PROFESSOR PAMELA DUBE

WORDS cannot express how it feels to be welcomed by the institution in this way. Since the announcement of my appointment as the next Vice-Chancellor and Principal at the Central University of Technology, I have received good wishes in the form of emails, SMSs and WhatsApp messages from many people and colleagues from CUT and the whole sector. This official welcome event is now the cherry on top of these heartwarming, kind gestures shown to me. 

Thank you also for your presence here today, members of the media; this partnership in informing about and showcasing the good that our post-school education sector is doing. Not long ago we were collectively showcasing the achievements of the matriculants and the Free State as the lead province in achievements by the matriculants! 

Today I look at my coming here at CUT as the beginning of a new dawn, a new journey. And as we begin this journey jointly as a collective of the CUT community, I want to thank the Chair of the Council, Cllr Matthew Rantso, the Members of the Council and the university stakeholders for their confidence and trust in me to drive the university vision to 2030, and I share the excitement for the opportunity for CUT of having its first woman vice-chancellor and principal. 

These are laudable efforts in our transformation journey as an institution and in the sector. I wish to acknowledge everyone who was part of the process. 

I have been around the campuses several times already, listening and getting to know everyone. In time, I will get around the campuses quickly, as my goal is to continue to hear from the university community – even our cleaners’ security, and messengers — their stories and what CUT means to them.  To Professor Aldfred Ngowi, who has been the acting vice-chancellor, thank you for your leadership over the past two years and enormous contribution to CUT under challenging circumstances. Congratulations to the executive team on the many accomplishments on behalf of the university.  

For a new leader in an institution of this achievement, big questions will always be asked:  What is your value proposition?  What is on the table that will make a difference?

How will you advance the mission of CUT?

How are you going to lead to 2030?

And what’s your vision?

Well, today, there is nothing yet to share. I am listening and learning currently through my engagements with stakeholders. As I look around our campuses, there are many pockets of excellence in our niche areas.

Indeed, I will apply my skills and abilities to build on the institutional values and achievements of this remarkable institution.  More will also come in the next three weeks toward my inauguration on 17 February.

I can tell you that I will be part of our university community each day — striving to impact the campus and our community positively. And I will work tirelessly with the senior leadership and everyone to advance our mission and ensure that our students and staff have every opportunity to succeed through our support. 

Through this leadership change, we have a huge opportunity to refine and reassert our identity and our ambition to be the leading University of Technology in Africa. We have an opportunity to profile our quality academic offerings, research and innovation, and our great achievements in engaged scholarship and the impact of our work on the communities and the future generations who are our students now, and whose graduate attributes will always prepare them to be responsive and responsible global citizens. 

And this we will do with renewed efforts and commitment and notwithstanding the current challenges, which our sector has the ability and skills to address; the energy crisis, dwindling funding, the slow pace of transformation, governance and ethical leadership challenges among others.

As I indicated, I will not say much at the moment, but I look forward to engaging with you and in particular our key partners in the province, from our other post-school education partners, to business, industry and government level,  and the CUT university community — on these and numerous pertinent matters that should keep us awake at night as important roleplayers across sectors in this country. 

Many thanks again for taking time to come to this welcome event.

CUT

PHUTI MOSOMANE

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa told delegates at the annual Basic Education Lekgotla held in Sandton that the Three-Streams Model is critical if the country is to seriously adapt and thrive in the new world of work. 

Ramaphosa delivered the keynote address at the 2023 Basic Education Sector Lekgotla at the Sandton Convention Centre on Thursday under the theme: “Equipping Learners with Knowledge and Skills for a Changing World in the Context of COVID-19”.

The Three-Streams Model, considered a silver bullet to the dearth of skills in South Africa, offers the Technical Vocational and Technical Occupational pathways added to the academic pathway.

The curriculum shift towards the Three Stream Model owes its birth to the 2011 National Development Plan (NDP) policy’s call for differentiated pathways in the basic education sector.

Ramaphosa said the skills that South Africa needs, the jobs that can grow the economy, and most importantly, the avenues for entrepreneurship that are so sorely needed, can best be achieved by increasing learner access to Technical and Vocational subjects. 

”I am pleased to hear about the progress that we are making in institutionalising the three-stream model. I understand that various Technical Vocational specialisations have already been introduced in more than 550 schools, and a growing number of schools are piloting the subjects in the Technical Occupational stream,” Ramaphosa said. 

Some of the subjects include Agriculture, Maritime and Nautical Science, Electrical, Civil and Mechanical Technologies, among others. 

”These are all vocations our economy sorely needs. They are the kind of vocations that we need to promote and develop if we are to tackle unemployment,” he added. 

The high numbers of unemployed young people is, he said, something no country can afford, but it is even worse if they are also not in education or training. 

Ramaphosa said inclusive growth and shared prosperity can only be achieved when more people are working. 

If the economy is not creating enough jobs at scale to support the growing numbers of unemployed, Ramaphosa said the country must come up with creative thinking and innovatively. 

”We have to look beyond issues of labour absorption alone, and into what are the best ways to open up new pathways for employment and self-employment. This starts with developing skills for a modern and dynamic workforce through basic education,” he said.  

He said the greater the scope of basic education streams, the better learners’ prospects are for securing employment and for self-employment after school. 

”By way of example, we will all be aware of the national effort to transition our economy along a low-carbon, climate change resilient pathway, and our move towards cleaner sources of energy,” Ramaphosa said. 

Powering a clean energy revolution and pursuing sustainable development requires artisans, mechanics, green equipment manufacturers and operators, waste entrepreneurs, technicians, sustainable farming practitioners and a host of others. 

He told delegates that never has the imperative been greater for the country to forge ahead with curricula that are responsive to the changing needs of economy and society.

The learning losses from the COVID-19 pandemic period will take some time to recoup, Ramaphosa encouraged the department to forge ahead with the comprehensive curriculum recovery plan. 

‘’Basic education is the foundation of a nation’s development, progress and prosperity,’’ he said, adding that through the Sanitation Appropriate for Education programme, known as SAFE, the government has so far been able to construct 50,000 sanitation facilities at 2,388 schools. 

A further 15,000 appropriate toilets were constructed at 1,047 schools as part of the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI). 

All remaining SAFE sanitation projects at approximately 1,000 schools are scheduled for completion in the next financial year. 

He said despite the impact of lockdowns, school closures, learning disruption, curriculum trimming, rotational timetables and numerous hurdles, the 2022 matric learners excelled recording an 80.1% pass rate.  

This year’s results, particularly in the performance of learners from poorer schools, show the deepening impact of education spending and the social wage more broadly.

INSIDE EDUCATION

KWAZULU-NATAL Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, has encouraged learners to consider Technical Vocational Education and Training Colleges (TVET) as their alternative to university education.

Speaking during the announcement of KwaZulu-Natal’s matric results held in Durban on Friday, Premier Dube-Ncube noted that one of the reasons why government adopted the three-stream model in the education system was to accommodate some leaners who have skills but may find it hard to be accepted in universities.

“We are therefore encouraging leaners to also make use of the opportunity provided by TVET colleges. We have seen in the past few years a trend where industry and business is absorbing more graduates from TVETS as opposed to universities,” Dube-Ncube said.

Dube-Ncube commended the province’s Matric Class of 2022 for surpassing all expectations by achieving an 83% pass rate, exceeding the 80% pass rate benchmark set by the province.

“Last year, the floods pummelled KwaZulu-Natal causing damage to infrastructure and disrupted education. This resulted in 824 learners in eThekwini being placed among the displaced in 135 mass care centres, and later being moved into Temporary Residential Units (TRUs).

“Out of this number, at least 36 were in matric in 2022, and four had special needs. Despite these challenges, our resilience showed up. We ensured that these learners were given a fair chance and were not prejudiced by the impact of the flood disaster,” Dube-Ncube said.

The Premier said the 2022 results reflect an improvement in all the districts with Umkhanyakude being the most improved district and no school received a 0% pass rate in the province.

This follows the rollout of the Ten-Point Improvement Plan championed by provincial Education Department.

“These objectives were meant to guide all the interventions for the improvement of the performance of the matric class of 2022. The province undertook to improve performance in Mathematics and Physical Science and sought improvement in the total number of distinction passes in 2022 [and] progress was achieved in all these areas.

“Attention to special schools has also resulted in significant achievement overall. The province has worked hard to improve education of learners with learning barriers,” the Premier said.

She said the Department of Education will come up with a decisive intervention strategy to deal with the situation in the 11 schools that performed below 30%.

“We note that they were 22 in 2021 and now have reduced to 11. The Education Department must conduct an evaluation and introduce an academic improvement plan with immediate effect.

“The Executive Council will receive the report with school by school analysis and will assist with relevant interventions,” Dube-Ncube said.

The Premier also expressed her excitement about the increase in the number of Bachelor passes, as well as an improvement in the pass rate of township and rural schools that achieved 100% pass rate from 145 in 2021 to 212 in 2022.

“We are excited about the increase in the number of Bachelor passes from 37% in 2021 to 42.5% in 2022, which marks a 5.4% improvement. The province is also pleased that girl learners performed well.

“Girl learners obtained an overall pass percentage of 83.6% while the boy learners obtained 82.3%. We will continue to intervene to ensure that female learners have equal opportunities of success like male learners,” Dube-Ncube said.

Embracing the future and 4IR

The Premier also encouraged learners to take advantage of digitisation, robotics and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

She said the provincial government is paying attention to subjects including Coding, Mathematics and Physical Science.

“The province also recently launched the Mobile Digital Analytics Skills Laboratory to ensure that young people are exposed to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We have taken a decision as the Provincial Government that we must assess the viability of schools with a low enrolment rate.

“Our view is that some of them could be converted into Vocational Skills Centers to address among others the shortage of technical skills for the country. These include among others Artisan, Plumbers, Electricians, Construction and Carpentry,” the Premier said. 

SA NEWS

THE Democratic Alliance (DA) says it hat the real matric pass rate is 54.6% and not the 80.1% Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has announced on Thursday last week.

The party said it calculated the real matric pass rate by bringing into account the number of learners that dropped out and never made it to matric.

The dropout rate for the 2022 matric class, according to the DA, is 31.8 % (337 364 learners). 

“The real 2022 matric pass rate is only 54.6%, an increase from 2021’s 50.4%. This is very concerning,” Baxolile Nodada, DA’s shadow Minister of Basic Education said.

“And while the DA disputes the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) pass rate of 80.1%, we are very proud of each and every matric that successfully graduated. We also urge those that did not do well to not give up, the current outcome does not determine their destiny.”

Nodada said some learners opt out of schooling at the end of Grade 9 to pursue their education through technical and vocational education and training (TVET), but a large number simply stop their education entirely.

To bring the TVET learners into account the DA calculates the real matric pass rate from the Grade 10 cohort that ought to complete matric.

The Northern Cape had the highest dropout rate of 41.6%, followed by Free State with 40.6%, while the Western Cape had the lowest dropout rate of 27.6%.

The province with the highest pass rate was the Free State.

The Western Cape was the leader in distinctions with 6.2%.

“What makes the national 45.4% fail rate and high dropout rate particularly concerning is that many of those learners contribute to the country’s staggering youth unemployment of 59.6% (6 in every 10 young South African is unemployed) – a little over 3.5 million youth are not in education, employment or any form of skills training,” he said.

“Given the fact that the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, recently revealed in an answer to a parliamentary question from the DA that her Department has not established a system of tracking learners that exit the public schooling system and does not have information regarding learners’ further education or employment paths in line with outcome 3 and 4 of the Medium-Term Strategic Framework of DBE, means a high likelihood of learners joining the unemployment lines once they leave school, whether through dropping out or after graduation.”

The party said unless DBE addresses the twin issues of the high dropout rate and the ineffective curriculum offering that fails to fully develop knowledge and skills to access economic opportunities, the majority of matriculants’ future will be very limited. 

“Not only does the curriculum have to be tailored with a determined focus on cultivating entrepreneurship and creativity to best cultivate citizens that will be able to create economic opportunities and prosperity, the failure to establish a strong literacy and numeracy base in the foundation phases sets learners up for failure and increases the likelihood of them dropping out at a later stage or achieve poor quality outcomes to access further education as we have seen in Matric results,” he said.

Nodada said South Africa desperately needs more teachers that specialise in the STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“The DA will continue to highlight the crucial need for continuous professional development of teachers in line with an effective curriculum offering that will develop learners’ knowledge and skills, and we once again urge the Minister to seriously consider our suggestion of an independent school monitoring evaluation authority to evaluate and monitor teachers,” he said.

INSIDE EDUCATION

NAOMI S. BARON

WHEN the company OpenAI launched its new artificial intelligence program, ChatGPT, in late 2022, educators began to worry. ChatGPT could generate text that seemed like a human wrote it. How could teachers detect whether students were using language generated by an AI chatbot to cheat on a writing assignment?

As a linguist who studies the effects of technology on how people read, write and think, I believe there are other, equally pressing concerns besides cheating. These include whether AI, more generally, threatens student writing skills, the value of writing as a process, and the importance of seeing writing as a vehicle for thinking.

As part of the research for my new book on the effects of artificial intelligence on human writing, I surveyed young adults in the U.S. and Europe about a host of issues related to those effects. They reported a litany of concerns about how AI tools can undermine what they do as writers. However, as I note in my book, these concerns have been a long time in the making.

Users see negative effects

Tools like ChatGPT are only the latest in a progression of AI programs for editing or generating text. In fact, the potential for AI undermining both writing skills and motivation to do your own composing has been decades in the making.

Spellcheck and now sophisticated grammar and style programs like Grammarly and Microsoft Editor are among the most widely known AI-driven editing tools. Besides correcting spelling and punctuation, they identify grammar issues as well as offer alternative wording.

AI text-generation developments have included autocomplete for online searches and predictive texting. Enter “Was Rome” into a Google search and you’re given a list of choices like “Was Rome built in a day.” Type “ple” into a text message and you’re offered “please” and “plenty.” These tools inject themselves into our writing endeavors without being invited, incessantly asking us to follow their suggestions.

Young adults in my surveys appreciated AI assistance with spelling and word completion, but they also spoke of negative effects. One survey participant said that “At some point, if you depend on a predictive text [program], you’re going to lose your spelling abilities.” Another observed that “Spellcheck and AI software … can … be used by people who want to take an easier way out.”

One respondent mentioned laziness when relying on predictive texting: “It’s OK when I am feeling particularly lazy.”

Personal expression diminished

AI tools can also affect a person’s writing voice. One person in my survey said that with predictive texting, “[I] don’t feel I wrote it.”

A high school student in Britain echoed the same concern about individual writing style when describing Grammarly: “Grammarly can remove students’ artistic voice. … Rather than using their own unique style when writing, Grammarly can strip that away from students by suggesting severe changes to their work.”

In a similar vein, Evan Selinger, a philosopher, worried that predictive texting reduces the power of writing as a form of mental activity and personal expression.

“[B]y encouraging us not to think too deeply about our words, predictive technology may subtly change how we interact with each other,” Selinger wrote. “[W]e give others more algorithm and less of ourselves. … [A]utomation … can stop us thinking.”

In literate societies, writing has long been recognized as a way to help people think. Many people have quoted author Flannery O’Connor’s comment that “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” A host of other accomplished writers, from William Faulkner to Joan Didion, have also voiced this sentiment. If AI text generation does our writing for us, we diminish opportunities to think out problems for ourselves.

One eerie consequence of using programs like ChatGPT to generate language is that the text is grammatically perfect. A finished product. It turns out that lack of errors is a sign that AI, not a human, probably wrote the words, since even accomplished writers and editors make mistakes. Human writing is a process. We question what we originally wrote, we rewrite, or sometimes start over entirely.

Challenges in schools

When undertaking school writing assignments, ideally there is ongoing dialogue between teacher and student: Discuss what the student wants to write about. Share and comment on initial drafts. Then it’s time for the student to rethink and revise. But this practice often doesn’t happen. Most teachers don’t have time to fill a collaborative editorial – and educational – role. Moreover, they might lack interest or the necessary skills, or both.

Conscientious students sometimes undertake aspects of the process themselves – as professional authors typically do. But the temptation to lean on editing and text generation tools like Grammarly and ChatGPT makes it all too easy for people to substitute ready-made technology results for opportunities to think and learn.

Educators are brainstorming how to make good use of AI writing technology. Some point up AI’s potential to kick-start thinking or to collaborate. Before the appearance of ChatGPT, an earlier version of the same underlying program, GPT-3, was licensed by commercial ventures such as Sudowrite. Users can enter a phrase or sentence and then ask the software to fill in more words, potentially stimulating the human writer’s creative juices.

A fading sense of ownership

Yet there’s a slippery slope between collaboration and encroachment. Writer Jennifer Lepp admits that as she increasingly relied on Sudowrite, the resulting text “didn’t feel like mine anymore. It was very uncomfortable to look back over what I wrote and not really feel connected to the words or ideas.”

Students are even less likely than seasoned writers to recognize where to draw the line between a writing assist and letting an AI text generator take over their content and style.

As the technology becomes more powerful and pervasive, I expect schools will strive to teach students about generative AI’s pros and cons. However, the lure of efficiency can make it hard to resist relying on AI to polish a writing assignment or do much of the writing for you. Spellcheck, grammar check and autocomplete programs have already paved the way.

Writing as a human process

I asked ChatGPT whether it was a threat to humans’ motivation to write. The bot’s response:

“There will always be a demand for creative, original content that requires the unique perspective and insight of a human writer.”

It continued: “[W]riting serves many purposes beyond just the creation of content, such as self-expression, communication, and personal growth, which can continue to motivate people to write even if certain types of writing can be automated.”

I was heartened to find the program seemingly acknowledged its own limitations.

My hope is that educators and students will as well. The purpose of making writing assignments must be more than submitting work for a grade. Crafting written work should be a journey, not just a destination.

(Naomi S. Baron, Professor of Linguistics Emerita, American University)

THE CONVERSATION

LEONIE BOLLEURS

THE University of the Free State (UFS) hosted the 31st Annual Conference of the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (SAARMSTE) at the weekend.

After two years of hosting the SAARMSTE conference virtually, it is being presented as a hybrid conference for the first time.

In attendance are delegates from South Africa, Southern Africa, America, India, Australia, and Europe.

The conference theme is: Intersecting Research, Policy and Practice for a Sustainable Praxis in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education: New possibilities and directions for the post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era.

Sharing best practices and discussing common challenges

SAARMSTE President, Dr Tulsi Morar from the Nelson Mandela University, believes the conference is fertile ground for each delegate to have an opportunity to share best practices, discuss common challenges experienced during the pandemic, and celebrate how these challenges has been overcome.

It is only through our reliance and strength that we have succeeded, and because of our experiences, we can grow and innovate to be better prepared for any further challenges, he said.

Opening the event was Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS. He said what is to be discussed at the conference will be meaningful for the challenges the world has to solve, stating that with challenges also come possibilities.

“We live in a time of significant change in the realm of technology, which has an impact on the world of work. Graduates will need to change their thinking in the world of work. They need to understand the future world of work,” Prof Petersen stated.

He also touched on curriculum reform, saying that a critical challenge for South Africa’s education system is the decolonisation of the curriculum. What is being taught must make meaningful sense in our context. “The UFS has made significant progress in curriculum transformation since 2016,” he added.

With delegates as well as speakers from other countries present at the conference, Prof Petersen also talked about the UFS’ Global Citizens initiative. He said no country can operate in isolation. We need to learn from each other to move forward as a collective. “It is also vital to deliver global citizens,” he said.

“The importance of the SAARMSTE conference cannot be overemphasised in our current education landscape. We need sustainable relationships to be developed at conferences such as these in order to ask questions, think differently, and renew ourselves,” he concluded, stating that the role of humanities and social sciences in society is critical and that SAARMSTE can add value in this context.

Thinking indigenously about Technology education and its implementation

To contribute to robust discussions on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education, three keynote speakers will be sharing their views during the three-day conference.

Prof Dr Susanne Prediger, Director of the newly established DZLM, the German National Centre for Mathematics Teacher Education, delivered the first keynote address of the conference. She talked about Fostering students’ understanding of procedures and underlying basic concepts: Design research for mathematics classrooms and teacher professional development in the post-pandemic era.

She is of the opinion that although providing students with rich and deep mathematical learning opportunities is a common request in Mathematics education, many students are still only exposed to superficial learning. According to her, this was aggravated by the school closures during the pandemic and will continue in the post-pandemic era if Mathematics teachers are not sufficiently supported and prepared.

The second plenary will be delivered by Prof Mishack T Gumbo from the University of South Africa. He is a Research Professor of Indigenous Technology Knowledge Systems Education in the Department of Science and Technology Education. The title of his talk is: A relook into Technology Education: Raising a transformational issue, where he will focus on education, specifically the curriculum of Technology Education as a school subject.

He will show how technology, which learners learn in Technology Education, is still hooked onto the colonial perspective and how colonialism still thrives. In his plenary, Prof Gumbo will provide strategies to think indigenously about Technology Education and its implementation as such.

The third plenary will be delivered by Dr Gillian Roehrig from the University of Minnesota in the US. She is known for her research that explores issues of professional development for K-12 Science teachers, with a focus on the implementation of integrated STEM learning environments and the induction and mentoring of beginning secondary Science teachers.

Her paper, titled The Hows and Whys of Integrated STEM Education, will explore the development of a conceptual and curricular framework for integrated STEM, and the benefits of using interdisciplinary approaches to address the policy goals of preparing students as STEM-literate citizens and for the future STEM workforce.

UFS: Supplied

ZIMBABWE mountain biker Pressmore Musundi is hoping to compete at this year’s African Games in Ghana, despite being born without any toes on both feet.

Musundi has established himself as one of the leading riders in South Africa and earned a professional contract with the Trialwolf Lions Club.

He won the WTF MTN Challenge in 2018 and also came third in the 2019 Route 66 MTB Experience, two of South Africa’s leading mountain bike races.

Last year, he earned a sponsorship deal with insurer King Price alongside other South African mountain bikers Candice Lill, Phil Buys and Gert Heyns.

Musundi was born in Zimbabwe but left the country as a 14-year-old to find a job across the Limpopo River.

He was employed as a gardener by Mooikloof Estate in Pretoria, who gave him a bike to ride to and from work.

Musundi was then invited to join the Pretoria South Lions Club, with his performances catching the eyes of Trialwolf Lions Club.

“I was born with no toes on both feet,” Musundi told Zimbabwe newspaper The Chronicle.

“I grew up in a rural area but used to visit Harare.

“I started school but unfortunately had to drop out of secondary school in 2004 when my dad passed away.

“That’s when I came to South Africa.

“Cycling has always been my passion since I was five-years-old.

“I used to use Buffalo bikes to travel to school but had no idea that it would end up becoming my career.

“When I first arrived in South Africa, searching for a better life, I started working as a gardener at Mooikloof Estate.

“There, the people I worked for bought me 24-inch mountain bike so that I could get to work.”

This year’s African Games, due to take place in Accra between August 4 and 19, is Musundi’s next target.

“It would be such an honour to qualify for the African Games,” he said.

“I’d love to help inspire others and help them realise that their dreams are worth chasing, no matter where they come from.”

At the last African Games in Casablanca four years ago, Namibia dominated the mountain bike events, winning three of the four gold medals available.

Tristan De Lange won the men’s cross-country and cross-country marathon, while Tiffany Keep won the women’s cross-country.

Kimberley Le Court of Mauritius stopped a clean sweep as she took the gold medal in the women’s cross-country marathon.

Insidethegames

PUBLIC universities across a widening swath of U.S. states have banned TikTok in recent months, and two of the country’s largest colleges just followed suit.

The University of Texas and Texas A&M University are two of the latest colleges to take action against the social app, which is owned by Beijing-based parent company ByteDance.

The flurry of recent campus TikTok bans was inspired by executive orders issued by a number of state governors. Public universities in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Dakota and now Texas have taken measures to restrict access to the app, blocking it from campus Wi-Fi networks and school-owned devices.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered Texas state agencies to ban the app from government devices in early December, citing privacy and security concerns stemming from TikTok’s Chinese ownership. Abbott characterized the concerns as “growing threats” and gave agencies until mid-February to plan around the changes.

“The university is taking these important steps to eliminate risks to information contained in the university’s network and to our critical infrastructure,” University of Texas Advisor to the President for Technology Strategy Jeff Neyland wrote this week.

“As outlined in the governor’s directive, TikTok harvests vast amounts of data from its users’ devices — including when, where and how they conduct internet activity — and offers this trove of potentially sensitive information to the Chinese government.”

A Texas A&M spokesperson confirmed to the Texas Tribune that “… Students, faculty, staff and visitors will not be able to use the app when connected to an A&M network.”

At the start of 2023, TikTok remains in a strange and contradictory state of limbo in the United States. The app, which regularly tops U.S. charts, is also under intense scrutiny at the federal and state level.

The Biden administration banned TikTok from government devices in a bill signed at the end of December. FBI Director Christopher Wray raised red flags over TikTok’s ability to collect data on its users and its potential to spread Chinese state influence operations around the same time.

“All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States,” Wray said. “That should concern us.”

The U.S. government has also long been suspected of running its own covert influence operations on social media apps, though the evidence to date suggests that U.S. tech companies didn’t facilitate that behavior, which would run afoul of platform policies.

While the irony of that particular accusation against ByteDance is worth noting, apps headquartered in the U.S. do have more recourse for pushing back against government requests and more channels for transparency around those relationships.

The Biden administration’s concerns about TikTok’s Chinese ownership are themselves an extension of worries that took root in the U.S. government during the Trump era. The Trump administration attempted to force ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. business to a new owner, though those unprecedented efforts fell apart over time.

ByteDance has certainly failed to be forthright about how data flows between its U.S. and China operations, raising eyebrows about what else the company conceals. Last month, Forbes reported that TikTok’s parent company tracked journalists’ IP addresses in an effort to identify which employees were sharing unauthorized information.

Whether ongoing concerns around TikTok’s prevalence in the U.S. are valid or not, the university bans aren’t likely to have much impact on the app’s popularity. Students can easily switch to their own mobile data plans to get around network-level bans on campus, though many school employees will soon have a firewall between the app and their university accounts — and potentially one less social channel to monitor.

TechCrunch

 LEONIE BOLLEURS 

WITH the release of the National Senior Certificate exam results by the National Department of Basic Education on 19 January 2023, it was confirmed that the Free State maintained its status as the top-performing province in the country.

This year’s average pass rate for the province is 88,5%, an increase of 2,8% from 2021, and more than 8% above the national pass rate.

Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS), congratulated the Matric Class of 2022.

“Passing the National Senior Certificate examination is a milestone worthy of celebration and a step towards realising your dreams for the future. The University of the Free State congratulates you on achieving this goal and we are delighted that you have achieved this success.”

“We are recruiting the best students and scholars from diverse backgrounds and are looking forward to welcoming you to start the next chapter of your life and to guiding you to realise your true potential.”

“At the UFS, we have a clear vision of where we want to be within the next few years leading up to the year 2034, when the university will be 130 years old. Vision 130 expresses our intent and commitment to be acknowledged by our peers and society as a top-tier university in South Africa, ranked among the best in the world.”

“Academic excellence, quality, and impact lie at the centre of our vision. So does maximum societal impact. We are demonstrating our impact through our graduates, the knowledge we generate, the research we conduct, and our engagement with society,” he says. 

Prof Petersen continues, “We are focused on consistently renewing and reimagining ourselves in order to effectively impact the communities that surround us.”

It is in its engagement with society, striving to make a positive impact, that the UFS has certain initiatives in place that have contributed to the successful pass rate of matric pupils in the province.

Creative Clubs

Creative Clubs is one of these initiatives. The initiator and coordinator of the programme, Dr Joleen Hamilton from the university’s School of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology Education, says Creative Clubs aim to create an environment to cultivate skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, higher-order reasoning, teamwork, and perseverance. 

“Motivation, more specifically internal motivation, is another aspect we address. For this to work, we make the learners believe in their abilities, potential, and themselves. Learners need to have the self-confidence to find the courage to persevere, even if the problem is challenging. Having self-confidence and self-belief is crucial for learners to be successful in their school career and afterwards,” she says. 

The skills taught in Creative Clubs prepare learners for success when they write the National Senior Certificate exam later. “Due to our focus on the development of skills, we are able to equip learners with the tools they need to be successful in any subject or learning situation.”

“Most of the activities done in Creative Club sessions are focusing on changing learners’ attitudes towards themselves in terms of what they believe they can accomplish,” says Dr Hamilton. 

She is of the opinion that Mathematics and Science are both perceived as difficult and only for high achievers. She explains that many of the learners do not have a choice and must take Mathematics and Science as subjects, whether they are interested in the fields or not. “If the learners can get support in not only understanding the content but also in developing and strengthening skills, their attitudes towards these subjects can be changed to believing that it can be managed and mastered. Once their attitudes change, their self-belief increases, and learners are more willing to try challenging problems or topics in these subjects.”

Sci-Ed Science Education Centre

Another drive of the university that provides support to learners and contributes to successful matric results in the long run, is the Sci-Ed Science Education Centre hosted by the UFS Faculty of Education to address the challenge of Mathematics and Science teaching and learning in South Africa.

Dr Cobus van Breda, Manager of Sci-Ed and Programme Director of Science-for-the-Future, believes success in matric is the result of many contributing factors. “Apart from a solid school education, it is also about consistent hard work over a long period of time, exposure to additional learning opportunities, and networking with peers,” he says.

Dr Van Breda adds, “The new Sci-Ed Science Education Centre at the UFS is creating a platform and space for such initiatives. Since Sci-Ed will accommodate learners from all grades, it will also contribute towards laying sound foundations in the early school years for success later, especially in Mathematics and Science. Teacher professional development, learner support, and parent-empowering initiatives are at the base of the activities offered at Sci-Ed. 

Acknowledging the centre’s future contributions during its opening ceremony on 6 December 2022, Dr Tate Makgoe, the MEC for Basic Education in the Free State, said the provincial government will send its Foundation Phase teachers here to further strengthen their skills.

UFS| Supplied

PHUTI MOSOMANE

MORE Gauteng township public schools have excelled in the 2022 matric examinations, with 20 schools achieving 100% pass rate, and 134 achieving a pass rate of over 90%.  

MEC of Education Matome Chiloane said this is in light of the Gauteng Provincial Government’s Township, Informal Settlements and Hostel (TISH) focus strategy.

“More township public schools excelled in the 2022 NSC exams and we congratulate the principals of the 107 township public schools, including 9 Learners with Special Educational Needs (LSEN) schools, that achieved a pass rate of above 90% for the sterling work done. Last year, only 61 township public schools achieved above 90% last year,” said Chiloane.

Chilaoane gave a special recognition to Imbali Combined School, an independent school in the township of Orange Farm, which achieved a 100% pass rate and a 97% Bachelor Pass rate. 

The following township schools have achieved a pass rate above 98% and a Bachelor rate above 75%.

• Raymond Mhlaba Secondary School with 83% Bachelor Passes

• Madibane Comprehensive School with 79% Bachelor Passes

• Letsibogo Secondary School with 78% Bachelor Passes

• Diepsloot Secondary No 2 with 75% Bachelor Passes

“Gauteng has made significant strides in closing the gap between schools serving poor communities, specifically township schools, and those with a strong middle-class component, as shown by the narrowing gap in the performance by township and non-township schools,” Chiloane revealed at a special matric 2022 results announcement in Soshanguve on Friday. 

In 2009, township schools achieved an average pass rate of 60.1%, with non-township schools achieving 84.2%, making a gap of 24.1%. 

In 2023, the gap improved to 8.3% compared to 9.8% in 2021 and compared to 11.8% in 2020, but still below when compared to the 2.8% in 2019. 

Township schools achieved slightly higher results than 2021, with township schools achieving a pass rate of 80.7% compared to 79.6%. In 2021 and non-township schools achieved 89% compared to 89.4% in 2021, a slight decline. 

“We are happy that our interventions in our township schools are bearing fruit. Our Grade 12 learners in township schools had an opportunity to benefit from teaching and learning through investments that we made in technology in the classroom,” said Chiloane.

“This was in addition to the supplementary learning programmes over weekends and school holidays. We shall continue to consolidate our input in this area to maximize the utilization of these resources for improved learning outcomes. This will contribute to narrowing the inequality gaps that persist.” 

He gave special congratulations to Kgothalang Secondary School in Gauteng West which, with tremendous effort, turned around their performance from 41.5% to 87.3%, a staggering improvement of just over 45.8%.  

The school also improved on the percentage of Bachelor Passes from 21% to 44%. 

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, who also attended the special breakfast in Soshanguve, said the province has invested resources to ensure that no school is left behind. 

On the improved performance of township schools, Lesufi said: “I think we have turned the corner. The seed that we planted is now showing results.”

Township Awards were presented by Lesufi and Thabiso Madiba, a board member of the Trevor Noah Foundation. 

Top performing township learners:

1st place: Sibusiso Mathebula: IR Lesolang Secondary School: Tshwane West District.

2nd place: Agnes Mahlaku: Thuto Kitso Comprehensive School: Gauteng West District.

3rd place: Olwethu Mondao: Letsibogo Secondary School: Johannesburg West District.

Top learners in physical science are also from township schools, recieved 300 over 300:

 Sibusiso Mathebula: IR Lesolang Secondary School: Tshwane, West District 

Tebatso Herman Dilebo: Tipfuxeni Secondary School: Tshwane, North District

Matimba Manganyi: Letlotio Secondary School: Tshwane West, District

Boikanyo Khoza: Modilati Secondary School: Tshwane North, District 

Top performing township schools;

1st place: Letsibogo Secondary School: Johannesburg West District

2nd place: Lesiba Secondary School: Ekurhuleni North District.

3rd place: Ratshepo Secondary School: Tshwane North

INSIDE EDUCATION