“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.”

When former President Nelson Mandela said these words at the Laureus Awards in Monaco in 2000, they inspired Benoni resident Greg Smith to use sport to make a change in his community.

“Listening to that speech inspired me to use sport to bring out the best in youngsters, especially in a way where they can experience something new and grow from that experience,” he said. team, training on Friday afternoons.

The objective was to not only have them play soccer but to come together and learn life skills, such as commitment, confidence, desire to improve and just experience in the enjoyment in what was being achieved.”

After establishing this team, Smith said they made history when they held CBC Parklands to a draw. The winner at the end of the match, he added, was the achievements of what they had set out to do.

Smith has won four u-9 soccer trophies on two continents. He said the achievements were meaningful but the goal was to nurture the youngsters to grow into respectful adults.

Smith has admitted that their goal as educators is to bring the best out of their students. But he wonders what sport defines the community of Benoni.

“What is our preferred sport? Communities in South Africa are defined by a sporting code, what are we? Hockey, soccer, rugby, tennis, chess, etc.?and a stamp in their ity.”

Smith has outlined six outcomes he believes could assist in high-quality school sport:

• Commitment: ensure all learners attend practices on time and are ready. To make sure they commit themselves to the team and understand their responsibility and assist in encouraging fellow learners to join in the sports programme. And making sure they are wearing the correct practice and playing gear.

• Understanding: strive to make sure learners have an understanding of the different styles of thinking needed for the particular sport they are playing, as each sport requires the use of principles, composition and game strategy.

• Confidence: build our learners’ confidence for them to demonstrate what they can do as well as create an environment where they will have the confidence to try a new sport without feeling insecure about their abilities. Teach them that it is ok to ask for help when developing their new skills and being able to talk about what they have just learnt.

• Thinking and decision making: create an environment where learners can work and train without constant coaching and start thinking for themselves. Allow them to ask questions so they can make progress, come up with a range of ideas and strategies to help them improve. Teach them to vary and adapt to what they do, taking into account others’ strengths and weaknesses, and reacting to situations intelligently when performing.

• Desire to improve: ensure learners show determination to achieve the best possible results, get them to compare and evaluate their performance to stimulate the improvement.

• Enjoyment: ensure learners stay keen to take part in what is going on, get learners to talk about what they are doing with enthusiasm, make time to take part in sport and maintain a positive attitude when taking part in school sport.

–Benoni Times

PLAY AFRICA has developed a free, open source curriculum to promote STEM education and climate change awareness in South African learners from an early stage.

Play Africa is a children’s museum based at Constitution Hill and is active across the country’s nine provinces.

Its new curriculum, called STEM Seeds, was unveiled during a virtual launch on Friday, to coincide with International Day of Women and Girls in Science.  

The curriculum is a support resource for educators and practitioners working in early childhood development (ECD), helping them build science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills and climate change awareness in young learners through play.

Play Africa CEO Gretchen Wilson-Prangley told ITWeb the curriculum is designed to work alongside the South African National Curriculum Framework for Children from Birth to Four and CAPS.

The ECD-focused curriculum features ready-to-use techniques and activities that educators can download, as well as a series of freely-available video tools.

It includes sections called “playful educator”, which is about building the educator’s confidence to use playful teaching methodologies to teach STEM.

The “playful classroom” section allows educators to use recycled material to create a STEM centre, where each corner in the classroom is dedicated to science, technology, engineering and maths.

According to Wilson-Prangley, the target market is educators of learners aged three to six, but is still appropriate for up to age 10.

This, she believes, will support early development and school readiness; so that by the time learners enter ‘big school’, they have developed some key STEM skills.

Through its work with ECD centres across the country, Wilson-Prangley said Play Africa found communities were often resource-constrained.

“One of the things that we found is that many ECD practitioners do know that STEM is required for so many different careers; that science, technology, engineering and maths are high-growth areas that will be necessary in a changing world; and there are many ECD educators that know about climate change.

“However, when it comes to figuring out how to take these bigger concepts and apply them in an age-appropriate way through play, a lot of educators revealed they’d sometimes get stuck – they didn’t know where to start.

“When we started to create this resource, we started with educators. We went out into communities and used our Design Thinking process, to find out what they really need and how to provide that to empower them and bring STEM learning and climate change awareness through play into the classroom.

“From these interviews, we heard that educators wanted easy-to-apply, practical tips and resources that they can start applying today.

“One of the things that we heard is that some teachers felt that when it comes to STEM, they think of high-end equipment. We wanted to show educators that you don’t need expensive material to start to teach children about STEM.”

Commenting on the significance of the STEM Seeds launch on International Day of Women and Girls, Wilson-Prangley said it underscores the importance of empowering girls by promoting gender equity in STEM education and careers.

“If we want to equip South Africa’s children for the future, we need to support the creativity and resourcefulness of our country’s early educators.

“This curriculum support for early educators can help children develop new capacities for deeper learning, critical thinking and creative problem-solving through playful learning.”

“Our objective is to help South Africa’s early educators, from all backgrounds and education levels, build the confidence they need to use playful approaches to introduce STEM and climate change awareness in classrooms across the country,” added Rachel Fowkes, programme manager for STEM Seeds at Play Africa.

“Now everyone can help encourage the next generation of South African scientists, coders, engineers, mathematicians and inventors.”

Wilson-Prangley concluded: “Our hope is that this is a locally-relevant resource that is embraced and celebrated by ECD practitioners and becomes a real tool to help them to enliven and enrich their classroom experience. We think that is the transformation we need to see today, to be able to develop the scientists of tomorrow.”

–ITWEB

THE opposition Democratic Alliance has proposed a number of changes for school timetables in a bid to make up for lost teaching time during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the CRAMS- TIMMS survey, learners have lost between 50-75% of learning time over the last two years. This has wide-ranging implications for learners and it is important that the feasibility of various methods are considered to ensure that they catch up on the curriculum, the political party said.

Some of the proposals made by the DA to catch up this lost time include:

Trim the curriculum and focus on the basic skills;Address the teacher vacancy rate as a matter of urgency;Provide extra lessons through absorbing graduates and calling back retired teachers, with the consideration of remuneration;Work with the Departments of Higher Education and Treasury to consider increasing the number of bursaries for teaching with a focus on STEM subjects;Extending the school day by an hour.

“The DA is looking into a variety of solutions for pupils to catch up on learning and teaching-time lost, of which the extension of the schooling time is a possible option,” it said.

“This, of course cannot go without the adequate funding to support it or without the consultation of a variety stakeholders; including learners, teachers and parents. As well as investigating how beneficial and practical this option is, other aspects such as the provision of incentives to teachers, considering learner transport and school nutrition must be considered.”

Updated rules 

Schools in the country recently returned to full-time teaching following the government’s decision to end rotational timetables.

Under the regulations, all primary, secondary and special schools from both public and independent schools returned to full-time attendance from 7 February.

Other significant changes that were introduced from this date include:

All contact sport and non-contact sport may resume, including training, intra-school and interschool games.Individuals who have tested positive for Covid-19 and their contacts are no longer required to isolate. Only people who have symptoms or are advised by a health care worker should isolate for not more than seven days after which the learner, teacher, school support staff or official should return to school/office.Schools should introduce face mask breaks for learners (5 – 15 minutes for every two hours during the school day) where they can safely remove their masks in an outdoor area.All learners aged 12 – 17 years and older are also encouraged to vaccinate at their nearest vaccination sites.

–BusinessTech

STAFF REPORTER |

THE Gauteng Education service providers have been ordered to pay back profits derived from irregular R431 million deep cleaning contracts.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has welcomed the Special Tribunal judgment that set aside R431 million contracts awarded to services providers by Gauteng Department of Education to decontaminate, disinfect and sanitize schools in response to COVID-19.

The Tribunal made the ruling after hearing that following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and the country being placed under lockdown, Gauteng Education Department illegally procured personal protective equipment from 49 service providers in breach of National Treasury regulations.

The SIU approached the Special Tribunal to review and set aside the contracts following an investigation, which revealed that Gauteng Education paid over R431 million to service providers pursuant to a process that was hap-hazard, unfair and littered with procurement irregularities.

On Friday, the court heard that opening of schools required certain cleaning protocols which includes disinfecting and sanitizing the school. However, judge, Lebogang Modiba, said that the procurement process did not comply with section 217(1) of the Constitution.

The SIU seeks to recover all profits made by service providers from the irregular contracts.

“To ensure the profits are calculated and recovered in full, the Special Tribunal ordered that the service providers must submit a statement and debatement of account in respect of their appointment, performance and payment to the SIU, to determine the profits derived. If the accounting and the sum of profit determined is disputed by either the SIU or the service providers, the parties shall approach the Special Tribunal for an appropriate order on supplemented papers as necessary,” said SIU Spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.

“In the event that there is no dispute on the accounting and the sum of profits, the Special Tribunal ordered that such profit shall be paid to the SIU within 15 days of such agreement, together with interest. More than R60 million has been preserved pending final determination of profits derived from irregular contracts.”

Kganyago added that the investigation revealed that the procurement process was not cost-effective.

 “The investigation revealed that the procurement process was not cost-effective, as service providers were not paid per square meter of the area cleaned. Rather, a senior official in the Gauteng Education appears to have arbitrarily decided to offer a fee of R250 000 to R270 000 for the decontamination of primary schools; R250 000 to R290 000 for secondary schools; and R250 000 to R300 000 for district offices. The fees bear no relation to the work done by service providers or the cost of material used.”

Kganyago said that the outcome of this review application is a continuation of implementation of the SIU investigations outcomes and consequence management to recover financial losses suffered by State institutions.

“There are 45 matters enrolled in the Special Tribunal which are still awaiting adjudication to the combined value of R2.1 billion and will result in further recoveries for the State.”

-Inside Education

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday the government still needs to build around 2500 schools around the country.

Ramaphosa delivered his sixth State of the Nation Address at Cape Town’s City Hall on Thursday evening.

“We still need to build around 2500 schools in our country. It will probably take us 75 years with current

mechanisms. Additionally, the damage caused by the theft of metal on our railway and electricity

infrastructure is enormous,” he said.

Ramaphosa said the government must ensure that platforms like school governing bodies are active and inclusive.

“We must work together to ensure that platforms like schools governing bodies and community policing forums are more active and inclusive,” Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa ensured the public that learners and students around the country will get quality education.

“As we return to normal educational activity, we will work harder to ensure that all learners and

students get the quality education they need and deserve. For the last two years, the education of our

children and young people has been severely disrupted,” he said.

The president said the government is introducing an innovative social infrastructure delivery mechanism

to address issues that afflict the delivery of school infrastructure.

“The mechanism will address the speed, financing and funding, quality of delivery, mass employment

and maintenance. The new delivery mechanism will introduce a Special Purpose Vehicle, working with

prominent DFIs and the private sector, to deliver school education infrastructure. This approach is being

piloted in schools in the Northern Cape and Eastern Cape,” Ramaphosa said.

The President further added that, “this includes the development of a Hydrogen Society Roadmap for

the next ten years as well as a Green Hydrogen Strategy for the Northern Cape, supporting the development of a green hydrogen pipeline worth around R270 billion. The damage caused by the theft

of scrap metal and cable on our infrastructures like electricity, trains and other vital services is

enormous. We will take decisive steps this year both through improved law enforcement and by

considering further measures to address the sale or export of such scrap metal.”

-Inside Education

WENDY MOTHATA |

THE North West Department of Education said all learners who were allegedly abducted from Tirelong Secondary School in Kroondal have returned to school.

“Tirelong learners have returned to school. In a meeting held last week, the parents have agreed that all learners should return to school,” said spokesperson Elias Malindi.

The department said the learners were allegedly abducted by unknowing people from schools. This is after learners at Tirelong School were transferred to Boons, Moedwil and Naauwpoort Mega Farm Schools after Tirelong Secondary school was vandalised during school holidays.

“The learners of Tirelong Secondary School were allegedly abducted from school by unknown people. About 54 learners from Naauwpoort Mega Farm School were allegedly forcefully removed and 162 learners were taken away from Boons Mega Farm School,’ Malindi.

The department invited the Tirelong Secondary School parents to a meeting. The purpose of the meeting was for parents to sign the commitment letters to allow learners to stay at the boarding schools.

According to the statement parents have agreed that ‘children should be allowed to go back to school, without any disturbance’.

Angy Moseki, the mother of Katlego and Phemelo who are both in Grade 8 at Boons Mega Farm School said she is emotional because people disturbed the studies of her children.

“I am totally emotional against those people who disturbed the studies of my children. We signed the consent forms with the department and some unknown people forcefully remove them without our permission. We want people behind these removals should face the full might of the law”, said Moseki.

The mother of Grade 11 learner, Mmaditshwanelo Paeea said the children must be allowed to go back to school. She further appealed to the government to protect the children at boarding schools,

“Let our children be allowed to go back to school. We are appealing to the government to protect our children. No one has a right to take away the education of our children. We want to thank the department for taking our children to a better learning environment”, said Paeea

The Provincial MEC for Education, Mmaphefo Matsemela assured parents that learners are safe at the boarding schools.

“I want to assure the parents of Tirelong Secondary School that as a department of education we will take care of the learners. In our boarding schools’ learners are getting the best care,” said Matsemela.

The MEC assured parents that going forward those who deny learners their right to education are brought to the book.

“Going forward, we will ensure that those people behind the denial of learners their right to education are brought to book. We have taken these learners to high performing schools. Naauwpoort Mega Farm School obtained 100% and Moedwil Mega Farm School obtained 85,2% in their matric examinations. I am confident that these learners will do exceptionally well in their final examinations”, said Matsemela.

The department said it is currently working on a plan to strengthen the safety and security of the affected boarding schools.

-Inside Education

WENDY MOTHATA |

THE High Court in Johannesburg has on Monday ordered the Gauteng Education Department to fix unsafe electrical equipment and vandalised infrastructure at Geluksdal Secondary School in Brakpan, Ekurhuleni.

Judge Fridah Senyatsi said the department must urgently replace unsafe electrical equipment and security at the school.

The Department has been given 15 days to fix the issues at the school.

“This means that Gauteng Department is ordered to resolve infrastructure problems at Geluksdal Secondary School urgently, so that learners are not endangered because of unsafe electrical equipment,” said Senyatsi.

This move comes after Section27 public law centre declared Geluksdal Secondary School unsafe.

A matric learner who was electrocuted at Geluksdal Secondary died tragically in January 2017.

 Section27 has been admitted as amicus curiae to fight for safe school infrastructure after the death of a learner from electrocution at school in Gauteng, “five years since the tragedy, the school is still unsafe.”

“Over five years since a matric learner tragically died at Geluksdal Secondary School in Gauteng after being electrocuted because electrical equipment was repeatedly stolen but not replaced by the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE), the infrastructure at the school remains a serious risk to learners’ rights and lives.”

“Between 2010 and 2017, Geluskdal suffered theft and vandalism of electrical safety equipment like circuit breakers, cables, distribution boxes and earth leakage at least three times. Despite being informed of the theft and vandalism, the district office and GDE did nothing.” Section27 said.

Judge Senyatsi said he is in agreement that a relief must be granted.

“I am in agreement 100% – there is a proper case in this case, the relief must be granted,” the Judge said.

Section27 said the judgment is a victory for learners at Geluksdal Secondary school.

-Inside Education

WENDY MOTHATA |

THE Democratic Alliance (DA) will on Thursday conduct an oversight inspection at Willowmoore High School in Benoni, Ekurhuleni.

The DA said that, Willowmoore High School is one of many schools across the province that are facing a serious challenge of a shortage of teachers.

“Willowmoore High School is one of many schools across the province that are facing a serious challenge of a shortage of teachers. A severe shortage of teachers in this school has resulted in a drastic drop in performance and matric pass rate”

The DA is set to engage with the School Governing Body (SGB).

“The DA is set to engage with the School Governing Body (SGB) to ascertain why there is a high rate of teacher vacancies and when these posts will be filled.”

The DA will further assess the state of the infrastructure and check whether there is sufficient learning equipment and materials at the school.

–Inside Education

THE Department of Basic Education has gazetted updated lockdown restrictions for schools in South Africa following the government’s decision to end rotational timetables.

Under the regulations, all primary, secondary and special schools from both public and independent schools are to resume full-time attendance on Monday (7 February).
In addition, all teachers, non-teaching school staff, all learners, as well as all officials, should return to school and offices from this date.

Covid-19 rules
Taking into account the resumption of full-time schooling, the regulatory provision for one-meter social distancing in schools has been removed with immediate effect.
However, the following non-pharmaceutical measures should be maintained and adhered to by schools and education offices:
• Wearing of non-surgical face masks by all learners, teachers, non-teaching staff and visitors.
• Face mask breaks for learners (5 – 15 minutes for every 2 hours during the school day) where they can safely remove their masks in an outdoor area.
• Washing of hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, or using hand sanitisers.
• Placing 70% alcohol-based hand sanitisers in each classroom, at entrances and exits, and near lunchrooms as well as halls so that sanitising of hands should be done when entering and leaving these venues.
• Maintaining good ventilation by opening doors, windows and/or using fans for air circulation.
• School buildings and equipment must be cleaned thoroughly and regularly by following the environmental health cleaning and disinfection protocols. Household bleach is recommended for this purpose. No fogging and spraying of buildings as part of environment cleaning should be done. Instead, surfaces should be wiped with a wet cloth.

Isolating
Individuals who have tested positive for Covid-19 and their contacts are no longer required to isolate.
Only people who have symptoms or are advised by a health care worker should isolate for not more than seven days after which the learner, teacher, school support staff or official should return to school/office.

Sports and other activities
The following activities may resume with spectators, subject to compliance with the hygiene and safety measures on Covid-19:
• All contact sport and non-contact sport, including training, intra-school and interschool games.
• All arts and culture intra-school and inter-school activities.
• All co-curricular and enrichment programmes.

Vaccinations
All teachers, non-teaching school staff and officials who were vaccinated using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in June/July 2021, are now eligible for a booster vaccination and are encouraged to visit their nearest health facility, pharmacy or vaccination site for this purpose.
Those who received the Pfizer double dose vaccine will qualify for the booster dose 6 months after the second dose.
All learners aged 12 – 17 years and older are also encouraged to vaccinate at their nearest vaccination sites. Parents are urged to take their children for vaccination or use the opportunity of vaccinating their children in schools when the opportunity to do so arises, the department said.
“The Department of Basic Education (DBE) is working with the Department of Health (DoH) to introduce an in-school vaccination programme, and an official announcement in this regard will be made in due course.

“Provinces are however allowed to introduce in-school vaccination in collaboration with their provincial departments of health. In-school vaccination will require parental consent in line with the procedures of the integrated school health policy,” it said.

-BusinessTech

THE Mozambican Ministry of Education on Monday threatened to hold criminally accountable any public school managers who prevent children from attending classes, because their parents have not yet paid the supplementary fees some schools charge to pay for security guards.

Addressing a Maputo press conference, the ministry’s spokesperson, Gina Guibunda, said there is nothing illegal about schools collecting money from parents to pay for security guards.

But such payments are entirely voluntary, and under no circumstances should they prevent children from attending classes.

“We want to make it clear that this attitude is totally reprehensible and has not been ordered by the ministry”, declared Guibunda. “This is the reason why we want to reaffirm that any school leader who prevents children from attending class due to lack of payment, will be punished for breaking the law,” .

The issue of parents’ financial support for schools, Guibunda added, has been enshrined in the law since a ministerial diploma of 2004.

The amount raised from parents should be used to improve school conditions and parents cannot be forced to pay it.

She said that schools should only start collecting the voluntary fees from March, after the School Councils, which are liaison bodies between school managments and parents to address matters of common concern, have been renewed or set up.

Guibunda also admitted the recently reported corruption scandal at the Education Service in the southern province of Inhambane, where episodes such as the sale of false certificates, the rigging of examination marks, and charging as much as 50,000 meticais (about 780 US dollars, at the current exchange rate) for entry into the Teachers Training Centre (IFP) are commonplace.

The spokesperson told reporters that investigations are under way to find the truth, but the ministry is aware of the fraud and as soon as the probe is completed those involved will be dealt with accordingly.

-Allafrica.com