THE matric class of 2022 will sit for their final examinations towards the end of the month, faced with the prospect of load shedding, and following countless disruptions dating back to March 2020, when ​South African president Cyril Ramaphosa announced the country’s first lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga has visited learners in a provincial prayer service in the Free State as part of the last push to get students mentally and emotionally prepared to write.

The minister said that the current matric class would have had to go through a storm over the last three years – “it made them the most disadvantaged cohort of learners”.

The impact of disrupted education following the Covid-19 outbreak was devastating, with learners between 75% and a full school year behind where they should be, according to a 2021 report by humanitarian organisation, UNICEF. Rotational attendance, sporadic school closures, and days off for specific grades, resulted in school children losing 54% of learning time.

Students have also had to deal with damaged property, and school closures following unrest which resulted in more than 140 schools being vandalized in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

And with two weeks to go before exams begin, students are faced with South Africa’s worst-ever electricity crisis, which has included up to eight hours of load shedding over the past several months, and a record number of days for power cuts ever.

“As a sector, we will have to swim with the tide,” said Motshekga on Sunday.

“I can’t say that a sector we are immune.”

However, the minister said that the department does communicate with the energy department.

“When we write exams we really do communicate a lot with the Department of energy to say during this period if possible we could just suspend power cuts, but I can’t guarantee that we will be able to fully do away with power cuts when there power cuts in the country. So we will have to navigate our way like everybody else navigates their way.”

Business Tech

WENDY MOTHATA

WITH just less than two weeks before class 2022 matric sit for their final examinations, MEC for Education in Mpumalanga, Bonakele Majuba, says the 2022 academic year is about to bear the fruits that will attest to all the hard work, the stresses and the strains that always accompany the work of teaching and learning.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) currently has 923 460 learners enrolled for the National Senior Certificate exams.
This number comprises full-time and part-time scholars.

Majuba said that the Class of 2022 must help the Mpumalanga Department of Education soar with wings like eagles.

“Like others before them, the Class of 2022 must help the Mpumalanga Department of Education soar with wings like eagles, they must complete this race without getting weary or fainting and they must leave a mark as they exit the secondary school class shining bright for the whole world to see,” said Majuba.

The department has since 2010 been able to manage incident-free examinations.

“The 2022 Grade 12 Examination will be the biggest in the history of writing such an examination process and for this reason, we will need to be extra vigilant and more meticulous in all material aspects of managing these examinations,” Majuba said.

In total, 71 582 full time candidates have registered to write the 2022 National Senior Certificate Examination in Mpumalanga.

It is the first time that the Province has registered such a high number and Majuba said he is extremely encouraged and happy about it because it confirms that the majority of learners that enters the system in Grade R do make it to Grade 12.

Bohlabela District has registered 16 812 learners; Ehlanzeni District has registered 19 722 learners; Gert Sibande District has registered 16 403 learners and Nkangala District has registered 18 645 learners.

All the candidates will write in 566 schools, which for the purposes of the examinations are now called examination centres and 39 for these examination centres are independent schools.

The Department has granted approval to 24 Schools with limited space to use alternative venues like churches and community halls to write the examinations.

“We would like to express our outmost gratitude to all pastors who have availed their places of worship so that our learners can sit for their examinations,” said Majuba.

The examinations will commence in full scale on October 31 and then proceed until December 7, 2022.

The marking of scripts will start on 9th to the 22nd of December 2022 in 19 Marking Centres spread throughout the province.
The Department will announce the Grade 12 Examination Results on Friday January 20, 2023 at the University of Mpumalanga.

INSIDE EDUCATION

Curro Holdings says it will roll out CurroPM – a new approach to teaching that aims to provide students with the opportunity to choose an alternative afternoon learning schedule.

According to the JSE-listed independent school group, from 2023, learners at Curro’s Durbanville High School will be able to choose the afternoon learning schedule and, if needed, may even combine it with a blended learning approach, “if that suit their passions and routine better”.

This means that classes are held between 13:45 and 18:30 with remote access to live lessons and the chance to review recorded classes later, it said.

“With this new offering, freeing up the morning time means that academic overachievers can sleep late after burning the midnight oil, budding sports stars can enjoy some valuable training and introverts can avoid large social gatherings like registration and assemblies,” Curro said.

“We know not all learners and their families are suited to the nature and character of a traditional school routine which is why a customisable and personalised approach to learning is so critical,” said Riaan Stroebel, the executive head at Curro Durbanville.

He said that personalised learning not only recognises that every learner is different but also gives them an invaluable say in their education journey, especially when it comes to when and how they want to learn. “Personalised learning is known to boost engagement, responsibility, and productivity while reducing anxiety and stress.”

The new offering also adds a further dimension to the Curro Choice programme, which the private education provider launched at the beginning of 2021 to give every Curro high school learner a broader range of subject choices.

A school-within-a-school

CurroPM is currently only available to learners in Grade 7 to 9 with higher grades phasing in annually. The offering is available at Curro Durbanville’s new Phesantekraal campus, so learners are still exposed to the same academic excellence that the school is known for.

Learners also have access to the school’s extensive sporting facilities, as well as the facilities at the primary school campus which includes an aquatic centre with an indoor heated pool and a high-performance centre.

However, after meeting the qualifying requirements – learners must have reached a certain academic benchmark of 60% in numeracy and literacy – this cohort of learners will take their afternoon classes in a smaller ‘school’, with a separate entrance so that they can meet like-minded people and pursue their academic goals.

The school-within-a-school model will have its own management team and will follow a more relaxed uniform and hair rulebook while learners will not be expected to participate in extra-curricular activities if it does not suit their tailored programme.

“At Curro, we are always looking for new ways to reach and support our learners and have seen some exceptionally promising learners suffer from thwarted potential simply because they are put off by the current way of doing things. For them, the liberalised, yet structural approach of CurroPM is the answer to making their school journey relatable and enjoyable,” said Stroebel.

Business Tech

JONATHAN JANSEN

ONE of the most serious threats facing higher education and the scientific enterprise in South Africa is the rising tide of xenophobia in the halls of academia. I did not think this was possible. One could, to some extent, understand the raw competition for limited resources on the streets of Diepsloot or the farms of De Doorns, where impoverished South Africans feel they were abandoned twice – first by the apartheid regime and then by their own leaders in the democratic period.

But in universities? They are the elites of society, the well-educated. Not exactly the marginalised poor. Many of those who work in universities gained from and are connected to international networks without which their own research and statuses would suffer. After all, the very word ‘university’ suggests openness to the world, the universum.

It turns out, as I detail in my forthcoming book Corrupted: A study of chronically dysfunctional universities, the university in South Africa, as in the case of the (other) state-owned enterprises [in South Africa], is perceived by many as simply a concentrated resource to be stripped and from which to gain individual or group advantage.

One’s high-level ideals about a university as a place of higher learning open to the best talent (students, scholars, scientists) from anywhere on the planet can take a beating in a country that has long given up on such core academic values.

Concerned about anecdotal reports on the plight of African academics from other African countries in South African universities, our research team launched a study across the 26 public universities in order to generate a more systematic account of the workings of xenophobia on our campuses. It is early days in the research project but, already, our fears are being confirmed.

Limited resources politicised around national origin

In the early years of our democracy, there was an openness to ordinary people and professionals from other African countries, a recognition, perhaps, of the role of the frontline states in South Africa’s freedom and a generally pan-African view of the world carried, for example, in then President Thabo Mbeki’s vision of an African Renaissance.

As the country moved on from the heady days of the mid-1990s and social and economic hardship remained unchanged for the majority of the population, those lofty ideals started to fall away, particularly in areas of poverty and underdevelopment where South Africans struggled to survive from one day to the next.

Gradually, co-existence with migrants from other African and, indeed, Asian countries was threatened as competition for limited resources was politicised around national origins. Local and even national politicians (and a former late king) saw a political opportunity in these conditions and began to mobilise and support angry South Africans against their neighbours – with devastating consequences for, especially, African nationals from elsewhere.

Such xenophobic thinking started to reflect in certain ministries and their government departments. Leaders of science councils will tell you how they receive messages from their political heads to keep an eye on the appointment or advancement of African scientists and scholars from outside South Africa.

Similarly, university vice-chancellors would receive these political messages, sometimes subtle and sometimes direct. Employment Equity is meant for black South Africans, something to remember.

This is where institutional behaviour becomes interesting. In some universities, those political messages are taken very seriously, especially where they coincide with the xenophobic commitments of a vice-chancellor and-or her team.

For example, at one university, the interpretation of political messaging on foreigners is taken to mean that you go through several rounds of a search for an academic appointment and even when you cannot find a black South African, rather leave the position open.

In rural universities, there is a very practical logic that kicks in during deliberations on political messages from national government. Those universities would quite literally fall apart were it not for other African academics willing to work in rural areas and uphold their academic programmes in everything from undergraduate teaching to postgraduate supervision and, of course, senior administration.

A lack of understanding about what a university is

Why is academic xenophobia a threat to the future of the South African university? It’s quite simple. No university in the world ever became a global centre of academic and research excellence through nativist thinking in its academic appointments policy.

Think of what the South African academy would look like without Tebello Nyokong (Lesotho) at Rhodes University, a world leader in chemistry and cancer research; or Achille Mbembe (Cameroon) at the University of the Witwatersrand, a foremost scholar in philosophy; or Linus Opara (Nigeria) at Stellenbosch University in the agricultural sciences; or the medicinal chemist Kelly Chibale (Zambia) at the University of Cape Town. What these scholars and scientists bring to the South African academy is invaluable, world-class research that benefits all of humanity.

Together, African scholars from outside South Africa have trained hundreds of masters and doctoral students and mentored post-doctoral fellows who have, themselves, become academics in local universities. Many of those taught and supervised are black South Africans. Why, therefore, would a country struggling with the production of high-level skills shoot itself in the foot?

Because bigotry against others is blind even to its own needs, as social science research has repeatedly shown.

At the root of the problem is the lack of understanding of what a university is, and is not. I do not know of any higher education institution in South Africa that takes the time at orientation or any other forum to teach students what a university is.

That it is a place of higher learning. That it is not a religious organisation requiring commitment to a shared dogma. That it thrives on reason, not rage. That it is not an extension of the school or home. That it is a public institution open to all. That it is not a racial or ethnic or sectarian possession. That it values independence of thought.

Most of all, that a university has open borders that welcomes ideas and inventions from anywhere and by anyone in the world. When such core values fall away, a university is simply a training institute that produces automatons for the local markets without any sense of conscience towards a broader humanity.

I can assure you that the leadership of the Academy of Science of South Africa remains deeply committed to those foundational values that distinguish universities from government departments or those education institutions that discriminate on the basis of national origins.

In our work and in our membership, we will strive to ensure that the universal values of academies continue to define our work in science research and advice.

Hyperlinks have been added to this commentary to provide background information. The commentary was first published in the September edition of ASSAf’s newsletter. Academics across Africa who want to share insights on xenophobia can e-mail cornia@universityworldnews.com

A 25-year-old student from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa has been channelling her love for science into nearby communities where she is raising awareness about careers for women in science and providing information to girls about fields of study in the sciences.

Currently enrolled for her third science degree, Weliswa Kunene said she was ignorant about the scope of science qualifications and careers when she started studying.

The third-year pharmacy student’s work has been acknowledged by lecturers and high school pupils as she has used the institution’s Mini-Habitable Planet Workshop to raise awareness in local communities about careers for women in science.

The Mini-Habitable Planet Workshop is a community engagement programme that the university established in 2019. It is a platform for various projects targeting high school pupils in Claremont and KwaDabeka, Durban.

With the broad theme of ‘Inspire Township Learners to Pursue Science-related Careers’, activities vary from science club sessions, science practicals, career guidance and educational field trips to motivational talks on mental health and well-being.

Lack of awareness

Kunene said her own experience was what inspired her to raise awareness.

In 2015, she enrolled for a BSc degree in biochemistry and microbiology at UKZN. She graduated in 2018.

The following year, she enrolled for an honours degree in medical microbiology at UKZN and completed the qualification in 2019. In 2020, she began her pharmacy degree.

“I was uninformed about the various careers that existed in science. I completed [my first and second degrees] with good grades because I fell in love with lab work and my research project on HIV drugs and mutations.

“I then applied for a pharmacy degree and enrolled in 2020. It has been the best decision of my academic career,” said Kunene.

Tackling the gender and poverty gaps

Speaking to University World News, Kunene said that the objective of her project is to promote science in schools and offer career guidance while also addressing the gender gap that exists in science.

“Women, as we know, have historically been marginalised and under-represented in many spheres, especially in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics], therefore, our programme encourages more female participation to bridge that gap and empower girls,” she said.

“The main thing is to create awareness of all the male-dominated science careers they could venture into and take up space. We offer a unique and innovative approach in delivering career expos,” said Kunene.

“We invite female professionals and university students in STEM to speak to the pupils about their academic journey with the hope of inspiring and imparting the realities of the working world.”

Kunene said, given stereotypes about science, such as that it is difficult and better suited to those in privileged schools, those involved in the project have identified this as a problem that contributes to the fear of pursing science for many pupils in under-resourced schools.

“We have partnered with the STEC@UKZN science centre to deliver science practicals that are in line with the CAPS curriculum [the public school curriculum in South Africa] to overcome the challenge of traditional classroom learning but no practical experience of the science taught.

“Stereotypes of careers known to be better suited to men or other races – for example, agriculture, software development and engineering – are still a hindrance in achieving gender equality.

“For that reason, our programme involves women who disrupt the status quo by occupying higher-ranking positions in STEM careers. For the girl child growing up in a township with so many social ills, including gender-based violence, it has become everyone’s responsibility to be a `Sister’s Keeper’, and mine is through education,” said Kunene.

Meanwhile, Dr Sibusiso Senzani, a lecturer at the UKZN school of lab medicine and medicinal biology, told University World News that the UKZN Mini-Habitable Planet Workshop is an important project.

He explained: “As someone who comes from a township, I am well aware that, while you are in school you are not fully aware of the opportunities available to you, and you do not really know what you can do with the subjects you are learning. This programme introduces these aspects to these kids to let them know what they can actually do with science.

“It does so, not just by telling them, but showing them examples of people who come from where they come from who can advise them how to get to where they want to go. In addition to this, it breathes a sense of excitement into these students when it comes to science through experimentation and field trips to science centres, ecological and conservation institutions which fosters better learning,” he said.

Environmental focus

Slindile Dlamini, a pupil from Buhlebemfundo Secondary School, said she enjoys attending UKZN Mini-Habitable Planet Workshop programmes, especially when Kunene and her team teach the children about the environment.

“The Mini-Habitable Planet Workshop has taught me and the rest of the Buhlebemfundo environment club to raise awareness on environmental issues,” said Dlamini.

Despite facing challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kunene said they have previously won funds to sponsor the programme through an access bursary scheme and recently won the UKZN Inspiring Impact Challenge.

“Being part of the UKZN Inspiring Impact Challenge alone affirmed that the work we put in is recognised and validated.

“Winning the challenge only ignited a deeper love for servitude and made me realise that I am being entrusted to enrich and empower and make a difference that matters,” said Kunene.

University World News

The transformation of education begins with teachers. A shortage of quality teachers and the consequent ongoing delivery of poor educational outcomes are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the challenges facing basic education in South Africa.

The crisis looks set to worsen in the years ahead given that more than half of the current teacher population is over the age of 55 and will soon be heading for retirement, notes School-Days, a fundraising programme.

We’re neither creating attractive career opportunities for student teachers nor graduating a sufficient number of teachers each year, it said.

Some 15,000 new teachers currently graduate each year, and the need is for 25,000 annually in order to maintain an effective teacher-pupil ratio. However, between 18 000 and 22 000 teachers leave the profession each year, either due to retirement or to switch professions, often in search of more lucrative income.

Of particular concern is the dire shortage of specialist maths, science, technology and African language teachers and an over-supply of teachers in other areas. The shortage of specialist teachers is widely felt, said School-Days.

“Our children don’t fare much better when it comes to reading for meaning with a 2016 literacy study revealing that 78% of grade 4 learners were not able to read for meaning.”

There has been enough talk about how dismal the results are, and this is despite the fact that South Africa’s basic education sector is sufficiently funded, at least comparable to equivalent-sized economies, spending around 6% of GDP on education.

Why, then, do we have such a huge problem?

Paul Esterhuizen, CEO of School-Days, believes it’s time to raise the bar and ensure the education sector starts focusing on attracting higher-quality candidates.

“Recent reports indicate that only one-fifth of Bachelor of Education students achieved more than 50% for maths in matric. Another, albeit older, study found that most grade 3 teachers struggled to achieve 50% in literacy and mathematics assessments designed for grade 6 learners.

“Given these alarming statistics, it should not be any surprise that, as a country, we struggle with poor educational outcomes.”

He said we’re doing the children of South Africa a disservice and that every child deserves access to quality education that positions them to find meaningful work as an adult.

“As a country, we need to be making an urgent and concerted effort to improve education delivery standards because this impacts us all. Poor educational outcomes are a contributing factor to lacklustre GDP growth, which in turn exacerbates unemployment, poverty and inequality.”

Esterhuizen believes businesses may have some of the solutions required to save basic education in South Africa. “There are already a number of encouraging examples of previously poor performing schools that are showing that with the right interventions, learner results improve.

“Consider, for example, advertising and communications group Joe Public United’s ‘One School at a Time’ initiative that has seen considerable success. And the likes of Kagiso Shanduka Trust, the Adopt-a-School Foundation and non-profit Funda Wanda have initiated and delivered on successful partnerships with provincial education departments.”

The School-Days CEO believes it’s time to draw the business sector in to partner with schools and fund whole school development, attract more student teachers as interns at schools and do this on a platform that enables sustainability.

“The end goal has to be to continue to upskill our teachers and keep them in the teaching profession,” he said.

“Given the long-term impact of education on the economy, we need urgent interventions to improve educational outcomes. This will require the political will to implement meaningful reforms, potentially rethinking how education is delivered and moving the focus away from merely covering a prescribed curriculum to encouraging mastery of that curriculum.

“We need to be attracting high-quality candidates to the teaching profession and rethink how we train and support our teachers. We need to find ways to alleviate pressure on over-subscribed schools in the public sector and harness the power of technology to deliver quality education at scale.”

Over-crowded classrooms in many government schools prompt the need for parents to consider private education with independent education providers who have been positioning themselves to bridge the gap in the market for more affordable private schooling.

For many families, however, private education is not affordable.

Esterhuizen established School Days to help families afford school fees. Based on reward and incentive programme principles that assist parents and members of the public to pay school fees, either at their own or at a disadvantaged school, the programme incentivises members to shop with partner merchants to earn Edu-Time Points (ETPs) while still earning their normal retailer loyalty points. ETPs can be donated to a chosen beneficiary or used to pay a child’s school, college or university fees.

Business Tech

WENDY MOTHATA

THE Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training, Umalusi, has given the green light for the writing of the end-of-year exams for 2022.

Currently, 923 460 students have registered with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to take the National Senior Certificate exams.

This figure includes both full-time and part-time students.

Umalusi announced at a press conference on Friday that it had finished its task of observing and confirming that the public and commercial assessment organizations were prepared to oversee and run the 2022 end-of-year national exams.

The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), the Independent Examinations Board (IEB), the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute, and the DBE are the assessment bodies (SACAI).

As part of its quality assurance mandate, Umalusi is required to assess the levels of readiness of the public and private assessment bodies to conduct, administer and manage the examinations prior to their commencement.

Umalusi CEO, Dr Mafu Rakometsi, said that the identified shortcomings are not of such a magnitude that they have the potential to put the credibility of the examinations at risk.

Rakometsi said that Umalusi appreciates the effort made by all assessment bodies in putting systems in place to ensure that the integrity of the 2022 national examinations is not compromised.

“Similar to the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic in the past, the education sector, like other sectors, continues to experience challenges related to load shedding.”

“Umalusi calls upon the assessment bodies to make alternative arrangements for the supply of power during the writing of the examinations to mitigate the risk of load-shedding.”

Rakometsi issued a stern warning to all stakeholders regarding incidents of cheating.

“Once again, as we have done in the past, we would like to issue a stern warning to all learners and teachers to refrain from all forms of cheating, including group copying, where teachers are sometimes implicated.”

“We berate and condemn this criminal practice with the contempt it deserves. Cheating compromises the integrity of our national examination system, which we are mandated to jealously protect as a quality council,” Rakometsi said.

He said Umalusi discourages communities from using national examinations as leverage for their protest actions.

“This is unacceptable, as it jeopardises the future of our children. The education of our children is something that each South African should protect jealously,” he said.

The DBE’s candidature has increased to 923 460 in 2022 from 897 786 in 2021.

The candidates will sit for the examinations at 6 885 exam centres across the country.
Umalusi said that marking will be conducted at 186 marking centres by 53 926 markers.

The IEB has 13 875 (12 857 in 2021) candidates will write the examinations at 232 examination centres for full-time candidates and six centres for part-time candidates.

These numbers include 15 new IEB schools.

Overall, approximately 942 000 candidates distributed across the three assessment bodies are registered to write the NSC in 2022.

INSIDE EDUCATION

IT has been seven years since students in South Africa began protesting in a bid to “Africanise” the country’s university curricula. They viewed what they were learning as too neoliberal – characterised by Western values pushing the marketisation of education. They wanted universities to become more relevant to students in an African country and more connected to their own lives.

The students’ calls propelled “decolonisation” to the forefront of national (and even international) debate. Decolonisation in the university context involves dismantling the institutional practices and policies that uphold white supremacist, Western values. Since then there have been various initiatives at most of the country’s 26 public universities designed to change what students learn and how.

Every academic has their own opinion and their own approach. Mine, as a university educator who lectures future teachers, has been to adopt a teaching-learning approach called defamiliarisation.

The idea of defamiliarisation was coined by Russian literary theorist Viktor Shklovsky. It is a process of looking at things differently through art, poetry, or film so that you don’t see them automatically; Shklovsky said that you could look at something you know several times without really analysing it.

I have researched and used defamiliarisation in my teaching since 2015, finding it a good place to contribute towards disrupting the sort of neoliberal curriculum student protesters opposed. If a curriculum doesn’t consider the humanistic side of learning, the system and institution can treat students as a form of human capital. That ultimately changes education from a public good to a commodity.

By approaching my classes using defamiliarisation, I have been able to help students think beyond the usual stories about history. Crucially, they have been put in charge of their learning. In this way, education is shored up as a public good.

A space to speak openly

So, what does defamiliarisation look like in practise? One example is an activity a colleague and I designed: we asked a group of students, as part of a lesson, to draw how they saw themselves and how they felt about being taught in English at the university. While English is widely spoken in South Africa, most of our students speak isiXhosa as their first language.

Even though the question was about the university, many of the students’ drawn answers were about society and their communities in reference to the university. These examples showed that, for these students, the community and the university are not separate. The question seemed to bring up deeper issues that neither the students nor I were aware of at the time.

For example, one of the students I talked to about her drawing creatively explained how her feelings were connected to her beliefs, culture, and context pertaining to the dominant and gendered power relations in her community, and at the school she had attended.

She drew two portraits of herself: on the left, a false representation at the school she attended, depicting the aesthetic beauty and success that came with being able to speak English fluently and with excellent grades; on the right, a portrait of her dormant natural beauty that held on to her culture and true identity.

Her drawing showed how she saw herself and how she thought the rest of society saw her. Her drawing showed her race, language, culture, gender, and a false representation of who she was in her school environment.

The student said that in her community, people often asked her about her race because she spoke in a dialect that she may have picked up at a former Model C (whites only during apartheid) school, and that was often associated with “white culture” in her community.

The defamiliarisation approach allowed this student to make her peers and me aware of her socio-cultural context and, more importantly, the challenges and subtleties of her identity and how she felt about them. By doing this activity, she, like many of her peers, could talk about herself creatively and effectively.

This approach developed students’ openness, compassion, sympathy and responsibility.

You could say that defamiliarisation gave the students the freedom to become their own narrators. It also allowed them to understand what their peers were going through and show compassion for them around instances of marginalisation in society. This, in my opinion, is crucial for aspiring educators to fully comprehend the range of experiences and viewpoints held by learners from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.

Educators benefit, too

I believe this kind of teaching was valuable and essential to assist students in developing the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours needed for critical global citizenship. It allowed them to communicate openly about victimisation and unjust treatment in South Africa.

Even though in some instances it made them feel uncomfortable, defamiliarisation was met with mostly favourable reactions from students. It helped them to open up about the challenges in their own lives. And I still use the approach today, mostly through the medium of film. For instance, I showed the movie Krotoa to a different class. It examines the impact of Dutch colonisation on the culture and identity of the indigenous Khoi people of the Cape in the 17th century.

Defamiliarisation helps educators, too. I have reflected on my role as a university lecturer and, frankly, to question aspects of my teaching that seem dominant and obvious to my students but are just habitual to me. Learning about my students’ real-life experiences and sentiments helped me empathise with them and value their individuality. It helped us to connect in a meaningful way as equals.

Using this approach is a way for academics to return to the basics. That’s crucial if universities are to offer a curriculum that centres students’ needs as the primary focus of learning.

THE CONVERSATION

HIGHER Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, has disputed a Sunday newspaper report claiming he requested Parliament keep a Forensic Investigation Report on the National Skills Fund’s (NSF) under wraps.

“I never wanted to keep this report under wraps, but all that I requested was for the Standing Committee on Public Account (SCOPA) to treat this report in terms of rule 189 of the National Assembly, especially sub-rule (1) (c) read with sub rule (4) (a) until all processes before the law enforcement agencies and internal departmental disciplinary processes are concluded,” Nzimande said.

He had appointed a forensic investigation company to conduct a full-scale forensic investigation into the financial affairs of the NSF after amounts of just under R5 billion could not be properly accounted for over two financial years.

The Minister also appointed a Ministerial Task Team (MTT) to conduct a strategic review of the NSF, its general operations and its efficiency and relevance with regards to the national skills priorities of the country.

Nzimande said both these appointments were meant to ensure the NSF accounts for the resources allocated to it and deal with instances of maladministration and corruption at the NSF.

“Both the reports were submitted to me, and we have begun in earnest the process of implementing the recommendations of both these reports,” the Minister said.

The Department of Higher Education and Training also opened a case at the Pretoria Central Police Station on 3 October 2022.

“Now that a police case has been opened and legal processes are underway, all the implicated individuals inside and outside the department, including companies who might have benefited irregularly on the resources of the National Skills Funding, will face the full might of the law,” Nzimande said.

He added that the department has already commenced engaging the Hawks and other law enforcement agencies, including initiating internal departmental disciplinary processes to ensure that this process in concluded speedily.

“This is the reason we requested SCOPA to treat this report as confidential until these processes are finalised and the relevant people informed, in terms of due process. I however must indicate that as a department we respect the SCOPA decision not to accede to our request.

“I have nothing to hide, but I have a duty, on my part, to follow due process in implementing the recommendations of the forensic investigation. We will implement these recommendations to the letter,” Nzimande said.
SA NEWS

HIGHER Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, has disputed a Sunday newspaper report claiming he requested Parliament keep a Forensic Investigation Report on the National Skills Fund’s (NSF) under wraps.

“I never wanted to keep this report under wraps, but all that I requested was for the Standing Committee on Public Account (SCOPA) to treat this report in terms of rule 189 of the National Assembly, especially sub-rule (1) (c) read with sub rule (4) (a) until all processes before the law enforcement agencies and internal departmental disciplinary processes are concluded,” Nzimande said.

He had appointed a forensic investigation company to conduct a full-scale forensic investigation into the financial affairs of the NSF after amounts of just under R5 billion could not be properly accounted for over two financial years.

The Minister also appointed a Ministerial Task Team (MTT) to conduct a strategic review of the NSF, its general operations and its efficiency and relevance with regards to the national skills priorities of the country.

Nzimande said both these appointments were meant to ensure the NSF accounts for the resources allocated to it and deal with instances of maladministration and corruption at the NSF.

“Both the reports were submitted to me, and we have begun in earnest the process of implementing the recommendations of both these reports,” the Minister said.

The Department of Higher Education and Training also opened a case at the Pretoria Central Police Station on 3 October 2022.

“Now that a police case has been opened and legal processes are underway, all the implicated individuals inside and outside the department, including companies who might have benefited irregularly on the resources of the National Skills Funding, will face the full might of the law,” Nzimande said.

He added that the department has already commenced engaging the Hawks and other law enforcement agencies, including initiating internal departmental disciplinary processes to ensure that this process in concluded speedily.

“This is the reason we requested SCOPA to treat this report as confidential until these processes are finalised and the relevant people informed, in terms of due process. I however must indicate that as a department we respect the SCOPA decision not to accede to our request.

“I have nothing to hide, but I have a duty, on my part, to follow due process in implementing the recommendations of the forensic investigation. We will implement these recommendations to the letter,” Nzimande said.
SA NEWS

HIGHER Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, has disputed a Sunday newspaper report claiming he requested Parliament keep a Forensic Investigation Report on the National Skills Fund’s (NSF) under wraps.

“I never wanted to keep this report under wraps, but all that I requested was for the Standing Committee on Public Account (SCOPA) to treat this report in terms of rule 189 of the National Assembly, especially sub-rule (1) (c) read with sub rule (4) (a) until all processes before the law enforcement agencies and internal departmental disciplinary processes are concluded,” Nzimande said.

He had appointed a forensic investigation company to conduct a full-scale forensic investigation into the financial affairs of the NSF after amounts of just under R5 billion could not be properly accounted for over two financial years.

The Minister also appointed a Ministerial Task Team (MTT) to conduct a strategic review of the NSF, its general operations and its efficiency and relevance with regards to the national skills priorities of the country.

Nzimande said both these appointments were meant to ensure the NSF accounts for the resources allocated to it and deal with instances of maladministration and corruption at the NSF.

“Both the reports were submitted to me, and we have begun in earnest the process of implementing the recommendations of both these reports,” the Minister said.

The Department of Higher Education and Training also opened a case at the Pretoria Central Police Station on 3 October 2022.

“Now that a police case has been opened and legal processes are underway, all the implicated individuals inside and outside the department, including companies who might have benefited irregularly on the resources of the National Skills Funding, will face the full might of the law,” Nzimande said.

He added that the department has already commenced engaging the Hawks and other law enforcement agencies, including initiating internal departmental disciplinary processes to ensure that this process in concluded speedily.

“This is the reason we requested SCOPA to treat this report as confidential until these processes are finalised and the relevant people informed, in terms of due process. I however must indicate that as a department we respect the SCOPA decision not to accede to our request.

“I have nothing to hide, but I have a duty, on my part, to follow due process in implementing the recommendations of the forensic investigation. We will implement these recommendations to the letter,” Nzimande said.

SA NEWS

WENDY MOTHATA

THE South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) has indicated that it’s willing to accept the government’s offer of a 3% wage increase in the public service wage talks. Sadtu said it will not join the public servants’ strike action and it will make an announcement on Monday on the matter when it concludes its national council meeting.

This despite a deadlock with other unions over wage negotiations with the government.

Last week, Sadtu president Magope Maphila said most members were in support of the revised offer of 3% tabled recently at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) by the department of public service and administration.
Sadtu has a membership of about 260,000.

Despite the prevailing difficult fiscal position, the government believes the 3% salary increase offer to
public servants is ‘generous’.

This is the view of the Acting Minister of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), Thulas Nxesi, and Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana.

The unions demanded a 10% wage increase when negotiations began in May but trimmed the figure down to 6.5% to match the headline inflation rate the Reserve Bank has forecast for 2022.

The government presented a revised and improved offer on the baseline of 2% plus the non-pensionable cash gratuity, amounting to an average of 4.5% of the R20.5 billion that is on the budget.

“The 2% amounted to an additional R8.9 billion over and above the budgeted of R20.5 billion, costing the government a total of R29.5 billion. Labour revised their demand to 6.5% across-the-board baseline increase, plus the non-pensionable cash gratuity,” Godongwana said.

“The employer further indicated that any further increase, above the 2% on the baseline, would require additional funding to be sourced from the Compensation of Employees’ budget and would require the introduction of cost containment measures in the Public Service,” said the Ministers.

While Sadtu has indicated that it may accept the offer, the same proposal has been rejected by other unions, including Nehawu, Denosa, Popcru, and the Public Servants Association.

The unions have since announced their plans to embark on industrial action unless the employer comes up with an improved offer.
Speaking on POWER Perspective on Wednesday, Sadtu spokesperson, Nomusa Cembi, said the majority of their members have accepted the government’s offer.

“Our members have decided to accept with reservation, the deal is nowhere near what we want. It is with heavy hearts that they accepted. Out of nine provinces, there are seven who have accepted and two did not accept. We operate on the process of democratic centralism, so we are going to accept. However, we have not signed.”

Some public service unions are on the verge of calling a national strike amid a wage dispute with the government.

Denosa has advised the members and structures of the union that the negotiations have reached the
dispute level.

“DENOSA and other COSATU unions filed for the joint dispute referral at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC). This application will invoke the conciliation process in PSCBC. This happened after COSATU unions in the public sector reported in a joint meeting held on October 6, 2022, that their members were rejecting the final offer of the employer,” Denosa said.

In the meantime, Denosa indicated that it will embark on a consultation process through its constitutional structures to unpack the current processes taking place at PSCBC and the possible end results.

INSIDE EDUCATION