NYAKALLO TEFU| 

133 primary schools Limpopo have been piloted for the Coding and Robotics programme for the 2021/2022 financial year.

This is according to Limpopo Education MEC Polly Boshielo who, at the Department of Basic Education budget vote debate, said the inclusion of Coding and Robotics in the curriculum is important for young people across the country.

“Coding and Robotics are designed to provide learners with knowledge, values and skills needed for the 4th Industrial Revolution,” said Boshielo.

The Limpopo Education Department has embarked on a project to give grades one and eight pupils tablets as part of its e-learning project.

“As a department, we will be offering in-house training courses to 200 targeted educators through the department’s coding club,” said Boshielo.

She said this club is composed of educators who are knowledgeable in this field and will be used as an important resource in rolling out the project.

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the dynamics of teaching and learning forcing learners, educators and policy makers to embrace the new normal.

“The pandemic has compelled us to accelerate our efforts towards embracing the 4th Industrial Revolution, access to technology is no longer meant for the privileged few but it is a basic necessity for all,” said Boshielo.

The MEC said R228 million has been set aside for the rollout of e-learning in the province.

“A two-prompt approach will be followed in rolling out the e-learning strategy, the first one is implemented at 106 Maths Science and Technology schools with smart classrooms,” said Boshielo.

Boshielo said the second one will be the provisioning of tablets to learners and laptops to educators in schools in the province.

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NYAKALLO TEFU| 

The former Mbilwi Secondary School teacher accused of rape has been granted of R3000 bail by the Thohoyandou Magistrates court.

Makhuvha Solomon is facing three counts of rape.

A former learner from Mbilwi Secondary opened a case of rape against Makhuvha, saying he raped her several times in 2018.

Makhuva resigned from the school following his arrest on 14 May.

READ: 50-year-old teacher from Mbilwi Secondary School accused of rape

NPA Spokesperson Mashudu Dzangi said Makhuvha has been given strict bail conditions.

“He must not communicate with the victim in any manner, he must not leave Limpopo province without informing the investigating officer and he is to report to Sibasa Correctional Services,” said Dzangi.

The former teacher is set to appear in court again on 16 August 2021.

READ: 50-year-old Limpopo teacher accused of rape has resigned

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NYAKALLO TEFU| 

Eastern Cape Education MEC Fundile Gade said progress at public schools in the province has been delayed by corrupt government officials.

Gade spoke at the Department of Basic Education’s budget vote debate where he highlighted challenges faced by his department when it comes to improving public schools.

“People who are in positions to ensure public schools are taken care of have not done so because of greed and selfishness,” said Gade.

Just last month, five suspects are including former chief education specialist Noxolo Gwarube, former superintendent general Mthunywa Ngonzo, former education deputy director-general Monwabisi Tywakadi, deputy director for IT Tyrone Fourie, and Hermanus Smith, 47, who is the director of Siegesmund Trust appeared in the East London Magistrates court in connection with IT fraud amounting to R59 million.

The five were arrested by members of the Hawks East London Serious Corruption Investigation Team. Their complete list of charges include corruption, fraud, attempted fraud, theft and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). 

READ: Senior Eastern Cape Department of Education officials in court for R59 million IT fraud

Gade said despite these challenges, the province is working towards changing situations in schools especially the ones in rural areas.

“We have 228 projects in various stages of construction. But our construction programme and the built environments economy has been severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Gade.

Gade said the construction projects will be resuscitated in the current financial year and in 2022.

In April, DBE Minister Angie Motshekga revealed in the provincial infrastructure statistics that majority of schools in the Eastern Cape fail to meet the minimum standards prescribed under the South African Schools Act.

The statistics also revealed that a third of schools in the province had not received textbooks and more than 600 were not led by principals at the start of the first term.

“The public/private partnership can a leverage as an important mechanism for addressing our school infrastructure backlog,” said Gade.

Gade said they will continue to engage with treasury and other relevant government structures, including the private sector and civil society partners in exploring all options to resourcing the rollout of school infrastructure.

READ: DBE and provincial education departments to be held liable for infrastructure backlogs

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NALEDI SHOTA|

Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, says the General Education Certificate (GEC) is scheduled for a roll-out in 2023. 

Motshekga revealed this while delivering her department’s budget vote debate in the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday. 

She said the policy framework for the introduction of the GEC had already been provisionally approved by quality assurer, Umalusi, and that the process is underway to gazette and invite for public comments. 

“A blueprint document on assessment options, linked to career-pathing and future work skills, has been developed.  This blueprint will inform learners, teachers, parents and the system in general about the suitability of learners to undertake an academic, vocational or occupational track in Grades 10-12,” she said. 

The department first spoke of plans to introduce the GEC in 2019 and received a backlash for allowing learners to exit school in grade 9. However, the department did clarify that the GEC was not an exit certificate but would give learners an opportunity to access further training in college, for example, at a level below grade 12. 

Briefing parliament on the GEC in 2019 Deputy Minister Reginah Mhaule said the GEC would also assist with the dropout rate. 

“Currently, there is a high dropout rate before Grade 12, peaking in Grades 10 and 11 (15.2% in 2012). Approximately a third of young people aged 15-24 years (3.4 million), are not in employment, education or training (NEET) and 2 million of whom have not finished Grade 12.

“Collectively this points to the need for a standardized assessment and a qualification to usher learners into different pathways at the end of compulsory schooling in the form of the GEC,” said Mhaule at the time. 

In her budget vote speech, Motshekga also said the department was also working at having standardised assessments at grades 3, 6 and 9 and that the standardised assessment system will be piloted in 2022. 

READ: 2021-22 DBE Budget Vote: Minister announces additions to the curriculum

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NALEDI SHOTA|

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has received a R11-million grant to help improve the audit outcomes in the public sector with a special focus in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges. 

The grant has been awarded to the university’s school of accounting by the Education, Training and Development sector SETA and the Financial Services SETA, and it will be used to enhance its short learning programme courses and training opportunities for people in the public sector. 

“This grant will allow us to develop the interventions that will assist the TVET colleges in improving their financial management skills, which is expected to improve the audit outcomes subsequently. 

“In this regard, UJ will be providing support to 400 TVET colleges finance personnel. Additionally, those TVET colleges with qualified opinion (qualified report), disclaimer of opinion (disclaimer report), adverse opinion (adverse audit report) will benefit from mentoring,” said UJ’s Professor Tankiso Moloi. 

Presenting the 2019/20 audit outcomes of the 50 TVET colleges in parliament in November the office of the Auditor-General said while there had been improvements in the TVET sector there was still “reliance on auditors to identify errors in financial statements”. 

Business executive in the Auditor-General, Kgabo Komape, told members of the portfolio committee on higher education, science and technology that the submission of financial statements without errors and the quality of financial submission after audit had decreased in that financial year.

READ: Bridging programmes for under-prepared college students

She, however, said there were still areas of concerns. 

“ [They]  include material misstatement in submitted AFS [audited entity financial statements], consequence management, procurement management and strategic planning management.

“There is a lack of discipline on how to execute internal control activities and the risk functions don’t identify the risks to ensure they are mitigated against,”  she said. 

Komape also added that the financial health of colleges such as Motheo and Northern Cape Rural college were dire and that she was not sure they would continue to operate in the future. 

Members of the portfolio committee, at the time, said the presentation was “bleak” and that the governance of TVET colleges was “poor”.

At the time, there were also outstanding audits from the Orbit, Taletso, Tshwane South and Northern Cape Urban colleges.

In the statement, UJ said that from the additional grant from the SETAs, the UJ school of accounting will offer mentorship in public sector accounting, risk management, internal audit and financial controls as well as the supply chain management to relevant TVET College finance professionals.

“This funding helps tremendously in our efforts to also strengthen the digital competencies of our students. Our team is excited to be part of the national efforts to improve financial management in the public sector, specifically in the TVET colleges.

“We hope that the cohort of students from these programmes will go all the way to improve their respective systems of financial management and governance, which we hope will result in the decline in unauthorised expenditure, irregular expenditure, and fruitless and wasteful expenditure,” said Moloi.

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NALEDI SHOTA|

The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) will freeze seven more bank accounts of companies that were irregularly appointed by the Gauteng Department of Education to decontaminate schools. 

Last month, the SIU announced that it had been granted an order to freeze 14 bank accounts and assets to the value of R40.7 million belonging to 14 companies that were also irregularly appointed to do work in schools. 

Today, the SIU said the value of the bank accounts that had been frozen for the seven accounts was R22.4 million. 

The department has been under fire after an investigation by Daily Maverick revealed that it had spent R431 million on decontaminating schools between June and August last year.

That investigation further established that there was no need to decontaminate the schools as they were not occupied for months because learners were at home during the hard lockdown. 

The SIU has said that the seven companies were irregularly appointed along with over 200 others. 

READ: SIU freezes accounts of decontamination companies contracted by GDE

“Special Tribunal order prohibits Chachulani Group Investment Holdings, Muta Investment Holdings, Netvision Energy Savers, Psychin Consulting, Home Ground Trading 1105, Mpale Investments Holdings, and Naledzi Investment Trust from dealing with the funds held in the bank accounts.

“The companies began dissipating the funds received from the Gauteng Department of Education, upon receipt. Traces of the funds show that the companies made large payments to unidentified recipients who have, in turn, disposed of them,”  reads a statement by the SIU. 

The SIU has further revealed that some of the companies were appointed through whatsapp by senior officials in the department. 

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NYAKALLO TEFU| 

Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande has distanced himself from a Facebook page operating using his identity and soliciting money from people.

The page where the name and surname of the 63-year-old minister is used, urges people to send money to support a “worthy course of student funding”.

“It is unfortunate that we have individuals who go to the extent of masquerading as a Minister to defraud members of the public, using the genuine plight of students,” said Nzimande.

Nzimande called on the social media platform, Facebook, to investigate the page that has been using his name.

Adding that all other social media pages bearing his name are fake.

“The only social media pages that might be regarded as authentic are those of the Department of Higher Education and Training and the Department of Science and Innovation,” said Nzimande.

The minister said members of the public must report to the police if they suspect or might have already been scammed by this fraudster.

“I am aware of the essential role played by social media for effective and responsive communication, and I am committed to continue to engage with the public through genuine and credible social media platforms,” said Nzimande.

According to ZeroFOX – a platform that identifies and remediates targeted phishing attacks – credential compromise and brand hijacking have increased the opportunity for hackers looking to target high-profile accounts. This has especially been the case since the Covid-19 global outbreak at end 2019.

ZeroFOX said threat activity has greatly increased in April 2020, and then again in June 2020, likely linked to new work habits and a shift to fully digital communications.

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WILLIE TAFADZWA CHINYAMURINDI|

Connecting African universities to high speed internet can help drive the development of digital skills and capabilities. This would also benefit secondary schools and technical and vocational colleges.

A strong argument has been made, that improving connectivity should be viewed as a priority infrastructure investment.

The World Bank published a report last year pointing out the drawbacks of poor connectivity. It noted that the lack of affordable and high-speed broadband for African universities was the main barrier to the use of technology in education and research. And it prevented African faculty and students from linking to international teaching and research resources.

There are other reasons why African governments should prioritise investment in greater connectivity to high speed internet. These include its spillover benefits for the wider education system. This is particularly true for secondary schools and technical and vocational centres. Both are key for development. It will also have an impact on economic and social growth.

Despite this unified acknowledgement of the importance of connectivity, challenges remain.

On one side is the need to address the growing digital divide. Then there is the issue of high connectivity costs. This results in high mobile data costs. Statistics show that the price of data on the continent remains high and out of the reach of ordinary citizens.

All these issues appear to be barriers on the path towards better connectivity in Africa. Yet there are opportunities.

Opportunities

An increase in tertiary enrolments on the continent is one opportunity. This trend isn’t surprising given the continent’s young population – a demographic hungry to connect with the rest of the world.

The increase in tertiary education enrolments coupled with the fact that young people are early adopters of technology makes the higher education sector a vital cog in any strategy for increasing internet connectivity.

Higher education is an important step towards digital inclusion. And technology is an important vehicle in enabling it.

So how can connectivity in African universities be enhanced?

The answer revolves around five related pillars.

The pillars

The first revolves around a mindset shift. This entails believing Africa can be pioneering in global innovations. This approach has been well articulated in the writing of author and commentator Victor Kgomoeswana. In particular is accounts of African innovations making it to the global arena.

There’s a need to set in motion the belief that Africans can be trend-setters rather than mere adopters of technologies. This mindset needs to be inculcated, particularly in Africa’s higher education sector.

A second priority should be improving connectivity in universities and addressing infrastructure challenges. A report by the consultancy firm Deloitte bemoans the challenge of infrastructure as a significant obstacle to Africa achieving full economic growth. Investment priorities should include infrastructure that encourages connectivity in higher education institutions.

Thirdly, collaboration among African universities matters more than ever. If done well it would maximise economies of scale and foster synergies. Building collaborative libraries on the continent is an excellent example. Take the R200-million Phyllis Ntantala Collaborative library in South Africa. This is a collaboration between the University of Fort Hare, Walter Sisulu University and the University of South Africa in East London.

A fourth pillar would be universities investing in cyber-infrastructure resources and the provision of high-performance computing capabilities. Connectivity becomes an important priority here. This also has the potential to benefit universities’ research and teaching activities.

A final issue is a focus on addressing regulations. This includes breaking the hold of telecommunication monopolies prevalent in many African states.

Minding the digital gap and addressing connectivity issues is a lofty ideal. But I believe it’s achievable for African universities.

The post Boosting connectivity in African universities: a lofty ideal, but doable appeared first on Inside Education.

NYAKALLO TEFU| 

Students at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) will now go back to online classes after the institution suspended contact classes on Monday.

The suspension of contact classes comes after a student from the university succumbed to Covid-19 related illnesses last week.

TUT spokesperson Phaphama Tshisikhawe said the higher education institution does not have an exact date of when they will resume contact classes.

“This will be determined by the cases of the coronavirus in the country. It is not only because of the Covid-19 related death that we are experiencing in the university, it is mostly because the infections that are increasing,” said Tshisikhawe.

Adding that the institution believes a second student from the university has succumbed to the deadly virus.

The number of coronavirus cases continue to increase across the country. Statistics from the Department of Health show that the total number of positive cases now stands on the verge of 1.7 million infections with 57 063 people having lost their lives to the virus since the start of the pandemic.

The department said South Africa has recorded 3825 new Covid-19 infections along with 89 related deaths in the past 24 hours.

Tshisikhawe said TUT students will be provided with data bundles so that they are able to attend online classes.

READ: ‘Schools cannot open if all health protocols are not in place’ say teachers and parents

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Universities have had to adopt a hybrid approach to teaching and learning since the coronavirus outbreak.

University faculties were requested move to online teaching platforms something that was a relatively new experience to both students and lecturers.

Director at the Department of Education Innovation at UP Professor Gerrit Stols said during the first week of fully online teaching and learning in 2020, 21 791 UP students attended virtual online classes on a daily basis.

Stols said this figure compared relatively well with university’s earlier statistics, which indicate that for the same period in 2019, on average, 23 319 students accessed the University’s campuses on a daily basis.

Stols said UP adopted a hybrid approach to teaching and learning in 2015 already.

He said this earlier move eased the switch to remote teaching significantly in 2020 when the country was under lockdown level five.

“Of course, it must be remembered that we have a fairly mature learning management system – our online platform called clickUP – that we have been using for several years, with which both lecturers and students are familiar,” he said.

“This is also why during the orientation programme for first-year students, UP ensures that all students attain a reasonable level of digital literacy largely by means of the first-year module, Academic Information Management,” said Stols.

Adding that even though the transition was relatively easy, teaching and being taught solely online was a new experience for all.

The University of Pretoria’s student population is about 53 000 students so the full and complete transition from some online usage to total online usage required complex logistical planning and processes.

READ: Boosting connectivity in African universities: a lofty ideal, but doable

Norman said this is why UP’s Department of Education Innovation developed a series of intensive courses to enhance the digital literacy and fluency of academics who felt that they needed to upskill, while the Department of Information Technology Services developed a platform, UP Connect, that provided students with free internet access and gratis data when the platform was slow to connect.

But there were challenges. Vice Principal for Academic at UP Professor Duncan Norman said there were about 200 students who could not access online learning platform “clickUP” due to living in areas with no internet reception or access to electricity.

“Loan laptops were provided to those who required them and. There was also a team of dedicated Education Innovation staff who developed a strategy to ensure that these students received at least hard copies of their study material as well as telephonic tutoring,” said Norman.

Norman added that the Education Innovation department also developed a series of intensive course material to enhance the digital literacy and fluency of academics who felt that they needed to upskill, while the Department of Information Technology Services developed a platform, UP Connect, that provided students with free internet access and data when the platform was slow to connect.

More than a year later, a total of 87% of students indicated that they were fairly/mostly/fully able to manage studying online, Norman said.

Norman said the most encouraging matter about this process is that 85.47% of students reported participating in online tutoring sessions in order to better understand their course content.

“This showed that the vast majority of staff and students managed to move with confidence into the new dispensation of remote teaching,” he said.

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