By Lebone Rodah Mosima

Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Lydia Chikunga has called for stronger public-private partnerships to tackle South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis and food insecurity, saying government cannot solve either challenge on its own.

Chikunga was speaking on Wednesday at the launch of KFC Africa’s Impact Report in Bryanston, Johannesburg, under the theme: “Private Sector as a Partner in Youth Economic Inclusion and Food Security.”

“I also wish to commend KFC Africa for being one of the key corporate partners of the Youth Employment Service (YES) — the substantive public-private partnership that has transitioned more than 200,000 young South Africans from being labelled as “unemployed” to being registered as “employed” through a twelve-month work experience placement in the private sector,” Chikunga said.

“KFC’s participation in the YES architecture demonstrates, first-hand, how the transition from learning to earning can be operationalised at scale.”

Chikunga placed KFC Africa’s work within the broader Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI), which she said was government’s national response to youth unemployment and required a strong coalition between government, business and civil society.

She said the PYEI’s performance since its launch was now publicly documented, with interventions reaching millions of young South Africans across different employment and earning pathways.

“The SA Youth platform, which is the digital gateway of the PYEI, currently holds active registrations of more than 2.36 million young people, who are matched to opportunities in the labour market on an ongoing basis,” she said.

“The Employment Services of South Africa (ESSA) system has placed more than 402,515 young people into work experience, learnerships, and formal employment through PYEI-aligned partnerships.”

However, the latest PYEI fourth-quarter update places current SA Youth registrations at more than 5.9 million and ESSA registrations at more than 5.36 million. Since its launch in 2020, the PYEI has facilitated access to more than 2.5 million temporary earning opportunities through SA Youth and a further 422,667 opportunities through ESSA.

The call for deeper partnerships comes as South Africa continues to battle high levels of youth unemployment. According to Statistics South Africa’s first-quarter 2026 labour data, 4.7 million young people aged 15 to 34 were unemployed, while the unemployment rate stood at 60.9% for those aged 15 to 24 and 40.6% for those aged 25 to 34.

Chikunga said partnerships had to be backed by strong knowledge management and must be able to answer the critical questions of any strategic mission, allowing government and its partners to anticipate, respond to and navigate uncertainty.

She said the launch showed how private-sector partnerships could be implemented at scale.

“What we are launching today is indicative of what a partnership can look like when it is executed at scale,” she said.

“I therefore want to make a substantive call to KFC and its associated stakeholders. Our young people must be trained, integrated, and transitioned into viable businesses across the food, agricultural value chains, and related industries — from primary production, to logistics, and distribution to the food services, hospitality sector, and into the digital platforms that increasingly mediate all of these.”

Chikunga said every young South African involved in agriculture, food services or hospitality should have a clear pathway into sustainable economic activity.

She said youth economic inclusion could not be reduced to short-term participation, but had to mean the meaningful integration of young people into productive enterprises on terms that promoted ownership, agency and real prospects of wealth accumulation.

Turning to food security, Chikunga said South Africa’s challenge was not only the availability of food, but whether households could access it consistently and affordably.

“Too often, food security is viewed through a narrow and limited lens. Food security is not about the mere availability of food,” she said.

“Food is abundantly available — yet the marginalised remain food-insecure. The gap between availability and access is the substantive analytical question.”

She said food security also had to be understood through the lens of reparative justice, including the restoration of the rights of historically marginalised communities and their sovereignty over food systems.

Chikunga said South Africa could only be considered food-secure when all people had access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that met their dietary and cultural needs, while also addressing the historical injustices that shaped current food inequities.

She identified several areas where the private sector could support youth economic participation and food security at scale.

These included supporting young South Africans to work the land, with specific attention to young women and persons with disabilities; helping emerging farmers transition into sustainable agribusinesses; investing in extension services, technical mentoring, market access, off-take agreements, supply-chain integration and patient capital.

She also said young South Africans and African entrepreneurs needed better access to local, continental and international markets, including opportunities created through the African Continental Free Trade Area, which brings together a market of about 1.4 billion people with a combined GDP of approximately US$3.4 trillion.

Chikunga said government and business also had to scale up youth employment in food, hospitality and distribution through targeted skills programmes, franchise expansion, enterprise development and the integration of youth-owned SMEs into supply chains.

She said the private sector could further support young people by helping expand affordable, high-speed data access in townships, rural areas and informal settlements, where many young people live and where digital platforms increasingly shape access to opportunity.

Chikunga said partnerships such as those with KFC Africa showed what was possible when social impact initiatives were linked to broader national priorities.

“You can count on our partnership and we very much look forward to working with you well into the future,” she said.

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Dr Mario Landman

By 2026, the initial panic that greeted the launch of generative AI in higher education has transitioned into a complex, high-stakes standoff. 

At the heart of this conflict are AI checkers – software designed to catch students using tools like ChatGPT. 

However, a growing number of institutions, including major South African universities, are now switching these detectors off, sparking a fundamental rethink of what it means to learn and be assessed in a digital age.

The primary reason for the retreat from AI detection is a lack of accuracy.

AI detectors do not know if a machine wrote a text; instead, they measure statistical signatures like “perplexity” (how predictable the language is) and “burstiness” (variation in sentence rhythm). 

But as generative models have evolved to mimic human style more effectively, these signatures have become blurred. 

Independent evaluations show that while some tools claim 99% accuracy, their effectiveness drops to between 60% and 80% as soon as a student manually edits or adds “humanise” when prompting the AI. 

Furthermore, newer models like Claude 3 generate natural-sounding prose that frequently evades mainstream checkers.

For many administrators, using such probabilistic tools to make life-altering disciplinary decisions is becoming an unacceptable risk to due process.

The crisis of fairness and bias 

For South African institutions, the most damaging aspect of AI detection is documented bias against non-native English speakers. 

Research has shown that detectors disproportionately flag ESL (English as a Second Language) students because their writing often uses more formal, standardised structures that the software mistakes for machine-generated patterns.

One landmark study found a 61.3% false positive rate for TOEFL essays written by Chinese students, compared to just 5.1% for native speakers. In a multilingual country like South Africa, where English is often a second or third language, relying on these tools creates a systemic equity crisis that risks unfairly penalising students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The devil’s bargain of efficiency 

The complexity is deepened by what scholars call a “devil’s bargain” in modern academia.

AI can automate lesson planning for lecturers and generate plausible essays for students, creating an appearance of productivity while hollowing out actual learning. This leads to the rise of “shallow knowledge workers” –  graduates who are proficient in prompt manipulation but deficient in critical analysis and independent reflection.

By switching off AI checkers, universities are forced to confront this erosion of cognitive capacity. Rather than attempting to detect the machine, they are redesigning the work to make human thinking visible.

The way forward 

The emerging way forward in South African higher education is a shift from “policing” to “stewardship”. The focus is moving toward:

• Authentic Assessment: Moving away from take-home essays toward oral defences (viva voce), in-class writing benchmarks, and practical demonstrations.
• AI-integrated Assessment frameworks: Implementing clear frameworks that define acceptable AI use across different assessment contexts. This may include a tiered approach where AI use is prohibited, permitted for specific parts of an assessment, or fully integrated into the assessment process without penalty, provided its use is transparent and aligned with the learning outcomes.
• Process-Based Grading: Grading the “learning journey” by requiring students to submit research logs, drafts, and “Epistemic Meta-Reflections” where they justify their interaction with AI.
• Human-in-the-Loop Frameworks: Implementing automated grading only when it includes mandatory human review to ensure factual accuracy and fairness.
• Transparency and Disclosure: Replacing bans with disclosure requirements, where students must cite which tools they used and for what purpose.

As South Africa finalises its Draft National AI Policy – which ironically ran into an early roadblock after it was found the first iteration was drafted by AI – the higher education sector has an opportunity to ground AI governance in the philosophy of Ubuntu, with its emphasis on interdependence, human dignity, and collective responsibility. 

The goal should not be to win an unwinnable technological race, but to establish a renewed contract of trust: one in which AI is used as a scaffold for thought, not a substitute for it.

Mario Landman is Executive: Educational Technology and Innovation at The IIE and ADvTECH’s Academic Centre of Excellence. 

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By Charmaine Ndlela

The Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI) recorded 155,166 new earning opportunities during the fourth quarter of the 2025/26 financial year, from January to March this year,  bringing the total number of opportunities accessed through the initiative to more than 2.9 million since its launch in 2020.

Deputy Minister in the Presidency Nonceba Mhlauli said the latest results demonstrate steady progress in tackling youth unemployment through coordinated partnerships between government, the private sector and civil society.

ALSO READ: Junior Boks brace for physical Georgia clash after record-breaking start

More than 5.9 million young people have registered on the SA Youth platform since the programme’s inception, while 5.36 million are registered on the government’s Employment Services of South Africa (ESSA) database. The PYEI is an overarching inititaive With a number of programmes. The largest of these is the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI) which hires teacjer assistants for public shools among others. 

To date, SA Youth has facilitated more than 2.5 million earning opportunities, with a further 422,667 opportunities accessed through ESSA.

Mhlauli said the intervention continues to address inequalities in the labour market, with more than 70% of opportunities benefiting young women.

“PYEI continues to demonstrate its commitment to contributing to closing gaps in the labour market for young people,” she said. 

The intervention’s demand-led skilling programme also recorded strong growth during the quarter. Through the Youth Employment Service (YES), 18,310 young people secured workplace experience opportunities, while the Department of Higher Education and Training, through Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), placed a further 5,005 TVET students and graduates in work-integrated learning opportunities.

The quarter’s total of 23,315 workplace experience placements was more than double that achieved during the previous quarter, bringing the cumulative total to 228,148 placements.

Enterprise development also expanded, with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) providing 6,085 enterprise support opportunities during the quarter, including 5,553 non-financial and 532 financial support interventions.

Mhlauli said the Revitalised National Youth Service (NYS) continues to create paid service opportunities for young people while equipping them with valuable skills.

She announced that Phase 5 of the programme will recruit an additional 100,000 young people across South Africa.

“This will result in a significant increase in the number of young people accessing NYS opportunities,” she said.

The Deputy Minister also highlighted the performance of the Jobs Boost Outcomes Fund, South Africa’s first large-scale outcomes-based employment fund.

The R300 million pilot programme, which concluded implementation in March 2026, exceeded several of its targets. By 30 March 2026, 9,260 young people had enrolled, while 7,044 participants had secured jobs, surpassing the placement target by more than 50%.

The programme also verified 5,211 participants who remained employed for at least three months, with 3,795 sustaining employment for six months.

Mhlauli said the results demonstrate the effectiveness of outcomes-based funding in creating sustainable employment opportunities for young people.

ALSO READ: Gauteng schools rocked by corruption as MEC reveals R2.2m overspending in one, theft and procurement scandals in others

“The results of the financial year demonstrate what coordinated, demand-led action can deliver for young people in South Africa,” Mhlauli said.

 “Heading into the 2026/27 financial year, our focus remain on scaling the delivery of quality work placements, advancing the mainstream of outcomes-based financial in public service delivery, and contributing to centre the ambition of South Africa’s young people across every part of the intervention.”

Launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2020, the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention was established as to help young people transition from learning to earning through skills development, workplace experience, entrepreneurship support and employment opportunities.

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By Johnathan Paoli

The Junior Springboks have welcomed their emphatic opening victory at the World Rugby U20 Championship but insist their attention has already shifted to what they expect will be a significantly tougher examination against hosts Georgia later this week.

South Africa’s defending champions opened their title defence in spectacular fashion with a 104-7 demolition of Uruguay in Tbilisi, Georgia, running in 16 tries to equal their longest winning streak in the tournament’s history with a seventh consecutive victory.

While the result sent an early warning to the rest of the competition, stand-in captain Rambo Kubheka said the squad remained grounded and fully aware that the challenge would intensify when they face a powerful Georgian outfit on Thursday.

“The boys played well, and I couldn’t have asked for more in our first game. Playing against South American teams, you know what to expect. They play with pride, they are very passionate, and they never go away,” Kubheka said.

Kubheka led the Junior Boks in the opening half before regular captain Siphosethu Mnebelele took over following the break.

Despite the lopsided scoreline, Kubheka praised Uruguay’s determination and echoed head coach Kevin Foote’s assessment that the South Americans never stopped competing.

Uruguay’s persistence was reflected in a late consolation try after the final hooter, denying South Africa a shutout despite the Junior Boks’ overwhelming dominance throughout the contest.

South Africa established control after a slightly untidy opening spell, racing to a 50-0 half-time advantage before adding another 54 points after the interval.

Markus Muller opened the scoring before Jordan Steenkamp crossed for the first of his three tries.

Risima Khosa also completed a hat-trick, while Khuthadzo Rasivhaga and Jayden Brits each scored twice.

Ethan Adams, Cheswill Jooste, Mnebelele and Gert Kemp also dotted down, while the Junior Boks were awarded a penalty try.

The clinical attacking display saw South Africa reach the century mark before Uruguay crossed late, underlining the depth and finishing ability within the defending champions’ squad.

However, Kubheka said the encounter with Georgia will present an entirely different challenge.

“We’ve played them three times already this year, so we know what’s coming,” he said. “They are a hard-working, physical side, and we are very clear about the challenge they will bring,” he said.

Steenkamp, who finished with a hat-trick, credited the collective effort behind his individual success after finally getting the tournament campaign underway following months of preparation.

“I’m grateful to my teammates for putting me in positions to score. It was a real team effort, and the forwards laid a strong platform for us backs to finish,” he said.

Head coach Kevin Foote was equally delighted with the performance, saying several players had strengthened their claims for selection as the tournament progresses.

“It’s awesome to finally get going after a long period of preparation. The players showed great intent from the start, and it’s pleasing to begin the tournament with a strong performance. There were plenty of strong performances and a number of players really put their hands up for selection. That’s exactly what you want in a competition like this, where the whole squad will be needed,” he said.

Foote said South Africa’s squad depth would be crucial throughout the championship, particularly with first-choice captain Riley Norton and flyhalf Vusi Moyo unavailable after being called into the senior Springbok squad.

“We have a very good squad, and we’ll give other players opportunities in the next game. The focus is on continuing to build and improve,” he said.

The Junior Boks resumed preparations on Monday after Sunday’s recovery session, fully aware that Georgia will present one of their sternest pool-stage tests.

The hosts narrowly lost 25-24 to Wales in their opening fixture and will be desperate to respond in front of a passionate home crowd.

“You can feel the energy and passion in Georgia already. They’ll be hurting after that loss and will come back strongly. We know they’ll bring a big physical challenge,” Foote said.

With momentum firmly on their side following a record-equalling seventh successive World Rugby U20 Championship victory, the Junior Springboks now face the task of proving their opening-day statement was only the beginning of another title challenge.

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By Willem Kitshoff 

The question is no longer whether artificial intelligence belongs in South African classrooms. It is already there, formally through approved school platforms, and informally through learner usage and teacher experimentation.

The real challenge is moving beyond the hype to provide schools with practical clarity, consistency, and implementation frameworks that let them use these technologies effectively and responsibly.

As Riaan van der Bergh, Deputy CEO of the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (FEDSAS), recently observed, the priority is giving teachers and learners the exact frameworks they need to navigate these tools safely. That is not a technological hurdle alone.

It is fundamentally a challenge of governance, operational readiness, and system design.

Schools are among the most complex institutions in society.

They simultaneously juggle teaching, communication, administration, finance, legal compliance, and pastoral care. In that high-pressure environment, any new technology must reduce complexity, or it risks compounding it.

Two decades of working with schools have taught us one simple truth: efficiently run schools are often the best-performing ones. When communication flows smoothly and administrative burdens lift, educators can do what they are there to do: teach. That lesson is critical as AI enters the fold.

While public conversation fixates on AI’s capabilities, the more important question is integration. AI can support personalised learning, streamline administration, and free educators from routine tasks. But without strict oversight, it introduces serious risks: misinformation, fragmented systems, and data privacy breaches.

The policy gap in our schools is widening.

Well-intentioned teachers are uploading learner work, report data, and behavioural notes into public generative AI platforms to save time, inadvertently exposing personally identifiable information to public algorithms and raising immediate flags under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). The answer is not to ban innovation.

It is to govern it.

Schools need clear guidance on what data can and cannot be shared with AI systems. Governing bodies need policies that remove legal uncertainty. And schools need technology partners who understand the unique legal responsibilities that come with managing learner information.

The most promising applications of AI in education are not necessarily the most visible. They are the ones embedded within trusted systems and governed environments, where schools retain oversight of information, access and accountability.

As schools adopt AI, the focus should not be on introducing more tools, but on ensuring that these technologies are integrated into existing institutional frameworks. AI is most effective when it helps simplify complexity, improve access to information and reduce administrative burdens without compromising privacy, governance or professional judgement.

This is particularly important in an educational context, where schools are custodians of sensitive learner, staff and family information. The conversation around AI cannot be separated from the conversation around data governance, security and compliance. Educators need clear guidelines on how AI can be used responsibly, and schools need systems that support innovation without creating additional risk.

The next phase of AI in education is likely to move beyond simply providing answers. Increasingly, AI will assist with routine administrative processes, help staff navigate information more efficiently and support decision-making through timely insights.

Used responsibly, this has the potential to free educators and school leaders from repetitive tasks, allowing them to spend more time on the human aspects of education that technology cannot replace.

The goal should never be to automate education itself. It should be to create more time, capacity and focus for the people at the heart of it.

There is also a significant equity risk at play. Well-resourced schools can afford to develop independent AI policies and train staff.

Millions of learners in under-resourced schools cannot.

Without a coordinated national approach, AI adoption will widen the digital divide rather than close it.

South Africa faces a clear choice: let AI adoption happen ad hoc, driven by fragmented experimentation, or build the governance frameworks, training programmes, and trusted systems required to elevate the entire sector.

The latter demands urgent collaboration between government, governing bodies, educators, and technology providers.

Technology alone does not improve education. Effective, safe implementation does.

We do not need more debate about whether AI belongs in education.

Reality has answered that. What we need now is the structural discipline to ensure it strengthens our schools rather than complicates them.

The challenge is no longer one of possibility. It is one of readiness.

• Willem Kitshoff is the Chief Executive Officer of d6, a leading South African school management and communication technology provider.

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By Michael Cox

If you’ve ever spent any time on social media, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the famous clip from several years ago of three Japan internationals — Hotaru Yamaguchi, Hiroshi Kiyotake, and Yosuke Ideguchi — taking on 100 schoolchildren on a full-sized football pitch.

The premise is farcical, but the footage is curiously mesmeric, and it’s actually fascinating to see how the three internationals actually manage to pass the ball to one another in space, overcoming the sheer probability that one of their opponents will get in their way, even if accidentally.

The key to their passing is, essentially, that the school kids always get dragged towards the ball over on one side, and the internationals can constantly switch the play to the opposite flank, where one of the trio is unmarked.

The youngsters are positionally naive, it must be said. That’s probably enough tactical analysis for now.

But sometimes, when watching the current Japan side compete against a mere 10 (albeit fully-grown) outfielders, you can’t help but detect the same approach play.

This is what Japan are all about. Their 3-4-3 system forms a front five in possession, and eternally causes opponents problems by finding a spare player — the bonus back, if you like — running into the box unmarked, on the blind side of the opposition defence, and available for a switch of play.

And if it can beat 100 opponents, maybe this is only 10 per cent of the challenge…

The interesting thing about Japan’s wing-backs is that they aren’t pure “arriving” wing-backs — they’re not Daniel Munoz or Denzel Dumfries, solely late runners who pop up at the far post.

They can do that. But right-sided Ritsu Doan is left-footed, and left-sided Keito Nakamura is right-footed.

They can cut inside to shoot, as Nakamura did to score against the Netherlands, and they can also check inside to switch the play with angled passes.

One passage of play, early in the second half of their 1-1 draw with Sweden, shows what Japan are all about. First, central midfielder Daichi Kamada moves to the left flank, cuts back onto his right foot and crosses deep for wing-back Yukinari Sugawara — platying instead of the rested Doan — to attack, but the ball drops before he can meet it on the volley.

Sweden half-clear the ball, but only as far as Ao Tanaka, who immediately switches the play again over to the left, where Kamada is there to meet it on the volley — but hits it straight at the goalkeeper.

This is what Japan are all about. They always have a spare player at the far post, and they will find him with late switches of play.

The most promising thing about Japan’s approach, ahead of their meeting with Brazil, is that the Selecao’s clear position of weakness is at full-back. Right-back Danilo will be 35 by the end of the tournament and is hardly the type of speedy, mobile full-back we’re accustomed to seeing for Brazil.

Left-back Douglas Santos has never been a top-class performer. In the centre of defence, they’re solid. You don’t want to be testing the aerial ability of Marquinhos and Gabriel.

Taking them out of the equation and switching the play past them is the right approach.

Further, it’s difficult to see how Brazil will cope with those runners on the far side in a tactical sense.

Other opponents generally feel compelled to drop an extra player into the back line, forming a back five against Japan’s front five — as the Netherlands did, with Frenkie de Jong dropping in from midfield. That freed up the full-backs to stay wide and cope with Japan’s switches.

Which Brazil player will do this? Will Casemiro do what De Jong did? Will the inexperienced Rayan continue on the right and be tasked with dropping in? Does Carlo Ancelotti even consider this a problem he needs to find a solution for?

This feels like an enormous match, not merely in the context of this tournament but in the context of the World Cup overall. While football likes to think of itself as a global game, it remains dominated by sides from Western Europe and South America.

Japan have always felt like the coming force from elsewhere: they have the infrastructure, the tactical and technical qualities and other coaches marvel at their cohesion. But they’ve never won a knockout game at the World Cup.

If they eliminate Brazil — the dominant side in World Cup history — it would be enormous. Tactically, Japan’s approach might be perfect for the task.

The New York Times

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The Catholic school tour ended, and Maria Contreras felt an overwhelming desire to enroll her 7-year-old. But first, a difficult question for the principal.

The second grader has trouble focusing. He doesn’t listen to teachers and runs around the classroom, she explained. Could he be expelled?

More families across the country are experimenting with private school as states — and soon the federal government — use taxpayer-supported scholarships to encourage them to leave public school.

Soon, half of all American schoolkids will be able to apply for state money to finance a private education, and many states will offer the scholarships even to families with high incomes.

In theory, these programs are supposed to give children an educational opportunity they wouldn’t otherwise have. In reality, students already in private or home school are most likely to benefit, an analysis by The Associated Press shows.

The reasons are complicated. In some cases, public school families don’t know about these scholarship programs, known as vouchers or education savings accounts.

They may lack transportation to get their kids to private school. Some worry their child won’t survive in a more strict disciplinary environment.

Sometimes, as in Texas, the latest state to join the already $10.5 billion private school choice movement, the law is written to benefit families who know how to navigate complicated education systems.

Contreras and her husband had grown up Catholic in Mexico. They moved to Texas, he found a job as a welder, and eventually they got green cards. They were relatively happy sending their three older children to Fort Worth public schools.

But their youngest son, Ian, presented different challenges. He was reading far below grade level.

Contreras asked Ian’s teacher in the fall to test him for a learning disability, not knowing there was a legally mandated process for requesting an evaluation.

For months, no one tested her son.

She wasn’t alone. Students at her son’s elementary school, where nearly all students are economically disadvantaged and the majority are still learning English, have been diagnosed with learning disabilities at a surprisingly low rate. Only 4% qualify for special education services, compared with 14% districtwide.

Contreras had no idea then, but without the testing, she would have few options for paying for a new school for Ian.

The kids who benefit from school choice

Contreras learned about the opportunity for private school scholarships at church, of all places. During announcements at Mass, a man asked in Spanish if anyone wanted $10,000 to attend Catholic school. Ian roused from his nap and raised his hand.

Texas’ monumental program launches this fall, offering around $1 billion of public money to help families with private school or homeschooling expenses. The program funds education savings accounts — a type of scholarship that goes beyond just tuition, giving families money for everything from textbooks and music lessons to transportation and tech.

Republican-led states such as Indiana, Florida and Arizona have long offered taxpayer-funded scholarships for students attending private school or studying at home. But the movement to privatize education has surged under President Donald Trump, who has capitalized on growing skepticism of public schools.

For years, Texas had resisted launching a voucher program, as Democrats and rural Republicans blocked efforts they feared would divert money from public schools. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, fast-tracked the creation of Texas Education Freedom Accounts last year with an assist from Trump. The president himself called GOP lawmakers to urge them to pass this part of his education agenda.

To get the votes, Texas Republicans abandoned a provision that would have awarded 80% of Freedom Accounts in the first year to students leaving public schools.

Without such a provision, evidence from other states is clear: The majority of scholarships will be used by students already in private or home school.

Last year in Alabama, for example, former public school students made up only 13% of participants in a new education savings account program, an AP analysis shows.

Even when they were approved for an account, most public schoolers ended up not switching schools.

In the end, the Texas legislation prioritized students from any type of school who have documented disabilities, plus their siblings. Those students, as long as their families earn less than $165,000 for a family of four, would be first in line when Texas awarded its Freedom Account scholarships this spring.

Next, the state prioritized lower-income children, whose families earn less than $66,000 for a family of four.

Ian would be in the third group, virtually at the end of the line, since his parents earn around $70,000 a year.

Priority for kids with disabilities

To catapult to the front, Ian would need to have a documented disability — a growing trend in state voucher programs. Today, nine states have taxpayer-funded scholarships to help students with special needs attend private school or learn at home.

But leaving the public school system is risky for many of these students, and special education advocates have long warned against it. Private schools aren’t legally required to admit students with special needs. Contreras was surprised to learn private schools also aren’t obligated to offer services to help kids with disabilities, as public schools are.

Despite decades of research on school choice, academic scholarship hasn’t kept pace with states targeting vouchers to students with disabilities. How those students are faring academically in traditional private schools is unknown.

Educators at Saint Rita Catholic School appeared unfazed when, in the middle of her tour, Contreras interrupted their description of the third grade reading list to disclose how much trouble Ian has sitting still.

“Sometimes a kid would rather be seen as active than not understanding,” replied Principal Kindra Johnston, a former counselor who brings her golden retriever to work each day. “I can teach him how to regulate himself. How to have purpose.”

Having a smaller class and a teacher who knows how to reach him could help, she added.

The school currently enrolls students with learning disabilities, including dyslexia, dysgraphia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and borderline intellectual function, she told a reporter.

There’s no public information showing how many students with disabilities attend private schools in Texas. Representatives of the Diocese of Fort Worth say they have encouraged Catholic school students to apply for the scholarship money so schools can pay for more special education therapies students need.

Missing the deadline for disability testing

Contreras left the tour of Saint Rita wanting to enroll her son immediately. But she soon realized: Without the voucher, she can’t afford the $7,000 tuition.

With her daughter’s help, she formally requested a special education evaluation at her son’s public school.

Under Texas law, the district has 15 school days to respond and then 45 school days to evaluate after a parent files their request for disability testing. If evaluators find a disability and decide it’s affecting a child’s ability to learn, the school is legally obligated to make a plan and provide services to help.

But by the time the Texas voucher application was due, the Fort Worth school district still hadn’t tested Ian. Contreras had made the request too late.

Texas started notifying families in April whether they would get the voucher. According to information released so far, the approved applicants don’t mirror the state population. Only 43% recently attended public school. While more than half of Texas public school students are Latino, only a little over a quarter of voucher recipients are.

At the same time, three-fourths of the roughly 95,000 Freedom Accounts awarded as of May went to low-income kids. The share of approved applicants with disabilities, 28%, was double the share in the public school system.

Ian’s group has been placed on the waitlist.

In April, right before the school’s deadline to respond about the disability testing, and shortly after The Associated Press asked the district about Ian’s evaluation, his school contacted Contreras to arrange testing for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Contreras was surprised to learn the process started with a survey to be completed by a parent and Ian’s teacher, plus a visit to his pediatrician.

On the last day of school, Contreras finally got answers. Ian was diagnosed with ADHD. The school agreed to seat him near the teacher and give him extra teaching on difficult concepts.

But he currently doesn’t qualify for specialized services for his disability. He won’t receive priority status for this round of vouchers.

It’s possible Ian could benefit from leaving his public school and attending Saint Rita this fall.

Chances are, he won’t receive any financial help from the state to do it.

AP

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By Charmaine Ndlela

South Africa’s severe shortage of donor organs has received a significant boost following the installation of Africa’s first liver perfusion machine at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre (WDGMC), a breakthrough expected to increase the number of organs suitable for life-saving transplants.

The new technology keeps donor livers viable outside the body for extended periods while providing transplant specialists with real-time data on organ function before surgery.

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South Africa records one of the world’s lowest deceased organ donation rates, at just 1.4 donors per million people.

Thousands of patients remain on transplant waiting lists, while fewer than 300 organ transplants are performed annually.

Dr Bilal Bobat, a specialist gastroenterologist at WDGMC, said many patients deteriorate while waiting for suitable donor organs due to the ongoing shortage.

“Too many patients in South Africa deteriorate while waiting for a transplant because there are simply not enough donor organs available,” he said.

In a statement, WDGMC said the liver perfusion machine preserves donor organs outside the body for longer periods, allowing clinicians to assess their condition more accurately before transplantation.

Traditionally, donor livers are stored on ice and must be transplanted within about 10 hours. The new technology extends this window and allows for more detailed organ assessment.

The innovation is also expected to increase the number of usable organs by enabling transplant teams to evaluate livers that may previously have been deemed too risky.

WDGMC currently has more than 30 patients awaiting liver transplants and nearly 600 patients on its kidney transplant waiting list.

The centre, South Africa’s first private academic hospital, houses the country’s largest transplant unit and is the only centre in sub-Saharan Africa offering living-donor liver transplants for children.

Having performed more than 1,000 liver transplants, the unit is internationally recognised for its work in specialised transplant care, research and surgical training.

Bobat said the development marks a key milestone in a country where every donor organ is critical.

“This technology represents an important milestone for transplant care in a country with severe organ shortages, where every organ counts. For patients on the waiting list, it provides a greater chance of receiving a suitable organ in time, increasing the pool of viable organs and reducing uncertainty,” he said.

Clinicians say the machine is expected to reduce post-transplant complications, shorten hospital stays and improve recovery outcomes.

Professor Jerome Loveland, Head of Solid Organ Transplantation at WDGMC, said the introduction of liver perfusion technology would strengthen transplant care, research and medical training across Africa.

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“As a transplant programme, our responsibility extends far beyond the operating theatre,” Loveland said.

Despite the breakthrough, clinicians emphasised that increasing public awareness and organ donor registration remains essential.

According to the Department of Health, more than 4,300 South Africans are currently waiting for organ transplants, yet fewer than 1% of the population is registered as organ donors.

INSIDE EDUCATION 

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By Derek Yu, Christie Swanepoel, Rochelle Beukes, Ronald Arendse and Shaun Pather

Postgraduate education is good for a country. Thriving economies need people with advanced academic degrees to enhance research productivity. Research and innovation capability have a positive impact on the competitiveness of a country.

The South African government has developed an extensive financial support programme for undergraduate (first degree) education in the form of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). However, this doesn’t extend to postgraduate programmes.

Postgraduate education therefore remains a luxury for many students, even though the National Development Plan aims to have over 25% of university enrolments at postgraduate level by 2030.

As academics in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Western Cape, we examined the impact of students receiving financial aid for postgraduate study.

The students in our research were new postgraduate students who registered at the faculty in 2019 (the last normal academic year before COVID-19).

Fewer than half the students received financial aid. We found that aid appeared to have an impact on completion of the study programme, especially for the postgraduate diploma. We think there’s a case for greater investment in support for postgraduate education.

Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey data shows that job seekers with only matric (grade 12 school leaving qualification) have a 35% probability of being jobless.

The unemployment rate is much lower at 12% among jobseekers with first degrees. And it is only 5% among those with postgraduate qualifications.

What’s more, our calculations from quarterly labour force data show that postgraduates on average earn about 38% more than those with only first degrees.

Who got financial aid

We analysed the students’ demographic characteristics, financial aid receipt status and academic results. A total of 623 new postgraduate students enrolled at the faculty: 186 for the postgraduate diploma, 275 for honours, 133 for master’s and 29 for doctorate programmes.

Some important findings emerged from the study.

Firstly, only 45.8% of these new postgraduate students received some form of financial aid. In contrast, almost all undergraduate students in this faculty receive NSFAS support.

Out of all four postgraduate levels, the proportion of students receiving financial aid was the highest at postgraduate diploma level (50.5%). It was lowest at doctorate level (37.9%).

Secondly, for those who received financial aid, the university’s internal financial aid was the dominant funding source (35.8% of students received this aid).

This was followed by National Research Foundation (16.8%) aid and Finance and Accounting Services Sector Education and Training Authority bursaries (15.1%, mainly for Accounting students).

Thirdly, the mean amount of financial aid received for 2019 (in 2025 December prices) was about R55,000 (about US$3,400) for postgraduate diploma and honours students.

It was higher at R110,000 (US$6,800) at master’s level and R225,000 (almost US$14,000) at doctorate level.

Fourthly, the majority of financial aid recipients were Africans at all four postgraduate levels. This is in line with the social justice theory that previously disadvantaged population groups should get support.

Various factors can have an impact on academic performance, such as previous academic experience, residence on campus, and whether parents and students themselves are employed.

But the fifth and most striking finding was about the impact of receiving financial aid.

• It made the greatest positive impact on postgraduate diploma students: 81% of the financial aid recipients eventually completed their studies, as against 71% of non-recipients.
• Similarly, for the honours students, 91% of financial aid recipients completed their studies; 89% of non-recipients did so.
• At postgraduate diploma level, on average it took 1.51 years for financial aid recipients to complete their studies, but it took an additional semester for non-recipients to do so (1.94 years).
• Among the honours students, financial aid recipients took 1.33 years on average to complete their studies. Non-recipients took slightly longer (1.45 years) to do so.

These findings suggest financial aid had a positive impact on study completion and on the time taken to complete studies. The impact was mainly at postgraduate diploma level.

Recommendations

We have three recommendations.

First, policymakers and higher education institutions must consider expanding financial aid beyond undergraduate programmes. This would be a strategic investment in educational equity and academic excellence.

It could be tough ask, given South Africa’s fiscal deficit situation. Even private sector institutions may have dwindling funds available from firms’ profits, given the current economic climate.

Greater investment into postgraduate funding, at a level similar to that of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, is a strategy worth pursuing to alleviate the country’s poverty, inequality and unemployment and to uplift human capital, productivity and even international competitiveness.

Secondly, it is important to determine whether postgraduate diploma and honours students have been overlooked in provision of financial support. They form the foundation for further studies.

Lastly, a wide range of indicators should be considered to determine if a university has produced enough postgraduates to meet the skills needs in the country’s labour market. These indicators may include:

• – the mean years taken to complete studies
• – completion rate (what share of students complete studies)
• – throughput rate (how long it takes to complete)
• – percentage of academic staff with doctorate degrees (which indicates staff capacity to supervise postgraduate students)
• – percentage of postgraduate programmes that are also offered on a part-time basis. If students are also working they are more likely to – struggle with their studies and take more time to complete.

THE CONVERSATION

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By Lebone Rodah Mosima

The Mpumalanga Department of Education on Monday launched 89 learning centres across the province for its 2026 Winter Vacation Classes, which will run until 17 July to help improve Grade 12 learners’ performance ahead of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations.

The department said the programme is designed to help the Class of 2026 master difficult curriculum content, improve examination techniques and contribute to a higher provincial pass rate.

The classes will be led by high-performing teachers with a proven track record of producing strong learner results.

“Through this intervention, learners will benefit from the expertise of experienced subject specialists who will reinforce difficult curriculum topics, provide examination preparation strategies and guide learners on how to effectively respond to examination questions,” the department said.

“Learners will write both pre-tests and post-tests to assess the impact.”

The Winter Classes will focus on gateway and high-enrolment subjects, including English First Additional Language (FAL), Accounting, Business Studies, Economics, Geography, History, Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences and Agricultural Sciences.

The department said particular attention would be given to learners from technical schools, where additional academic support is needed following the introduction of these subjects into the curriculum.

To maximise participation, the department will provide transport and school nutrition to qualifying learners.

“We call upon School Governing Bodies (SGBs) to work closely with schools and encourage parents and guardians to ensure that learners attend all Winter Classes,” the department said.

“Their support will also be important in strengthening oversight, promoting discipline and safeguarding school facilities throughout the programme.”

The department said it was confident the intervention would improve learner achievement and strengthen the province’s performance in the 2026 NSC examinations.

It has set a target of achieving a 91% pass rate, building on the 86.55% pass rate recorded by the Class of 2025, with a particular focus on improving learner performance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

The department cited Education MEC Lindi Masina’s 2026 Policy and Budget Speech, in which she reaffirmed the department’s commitment to academic excellence.

“Our target is to achieve a 91% pass rate across the board, with a significant improvement in STEM subjects,” Masina said.

“We are encouraged by the solid foundation laid by the impressive 86.55% pass rate achieved by the Class of 2025 in the National Senior Certificate examinations.”

“Indeed, the Class of 2025 surpassed all expectations, demonstrating the resilience of our learners, the commitment of our educators and the positive impact of our education system.”

The department wished all Grade 12 learners well and encouraged them to take full advantage of the Winter Classes as they prepare for the 2026 National Senior Certificate examinations.

INSIDE EDUCATION 

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