Staff Reporter

Two University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) students have won silver medals at the International University Sports Federation World University Championship Combat Games in Brazil, becoming the first South African team to achieve the feat at the tournament.

Dhruv Heeralal and Sohail Ramruthan, who returned to South Africa on Tuesday, won silver at the FISU Combat Games, which were held from 8 to 13 June and featured karate, jiu-jitsu, muay thai, wrestling and wushu.

The pair formed part of the 12-member South African team that competed at the championships. As South Africa’s only entrants in the team Kata division, the Black Belts/Dans in semi-contact karate delivered an outstanding performance to finish as runners-up in their category.

Heeralal, who is studying Mechanical Engineering, and Ramruthan, who is pursuing a BCom in Accounting, said winning silver required perseverance and sacrifice.

“We are both studying two different degrees on two different campuses, so attaining this medal called on a lot of dedication, hard work, and compromise in terms of our schedules for us to make time to practise,” Heeralal said.

The karatekas qualified for the FISU Games after dominating the University Sport South Africa Tournament in February, where they won gold and earned a place in the national squad.

UKZN Executive Director of the Corporate Relations Division Dr Normah Zondo congratulated the athletes on their performance, saying the university was proud of their achievement and commended them for representing both UKZN and South Africa with excellence on the international stage.

“For Dhruv and Sohail to become the first South African duo to win a silver medal at the FISU Combat Games is an exceptional achievement. It reflects not only their dedication and talent, but also the spirit of excellence that defines UKZN,” she said.

“Sport is an important part of the University’s commitment to developing well-rounded graduates and achievements such as these demonstrate what is possible when talent is supported by an environment that encourages students to pursue excellence in every sphere. As UKZN we are immensely proud of our students for representing both UKZN and South Africa with distinction on the international stage.”

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By Thapelo Molefe

About 800 learners in Mangaung have been profiled as potential gang members as the Free State Department of Education intensifies efforts to curb gangsterism in schools, following the discovery of a bullet in a pupil’s school bag.

The department has warned that gangsterism in schools is becoming a serious threat to learning and teaching, with officials describing the issue as a potential constitutional and human rights concern.

Speaking to SABC, Free State Department of Education spokesperson Howard Ndaba said the department had developed a strategy aimed at preventing violence before incidents occur.

“One of the pillars of the strategy is to ensure that we are visible, there’s police visibility, is to link our school with the police station, is to work together with police to ensure that there’s prevention, meaning that before any incident, we prevent it by making sure that police are visible in and around our schools,” Ndaba said.

The department’s intervention comes amid reports of increasing gang activity among learners, with community activists warning that children as young as seven years old are being drawn into gangs.

Community activist Thabo Botsane said several gangs were active in Mangaung communities and that violence often spilled over into and around schools.

“We have Maroma, BTKs, also we have these ones who think they are mature men because they are coming from initiation school, all of those. That is giving us a challenge because we find out sometimes they go and hang outside the school while others are still in the school. So after writing there or after school, the fight starts. And it’s disturbing everything,” he said.

Neighbourhood watch groups have also raised concerns about the role of parents, accusing some of failing to support efforts to address gang-related violence involving their children.

Greater Mangaung Forum chairperson Erican Lubbe said community patrollers frequently deal with incidents involving learners, but cases are often withdrawn shortly afterwards.

“The parents doesn’t come and help us, assist us with this gang violence. We sit with problems when, after three days, the children withdraw their cases against each other. We lock them up. We lock a lot of them up. But the only challenge is that the parents go and fight at the police station. We do our best as patrollers to control the situation,” said Lubbe.

Patroller Lebogang Maketla identified several hotspots where rival groups of learners allegedly gather to fight.

“We’ve got a lot of hotspots where these fights are starting, especially where we are standing. It’s one of the main hotspots. And the other one at Ekailelo and Comtech. There is this main road of Singonzo. It’s where all of Freedom Square and Teflon, they meet to fight,” he said.

The department said it plans to involve the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and stakeholders from initiation schools as part of broader efforts to tackle the problem.

Ndaba said learners returning from initiation schools sometimes contributed to tensions that affected safety at schools.

“I’ve made mention of the initiation school. When they come back, we know that they will be troubled. So that is why we are working together with the stakeholders from that sector of initiation schools to make sure that we curb this. Because, as I indicated, this is also a human rights issue. If there is no safety in our school, learning and teaching will not happen,” he said.

Police have said that they are implementing intelligence-driven gang separation measures and anti-gang education programmes as part of efforts to reduce gang-related violence and improve safety in schools.

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Staff Reporter

Professor Thabo Msibi has been appointed chairperson of the seventh Umalusi Council.

Msibi, UKZN’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, was appointed by Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube for a four-year term from 8 June 2026 to 7 June 2030.

Umalusi oversees the development and management of qualifications within the General and Further Education and Training Qualifications Sub-Framework.

Msibi, a professor of Curriculum Studies in UKZN’s School of Education, previously served as a member of the Umalusi Council. He now assumes the council’s highest leadership position.

“I am deeply honoured by my appointment as Chairperson of the Umalusi Council and grateful for the confidence placed in me to serve in this important national role. Umalusi plays a vital role in safeguarding the quality, credibility, and integrity of South Africa’s education system,” Msibi said.

“I look forward to working with Council members, leadership, and stakeholders across the sector to advance its mandate and contribute to the strengthening of quality education. This is both a privilege and a responsibility, and I am committed to serving with dedication, integrity, and purpose.”

His appointment adds to a record of academic and institutional leadership. He previously served as Dean and Head of the School of Education at UKZN, becoming the youngest dean in South Africa at the time of his appointment. He was also the youngest executive member of the South African Comparative and History of Education Society.

A UKZN alumnus, Msibi obtained both his Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Education Honours degrees from the university. He completed a Master of Education degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, and later earned a PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge.

Msibi is an NRF P-rated researcher and the first Black South African education scholar to receive the National Research Foundation’s P-rating, often referred to as the President’s Award. The rating recognises exceptional researchers who demonstrate outstanding potential to become future leaders in their fields.

His research has been published in South African and international journals and books. He is the author of Hidden Sexualities of South African Teachers: Black Male Educators and Same-Sex Desire and co-editor of Gender, Sexuality and Violence in South African Educational Spaces.

He also serves as an associate editor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality in Education and sits on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including Perspectives in Education, Alternation, Transformation in Higher Education and the International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies.

Msibi also founded a debating league aimed at bridging the divide between township and urban schools and strengthening English language proficiency among township learners. He later established the Community Development Association, a national organisation focused on youth-driven education and leadership development programmes.

UKZN congratulated Msibi on the appointment, with its Executive Director for Corporate Relations, Dr Normah Zondo, saying his appointment was a fitting recognition of his contribution to education and leadership in South Africa.

“Throughout his career, he has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to educational excellence and social justice. We are immensely proud that he is contributing to shaping the future of quality assurance and standards in South African education at a national level,” Zondo said.

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By Levy Masiteng 

Outgoing Deputy Minister of Higher Education Mimmy Gondwe has bid farewell to the post-school education sector after the DA recalled her and asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint Yusuf Cassim in her place.

In a farewell statement issued after the DA’s announcement on Wednesday, Gondwe thanked colleagues, stakeholders and students across the country for the opportunity to serve, saying she would continue to keep students “in my heart and in my prayers”.

“After the recent announcement of upcoming changes within the Government of National Unity (GNU) and my subsequent recall, I want to sincerely thank everyone for the opportunity to serve in this important role,” she said.

Her departure came after DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis wrote to Ramaphosa proposing changes to the party’s representatives in the GNU.

Gondwe served as Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training for nearly two years after she was named to the position in 2024 following the formation of the GNU after the general elections.

Before joining the executive, she served as a DA Member of Parliament and held several shadow ministerial roles, including Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises.

Gondwe highlighted several achievements during her term, including infrastructure support for Community Education and Training colleges and partnerships with companies such as Microsoft, Google, Old Mutual and Takealot, to expand digital skills and employment opportunities for students.

She also pointed to the work of the Deputy Minister’s Help Desk, which she said handled more than 67,000 enquiries with a 91% resolution rate, and her leadership of the national Bogus Colleges Awareness Campaign.

“I wish my successor well and every success in building on the foundation I have laid,” Gondwe said.

She also thanked the DA, Ramaphosa, government officials and private-sector partners for their support and collaboration during her time in office.

“I will continue to keep all students in my heart and in my prayers. It was an absolute honour and a privilege to serve in the sector.”

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Staff Reporter

South African teenagers, often overlooked in development planning despite making up more than 17% of the country’s population, are the focus of a new free guide aimed at helping adults support them through adolescence.

Hold My Hand, a national child and teen advocacy campaign, has published Supporting Teen Identity Development: A Guide for Adults, a plain-language resource for parents, caregivers, teachers and mentors to better understand what teenagers are experiencing and how to support them.

The guide covers adolescent development, including brain development, peer pressure, mental health and social media. It also includes practical tools and conversation prompts adults can use immediately.

Hold My Hand said adolescence was “one of the most important windows of opportunity” in a young person’s life, when teenagers build identity, resilience, connectedness and purpose — or fall into risk.

The organisation said teenagers in South Africa were navigating the transition to adulthood while also facing poverty, violence, social media pressure, HIV, school dropout, gangsterism and limited future opportunities.

“In these conditions, a strong sense of identity is not a nice-to-have, it is what keeps teens grounded,” it said.

Teenagers who feel seen, supported and connected are more likely to develop positive identities, make safer choices, stay in school and build towards positive futures.

“Hold My Hand created the guide to give adults the tools to show up for the teenagers in their lives. Teens don’t need the adults in their lives to have all the answers – they just need adults to be present, willing to listen and learn,” said Shirely Eadie, Lead Teen Identity at Hold My Hand.

The guide supports one of the 10 priorities of the National Strategy to Accelerate Action for Children, a Presidency-led initiative calling on government, civil society, the private sector and families to mobilise around South Africa’s children and teenagers.

Hold My Hand said building teenagers’ sense of identity, agency and connectedness was central to the strategy.

The guide is available for free download at Hold My Hand’s website and can be read in sections as teenagers grow and change.

The organisation will also host a webinar, “The Power to Be(come): why adolescent identity matters in South Africa”, on Wednesday, June 24 at 3pm on Zoom. The discussion will draw on new Human Sciences Research Council insights and explore what builds purpose, belonging and agency in teenagers, and what undermines them.

Speakers include Dr Rose September of DGMT, Dr Alude Mahali of the HSRC, Dr Shahieda Jansen of Awehmagents and Thando Nkosi of Hold My Hand. The session will be facilitated by Dr Katlego Selikane of Keready.

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By Levy Masiteng 

A landmark global report has warned that the world’s biodiversity crisis may be far more severe than previously understood, with nearly 30,000 plant species and more than 400 fungal species now threatened with extinction — while thousands more may disappear before they are even known to science.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2026 report, released on Tuesday, includes the expertise of University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Professor Benny Bytebier, curator of the Bews Herbarium in Pietermaritzburg, which holds more than 250,000 plant specimens.

The report, compiled with input from more than 400 scientists across 40 countries, found that 29,748 plant species and 411 fungal species are currently threatened with extinction, despite only 18% of known plant species and just 0.6% of fungi having been assessed.

It warns that the world still does not fully understand the scale of the crisis facing plants and fungi, which underpin life on Earth by regulating climate, storing carbon and providing food and medicines.

Without reliable data on what species exist, where they occur and how they are being affected by climate change, the report says conservation efforts may overlook the most vulnerable species, while opportunities for new medicines and sustainable future crops may be lost.

The report says rapid advances in artificial intelligence, digitisation and global data-sharing are transforming conservation by allowing researchers to analyse preserved plant and fungal specimens at unprecedented scale.

For centuries, pressed, dried and labelled plants and fungi collected by scientists around the world have been inaccessible to most researchers. Digitisation is now allowing scientists to compare material remotely, correct misidentified species and uncover previously hidden biodiversity.

But major gaps remain. Fewer than 16% of the world’s herbarium specimens have been imaged and made digitally available, leaving significant blind spots in global biodiversity knowledge.

The report says these gaps are especially pronounced in parts of the Global South, where little-known and under-digitised “silent herbaria” can skew global biodiversity models and climate predictions, leading to conservation decisions based on incomplete or biased information.

This makes the work being done at Bews Herbarium significant. According to the statement, all 250,000 specimens at the herbarium have been imaged, while 25% of their labels have been transcribed and added to a database to make them more accessible to researchers worldwide.

The Bews Herbarium, which is more than a century old, has grown from about 120,000 specimens 15 years ago to more than 250,000 today after incorporating several “orphaned” herbaria from KwaZulu-Natal.

Bytebier has also worked with colleagues from the South African National Biodiversity Institute, Mauritius, Madagascar and Belgium on research into the digitisation of herbarium specimens from an African perspective, with a focus on South Africa and Western Indian Ocean island states.

He said the report was important because it showed how the world was documenting and conserving plant and fungal life.

“This report is very important as it summarises how we are doing with describing, documenting and conserving our plants and fungi at a global scale. I’m happy that the Global North takes notice of our efforts in digitising the rich biodiversity in the Global South, despite the challenges and lack of resources,” Bytebier said.

The report says more than 100,000 plant species and more than two million fungal species remain unknown to science. It also found that more than 4,600 plant species and 7,800 fungal species were named as new to science in 2024 and 2025.

It concludes that improving, connecting and sharing biodiversity data globally is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to strengthen conservation and enable faster action to prevent extinctions.

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By Lebone Rodah Mosima

President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that youth unemployment had become South Africa’s defining post-apartheid challenge, as the country marked 50 years since the 1976 Soweto uprising.

Speaking at the national Youth Day commemoration at the FNB Stadium precinct in Johannesburg, Ramaphosa said South Africa had made significant gains since apartheid, including expanded access to education, higher education funding and public employment programmes.

But he said the central challenge was whether those gains were translating into jobs, skills and dignity for young people.

“The question before us today is not whether young people have the courage to change South Africa. The youth of 1976 answered that question,” Ramaphosa said. “The question before us is whether South Africa is doing enough to create opportunities worthy of their sacrifice.”

Youth Day marks the anniversary of June 16, 1976, when schoolchildren in Soweto marched against apartheid education and the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. Police opened fire on protesters, turning the uprising into one of the defining moments of resistance to white minority rule.

Ramaphosa said the youth of 1976 had fought exclusion from education, while today’s generation faced joblessness, poverty and inequality.

“Theirs was the struggle to enter the classroom. Ours is the struggle to ensure that what begins in the classroom does not end in the unemployment queue.”

Ramaphosa said more than 4.7 million young South Africans were unemployed and that the youth unemployment rate stood at 46 percent.

“Behind every statistic is a young person who wants to work, wants to contribute and wants to build a future,” he said. “We cannot accept this as normal.”

He said young people were also among those most affected by violent crime and theft, describing unemployment and insecurity as threats to South Africa’s prosperity and social stability.

In a speech delivered amid rising public anger over crime, unemployment, poor service delivery and illegal immigration, Ramaphosa warned against blaming foreign nationals for South Africa’s domestic problems.

“Even as we recognise the challenge of illegal immigration – which we are taking decisive action to address – our problems are our own. And which we have a responsibility to fix ourselves,” he said.

He said frustrations in communities were real, but that the roots of the crisis lay elsewhere.

“The roots of these challenges lie primarily in inequality, slow economic growth and weaknesses in service delivery,” Ramaphosa said. “Addressing these challenges requires practical solutions, not the scapegoating of vulnerable people.”

Ramaphosa said government was responding on three fronts: expanding public employment, youth service and workplace experience; reshaping the skills system so qualifications led more directly to work; and opening the productive economy to young people.

He said more than 5.7 million young people were registered on the SA Youth.mobi platform, with more than 2 million gaining access to earning opportunities. He said the Presidential Employment Stimulus had created work and livelihood opportunities for more than 2.5 million unemployed South Africans, of whom 82 percent were young people and 66 percent were women.

He also said the revitalised National Youth Service had placed more than 130,000 young people in paid service opportunities, with an additional 100,000 community service youth employment opportunities currently available.

Ramaphosa said the state would invest R1 trillion in infrastructure over the next three years, including roads, dams, schools, hospitals, clinics, electricity lines, railways and ports.

“This investment will create apprenticeships, artisan development, skills transfer and enterprise development for young people,” he said.

He called on employers to hire young people without demanding experience they had never had the chance to gain.

“The young person in front of you does not lack ability. They lack only the chance to prove it,” Ramaphosa said. “Hire for potential, not only for experience.”

Ramaphosa said government would strengthen support through the Employment Tax Incentive, saying the first job was “the hardest to get and the most important a person ever has.”

He also urged young people to register and vote in the 4 November local government elections, saying they should be central to fixing municipalities, not only as councillors but as “engineers, planners, artisans, water technicians, electricians, data specialists and entrepreneurs”.

He said the best way to honour the generation of 1976 was not through remembrance alone, but through building a country where young people could learn, work, serve, build, create and own.

“Let us honour them not in words alone, but in deeds,” he said. “Where opportunity is not the privilege of a few, but the birthright of all.”

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By Kobus Maree

Thirty-two years after South Africa became a democratic state, the futures of millions of young people in the country are shaped to a large degree by uncertainty, exclusion, poverty and discouragement. As one lens on this scene, unemployment in the age group 15-34 borders on 46%.

I am an educational psychologist who has done 35 years of research on the career-life stories of young people growing up in contexts marked by extreme poverty, exclusion, inequality and disadvantage. These hardships shape their career development and views of the ever-changing world of work.

I have encountered many young people who have bottled up and eventually internalised repeated experiences of disenchantment, rejection and “failure”. Some have dropped out of education, lacking support. Others have completed their schooling only to learn that marks and qualifications alone could not open doors to successful futures. In many instances, in their environments, unemployment and unemployability have become normalised.

Yet many show resilience, adaptability and determination to find work and to construct meaningful lives.

In a recent journal article, I described an intervention which involved career counselling for a group of 51 disadvantaged black South Africans, aged around 27. They had experienced poverty, unemployment, social exclusion, and limited access to educational and occupational opportunities. I wanted to assess whether counselling could help them use their resilience as a resource. Could it improve their adaptability? And if so, how?

The results showed positive change for most participants following the programme, though the outcomes were uneven.

Structural barriers to finding work remained formidable. Nevertheless many participants developed a stronger sense of agency, hope, adaptability and future orientation. The intervention appeared to help them tell their career-life stories in new ways, with purpose, self-understanding and a shift towards taking action.

These findings underscore the importance of a counselling approach that helps young people recognise and mobilise their strengths, and convert their most significant developmental challenges into assets that benefit both themselves and their communities.

The intervention

In September 2020, the group of young, unemployed, rural South Africans took part in structured career conversations and reflections guided by researchers and career development practitioners. In a workshop and group discussions, we recorded their career interests, strengths and areas for development. They also thought about how their future careers could transform their early life challenges into something positive and empowering.

They explored fields of study aligned with their individual profiles and aspirations that could help them experience meaning, fulfil a sense of purpose and contribute existential value to their career-lives. To this end, they conducted in-depth analyses of occupations associated with their selected fields.

Participants then received guidance on managing emotions, stress and study techniques.

The aim was to elicit themes about their conscious knowledge about themselves and their subconscious insights.

A recurring theme in their reflections was personal development and motivation. Inspiration to work hard, and overcoming adversity, were part of this theme.

They showed a growing awareness of the attitudes, beliefs and competencies necessary to achieve their career-life goals. Their awareness of the need to be adaptable increased. So did their understanding of employment and economic growth realities. They reported increased confidence in defining and achieving their career and life goals. They developed greater clarity about the meaning they wished to find in their work, the contribution they hoped to make to others through their work, and the deeper existential purpose that gives direction to both their work and their lives.

Career adaptability

The intervention used a method called Career Construction Counselling. This is essentially a way to help people come up with their own advice instead of being told what to do. Through reflecting on their own stories, they think of what steps they can take towards their future working life.

This approach is consistent with findings from our career construction and narrative career counselling research. This suggests that reflecting on and reconstructing personal life stories can enhance self-understanding, agency, career adaptability and future planning. Studies have shown that people who actively engage with their own narratives are often better able to identify meaningful career directions, clarify their self- and career identity, identify appropriate study fields, articulate their mission and vision, and develop strategies for navigating future transitions.

The approach emphasises adaptability, which has four elements:

• concern (do I have a future?)
• control (who is responsible for my future?)
• curiosity (what do I want to achieve in my future?)
• confidence (can I succeed?).

A year after the intervention, the participants reported back.

Their scores for career adaptability had improved somewhat. The area of strongest improvement was their career confidence.

I concluded that narrative-based career construction counselling can strengthen career clarity, adaptability, and self-directed action among severely disadvantaged unemployed youth.

However, lasting change also requires systemic intervention. Not only is career counselling scarce in South African schools; traditional approaches are often culturally mismatched and fail to empower disadvantaged youth.

Resilience

I’ve noticed that people often speak of resilience as if it’s an end point in itself.

I believe resilience may be understood not as the culmination of coping but as a preparatory phase in the movement from passive endurance towards what the psychologist Mark Savickas calls active authorship (“active mastery”). My belief draws on life design (people actively shaping their careers and lives by constructing meaning, adapting to change, and aligning work with personal values and identity) and career construction perspectives.

From this perspective, the crucial shift lies in supporting young people to move beyond “withstanding” adversity towards re-authoring their experiences.

Kobus Maree is Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Pretoria. This article was first published by The Conversation.

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Staff Reporter

South Africa’s commemoration of Youth Day should force the country’s universities to confront how little higher education has changed since the 1976 Soweto uprising, a University of Cape Town academic has said.

The country will on Tuesday mark 50 years since the June 16, 1976 student protests, when young people took to the streets against apartheid education policies, including the enforced use of Afrikaans in schools.

The protests were met with violence in Soweto, Johannesburg, and became a defining moment in South Africa’s struggle against apartheid.

Emeritus Professor Alan Cliff, from UCT’s Centre for Higher Education Development, said the anniversary should not only be a moment of remembrance, but also one of reflection on access, representation and transformation in higher education.

“16 June 1976 was a watershed moment in South African politics and life. I was a first-year student at Rhodes University, and we were crowded around the radio listening to news releases from the protests in Soweto. Television had only just launched in this country and coverage was minimal and highly selective,” he said.

“We had to imagine/create from audio coverage what is now taken as routine in video reporting. I remember a huge range of emotions and opinions among my fellow students at the time – from left and right of the political spectrum.

“But I also remember thinking that this was a moment of critique: finally, issues of white hegemony and the right to learn in Mother Tongue and the language of learning and teaching had been the fulcrum around which protests had erupted. School children had taken up the cause – and the iconic, deeply human image of Hector Pieterson being carried from the protests remains imprinted forever.”

Cliff, whose career has spanned decades of work on literacy testing and higher education readiness, said universities had to be honest about the slow pace of change in the sector.

“We have to challenge ourselves to be honest about how relatively unchanged higher education has remained. Global North knowledge systems remain hegemonic and valorised. We have to think about which students and staff are able to see themselves represented in higher education? What systems signals does the sector emit that make it easier or tougher for students to participate/feel represented – this was at least part of the reason for the more recent student protests represented by #RhodesMustFall, for example,” he said.

He said institutions needed to rethink who was taught, how students were taught, and what it meant for students and universities to be “literate”.

As someone focused on access, redress and success in higher education, Cliff said progress had been made in widening access, but deeper questions remained about whether institutions had adapted sufficiently to changing student cohorts.

“The most satisfying part of our journey has been seeing the extent to which higher education access for all students to all institutions has indeed widened. The work on literacies assessment has been deeply satisfying especially in terms of its relationship to academic development and programme provision,” he said.

“It has also been meaningful to work on troubling the notion that literacies development is only about the identification of student support needs, to a much more holistic understanding of literacies work being about curriculum, teaching and learning, and assessment and the responsiveness of higher education institutions to changing student cohorts.”

Cliff said the concept of literacy should extend beyond language, reading and writing, and should include the ways students learn, participate and succeed within institutions shaped by inequality.

“We need to think about what it takes for a student to be higher education ‘ready’ and what it takes for higher education to be ‘ready’ to teach that student,” he said.

“As emeritus, I am in a reflective mode these days: looking back on 30 years of conceptualising notions of literacies and on the work of developing assessments of these. I am working on using social and critical realist lenses to assess the impact of the work through its history; its purposes; how and why it has been perceived and received in particular ways as a function of educational histories and decades (at least) of segregation, inequality and how these legacies remain powerfully difficult to redress.”

He said higher education must rethink its own assumptions about literacy, student potential and institutional readiness.

“How we think about learning potential and ability to be successful has to take account of educational background, educational inequality, how students can learn to be literate in the broadest (socially situated) sense; how higher education itself needs to re-think and critique its own view of literacy and its responsiveness to student diversity and knowledge forms. We need to think about what it takes for a student to be higher education ‘ready’ and what it takes for higher education to be ‘ready’ to teach that student,” Cliff said.

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