Sports Reporter

Madibaz Sport manager Mthunzi Hewu of Nelson Mandela University and rugby club physiotherapist Yale Jameson are part of the management team for the University Sports South Africa national sevens squad that will compete at the World University Championship in France from June 10 to 12.

The tournament takes place in Aix-en-Provence in southern France from June 10 to 12.

Hewu will handle the logistical aspect, while Jameson will oversee the squad’s physical and mental well-being.

The Madibaz Sport manager said it was an honour to be considered for the role after making his mark as a student-athlete two decades ago. “It’s amazing how the wheel has turned since I was a student.”

Hewu joined the USSA team in 2005 after being named the best backline player at the 15s tournament hosted by TUT.

“To be asked to be manager of the national sevens team at such a prestigious international event is a real privilege.”

Hewu, who serves on the USSA rugby executive committee and was the logistics coordinator at the CUCSA Games in 2018, has been busy making arrangements prior to the event.

A camp in Potchefstroom earlier this month will be followed by another two-day training session in Johannesburg on June 3 and 4 before the squad departs for France the following day.

Jameson, meanwhile, has plenty of experience in his role. He previously worked with the EP Currie Cup and Southern Kings teams and Gqeberha’s professional soccer club, Chippa United.

Jameson, who has a Master’s in sport and exercise therapy, linked up with Madibaz in 2022 and has worked with both the sevens and 15s teams.

“It is something I have particularly enjoyed,” Jameson, who also runs a physiotherapy practice in the city, said.

Although he didn’t “really expect to be appointed”, he said it was a “great honour to represent your country in this way”.

The fast-paced sevens format and multiple games in a day place a lot of emphasis on the recovery aspect.

“That is a big focus, and then I also guide the players in the physical preparation needed for a tournament like this.”

As the players are already-fit and ready, his focus has been on screening their physical history and setting up preventative programmes to ensure they stay free of niggles.

He also interacts with the players to give the coaches regular feedback on their physical and mental wellness.

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Education Reporter

South African teachers face several challenges on the personal and professional development front, hindering them from progressing as leaders and managers. Topping their challenges are time and money, both needed to further their qualifications.

ADvTECH, SA’s leading private higher education provider, is addressing this challenge. It recently launched the Occupational Certificate: School Principal, offered via its distance learning college, Oxbridge Academy.

“The importance of accessible development opportunities for South African teachers cannot be overstated,” says Siyavuya Makubalo, Marketing Manager at Oxbridge Academy.

“Our teachers are tasked with raising the leaders of the future. However, they seldom can reach their full potential and become leaders themselves. When teachers have the chance to engage in professional development, it directly impacts not only the quality of teaching and learning they deliver in the classroom but also their career trajectories and self-fulfilment.”

Makubalo says the new occupational certificate’s purpose is to prepare teachers to become school managers.

“School managers lead, plan, develop and manage developed systems for effective and efficient delivery of quality education by ensuring the implementation and support of a value-driven ethos for quality teaching.”

“Teachers need to learn to lead and manage teaching and learning in a school; plan and manage the resources of the school; establish, lead and manage the relationship between and the impact of the internal and external community for the development of the school, and develop self and others through life-long learning to deliver quality teaching and learning.”

Makubalo says the benefit of continuing professional development via distance learning is that time-and-finance-stretched teachers can affordably study at their own pace while working and taking care of their loved ones.

“We believe this will be a game-changer for teachers in general, and also the skills complement in South African schools in particular, which is so desperately needed,” she says.

The Occupational Certificate: School Principal is NQF Level 6 accredited by the QCTO and SAQA accredited.

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Staff Reporter

Twelve University of Pretoria (UP) individuals have been announced as finalists in the 2023/2024 NSTF-South32 Awards, popularly known as the “Science Oscars” of South Africa. Twenty UP staff members and one team were nominated for these prestigious awards.

The National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) Awards honour and celebrate outstanding contributions to science, engineering, technology (SET), and innovation. The 2023/2024 NSTF-South32 Award finalists were recently announced, and UP is proud to congratulate the following UP staff members and groups who have been selected as finalists, as well as those who were nominated in different categories:

Lifetime Award

Finalists

Prof Nigel C Bennett – Chair: Austin Roberts of Mammalogy; Full Professor: Zoology, Department (Dept) of Zoology and Entomology, Mammal Research Institute (Inst), University of Pretoria (UP).

Prof Andre Ganswindt – Professor and Director: Mammal Research Inst, Dept of Zoology and Entomology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, UP.

Prof Marietjie Venter – Distinguished Professor and Research Chair: Emerging Viral Threats, One Health Vaccines & Surveillance; Infectious Diseases and Oncology Research Institute, Wits University. (Prof Venter is an Extraordinary Professor and director of the Centre for Emerging and Re-emerging Arbo and Respiratory Virus Research, Dept of Medical Virology, UP, having served an 18-year full-time tenure with UP until April 2024).

Nominated

Prof Anita Michel – Professor: Bacteriology, Dept of Veterinary Tropical Diseases; Head: World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Collaboration, Centre for Training in Integrated Livestock and Wildlife Management, Faculty of Veterinary Science, UP. 

Prof Vanessa Steenkamp – Deputy Dean: Teaching and Learning; Full Professor: Pharmacology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UP.

TW Kambule-NSTF Award: Researcher

Finalist

Prof Irene Barnes – Professor of Genetics: Dept of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology; Research Leader: Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, UP. 

Nominated

Dr Mankgopo Kgatle – Extraordinary Lecturer and Head: Basic and Translational Research (Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure), UP.

TW Kambule-NSTF Award: Emerging Researcher

Finalist

Prof Cobus M Visagie – Associate Professor: Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, UP.

Nominated

Dr Sean Kruger – Senior Lecturer: Centre for the Future of Work, Business Management Dept, UP.

Dr Rian Pierneef is a biochemistry, genetics, and microbiology lecturer at the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, UP.

Management Award

Finalist
Prof Bernard Slippers – Professor: Dept of Biochemistry, Genetics & Microbiology; Director: Tree Protection Co-operative Programme; Director: Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, UP; Director: Innovation Africa @UP.

NSTF-Water Research Commission (WRC) Award

Finalists

Prof John G Annandale – Group Leader: Mine Water Irrigation Research Group, Dept of Plant and Soil Sciences, UP.

Dr Marco van Dijk – Senior Lecturer: Dept of Civil Engineering, UP.

NSTF-SAMRC Clinician-Scientist Award

Nominated
Prof Kgomotso Mokoala – Head of Clinical Unit, Steve Biko Academic Hospital, UP.

Prof Veronica Ueckermann – Head: Infectious Diseases, Steve Biko Academic Hospital; Associate Professor: Dept of Internal Medicine, UP. 

Green Economy Award

Finalist
Dr Schalk Grobbelaar – Senior Lecturer and Chairperson: York Timbers Chair in Wood Structural Engineering for a Sustainable Built Environment and African Bio-economy, Dept of Engineering and Technology Management, UP. 

Nominated
Dr Christina Breed – Associate Professor: Dept of Architecture, UP; Principal Investigator: UP Externally funded projects ‘Integrative Green Infrastructure’ (GRIP) and ‘Collaboration on Nature-based Solutions’ (CONSUD).

Science Diplomacy for Africa Award

Nominated
Prof Mmantsae Diale – Chair: Department of Science and Innovation (DSI)/National Research Foundation (NRF) South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) in Clean and Green Energy, Department of Physics, UP.

Innovation Award: Corporate Organisation

Finalist

Prof Mike Sathekge – Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure NPC – Chief Executive Officer and President, UP.

Communication Award

Finalists
Prof Ryan Blumenthal – Senior Specialist Forensic Pathologist and Associate Professor: Dept of Forensic Medicine, UP.

Ms Shakira Hoosain – Campaign Strategist and Senior Copywriter, UP.

Nominated

Prof Tiaan de Jager, Faculty Dean and Team Representative: Faculty of Health Sciences, UP

Special Annual Theme Award: Fourth Industrial Revolution in South Africa

Nominated

Dr Sean Kruger – Senior Lecturer: Centre for the Future of Work, Business Management Dept, University of Pretoria (also nominated in the Emerging Researcher category).

An adjudication panel of independent judges, assembled annually by the NSTF executive committee from member nominations, together with a panel of experts appointed by the NSTF executive committee, is responsible for shortlisting the finalists and selecting winners for these distinguished awards.

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Staff reporter

THE University of Cape Town (UCT) has announced that Professor Mosa Moshabela has accepted an offer to become the university’s 11th vice-chancellor.

This concludes a thorough and consultative six-month recruitment and selection process and Professor Moshabela  will formally take up the UCT vice-chancellor position on 1 October 2024.

UCT Chair of Council Norman Arendse (SC) said: “Throughout the recruitment and selection process, he demonstrated deep knowledge and an appreciation of the challenges the UCT vice-chancellor may encounter. He showed a sincere commitment to agile, transformative, and values-based leadership.

“The selection committee believes that Professor Moshabela is the best candidate for such a time as this in UCT’s history and will work with conviction and vision to ensure UCT’s sustainability into and beyond 2030.”

Professor Moshabela has been the deputy vice-chancellor for research and innovation at the University of KwaZulu-Natal since 2021.

An esteemed academic and clinician scientist, he is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. He has a decorated career and multiple awards. Among these, the Public Health Association of South Africa awarded him the PHILA Annual Award in 2022 for his contribution to Public Health in South Africa and a Ministerial Special COVID-19 Award in 2020–2021 for COVID-19 Science Communication and Public Engagement.

Professor Moshabela is the Chairperson of the Governing Board at the National Research Foundation and Health Commissioner to the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, one of the seven multi-sector commissioners on the premier’s Provincial Planning Commission.

He is a former member of the South African Medical Research Council board and former chairperson of the Standing Committee on Health in the Academy of Science of South Africa.

A medical doctor by profession, his research is focused on the implementation science of health innovations. This multidisciplinary practice seeks to improve healthcare access, quality, equity, and impact, especially in resource-constrained sub-Saharan African countries.

Professor Moshabela’s contribution to health research has primarily been improving access and quality in healthcare to combat infectious diseases, particularly HIV and TB, and in the areas of health systems, services, and policy research.

Globally, he is a member of the international advisory board for the Lancet Healthy Longevity, the Lancet commission on synergies between Health Promotion, Universal Healthcare Access, and Global Health Security, and the commission of the US National Academies for Science, Engineering, and Medicine on the Global Roadmap to Healthy Longevity.

Arendse concluded: “We are excitedly looking forward to having Professor Moshabela join UCT, and we have no doubt that he will be an excellent appointment to take the university a notch higher.”

Professor Moshabela will take over from Emeritus Professor Daya Reddy, who has been serving as vice-chancellor on an interim basis since March 2023. Professor Reddy has committed to working with Professor Moshabela over three months to hand over the vice-chancellor baton.

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Inside Education Reporter

As South Africa prepares for its upcoming elections, the tail-end of May, also Africa Month, is an appropriate time for reflection.

The Africa Month theme, ‘The Year of Education: Educating an African Fit for the 21st Century’, resonates with a sense of urgency. In a rapidly changing global landscape, the future of our children and the prosperity of our nation depends on the choices we make at the polls. It’s a collective responsibility to shape an education system that prepares our youth for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. 

This 7th democratic election is not just about selecting leaders but about shaping the trajectory of our education system and, consequently, our country’s future.

According to a 2020 report by Amnesty International, the South African education system is characterised by crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, and relatively poor educational outcomes. This perpetuates inequality and, as a result, fails too many of its children, with the poor hardest hit.

Given the current situation, it’s no wonder that educational outcomes are abysmal. A recent international survey revealed a shocking truth: over three-quarters of Grade 4 children struggle to read for meaning. In some provinces, this figure soars to 91% in Limpopo and 85% in the Eastern Cape. Out of every 100 learners who embark on their educational journey, only 50%- 60% will reach Matric, 40% –  50% will pass Matric, and a mere 14% will proceed to university.

According to Amnesty International’s Executive Director, Shenilla Mohamed: “South Africa has one of the most unequal school systems in the world. Children in the top 200 schools achieve more distinctions in mathematics than children in the next 6,600 schools combined. The playing field must be levelled.

“The 21st century demands paramount digital literacy, critical thinking, and innovative problem-solving. Our education system in Africa must adapt to this new reality. It must empower our youth with skills that match the needs of the modern world. This entails a focus on traditional academics, integration of technology and creativity, and fostering entrepreneurial mindsets.

“As citizens, we can influence this transformation through our votes. Each candidate’s stance on education policies will directly impact our children’s ability to compete globally. It is crucial to scrutinise each party’s plans for educational reform, funding, teacher training and curriculum development”.

Are they committed to reducing disparities in access to quality education? Do they have a clear strategy for integrating digital skills into the classroom? These questions should guide our voting decisions, posits Afrika Tikkun Group CEO Dr. Onyi Nwaneri.

Afrika Tikkun is a leading youth development organisation celebrating 30 years of providing education, social services, skills development, and training to underserved communities within South Africa through its five centres of excellence across Gauteng and the Western Cape.

Nwaneri reckons that candidates prioritising education understand that it is the foundation upon which a robust economy and a vibrant society are built. Investing in education means investing in the future of doctors, engineers, artists and leaders.

“It is essential to support leaders who recognise the importance of early childhood education, the need for continuous professional development for educators and the necessity of making higher education accessible to all,” adds Nwaneri.

She says: “The future of South Africa is inextricably linked to the quality of education we provide to our youth today. As we approach the polls, we must consider the long-term impact of our choices. An informed electorate can drive the change needed to create an equitable education system,

Currently assisting over 40,000 children and youth across the country, Afrika Tikkun’s primary goal is to create a sustainable future through economic empowerment for the youth of South Africa for 30 years and beyond.

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Staff Reporter

Universities South Africa (USAf) recently invited universities to submit case studies illustrating the positive outcomes of their research and academic work in society.

This initiative is led by the Research and Innovation Strategy Group (RISG), one of USAf’s six strategy groups mandated to advise the USAf Board on research and innovation matters in higher education. The RISG works collaboratively with stakeholders in the national research and innovation system.

According to Professor Thoko Mayekiso, Chairperson of the RISG and Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Mpumalanga, these case studies will enable USAf to highlight and celebrate the impact on society derived from research conducted at South African universities.

“Recognising that an engaged university identifies and responds to societal challenges in its context, we want to illustrate the developmental and transformative value of our universities in society,” she said, adding that this is one of the many ways “to invoke appreciation for our institutions of higher learning.”

The call to universities was distributed on 29 April 2024, targeting the offices of Deputy Vice-Chancellors responsible for Research and copying Research Directors. The submission deadline is 14 June 2024.

In this project, USAf collaborates with Professor Chris Brink, a widely recognised authority in the concept of an engaged university.

An Emeritus Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University in the United Kingdom and former Rector and Vice-Chancellor at Stellenbosch University, Professor Brink was extensively involved in the conceptualisation, in South Africa, of the National Research Foundation (NRF) Framework to Advance the Societal and Knowledge Impact of Research. For the unfolding project, the RISG adopted the research impact definition provided in that Framework.

The NRF, mandated to support, promote and advance research and human capacity development through funding and providing essential research infrastructure, defines research impact as:

“A beneficial change in society or knowledge advancement, brought about as a direct or indirect result of the NRF’s research support interventions, whether planned or unintended, immediate or longer-term.”

Furthermore, top case studies could be presented at the upcoming 3rd USAf Higher Education Conference in October.

Professor Mayekiso specified that these case studies should provide evidence of already achieved and not anticipated change. “We look forward to receiving these fascinating narratives to factually demonstrate the value of our universities to the South African society,” she concluded. 

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By Inside Education reporter

A US funded grant of nearly $3 million from the National Institutes of Health to Wits and Vanderbilt
University will advance traditional health practitioner-initiated HIV testing.

The grant that sets the foundation for traditional healers to be trained to initiate HIV counselling,
testing, and linkage to care in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga builds on the success of a study called
Know Your Status.

The research for the study is located at the MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions
Research Unit (Agincourt), a research unit in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga and runs under the
auspices of the Wits School of Public Health, in partnership with the Vanderbilt Institute for Global
Health (VIGH) in the US.

Dr Ryan Wagner, senior research fellow at Agincourt and co-principal investigator, with Carolyn
Audet, associate professor of health policy, and VIGH principal investigator, lead the study.

The study will compare rates of HIV testing in traditional healer trained HIV counselling and testing
communities versus control communities in a cluster randomised controlled trial in 42 clinical
catchment areas.

The traditional healer practitioners will advertise and offer free testing to their clients and clients’
partners, and take part in monthly local, community-based testing outreach activities at local events.
In addition to offering testing, the trained traditional healers will further support their clients who
test positive by accompanying them to the department of health (DoH) clinics for counselling and
antiretroviral therapy (ART), and ensure that their clients regularly take their ART.

While South Africa has made progress in reaching the United Nations’ 95-95-95 targets – (95% of
people living with HIV knowing their status, 95% of people receiving care after diagnosis, and 95% of
people achieving viral load suppression while being treated) – people of low socio-economic status,
males and those in rural areas do not test regularly.

But these groups are more likely to seek care from traditional healers making this sector ideal
practitioners to enable diagnosis and aftercare, if required.

This expanded research project is a collaboration between Wits’ Agincourt, Vanderbilt, the South
African Department of Health (DoH), and Kukula, the local traditional health practitioners’
organisation.

It is part of Ntirhisano (meaning ‘working together’ in the local xiTsonga language), a larger portfolio
of work that explores ways of engaging traditional healers to strengthen the primary health care
system.

The study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness, incremental costs, and results of the intervention and
control sites, including clinical and economic outcomes, with the goal of providing evidence to the
DoH for longer term sustainability and uptake.

“The Know your Status is an extremely innovative and important study, which offers the possibility
of targeting HIV counselling, testing and ART to those who don’t regularly access clinics. Targeting,
testing, and treating via traditional health practitioners could ultimately lead to the end of new HIV
cases in communities such as rural Mpumalanga, which has some of the largest HIV burden
globally,” said Wagner.

Reflecting on the wider application of the work, Audet said, “If traditional healers can be trained to
conduct testing, informal community leaders in the U.S. can potentially join forces to reach those at
the highest risk of HIV acquisition. Barbers, religious leaders, and teachers are examples of trusted
members within communities.”

This research is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH135738), an Institute of the U.S.
National Institutes of Health. Vanderbilt University and Wits University are Strategic Partners. To learn more
about this study and the larger Ntirhisano portfolio of work, visit: www.wits.ac.za/ntirhisano.

Staff Reporter

As the 17th edition of eLearning Africa, the renowned international conference on digital learning, training and skills development, approaches, all eyes turn to the highly anticipated annual plenary debate. Scheduled to take place from May 31st in Kigali, Rwanda, this year’s discussion promises a stimulating clash of perspectives on the future of education in the digital age.

Themed “This House Believes that the Traditional Education System Will Become Obsolete in the Digital Age,” the motion strikes at the heart of technology’s transformative impact on traditional educational models. Over 1,000 African experts and practitioners in education and training are expected to converge for the annual eLearning Africa Conference 6 Exhibition.

The eLearning Africa Debate, introduced in 2009, has evolved into the conference’s signature event, renowned for its lively, thought-provoking discourse. Adhering to a parliamentary-style format, four expert panellists will deliver impassioned opening statements, with opportunities for “interventions” – spontaneous rebuttals from their counterparts.

Leading the proceedings as chairperson is Hon. Michael Onyango, the founder of Africa’s Forgotten Bottom Millions (4BM), a programme offering digital career opportunities to youth across 47 African nations.

As digital technologies reshape countless facets of modern life, eLearning Africa’s annual debate promises an insightful exploration into whether traditional education models can adapt and integrate digital innovations or risk obsolescence. The diverse panel and interactive format ensure a thought-provoking discourse that will catalyse further dialogue on this pivotal issue.

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Inside Education

THE spectacular aurora also known as the Southern Lights, caused by a solar storm that impacted the Earth on 10 and 11 May, was seen and captured across the southern hemisphere, including in southern Africa in places such as Gansbaai and in Namibia.

A team of researchers from the North-West University (NWU) captured this rare and historic event through the university’s solar telescope observatory on the Potchefstroom Campus.

This observatory records solar activity daily, and on NWU’s Open Day on 4 May, two researchers and a student from the Centre for Space Research at the NWU noticed a particularly active region when they made their observations.

Dr Ruhann Steyn and master’s degree student Calmay Lee decided to focus the telescopes on where the activity was as part of a demonstration to prospective students and their parents.

At that stage, they were unaware they were recording one of the largest active regions in recent history. The next week, the team focused on the active region (AR 3664, shown in the image), which produced several large solar flares that caused the aurora.

Calmay recorded a sizeable solar flare produced by AR 3664 in real-time at 09:00 on 11 May – an extraordinary event to capture on the NWU solar telescope.

“Although AR 3664 has now moved out of sight, it is still producing large solar flares,” says Dr Steyn.

He says that while a repeat of the auroras seen in South Africa is not expected, the team will continue observing active regions in the hope of learning more about the Sun and the little-understood processes that generate such beautiful phenomena here on Earth.

Largest solar storm in more than two decades

During the evening of 10 May and the early morning of 11 May, people in many parts of the world were treated to a sight rarely seen outside the polar regions.

The aurora results from a solar flare transporting solar energetic particles from the Sun to the Earth along the Sun’s magnetic field. Some of the particles interact with the Earth’s magnetic field and are then carried to the South and North Pole.

“The particles collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere, emitting light with a particular colour, depending on whether it collided with either an oxygen or a nitrogen atom,” explains Dr Steyn.

He says the majority of aurora sightings in South Africa were red, which means that these collisions were mostly with oxygen atoms at an altitude between 240 and 450 km above the surface of the Earth.

On 10 May, AR 3664 spanned over 200,000 km across the solar disk. “To give an idea of the magnitude of this region: it is the equivalent of more than 15 times the diameter of the Earth.”

Prof Eugene Engelbrecht from NWU’s Centre for Space Research says the presence of solar flares is not unusual. Solar activity has increased over the past five years, with the Sun approaching the peak of its usual 11-year solar cycle.

“What was different this time was the magnitude of this particular flare, along with the sheer size of the active region it came from,” he concludes.

Inside Education Reporter

THE Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Bill was passed in the National Assembly, Parliament, on 16 May 2024, with 223 votes in favour and 78 votes against. This is a major achievement for the 6th Administration and for the transformation of the South African Basic Education Sector after almost a decade of deliberation.

The next step is for the President to sign it into law. The BELA Bill amends specific sections of the South African Schools Act (SASA) of 1986 and the Employment of Educators Act (EEA) of 1998 to respond to administrative challenges facing schools and continue the education system’s transformation agenda.

The Bill does not include curriculum, infrastructure, teachers, human resources or inclusive education.

In 1994, the new democratic government inherited a grossly unequal education system based on the Bantu Education Act of 1953. It faced the mammoth task of dismantling the 19 separate education departments to create a single unified education system.

The government had to implement new legal and regulatory policy frameworks, including establishing organisations and institutions that created the conditions for effective transformation from the old to the new. Today, our educational system is fairer and more balanced. It has resulted in a steady decline in the percentage of adults who have not received an education.

As South Africa celebrates 30 Years of Freedom and Democracy at the close of the 6th Administration of Government and has five years remaining to reach the 2030 targets set by the National Development Plan (NDP), the Basic Education Sector looks back at a few of the strides made.

The government has continued to pursue pro-poor policies to tackle the multifaceted factors impeding access to basic education systematically. These policies encompass the establishment of non-fee-paying schools, the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), free textbooks, and scholar transport.

The new democratic policies sought improvements in education, including increasing access, enrolments, and school completion, enhancing educational policies, and ensuring equal educational opportunities for all, especially previously disadvantaged groups.

To respond to an ever-changing economy and to better prepare learners for the future, the country has introduced a curriculum that equips learners with Skills and Competencies for a Changing World.

The new curriculum offerings include inter alia Coding and Robotics, 11 new Technical Subjects and new Technical Subject Specialisations. The Entrepreneurship Framework is also being implemented in many schools to prepare young people for entrepreneurship, employment, and employability. One of the major achievements of the 6th Administration was the transfer of Early Childhood Development (ECD) coordination from the Department of Social Development to Basic Education.

The DBE is now making every effort to increase participation through, for instance, a mass registration drive for ECD programmes. Quality improvement initiatives are being introduced, including a new ECD Infrastructure Strategy, curriculum support materials, and new forms of practitioner training and support.

School attendance is essential in growing and equipping individuals to contribute to the development of our communities and nation. There are More High-Level National School Certificate (NSC) outcomes than ever before, especially among female learners.

INSIDE EDUCATION