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

CATHERINE DRAPER

HOW much time did your child spend looking at a screen today? The answer likely depends on how old they are, what grade they’re in at school and what rules you have in place at home about screen time. But the reality is that, for children and adolescents growing up as “digital natives”, it is almost impossible to imagine life without screens of some sort.

Devices like cellphones, laptops and tablets have become ubiquitous as tools for entertainment and education in most parts of the world. This has led parents, guardians, teachers and researchers to wonder whether screens are good or bad for children.

The World Health Organization recommends that school-going children (five-17 years) limit their recreational screen time. The recommendation for two- to four-year-olds is not more than one hour of screen time per day (less is better); it suggests that children younger than two should have no screen time. 

Research evidence suggests that children and adolescents were already exceeding these recommendations, and that the COVID-19 pandemic only made this worse. There isn’t yet conclusive evidence about whether screen time is good or bad for children.

But, based on my ongoing research into children’s development – including the role of play, sleep, physical movement and screen time – my view is that there are benefits of educational screen time, but we don’t know enough about the potential harms.

Nevertheless, there are several things parents and teachers can do.

This includes basics such as being aware of how much time children are spending on screens and what their posture is like through, to more complex issues such as what each child’s developmental weaknesses and strengths are. It also involves setting boundaries.

None of this is easy to implement. However it doesn’t mean that they cannot be a healthy goal worth working towards. It is never too late to start, but the earlier you do, the better.

Covering the basics

First, it is essential for parents to be aware about how screen-based activities (educational and recreational) influence their child’s development, as well as their behaviour.

Secondly, remember that all children are different and will therefore respond differently to screen time. So understanding the child and their strengths and weaknesses is key. For example, if a child struggles with managing sensory input – like loud noises, bright lights or certain textures – it may be better for them to avoid recreational screen time.

Thirdly, establish boundaries around screen time. This is key at home and at school.

Fourth, keep tabs on how screen time is stopping children from doing other things that are developmentally beneficial. For example, in the home, a child who is learning mostly on screens at school could be encouraged to spend time after school playing outside, and doing activities that develop fine motor skills.

Screen swiping and typing are poor substitutes for activities that stimulate these skills, like writing, drawing, colouring in, painting, and cutting.

Fifth, in a school environment, are there other activities that provide children and adolescents opportunities to intentionally develop their social and emotional skills that are not getting as much attention when they are working alone on screens?

Sixth, are screens set up in such a way that encourages good posture?

Baby steps

Setting boundaries and striving for a healthy balance of educational and recreational screen time within the broader context of development may seem daunting.

It requires thoughtfully reflecting on the wider impacts of the choices made around screens, and offering a range of opportunities that help to boost chlidren’s chances of growing up to be healthy and well-adjusted adults.

As much as possible, involve children and adolescents in conversations about why a healthy balance of screen time will benefit them. This can help them take ownership of their choices about their health and development – both in the present as well as their future health and well-being.

THE CONVERSATION

EDWIN NAIDU

THE Gauteng provincial government had budgeted R6 billion to build new schools in high pressure communities. It indicated that the education system would collapse if nothing was done to alleviate overcrowding, which was exacerbated by high levels of in-migration.

Matome Chiloane, Member of the Executive Committee (MEC): Education, and his senior officials briefed the Committee. Allocated funds would focus on building more schools to avoid the issues of unplaced learners in Grades 1 and 8.

The Select Committee on Education and Technology, Sport, Arts and Culture of the National Council of Provinces was briefed on this development during a virtual meeting by the Eastern Cape, Free State and Gauteng provincial education departments on their 2022/23 annual performance plans and budgets.

Kwazulu Natal, Mpumalanga an d Limpopo Provincial Education Departments have also presented their Annual Performance Plans in the National Council of Provinces.

Gauteng had received a major boost of R1.5 billion from the National Treasury to demolish mobile and asbestos schools, and 18 new schools would be built. Resources would be accessed from private sector financial institutions to fund infrastructure projects upfront, after which they would be built, maintained and transferred to them.

To provide Gauteng learners with a competitive edge and prepare them for the post-matric world, the province would continue to roll out schools of specialisation (SOS). To date, it had 21 SOS, and 35 of these schools should have been built by the end of the current administration.

The Department was pleased with the increasing number of children registered at the Early Childhood Development (ECD) facilities. As part of the process to bolster its education system, Gauteng was now ready to build an ECD of the future, starting with Tshwane, in Soshanguve.

They were committed to rolling out ECDs of the future across the five corridors.

In the Free State, more than R128.8 billion had been allocated to the Department of Education to deal with projects in the province over the medium term expenditure (MTEF) 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 programme aimed at improving effective planning and driving efficiencies within the infrastructure delivery chain.

In the Eastern Cape, the Department had faced severe budgetary pressures which 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 in examination outcomes, should be seen in the context of the Department’s system-wide education system transformation plan. Its strategic thrust was to maximise the opportunities for learners to achieve a good pass in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations whilst improving performance in the whole system.

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

Members asked about the rationalisation and realignment of unviable schools for optimum resource distribution; the continued provision of an appropriate package of support to viable secondary schools in quintiles 1 to 3; improved financial efficiency and re-distribution of resources to where they were most needed; and infrastructure revitalisation and development that was aligned to the rationalisation process.

They also called for accelerated eradication of pit toilets, and for the beautification and fencing of various schools.

INSIDE EDUCATION

SIBUSISO MOYO

WORLD Creativity and Innovation Day is observed annually on 21 April to raise awareness about the importance of creativity and innovation in problem-solving, economic development, societal advancement and driving positive change in the world. 

Whilst there is no one definitive way that one could celebrate this day, I think it is important to acknowledge the role universities, specifically African universities, can play to solve pressing global challenges, improve lives and make a positive impact. Many of the most important breakthroughs have come out of universities. From the development of the internet to the discovery of new vaccines and treatments for diseases or solutions to climate change.

As Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies at Stellenbosch University, I am fully aware of how important cutting-edge research and innovation, excellent infrastructure and high-quality training are to produce new knowledge needed to solve our environmental and societal problems.

I would argue that universities could be considered to be the engines for innovation and research. Just as an engine converts fuel into energy to make a machine, like a vehicle, move so do universities convert innovative ideas into knowledge and inventions that move society forward and address our societal challenges.

Just like the engine is made up of different components (the head, the block and the oil sump), a university typically has a combination of resources that allows for innovative thinking and research.

These include, among others, talented and motivated researchers and students who are constantly collaborating to generate new ideas and ways of doing things; well-equipped laboratories, libraries and other facilities that can support research and development activities; a network of industry, government and other organisations that can provide the support and funding needed for research and development activities; and a culture driven to do work in service to society whilst striving for excellence.

Research and innovation in Africa

Since I live and work in Africa, I cannot let the opportunity go by to reflect on the importance of research and innovation for the continent and the role that African universities play in this regard.

We need innovative and creative solutions for Africa’s unique challenges related to, among others, water, clean energy, diseases, food security, education and training, land ownership and use, transformation, technology, health and housing. This is where tertiary institutions in South Africa and the rest of the continent, through collaborative partnerships, can make a valuable contribution by using the discoveries and inventions of their scientists to change society for the better.

There are many examples of how universities have done this in the past. One recent example is how our country’s scientists used innovative methods during the Covid-19 pandemic to detect important variants of SARS-CoV-2.

Another one is the new Biomedical Research Institute (BMRI), a cutting-edge biomedical research facility that was officially opened at our Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences this week.

Here, leading South African and African researchers and students are coming up with creative ways to investigate diseases that have the greatest impact on the country and the rest of the continent. Through innovation, they can translate their discoveries into improving the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of illnesses such as tuberculosis, cardio-metabolic disease, HIV, diabetes and neurological disorders.

If universities want to be locally relevant, but also globally competitive, they will have to be creative in how they help to address societal challenges.

They will have to continuously focus on the unique areas in which they have developed expertise over time and built collaborative networks with knowledge partners. This will help them to remain engines of innovation where creative minds work together beyond disciplinary silos to find solutions to some of the most pressing challenges.

Overall, universities play a crucial role in fostering creativity and innovation through their research, education, collaboration, entrepreneurship, and openness. They provide an environment that encourages exploration, experimentation, and the development of new ideas that can have a significant impact on society.

Just like an engine needs fuel to work, universities need funding to support and enable research activities and to drive innovation in collaboration communities, municipalities, governments and the private and public sectors to the benefit of society as a whole.

*Professor Sibusiso Moyo is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies at Stellenbosch University.

PHUTI MOSOMANE

PACINA Retail (Pty) LTD, the service provider for school nutrition in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), has announced its decision to withdraw from the R2.1 billion tender amid controversy.

The company told KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government that its withdrawal is contingent upon being reimbursed for all costs incurred thus far.

The KZN Department of Education has been informed of this development.

KZN Education Head of Communications, Muzi Mahlambi, said: “Following the withdrawal, we have issued a circular to schools to indicate that as from the 2nd of May, we will go back to the old method of doing things. Service providers who were awarded particular clusters will be dealing directly with the schools without any middle person.”

The KZN Department of Education has requested schools and service providers to work together over the weekend to ensure that all learners are fed by Tuesday.

This comes after the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) requested more information about the R2.1 billion school nutrition tender, with plans to investigate it.

The ANC in KZN has called for the immediate termination of the contract, urging the department to approach the high court for an urgent termination order.

Trade union SAFTU has also called for the immediate termination of the contract.

The department has been unable to provide a clear explanation for the change in the contract’s operating procedures.

The scandal has prompted Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, to threaten to terminate the contract.

Insiders reveal that the contracted service provider did not have the capacity to cover every school and district in the province, leaving over 3,500 learners without food.

INSIDE EDUCATION

NICK COULDRY

IN recent months, both the tech press and general media have been full of hype about artificial intelligence (AI), and specifically ChatGPT and rival advanced AI programmes. These promise to produce knowledge in radically new ways that threaten to bypass human agency, while demanding our attention.

There are good reasons to fear AI’s consequences for institutions such as universities, whose main asset is their ability not only to disseminate knowledge, but also to produce new knowledge in the form of research.

But universities can also be a key site of resistance to the imposition of AI across society. Indeed, unless universities take seriously their responsibility to resist the uncontrolled rise of AI, the prospects are bleak for the idea of socially produced knowledge on which they, as institutions, depend.

That AI has a major role to play in science, for example, in sequencing the genetic code of dangerous viruses or finding patterns in vast sets of environmental measurements, is beyond question. What is at issue is whether humanity should allow AI to be pushed at us as if it were a magic solution to all our needs and problems.

AI is a form of media – a technologically based way of mediating our relations with the world – and myth-making about new media is certainly nothing new. But AI is a complex case, because of the hype encoded in its very name and conception. AI, as Evgeny Morozov recently argued, is neither fully artificial nor reliably intelligent.

Transpose this point into the much longer debate about knowledge as a tool of global power since the beginning of historic colonialism just over five centuries ago, and the discourse around AI by business, including the businesses that are universities, takes on another, more disturbing, aspect.

Data colonialism

I approach this question from the perspective of the framework of data colonialism, which I have developed over recent years with Ulises Mejias. There is no space here to outline this theory in detail.

Suffice to say, our core idea is that the drive in recent decades to extract data continuously from everything, including every dimension of social and natural life, is a feature not just of contemporary capitalism, but a new stage in the evolution of colonialism.

Whereas historical colonialism seized land and the resources (human or otherwise) needed to exploit it, the new data colonialism takes life itself, extracting value from it in the form of data that can be sold by, or just stored within, corporations and governments.

That colonialism should, in the 21st century, take on this new form as part of capitalism’s continuing expansion, seems less strange when we remember that capitalism itself first emerged in the 18th century from the profits of historical colonialism’s huge asset grab two centuries earlier.

For sure, the concept of data colonialism remains controversial, but suppose you grant it as a possibility. Then AI and the discourse of Big Data appear in a very different light. They can be seen as an account of knowledge that justifies and legitimates the endless extraction of data from life by business and government – power that is very largely located in key centres in the Global North.

Once again, we are not objecting to the use of AI tools to solve specific problems within clear parameters that are set and monitored by actual social communities. We are objecting to the rhetoric and expansionist practice of offering AI as the solution for everything, a solution whose inevitable precondition is humanity offering up its lives for data extraction.

Indeed, fashionable AI projects like ChatGPT can be understood as directly colonial, because they depend on treating the whole of humanity’s cultural production to date as their free input, as author and artist James Bridle has recently argued.

Universities can fight back

Grant this possibility, and it is clear that universities, which until now have depended on a different human-led model of knowledge, can become important sites of resistance to this next colonial phase of knowledge production.

While Big Tech companies are its beneficiaries, the university culture of face-to-face knowledge production is potentially a big loser from AI, except for members of the coding elite who write and implement AI programmes.

Staying loyal to this possibility of resistance within the university, Ulises Mejias and I, with our Mexican colleague Paola Ricaurte, founded nearly three years ago a network of activists and scholars called Tierra Común. It operates in three languages – English, Spanish and Portuguese – with a special but not exclusive focus on Latin America.

Its goal is to further resistance to data colonialism by supporting community-led practices of resistance based on alternative visions of knowledge production in society.

Although the pandemic interrupted our work, we met physically for the first time in Mexico City in December 2022. Our goal is to build bridges between academic institutions and activist practice, listening closely to activist agendas and frameworks, and sharing our own as freely and openly as possible.

This is not, of course, the first time that universities have opened up their work to wider audiences. We follow in a long tradition of similar work, not least in Latin America by philosophers Paulo Freire, Ivan Illich and others.

But it seems particularly important to renew this tradition at a time when a very different model of information and knowledge – artificial intelligence – is vying for dominance. In this context, for sure, writing in academia’s traditional formats is not enough.

Nick Couldry is professor of media, communications and social theory in the department of media and communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom.

STAFF REPORTER

THE KwaZulu-Natal Sport, Arts and Culture, has set aside R40.6 million from the Mass Participation Conditional Grant for the implementation of school sport.

Presenting the department’s R1.493 billion 2023-2024 Budget Vote at KZN Legislature in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday, Acting Sport, Arts and Culture MEC, Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi said, an additional R10 million will be allocated through the equitable share.

“The R50.6 million will not be sufficient to sustain the three season (Autumn, Winter and Summer Games) National School Sport Programme and additional resources need to be committed from the Department of Education.”

“The department will focus on information campaigns to increase knowledge and understanding of national symbols among learners at school. The programme includes the roll out of the “I am the flag” campaign,” Sithole-Moloi said.

The MEC also announced that the department has planned to provide 450 schools with sport equipment and attire to conduct school sport activities and encourage learners to participate in intra and inter-school leagues and tournaments.

She said that a total of 160 school sport co-ordinators will be employed on contract, to provide assistance with programmes in schools, clusters and wards.

“Training will be provided to 600 educators and volunteers in coaching, technical officiating and team management. Approximately 26 000 learners are being targeted to compete at the district tournaments,” Sithole-Moloi said.

She added that support will continue to be given to partnerships with the private sector, including Build-It, amongst others, in offering the under 13 football and netball developmental programmes and project with other public enterprises to develop school sport.

“The programme will involve over 1 750 [Under] 13 learners in 12 District Tournaments. Twelve Sport Ambassadors (ex-professionals) will be involved in the programme. Focus will once more be on the provision of competitions to unearth football talent to participate in the CAF (Confederation of African Football) Schools Football Tournaments in Africa,” the MEC explained.

Over R190m allocated for infrastructure development projects

Sithole-Moloi announced that a total budget of R192 million has been set aside for infrastructure development projects. She said that a budget of R16 million has been set aside for the construction of 33 minor sport facilities, including 22 combo courts and play gyms for Early Childhood Development (ECD).

The MECreiterated that the delivery of sport, arts and culture related infrastructure for rural areas remain a focus for the department. This includes the establishment of libraries, community arts centres, sport facilities, small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs), and other arts and culture infrastructure.

She said the department is targeting to complete three facilities in 2023/24 financial year namely, and these include Ofabeni Study Library, KwaMdakane Standard Library, as well as Winston Churchill Theatre.

“The department will continue to fund the construction of five libraries around the province for different municipalities, [including] uMzumbe Library, KwaDlangezwa Library, Endaleni Library, Pomeroy Library, as well as Lubisi Library.

“In addition, the rehabilitation of three Arts Centres and three libraries is planned to commence in 2023/2024 financial year. These are uThungulu, Osizweni and Mbazwana Arts centres. Under Library Services the following three libraries will be renovated [in] Jozini, Ndumo and Wasbank libraries,” Sithole-Moloi highlighted.

Creating job opportunities

Meanwhile, Sithole-Moloi said the department has, over the medium term, planned on creating job opportunities in the sport, and cultural and creative industries sectors.

She announced that a total of R2.0 million has been allocated to the KZN Sport Confederation for the employment of sport ambassadors (legends and ex-professionals) to serve as mentors, talent scouts and coaches at the ward level and to support the school sport and club development programme.

She said 400 jobs have been targeted, and will be created through the Mass Participation Conditional Grant, EPWP Social Sector Incentive Grant and the equitable share.

“Additional jobs as coaches, development officers, administrators will be created by sport federations and other entities that receive financial support through transfer payments,” the MEC said.

SA NEWS