higher education colleges can offer undergraduate degrees but have no mandate to do research, and university colleges are transitional, that is, universities in the making.

“The only ground of the universities being shaken is the definition they didn’t have before. But the criteria are things they already do: research, community engagement, quality teaching and learning,” he said. “And that’s what we want from them – to produce postgraduates. The few existing institutions that will be worried are those that don’t produce enough postgraduates,” he said.

The public has until September 8 to comment. To assist this process, Universities South Africa (USAf), together with the DHET, will host three online webinars for people to ask questions and get clarification on details of the draft policy. The first, on August 31, is targeted at private higher education institutions. The second, on September 1, is for public higher education institutions including vocational education and training, and other colleges. The third, on September 2, is for the general public.

The policy is a draft and Mabizela said they expected it would adapt before it became final.

Besides the participation in the forthcoming workshops and the comments that would be submitted in writing, the other significant input towards any possible changes would come from the Council on Higher Education (CHE). This would happen towards the end of the process via a panel of wide-ranging experts the CHE would appoint.

Ahead of the upcoming workshops, Mabizela clarified some key aspects of the policy.

The background

A media statement released on August 11 said the policy had developed after “an extensive research and consultative process carried out by the Department which began in late 2018”.

Mabizela said the consultation had started a little earlier when two new universities, Sol Plaatje in the Northern Cape and the University of Mpumalanga, had been established in 2013. “It was a question of lessons learned,” he said. One of these lessons was the realisation that a new institution should first be affiliated with an existing university, “a concept that is used internationally”, he said. That led to the department embarking on a process of reviewing the Higher Education Act and the need to factor in university colleges, a step in the journey of establishing a new university.

They then started to wonder if they needed to expand this to accommodate other types of institutions as well, which led to the three in the draft policy:

higher education colleges, which have a relatively limited range and scope, focusing on undergraduate and skills development programmes;university colleges or universities in transition; anduniversities.

These three types of institutions were named in the revised Higher Education Act 101 of 1997, as amended in 2016. The Act stated the Minister would establish their criteria, and discussions about that had started in 2018. So, this was not a policy that had sprung up out of the blue, he said.

Who was responsible for the consultative process?

The department usually develops a policy by establishing a committee of experts who do their research and consultations and then draft a document for discussion. This policy happened differently. They already had two expert committees to assist with establishing Sol Plaatje University and the University of Mpumalanga. Each committee’s report had included recommendations for such future processes.

An internal departmental committee – headed by Dr Diane Parker, the former Deputy Director-General of DHET’s University Branch, and comprising Mabizela, the other two chief directors (responsible for governance, and teaching and learning at universities) and relevant colleagues — had assessed these recommendations. They had also considered the CHE’s submission to the Minister about the experience, a report of which is not in the public domain.

Another key input into the policy came from “number crunching”, said Mabizela, of data on the enrollments, programmes and research including data from private higher education institutions.

This policy allows private institutions to qualify to be called universities

Until this policy, private higher institutions have been barred from registering and being known as universities. Now, if they fulfil the requirements, they can. Mabizela said these private institutions had been unhappy about the restriction, but the policy was not relaxing it as a response to pressure from them. It was rather an obligation to classify the higher education system appropriately and to fulfill the demands expected from our higher education system in South Africa.

That prohibition had existed for a reason, he said. Bogus institutions calling themselves universities had flooded the market in the late 1990s to early 2000s.

The policy is not about punishing universities that are less research intensive and community orientated

The draft policy defines universities as institutions that engage in undergraduate and postgraduate higher education, knowledge production (research) and community engagement. Could these criteria be a way of punishing some existing institutions for not focusing enough on all these areas?

“The policy is not intended to force any institution in whichever direction,” said Mabizela. The department understood the South African university system was not uniform but varied and was still living the legacy of apartheid. They could not change this overnight, so their approach and focus were always developmental.

Existing policies such as the University Capacity Development Programme (UCDP) and the Sibusiso Bengu Development Programme (SB-DP), the latter focusing on eight specific institutions, had been designed to bring greater satisfaction to historically disadvantaged institutions. “Our institutions need to have the reputation of being a university and a university that offers quality – quality education, quality research, and quality in its teaching and learning as well,” he said.

Complexities of university colleges being affiliated to existing universities

In terms of the draft policy, for a university college to be upgraded to a university, it needs to be affiliated with an existing university. But do university colleges want to be affiliated with universities? And do they have the resources to do this? Who is going to take responsibility for this nurturing and guidance, presumably at no additional pay?

Mabizela pointed out a university college was not a new concept in South Africa. The University of the Cape of Good Hope, created in 1872 by an Act of the Cape Colony’s Parliament, had been affiliated with the University of London. After the country’s unification in 1910, it was renamed the University of South Africa (Unisa), relocated to Pretoria, and became responsible for overseeing university colleges across the country. These colleges were the forerunners of many of today’s existing universities. 

But this had been in the early 20th century, and they had to bring the concept of university colleges into the 21st century.

Mabizela said they also had to look at the nitty-gritty practicalities of this affiliation. “Will university colleges require the department to be the mediator? Is it something that they can do on their own?” he said.

There was also the question of whether the affiliated university had to be one in South Africa. “The policy is quiet on this, but will we accept it if a local institution is affiliated with a foreign university?” said Mabizela.

A university requires a certain percentage of postgraduate programmes

The policy states that for a university college to become a university, at least 5% of its enrolments must be at postgraduate level. Mabizela said people could ask “Why 5%? Why not lower?”. If there were a problem, the department would help push them to 5% “unless there is a compelling reason supported by evidence”, he said.

“But let’s not stick to the excuses. Let’s work on those issues. So, if an institution says, ‘I don’t have capacity’, then how do we capacitate you?” he said.

What about specialised institutions?

According to the draft policy, a university college “shall focus on undergraduate teaching and learning providing a holistic approach to education and training in a relatively broad number of cognate fields or domains of study, compared to Higher Education Colleges, and must provide a holistic approach to education and training”.

How would this affect institutions that offer specialised fields of study, yet mostly undergraduate ones?  Where do such specialised institutions fit into these three types of institutions?

The key, explained Mabizela, lay in the word “holistic” in terms of the approach to education, and also in other functions of a university such as research.  “If you, as an institution, are specialising in a particular field, and that particular field doesn’t traditionally produce postgraduates, you have got to work towards producing post-graduates and research publications,” he said.

Where existing universities might not fulfil the requirements, it was not about bringing them down but working together.

“It’s not a question of ‘are you going to take us down’? No, absolutely not. It’s a question of ‘how do we go there together’?” said Mabizela.

USAF

PROFESSOR SIOUX McKENNA

THE draft university policy is not about the public sector at all. Instead it sets out the future designations that will be available in the private higher education sector. It attends to the demand by private institutions that they too should be able to call themselves ‘universities’.

A number of academic commentators have responded to the Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET’s) draft policy on institutional differentiation gazetted last week. The draft policy calls for three forms of higher education institutions: universities, university colleges and higher education colleges. The commentators say that changing the designation of existing universities could be a volatile decision.

On the whole, I think they have missed the policy’s real purpose.

Their reading of the document is understandable because the document is poorly worded and ambiguous – perhaps intentionally so.

My reading is that this document is not about the public sector at all. Instead it sets out the future designations that will be available in the private higher education sector. It attends to the demand by private institutions that they too should be able to call themselves “universities”.

Current forms of differentiation

There is a great need for different post-school paths in any national education sector. Students leave school with varying results, they have different interests, and the economy needs a range of forms of skilled labour. Even in research, there is a need for differentiation along a number of lines, such as knowledge creation that is practically applicable and that which is “blue sky” and contributes to the planet’s stock of understanding.

Given the racist differentiation of the past, it is unsurprising that few are willing to consider how we can more clearly differentiate our current public higher education system. The current system, thanks to significant post-apartheid restructuring, comprises 11 traditional universities, nine comprehensive universities, and six universities of technology.

A number of forces work against clearer differentiation between these. Global rankings privilege a small set of university activities and thereby drive institutions in the direction of research and postgraduate education. Similarly, South Africa’s blunt funding formula rewards particular activities more than others, pushing all institutions in the same direction, regardless of their capacity or responsibilities.

It is unlikely that this policy will address the need for clearer differentiation as to what the nature of each university in the public sector should be. We did not have the political context in which we could have such conversations in 1994 – and we don’t have it now.

The idea of “downgrading” any of the 26 public universities, as has been reported in a number of news articles, is a non-starter.

Perhaps the characteristics of the proposed new university types – universities, university colleges and higher education colleges – will be used to make decisions about future public institutions, but the likelihood of them being applied to existing universities in the near future seems low.

Categories of private higher education

This legislation potentially attends to a pressing issue: the designations of private institutions.

The private higher education sector is growing at an incredible rate. The DHET currently lists 93 accredited private institutions. Many of these are specialised and have a small student body but collectively they admit more than 220,000 students.

These institutions comply with all the same accreditation and quality assurance processes as the public sector does. This makes it challenging for the legislation around nomenclature to continue: at present private colleges cannot call themselves “universities”. It is also increasingly obvious that the public sector cannot attend to the demand for higher education and alternative routes are needed.

This proposed legislation will allow private institutions to apply for the designation “university” and it sets the criteria by which they can do so.

But the likelihood of the same criteria being applied to existing public universities is very slim indeed.

Professor Sioux McKenna, Director of the Centre for Postgraduate Studies at Rhodes University

RHODES UNIVERSITY

GLOBAL chemicals and energy giant Sasol says that applications are currently open for its all-inclusive bursaries for the 2023 academic year.

Sasol said it is inviting high-performing mathematics and science learners/students to apply for an all-inclusive bursary to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees at approved South African public universities.

“For more than 30 years Sasol has been awarding comprehensive bursaries to top-performing maths and science learners. Sasol is currently one of the larger bursary providers in South Africa with an extended bursary pool and annually awarding a significant number of bursaries, with 387 bursars currently in the programme.”

The group said that its undergraduate bursary programmes cover not only bursars’ tuition fees, accommodation and meals, but also an annual predetermined amount for textbooks and pocket money. Bursars also receive allowances for study tools such as laptops and calculators.

The bursary will also provide psycho-social support to help students succeed during their studies. Students applying for STEM-related degrees will need to refer to the Sasol bursaries site for application criteria.

For the 2023 academic year, Sasol will award over 200 new bursaries in the following categories:

Sasol Bursaries

Bursaries will be awarded in the fields of cyber security (postgraduate), electronic engineering, mining engineering and chemical engineering (postgraduate) for students currently at university.

Sasol Foundation Bursaries: STEM and non-STEM

These bursaries are for learners who are planning to study full-time towards an undergraduate degree to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers.

Priority will be given to degree studies that are in line with future needs including specialisations in study disciplines such as engineering & technology, mathematical and data science, agricultural science, environmental & medical sciences, construction & manufacturing;  and financial and accounting sciences among others.

Non-STEM bursaries will also be awarded to students from Sasol’s fence line communities, children of Sasol Khanyisa shareholders and Sasol employees.

Sasol Energy Bursaries

Bursaries in this category are for studies in STEM disciplines. They will be granted to learners from the Namakwa District Municipality in the Northern Cape.

“At Sasol, our CSI projects are inspired by our purpose, which is to innovate for a better world,” said Monica Luwes, manager of the Graduate Centre at Sasol.

“As technology continues to transform the way we live, we see strong demand in the workplace for people with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills and qualifications. STEM professionals are key to the country’s future growth, and we’re proud to harness and support the incredible talent and potential that will propel the technological industry even further,” said Luwes.

Students can apply for its bursary programme by:

Registering online at: Sasol BursariesAnswer a few questions regarding your field and level of study.Log in and fill in an online application.Alternatively, you can find more information on how to apply here:  http://www.sasolbursaries.com/how-do-i-apply

BUSINESS TECH

VHEMBE TVET College officially launched their very own Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) STREAM Laboratory at the Makwarela Campus on Thursday, 11 August. The students at the college will now be able to get real work experience to prepare them for the outside world with a theoretical laboratory and on-the-job training in 4IR skills, said TVET Principal Ms Basani Hlekane.

Hlekane was joined by Dr Nkosinathi Sishi, Director General for the Department of Higher Education and Training, the CEO of the Education, Training and Development Practices (ETDP) SETA, Ms Nombulelo Nxesi, Thovhele Gole Mphaphuli, some councillors from both the Vhembe and Thulamela District, and other role players in the education sector.

“In 2019, ETDP SETA funded our college to establish a fully inclusive artificial intelligence laboratory. Vhembe TVET College is ready to heed the call for the Fourth Industrial Revolution to create an environment where every student can enjoy the highest levels of human development. For the college to be able to create such an equitable and inclusive future, we must adjust our mindset and our institution,” said Hlekane.

The laboratory currently has four state-of-the-art machines, namely an industrial production line, a robotic arm, a 3D printing machine and a soldamatic welding simulator.

Dr Nkosinathi Sishi was very excited to finally launch the programme, which was commissioned by the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, in 2019. Nzimande has appointed a ministerial task team to investigate the implementation of the 4IR to respond to the challenges and opportunities that students might be facing.

“Some of the opportunities that must be embraced with the establishment of the 4IR require our education and training systems to become much more agile and to engage people much more actively in lifelong learning as societies and transformed economies. New skills will be required to create, maintain and leverage these new technologies,” said Dr Sishi.

“It is vital that the education and training on 4IR is visible, and more importantly, available at the level of higher education to ensure that learners adapt and learn to become and remain relevant to this fast-changing world through the understanding of 4IR,” he said.

Zoutnet

Corporatising universities and the increased need for funding from the private sector pose a direct threat to academic freedom – and universities ignore this threat to their peril, said Professor Fran Baum.

Professor Baum is the director of Stretton Health Equity – an institute that leads high-quality scholarship on the social and economic determinants of health and health equity at the University of Adelaide in Australia. She delivered the 56th TB Davie Memorial Lecture titled, “Activism and the corporate university: incompatible or possible?” on Wednesday, 24 August.

The annual lecture, hosted by the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Academic Freedom Committee, honours the memory of former UCT vice-chancellor Thomas Benjamin Davie – a fierce defender of the principles of academic freedom. Davie passed away in 1955.

“I feel privileged to follow in the footsteps of all those who have [delivered] the TB Davie Memorial Lecture since 1959,” Baum said. “Over my time as an academic I’ve watched universities become more corporatised and less open to the defence of academic freedom, and to the ability of academics to become defenders of the public good.”

A lived experience

Baum told the audience how, during her time as a distinguished professor at Flinders University in Australia, she witnessed how the university’s commitment to equity and social justice waned. Since 2017, the institution executed three processes of restructuring “in which people were treated poorly”. Baum and several colleagues had explicitly verbalised their concerns about these decisions and the new direction the university had taken.

But in September 2021, soon after she became the first academic at that university to receive the National Health and Medical Research Council Leadership Fellowship, she received a life altering letter from the university’s executive. It stated that because of a “reorganisation” process in the College of Medicine and Public Health (her academic home), the role she occupied had been “disestablished”. She was one of four academics to receive this letter. The “disestablishment” also affected 15 research staff members.

“All four of us [academics] had resisted the changes in the culture of the university and [had] spoken out about the unfairness of previous reorganisations and the increasing expectations of excessive workloads as the norm,” Baum said.

“We will never know the behind-closed-doors conversations that concerned the fate of the four of us. But we are sure that this would not have happened before the university was corporatised. [This process meant] that I could say that I was no longer a distinguished professor, but an extinguished professor.”

A not-so-safe space

In the last few decades in Australia, Baum said universities have moved from institutions of “public good” to corporatised entities whose values largely align with large corporations and the private sector.

“Universities now operate more as businesses and less [as] public good institutions … I hope to convince you that the increasing corporatisation of universities is part of the reason the space for academic freedom and the ability to be an activist academic is closing down,” she said.

Baum highlighted the six signs of a corporatised university:

growing the executive classreducing staff and student involvement in governancefrequently restructuringincreasing contract and casual staff numbers and reducing the number of tenured staffengaging in the international education marketpartnering with national and transnational corporations.

Baum said an increasing number of senior executives have taken employment positions at Australian universities. These executives, she added, are detached from the core functions of teaching and learning and research, and many have none or very little university teaching and research experience.

“This class of managers treat the university as a profit-making business. [They use] directive and non-participatory management styles borrowed from the corporate world that undermine academic tenure and collegiality, and adds to staff stress,” she said.

Celebrate academic activism

As Baum prepared to wrap up her lecture, she said universities that encourage academic freedom lay their foundations in the interest of the public good and are suspicious of their involvement with businesses or any other interests that might threaten their independence.

“Our task is to imagine a university that is decolonised, decorporatised and encourages academic freedom so that academics can be bold and brave in their critiques of society,” she said. 

She said Public Universities Australia – an alliance of organisations and individuals concerned about the current state of Australian universities – has proposed a University Model Act. The act requires that university vice-chancellors be elected from among its academics. Further, she said their vision is to adopt an approach where students and academics are meaningfully involved in decisions about the shape of the university’s teaching and research projects. Their aim is to ensure that the focus of the university is on serving the community, rather than acting as a business.

“The university [should] actively encourage staff and students to be engaged in advocacy about equity, human rights and fairness. Academic activists [should] be celebrated for the contributions they make to positive change, rather than viewed as a threat to the corporate university,” Baum said.

Guard academic freedom

Baum believes that society loses out when academics become too “fearful to be frank and fearless” in their advocacy of the public good. She urged academics to ask more probing questions that relate to the “invisible strings” that certain funds come with, and whether “these strings” will affect academic freedom.

She also encouraged both students and academics to become guardians of academic freedom, and to speak up when management practices and partnerships restrict and threaten these freedoms.

“I know how hard these freedoms have been fought for in South Africa and I would hate to see the apartheid system replaced by a creeping corporate control of the academic world,” she said. “I am confident that TB Davie would have been vigilant about protecting academic freedom from the incursion of corporations. And I am sure he would’ve spoken out to defend activist academics.”

SUPPLIED| UCT

With immense pride, the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies announces their newest PhD graduate, Dr Mpho-Entle Puleng Modise. She is an inspiration to all and embodies the power of a woman dedicated to achieving her dreams. Modise started her journey at Unisa in 2001 in the Web section of the Department of Institutional Advancement and later worked as the Communication and Marketing Officer of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI).

Modise left Unisa after it merged with two other institutions. However, she later returned to the university to work as the Departmental Secretary and Personal Assistant to Prof Pinkie Mabunda and Prof Geesje van den Berg in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies. She worked her way up by completing her Certificate of Technology in Distance Education and e-Learning in 2014 at the University of Maryland Global College (UMUG), previously UMUC, USA.In 2016, she completed her Master of Educationin Open and Distance Learning (ODL) with distinction from Unisa. In 2018, she was employed as a Lecturer in the College of Education, where she proved to be a valuable addition to academia.

She recently completed her PhD study, Academic professional development and support of academics for digital transformation in African large scale open and distance education institutions. Her students and colleagues respect Modise for her remarkable work ethic and dedication to excellence in her academic career. Her PhD supervisor, Prof Geesje van den Berg, says she met Modise in 2012 when she was Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies.

She adds that she was impressed by her work ethic and extraordinary determination to get things done, no matter how small the task was. “Our paths crossed again when she enrolled for the MEd in ODL as I acted as the programme coordinator. Her determination – something I noticed when meeting her – became clear again as she passed her mini dissertation with distinction,” she said.

When Modise approached Van den Berg to be her supervisor for her doctorate,  she knew it would be a productive and rewarding experience. Prof Olaf Zawacki from Oldenburg University in Germany acted as the Co-Supervisor and added tremendous value to her studies mainly because of his renowned expertise in systematic literature reviews. Her hard work and determination paid off when she completed her doctorate earlier this year. “I am incredibly proud of her and know this is only the beginning.

“I am looking forward to her future accomplishments as an academic,” Van den Berg says. She adds: “Her achievements should inspire other academics and non-academics.”

Prof Pinkie Mabunda says she has known Modise since Unisa first employed her. “I worked closely with Modise and enjoyed collaborating with her. She has proven to be an inspiration and an incredible example,” she says. Mabuda says Modise’s move from marketing and communication to working as a departmental secretary displayed confidence. She says: “I intuitively knew when I interviewed her for the position of departmental secretary that she was an academic star in the making.”

Mabunda added that after Modise obtained a master’s degree with distinction and recently her doctorate, she has seen abundant evidence of what remarkable courage, marked enthusiasm and good work ethic can achieve for those seeking to thrive in the academic environment. “Modise’s focus and contribution to digital transformation in the context of open and distance education are critical for the College of Education and Unisa,” says Mabunda. She adds: “During all her academic work, Modise also found the energy, time and skills for her other roles as mother, wife, sister, aunt and African woman. She embodies the power of a woman dedicated to achieving her personal and academic ambitions.”

There is always help in the dry valleys

Asked where or how she finds her motivation, Modise says: “There is always help in the dry valleys or up the mountains. God is always nearby, sending an angel or two when the need arises.” Modise believes that where there is a will, there is always a way. “I had help, my family, Prof Mabunda and Prof van den Berg, and a whole list of other special people in my acknowledgements in my thesis. So I can say never be shy to ask for help and never be afraid to start from scratch,” Modise says. 

She explains that after being unemployed for almost four years, after leaving Unisa during the merger, even with her Honours degree at the time and a good few years of work experience, she still couldn’t find work, so she was desperate. Finally, in 2010, she was prepared to be a tea lady even with all her qualifications, skills and experience. Fortunately, she was called for an interview at TMALI for a communication and marketing officer post and was hired on a contractual basis.

She kept applying for other posts during her tenure, which is how she landed the departmental secretary/personal assistant post. The post was, fortunately, a permanent one which gave her job security. Modise says: “Prof Mabunda has always been supportive and knew I had a lot more to offer, and when I asked for time off from the PA work, she was the first to tell me I needed a bigger platform for my skills and talents.”

She adds: “When the UMGC (previously UMUC) programme started in our department, Prof van den Berg knew I was the right person to join the team. I have worked hard to be where I am today.” She adds: “Most importantly, I was supported−often by my female colleagues and mentors.” She concludes: Always remember that there is support and help, but one must step out and avail themselves. I am grateful for this achievement, and I look forward to more blessings and help from God and the angels he will send in times of need.” 

UNISA

SISANDA NKOALA|

SOUTH African indigenous languages are among those at risk of a serious decline due to the increasing use of digital technologies. By some estimates only 5% of the world’s languages are likely to survive online.

As hubs of knowledge generation, South African universities have an essential role in ensuring this does not happen. When democracy came to South Africa in 1994, multilingualism was seen as imperative to ensure that all of the country’s 11 official languages were esteemed and promoted. Universities could play their part by using indigenous languages in high status functions: teaching, learning and research.

Despite the numerous legislative policy documents and frameworks, in practice the use of indigenous African languages in South African universities falls far short of where it should be. The adoption of remote (online) education during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 may have widened the chasm further. That’s because English dominates in online engagements in this context.

The online teaching employed by universities during the pandemic was conducted almost exclusively in English. If this continues, it could derail the work done so far in “intellectualising” indigenous languages – that is, developing them for use in high status contexts like education.

In a recent paper I drew on the reflections of seven lecturers from seven South African universities on the challenges of trying to teach online in more than one language. I looked at the implications for developing historically marginalised languages, as called for by the Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions.

What the lecturers told me suggests that if multiple indigenous languages aren’t used in higher education, their speakers could face even greater exclusion in universities. It will also set back the advances made in raising the status of these languages.

Reflections from lecturers

The lecturers were teaching in fields like politics, history and education. Some were at traditional universities and others at universities of technology.

Their experience was that it was challenging to teach multilingually during emergency remote teaching. The challenges were in three categories:

shifts from in-person to on-screen interactionsshifts in the types of resources used to teach multilinguallyshifts from approaches that intellectualise indigenous languages to approaches that are focused on delivery.

Their view was that their experiences during COVID did not bode well for the intellectualisation of indigenous South African languages.

One participant was worried that multilingualism would become no more than a mechanical translation from one language into another. While the translation of resources is an important part of multilingual education, it is just the start. What must then follow is teaching students how to use indigenous language to come up with new ways of thinking about their disciplines, drawing on the indigenous knowledge systems that the languages are rooted in.

The participant went on to say:Our students need vibrant, living multilingualism that demonstrates that intellectual work is not singularly about English. And that your professors are not English speakers. They are also Xhosa, and they have Afrikaans, and they have slang, and they have Zulu, and they have high language, and they have street language … there is a cross-set of all our multilingual capability to convey the intellectual project.

Under the conditions of emergency remote learning, lecturers were under pressure simply to deliver the content of courses. This was true even for lecturers who wanted to use multilingual pedagogies. They were mindful of the need for multilingualism in higher education in South Africa. But the conditions under which they were teaching were such a hindrance that they defaulted to translation of resources like notes and slides.

…this has not been a huge success in that our sense is that students are just not reading.

The academics Rosalie Finlayson and Mbulungeni Madiba have argued that effective intellectualisation is what will see indigenous languages developed, within the shortest possible time, to a point where they can express concepts that already exist in languages such as English and Afrikaans.

For this to happen, the focus must be on capturing African languages in written form to develop lexicon and grammar. This was a challenge during COVID because some web-based learner management systems don’t support texts written in African languages. They don’t have the special characters that a student should use in an exam to show what they know. So it’s difficult to assess the candidate.

Indigenous language teaching resources, such as journal articles and textbooks, are scarce too. So lecturers had few resources to draw on when attempting to move their courses online. And the technology did not allow lecturers to write easily online as they would on a board: As a language teacher, you are bound to write because when students don’t understand what you are trying to teach, you have to put what you are uttering orally into writing for their full grasp.

Adapting systems for local use

In 2014, South African scholars called for the localisation of learner management systems to promote teaching.

Localising a learner management system entails adopting and modifying digital information and computer user interfaces into local languages, cultures, values and beliefs.

It is costly and requires institutions to collaborate. But researchers have been highlighting how important it is for raising the status of indigenous languages. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet suggests it may not be a priority for universities, which are best placed to do it, or for government, which is empowered to hold them accountable if they won’t.

(Sisanda Nkoala, Senior Lecturer, Cape Peninsula University of Technology)

THE CONVERSATION