PHUTI MOSOMANE

THE Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Nompendulo Mkhatshwa, has expressed her heartfelt condolences to the Kgwadi family on the passing of Professor Daniel Kgwadi, who served as the Vice Chancellor of the Vaal University of Technology (VUT).

Prof Kgwadi passed away on Sunday, leaving a profound impact on the entire higher education sector, which Mkhatshwa acknowledges and appreciates.

Prior to his tenure at VUT, he also served as the Vice Chancellor of the North West University, and contributed significantly to various professional bodies including Umalusi Council, leaving behind a shining legacy.

The committee had previously engaged directly with Prof Kgwadi in Parliament, where he emphasized the importance of stabilizing management and governance at VUT to ensure that the university could perform effectively on its core mission of providing students with a sound education, knowledge, and skills that are responsive to the needs of the South African industry and beyond.

“The committee is behind the Kgwadi family during this very difficult time of grief and mourning and extends its heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, colleagues of Prof Kgwadi and the entire VUT community. May his soul rest in eternal peace,” said Mkhatshwa.

North-West University’s Professor Dan Metsileng from the subject group Economics said even though it was never an easy ride for Prof Kgwadi, he has achieved a lot and leaves behind a lasting legacy.

“You guided the campus as rector and later the NWU as vice-chancellor on a sometimes bumpy and difficult road, but you never faltered in your resolve. You tackled issues head on, always having the university and its staff and students in mind.”

“The NWU family has entrusted the leadership of this family in your capable hands. As Patrick Lumumba once said – ’Time limits are good things. No matter how good a dancer you are, you must leave the stage’. Farewell Prof Kgwadi – the Mahikeng Campus wishes you good health and all of the best in your future endeavours. You will always be the trusted ambassador of this family,” concluded Professor Metsileng.

INSIDE EDUCATION 

EDWIN NAIDU

THE Eastern Cape DoE had faced severe budgetary pressures that had impacted its ability to carry out some of its planned activities, coupled with the service delivery challenges experienced in different facets of its operational spectrum.

Despite this, the notable improvements in 2022, particularly the examination outcomes, should be seen in the context of the system-wide education transformation plan of the Department.

Its strategic thrust was to maximise opportunities for learners to achieve a good pass in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations whilst improving performance in the whole system.

The Department’s expenditure had increased from R37.507 billion in 2019/20 to a revised estimate of R39.796 billion in 2022/23.

The 2023/24 budget allocation had increased slightly by 3.3% to R41.128 billion, mainly due to additional funds allocated for personnel and norms and standards in the baseline.

Further reprioritisation of the baseline budget had been undertaken to increase funding provision for learner-teacher support material (LTSM), school furniture, coding and robotics, vocational and technical equipment, agricultural schools, maintenance of ECD centres, and information communication technology (ICT) in schools.

During the discussion, the NCOP heard that the Department would continue to prioritise the rationalisation and realignment of unviable schools for optimum resource distribution, through the densification of schools for enhanced and effective school management that would result in improved learning outcomes.

The Department had also said that they would continue to ensure the provision of an appropriate package of support to viable secondary schools in quintiles 1 to 3.

It had also been resolved that the provision of quality education was the main factor behind the rationalisation of small and unviable schools. The second objective was improved financial efficiency and the re-distribution of resources to where they were most needed.

The process of rationalisation of schools was complex, so it would be informed by a provincial education plan, based on a needs assessments and merger trends.

Infrastructure revitalisation and development would be aligned with the rationalisation process.

The Department had also resolved to continue teaching robotics and coding in the primary phase and to increase the number of schools that offered coding and robotics classes.

INSIDE EDUCATION

PHUTI MOSOMANE

THE University of Johannesburg has refunded R311 million of unallocated funds from 2016 to 2021, which were meant for students who qualified for funding but either changed institutions or deregistered.

The payment made by UJ brings the total amount received from institutions of higher learning to around R349.3 million since the beginning of the NSFAS investigation in September 2022.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has welcomed this payment and encouraged all institutions of higher learning to repay unallocated funds that are owed to NSFAS.

NSFAS was supposed to collect unallocated funds at the end of each year through reconciliation with the institutions of higher learning. However, the SIU’s investigation found that NSFAS had failed to design and implement controls that would ensure an annual reconciliation between the funds disbursed to the institutions and the funded list of registered students.

To address this, NSFAS has recently hired a service provider to assist with the reconciliation process, known as “close out reporting.”

The SIU is authorised to investigate allegations of corruption and maladministration in the affairs of NSFAS and to recover any financial losses caused by corruption and negligence.

The SIU can take civil action in the High Court or a Special Tribunal in its name to correct any wrongdoing caused by corruption, fraud, or maladministration. Any evidence of criminal conduct uncovered during the investigation will be referred to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for further action.

The SIU has found that more than R5 billion of NSFAS funds may have been allocated to students who did not qualify for funding. The investigations have so far revealed that more than 40,000 students in 76 institutions of higher education have been funded incorrectly.

These are students whose household income is above R350,000 and therefore would not qualify for NSFAS funding based on the funding rules. These students did not submit their parents’ details upon application, and therefore the means test was not properly conducted.

Moreover, the SIU has facilitated a refund or managed to ring-fence about R38.3 million owed to NSFAS from three TVET colleges. Two of these colleges are in the Western Cape, and one is from Mpumalanga.

The SIU is engaging other institutions to determine if they are holding any overpayments that need to be ring-fenced pending the completion of the investigation.

INSIDE EDUCATION

PHUTI MOSOMANE

BASIC Education Minister Angie Motshekga has announced that over 99% of learners in KwaZulu-Natal have now received school nutrition since the end of the Easter holidays. 

She provided this update during a media briefing addressing the recent school nutrition crisis in the province. 

The crisis arose due to logistical challenges faced by the main service provider, Pacina, which resulted in learners at more than 5,400 schools not receiving food deliveries since the end of the Easter holidays.

Motshekga said that she and her team have been collaborating with the MEC of Education, Mbali Frazer, to address the challenges facing the school nutrition program in KwaZulu-Natal. 

“The situation has stabilized greatly. I can confirm that children have been fed, although there were delays in deliveries of food stuff. National Treasury is interested in the matter to ensure that there is no fruitless expenditure,” she said.

“The reason we have come to the province is to ensure that we work together to resolve the challenges, and make sure that by today, 02 May 2023, all the children get their meals. The second priority is to make sure that we sustain the programme.”

The briefing comes on the back of the back of monitoring visits conducted to assess the state of readiness in the implementation of the feeding programme as thousands of learners returned to school after the extended weekend.

During the media briefing, Motshekga explained that the Department of Basic Education has been working to address the school nutrition program issues in KwaZulu-Natal without incurring any fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

“The reports we have gathered during today’s oversight visits indicate that the situation has stabilised in the province. We are also receiving reports indicating that children were indeed fed. There were reports of delays in deliveries, but children were fed,” said Motshekga.

The previous service provider, Pacina, initially opted out of their contract to provide food to schools in the province but later indicated that they would continue to do so until July.

The Minister stated that the legal team is currently handling the issues surrounding Pacina’s contract.

Motshekga said that the central procurement system that was tested by the KwaZulu-Natal province was a step in the right direction, even though the process had some issues. 

She said that the department aims to procure food directly from manufacturers to negotiate prices and achieve economies of scale.

The Minister expressed her confidence in the complete delivery of the school nutrition program in KwaZulu-Natal and thanked various teacher unions and SGBs for their collaboration with the provincial department. 

She also commended the Premier and MEC for swiftly intervening in the matter, adding that “our main concern has been that children are fed.” 

She expressed her satisfaction with the province’s efforts in resolving the issues, stating that over 90% of the children have been fed.

KZN Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube established an online tool to monitor the progress of the R2 billion school nutrition program, which Motshekga acknowledged during the briefing.

Frazer confirmed that food delivery to learners in the affected schools had resumed after resolving the issues.

She thanked workers, parents, educators, the Minister, and the entire KwaZulu-Natal community for their support in ensuring that learners have access to food.

Last week, Pacina Retail Pty Limited, the company contracted to feed learners in over 5,400 schools in the province, announced that it was opting out. A legal battle is expected since the company is demanding payment for the time that it delivered food to schools. 

INSIDE EDUCATION

SUSPENDED for not being at work during illness, Vaal University of Technology (VUT) Vice-Chancellor and Principal Prof Dan Kgwadi has died at age 56.

Kgwadi, who told Inside Education that the university was trying to get rid of him for being absent while recovering from illness, died on Sunday.

After joining VUT in February 2022, Prof Kgwadi made it his mission to clean up the university, which has been plagued by corruption and mismanagement claims, resulting in it being placed under administration.

VUT chairperson Professor Mandla Radebe announced in a short statement that Kgwadi had died.

Kgwadi threatened VUT with legal action after he was placed on special leave after he had been off sick for 14 days, of which he spent five in the hospital. Expressing his disappointment at his shoddy treatment, Kgwadi told Inside Education that he received no sympathy from the university during his convalescence.

Kgwadi was instrumental in setting North-West University on a path towards stability and transformation. His posts on social media during his illness and alleged mistreatment at VUT did not hold back on what was happening to him.
Kgwadi planned to take VUT to court to challenge his suspension.

But the man who replaced him at NWU, Professor Bismark Tyobeka, was full of praise for Kgwadi’s “immense contribution” to leaving behind a university that worked extremely well.

INSIDE EDUCATION

STAFF REPORTER

A SECOND bodyguard working for vice chancellor, Professor Sakhela Buhlungu, was killed near Alice, Eastern Cape, at the weekend.

The bodyguard was travelling on the R63 when a vehicle collided with his car, killing him instantly. In their probe, the police wants to find out what happened and whether it was deliberate, or accidental.

“The university community is understandably shocked and shattered. Earlier this year, we lost Mr [Mboneli] Vesele, and now we have lost another colleague,” according to UFH spokesperson JP Roodt.

The bodyguard had protected a member of the university’s management executive committee.

“While the death occurs in highly unusual circumstances, as the university clamps down on rampant and systemic corruption over several decades, which run politically and criminally deep, the university will not be drawn to comment or speculate on the death until authorities have concluded investigations or until more information becomes available to us.”

Eastern Cape police spokesperson Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said the crash occurred at about 01:20 on Sunday. According to the police, the bodyguard, driving a Mercedes Benz, was en route from Bhisho to Ginsburg with three passengers at about 1:20 am Sunday when his vehicle was allegedly struck by a Nissan NP 300.

The crash is being investigated, and there have been no arrests.

The bodyguard is understood to have been a witness in a police investigation into corruption claims being probed at the university. In April, five people were arrested and appeared in court on charges of murder and attempted murder of university employees.

The five – Bongani Peter, Sicelo Mbulawa, Wanini Khuza, Mthobisi Khanyile and Mthobisi Dlamini-Zondo – are due in court today (4 May) for a bail application.

INSIDE EDUCATION

STAFF REPORTER

THE Free Stater Department of Education has been given R128.778 billion to deal with projects in the province over the current financial period. The province had claimed top position in the 2022 matric results, and for this, National Treasury had allocated R109 million for infrastructure investment in the province.

This allocation was part of the performance-based incentive S programme aimed at improving effective planning and deriving efficiencies within the infrastructure delivery chain.

To build a capable, developmental and ethical state, for generations to come, the Free State was of the opinion that it should sustain investment in quality education.

The Department described its seven programmes, and the amounts allocated to each of them for:
 Programme 1 for the overall management of the education system in accordance with the
relevant prescripts
 Programme 2 provided for ordinary public education from grades 1 to 12
 Programmes 3 and 4 provided support to independent schools as well as compulsory public
education in special schools
 Programme 5 deals with early childhood education at grade R and Pre-Grade R levels
 Programme 6 referred to its investments in infrastructure, and,
 Programme 7 provided support for examination and other related education services.

Saturday classes were encouraged and implemented in large numbers in the Free State.

This programme assisted the learners immensely. Schools would also begin to benchmark themselves and had started their own extra classes programme.

Learners could be observed walking to school on Saturdays with their textbooks in their hands across the province.

Mzamo Jacobs, senior manager in the Free State Education Department, shared some statistics on the “Second Chance Matric Programme”. In one region, 524 people had written, and 466 had passed. This gave a pass rate of 88.9 %.

In Letshobela, 2 459 people had written, of whom 1 756 had passed. In Mangaung, 2 580 people wrote, of whom 2 095 had passed, and in Gariep, 908 wrote and 646 passed. In another region, 3 276 people wrote and 2 785 had passed. This gave the “Second Chance Matric Programme” a 78.9% pass rate. The performance was quite considerable.

According to Jacobs added, the ECD migration had been successful, and that Grade R practitioners had received training on CAPS, and pre-Grade R practitioners on the national curriculum framework.

There had also been up-skilling for advanced practitioners from Level 5 to NQF Level 6. This qualified practitioners as full teachers, and 450 had been absorbed into the Personnel Salary System (PERSAL).

Jacobs added that South Africans needed a paradigm shift where career prospects were concerned as there had been an over-emphasis on academia, yet vocational training was a valid alternative.

Non-performing schools were those schools which recorded a pass rate of 65% and less. The Department had now set the target at 75%, to encourage schools to maintain higher pass rates.

INSIDE EDUCATION

SOUTH African school sports will never be the same again. Schools football for both boys and girls from primary to secondary level has received a major financial injection from the Motsepe Foundation.

Netball has also not been left out and will also be catered for in a whopping total sponsorship of R150 million.

The five-year sponsorship was unveiled in Johannesburg last month. The big financial injection is seen as a way of reviving school sports countrywide.

Unlike in the past, the new sponsorship will also cater for football and netball from the foundation phase up until Grade 12.

The two big sports federations in the country have embraced the new initiative. There will also be a school choral and national music tournament for children who can’t participate in physical sporting activities.

This will be done in conjunction with the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Sport and Recreation.

The big announcement was made by the chief executive of the Motsepe Foundation, Dr Precious Motsepe-Moloi.

“The Motsepe Foundation has donated R150 million for the development and growth of schools football for boys and girls at secondary and primary schools, and also for the promotion of schools African choral music and indigenous music, and for schools’ netball.”

The main focus will be on previously disadvantaged areas that lack the necessary infrastructure.

This will mainly be in rural areas and black townships.

Chairman of the Motsepe Foundation Patrice Motsepe: “Netball is one of the most popular sports in South Africa and hopes that it becomes an Olympic sport in the near future. The aim is to make players to make a living out of netball just like in football. We need to start by paying them well.”

The South African Football Association says the sponsorship will help enhance women’s football in the country, as they bid to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027.

Currently, there are almost 470 000 female footballers in South Africa, and the aim is to increase that number to at least a million by 2030.

SABC NEWS

IN November 2022, OpenAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory, launched ChatGPT, a transformative AI program. Since then, ChatGPT and its impacts on education have been the center of heated debate.

A recent survey conducted by Study.com, an online learning platform, shows that 43 percent of educators feel the program will make their jobs more difficult. The others, nearly six in 10 teachers, predict it will make their lives easier. 

On the one hand, many educators fear the program threatens academic integrity, encouraging new methods of cheating and plagiarism. Because of the program’s simplicity, accessibility, and convenience, students have been using it to generate answers to homework and even entire essays, claiming the chatbot’s writing as their own.  

On the other, ChatGPT’s simple design and brainstorming capabilities appeal to educators who see its potential to improve education. These teachers say that, over time, the real impact will not be an increase in cheating, but a revitalization of lesson plans and classroom instruction.  

“I would say go for it,” says Cherie Shields, a high school English teacher in Sandy, Oregon. “The best way to learn anything new is just to jump right in and try it out.”  

HOW CHATGPT WORKS 

The website’s design concept is simple. First, users create an account and log on. Then, they generate a new chat by typing a prompt or instructions into the chat bar. Within seconds, the chatbot generates bodies of text in response. Users then have the ability to instruct ChatGPT to edit, adjust, or regenerate a response.  

The technology is trained to formulate conversational responses based on information it has encountered, using a database to compile, paraphrase and summarize information. 

CHATGPT IN THE CLASSROOM  

Within two months of the program’s launch, 51 percent of K-12 teachers reported using ChatGPT, according to a recent survey by the Walton Family Foundation. Forty percent said they used it at least once a week; 53 percent anticipated increased use this year.   

Shields is one of those teachers. Recently Shields asked ChatGPT to generate ten different project options for her sci-fi unit. Instead of a traditional essay assignment, the program suggested imaginative projects such as creating and explaining a poster of an alien.  

ChatGPT also has the ability to translate assignments into a student’s native language or simplify materials for new language learners. The process is as simple as typing specific instructions into the chat bar. For example, educators could prompt ChatGPT to “translate this reading into Arabic.”  

“With Chat, you can translate all of the supplementary materials into [students’] native language, which makes it far easier for them to complete their assignments,” says Shields.   

The chatbot also can rewrite responses at different reading levels. Shields explains that she sent tenth-grade assignments to ChatGPT, asking the chatbot to restructure the material at a sixth-grade level. Her students were then able to follow along and participate in class with their differentiated material.   

“It’s really easy now to make different types of assignments,” says Shields. 

Similarly, Kim Lepre, a seventh-grade English teacher in California, explains that when used correctly, ChatGPT can simplify and improve educators’ everyday lives. Lepre uses the program to differentiate instruction, generate quizzes and even email parents, saving more time to interact with students.  

Through ChatGPT, Lepre created a new lesson for a unit about the Salem Witch Trials. The program helped her generate an article for her seventh-grade students, plus ten variations of a multiple-choice quiz.  

“It has just taken a load off of the little minute things that I have to do so that I can just focus on teaching the kids,” says Lepre.  

Meanwhile, Donnie Piercey, a fifth-grade teacher in Kentucky, told the Associated Press (AP) that he recently used ChatGPT during a lesson about playwriting, or “Pl-ai Writing.”   

Students came up with characters and a problem to be solved throughout the plot of a short play. Then Piercey submitted those student ideas to the chatbot, instructing it to generate play scripts set in a fifth-grade classroom and to develop surprise endings. ChatGPT generated play scripts which students edited, rehearsed and performed.  

CAUSES FOR CONCERN

If ChatGPT is the future, many educators fear how it will affect their classroom.  

As the ChatGPT website explains, ChatGPT occasionally generates misinformation, untimely and biased responses. The program is only as knowledgeable as the information it has been introduced to and trained with. Even creators acknowledge that the program is not a credible source of factual information and should not be treated as an academic source.  Many teachers worry that ChatGPT will make teaching and learning—particularly writing assignments— more formulaic.

The biggest concern is cheating. More than one-fourth of teachers have caught students using the chatbot to cheat, the Study.com survey found. An influx of ChatGPT generated work has left many educators spending more time checking for AI plagiarism and revamping lesson plans to be “AI-proof”. 

Until the risks to academic integrity and educational quality can be properly understood and evaluated, many large school districts, including Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle, have banned ChatGPT.

COMBATTING CHEATING  

In January, OpenAI recognized the potential for problematic use of ChatGPT in the classroom. The company introduced an AI text classifier as a tool to help determine whether a piece of writing was created using AI technology.   

Similar technology, such as GPTZero and CopyLeaks AI Content Detector, already has been launched—with many more detection programs in the making. These programs are accessible and readily available. 

“As educators, we haven’t figured out the best way to use artificial intelligence yet,” Donnie Piercey told AP. “But it’s coming, whether we want it to or not.”   

While Piercey’s fifth-grade classroom may be less susceptible to AI plagiarism, Shields’ high school courses have already been generating and turning in AI generated work.   

“We’ve already had a number of students turn AI-generated essays in and they’re so easy to spot,” says Shields. “It’s flawless. Not a single grammatical error. All the sentences are perfect. And when you’re working with students of that age, you know that they don’t write flawlessly like that.”   

If the chatbot is asked to write an essay about a book, it often misquotes the reading, only provides partial quotes or even inserts quotations that do not align with the theme of the essay. 

“Most students don’t even know that they are incorrect or inaccurate, and that’s another way to check to see if they are using AI,” says Shields.

“None of the quotes make sense.” 

Shields suggests students evaluate information generated by ChatGPT.

Addressing the validity of an AI-generated report will build skills in editing and fact-checking. She also believes teachers should reimagine their assignments. 

“My thoughts are we need to kind of move away from the standard five-paragraph essay response and we need to do something a lot more imaginative to get our students to respond,” says Shields, explaining that prompts that require personal narratives and critical reasoning would render AI unhelpful to students.    

Lepre explains the possibility of instructing students to reverse engineer an essay generated by AI by personalizing the essay and adding missing details. She also suggests discussing how the generated content compares to an essay written by a human author.  

“I think we should teach them how to use this tool,” says Lepre. “It’s kind of like handing a kid a calculator… Hand them a TI85 – that’s one thing, but show them how to use it? That’s even more powerful.” 

National education Association

TikTok is adding a new feed dedicated exclusively to science, tech, engineering, and math content — with additional moderation before videos appear in the feed.

The STEM feed will live next to the two existing feeds, Following and For You, and will surface content for users looking specifically for trending science and technology videos. US users will begin to see the feed in the coming weeks.

Not all science and technology content will land on the STEM feed. TikTok says that, in order to be eligible for the feed, videos will need to pass additional layers of vetting by partner organizations focused on trust and safety efforts.

Common Sense Networks will vet content to make sure it’s appropriate for the feed, and Poynter “will assess the reliability of the information presented,” according to TikTok. The company has previously partnered with Common Sense Networks to screen content for age appropriateness.

The addition of a topic-specific curated feed gives one TikTok community a more visible and permanent placement — users who aren’t typically tapped into STEM content would be able to swipe and dive in.

Though TikTok says the feed will be a place to access reliable, entertaining content, science and health have long been topics where misinformation has festered, especially since the beginning of the pandemic.

TikTok bans false or misleading content about covid and vaccines under its medical misinformation policy. The company didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether covid or vaccine videos would be part of the STEM feed or how videos would be initially selected — and reviewed — for inclusion.

In February, TikTok appeared to be doing a limited test of similar topic-based feeds, including categories like fashion, sports, and gaming. The company says it’s currently testing topic feeds in select markets.

The update comes at a time when TikTok is under heightened scrutiny from lawmakers over user safety and whether the app poses national security risks. Earlier this month, lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill that would allow the app to be banned, and CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to testify before Congress on March 23rd.

The Verge