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Literacy
In response to research conducted by the University of Pretoria which showed that 80% of SA’s grade 4 and 5 pupils were not reading at the required grade level, Education Minister Naledi Pandor recently launched the Foundations for Learning Campaign which aims to improve public primary school pupils’ average performance in reading and numeracy to a 50% proficiency by 2011. Increasing pupils’ reading and numeracy proficiency in primary schools to 50%, would mean an average improvement of between 15% and 20% over the four years of the campaign.
A spelling revolution
Grade R to grade 3 learners and teachers can now benefit from a highly successful international initiative that partners primary schools and universities to promote the improved teaching and learning of English. On a local level it has been tailored to include all 11 official languages through the use of free interactive software and a range of educational resources. Called the Absa Thrass Talk Together Project and pioneered by the British educational psychologist and entrepreneur, Alan Davies, it incorporates a phonics component that focuses on the teaching of handwriting, spelling and word-solving skills. A significant part of the project is a groundbreaking interactive computer programme called Phoneme Machine, which uses moving human lips and the international phonetic alphabet to teach children and learners of all ages and abilities to read and spell in an entertaining and fun way. Linking local universities to designated schools means the latter receive Thrass-trained student teachers, who help with the daily teaching of Thrass and other home languages. These teachers spend about two hours a week teaching and assessing the 10 Thrass skills and helping with the learning of home languages. Schools that are part of the initiative include Roseneath Primary in Johannesburg, linked to the University of the Witwatersrand; Sunlands Primary, associated with Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town; George Randell Primary in East London supported by Fort Hare University; and Eendracht Primary in Pretoria, associated with the University of Pretoria.
School-based violence
According to the Report of the public hearing on school-based violence by the South African Human Rights Commission, school-based violence in SA is multi-dimensional and takes on various forms. ‘How it manifests itself often depends on the context in which it arises, such as whether the violence is perpetrated by learners against fellow learners, by educators against learners, by learners against educators or by external persons against both learners and educators.’ The most prevalent forms of school-based violence identified during the public hearing were bullying, gender-based violence, accidental violence, discrimination and violence, sexual assault or harassment, physical violence and psychological violence. Although the nature of these types of school conflicts is not new, learners now seem more willing and able to employ physically aggressive methods to resolve them. Knives, weapons and handguns appear to be more readily used than before.
The report states that the impact of school-based violence goes beyond the physical harm inflicted by violent incidents. Its effects are also expressed in a range of defective learner behaviours such as high absentee rates, poor learning performance and achievement, high truancy rates, high dropout rates and, as some studies indicate, an increase in suicide rates among learners who are not able to deal with violence and who feel unprotected. ‘The reality that the Hearing depicted was one of a national school system in which many learners are under constant threat of violence at school, even from educators and principals.’ Various factors contributing to school-based violence in SA were identified during the public hearing. These included discipline models in schools and unclear management roles; unattractive school environments; educators’ misconceptions regarding the human rights of learners; the impact of community poverty; the presence of gangsterism and drug and alcohol abuse in the community; conditions in the home environment; and the social de-sensitisation of youth to a culture of violence.
The report concludes that young people cannot effectively enjoy the right to education in conditions that jeopardise their freedom and security of person. To protect the fundamental rights of learners, the Department of Education must be proactive in making schools safer places. The following recommendations are made:
- Create safe physical spaces.
- Carefully utilise screening and security measures.
- Reduce overcrowding in classrooms.
- Transform unattractive learning environments.
- Ensure safe learner transport.
- Create accessible and child-friendly violence reporting systems.
- Provide accessible and child-friendly treatment services.
Educating engineers
According to research by Allyson Lawless on the engineering profession in SA, the number of school- leavers enrolling for engineering courses has seen a dramatic increase in recent years. For example, the University of Cape Town received almost 5 000 applications for only 700 places in the 2008 academic year, compared with 597 in the previous year. According to the Institute of Municipal Engineers of Southern Africa, this increase can largely be attributed to the buoyant state of the construction industry, economic growth and infrastructure development. Although student interest in the engineering profession has certainly surged, Lawless counsels this to be a necessary, but insufficient, ingredient for dealing with the current shortage of engineers, and stresses that career guidance remains crucial. She argues ‘that it is imperative that career guidance becomes a formal part of the secondary schooling system, to help ensure that the students admitted into engineering in universities are passionate about the profession and understand its rigours’. This, she believes, will help reduce the dropout rate, which is still high.
Other challenges also remain and the problem appears to be shifting from the demand side to the supply side. This is reflected at every level, from insufficient maths and science teachers at the schools, through to too few, inexperienced or underqualified lecturing staff at universities and colleges, and a serious lack of capacity to provide mentorship and on-the-job experience in the formal work environment. According to Lawless, there are simply not enough lecturers in the system for SA to meet its goal (as outlined in the JIPSA) of graduating 1 000 more engineers a year than currently. Lawless believes there is a need for a strategic, long-term approach, which seeks to leverage off the ‘golden opportunities’ arising from a convergence in interest in engineering and the opportunity to participate in vibrant projects.
According to Education Minister Naledi Pandor, R48m has been allocated to four universities, i.e. the University of Cape Town, the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Pretoria to increase the number of engineering graduates.
Education prioritised in the 2008/2009 Budget
The National Treasury has identified skills shortages as one of the significant barriers limiting faster export growth, which in turn has fuelled the trade deficit – one of the ‘points of vulnerability’ in the South African economy, and has allocated the largest portion of the 2008/2009 Budget, i.e. R121.1b to education. In 2007/2008, education spending in total exceeded R105b, ‘rightly signifying that investing in the capabilities on which dignity, self reliance and social progress are built, is at the centre of our development strategy’, said Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. The 2008/2009 Budget, which prioritised school building, early childhood education, school books and educator remuneration, made a provision of R1.4b for higher education, research and knowledge development. In his 2008 Budget speech, Minister Manuel said that ‘over the next three years, provinces have budgeted to spend over R18-billion on school infrastructure and equipment’.
The Bill of Responsibilities and draft National School Pledge
South African learners will be taught a new Bill of Responsibilities as part of their life orientation lessons, a subject that is compulsory at matric level, and has to be passed for the candidate to matriculate. Unveiling the bill in February, Education Minister Pandor said there was a need to instil a culture of respect and responsibilities among the youth. The bill, which was endorsed by President Mbeki, lists 12 responsibilities that flow from the rights afforded to South Africans by the Constitution. The responsibilities that young people acknowledge in the bill are to ensure the right to equality, human dignity, life, family or parental care, education, work, freedom and security of the person, own property, freedom of religion, belief and opinion, live in a safe environment, citizenship, and freedom of expression. Although the bill is being distributed to schools in poster format (and in all the official languages), the minister said members of the public still had time to comment about the bill until March. Earlier in February, the minister unveiled the draft National Schools Pledge which aims to instil a sense of morality into young South Africans and which government intends having all school children recite during morning assembly or in the classrooms. The pledge which is still open for public opinion and has caused outrage from various sectors of the community, reads as follows:
‘We the youth of South Africa, recognising the injustices of our past, honour those who suffered and sacrificed for justice and freedom. We will respect and protect the dignity of each person, and stand up for justice. We sincerely declare that we shall uphold the rights and values of our constitution and promise to act in accordance with the duties and responsibilities that flow from these rights. ! KE E: / XARRA / / KE Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika.’
Unspent millions
According to the National Student Financial AID Scheme (NSFAS) chief executive Pragasen Naicker, about R50m from a budget of R1.6b allocated for loans to poor students remained unspent last year. Universities now have to return the money, which could have provided about 1 500 students with the maximum subsidy of R35 000, to the NSFAS. In 2006, about R11m from a budget of R1.2b was returned to NSFAS. Naicker said the key reason for the failure to use the money was universities’ lack of capacity to process the loan funds. The University of Johannesburg, which experienced violent student protests against fee increases last year, recorded the highest unspent funds (just more than R9m), followed closely by the Vaal University of Technology (also about R9m). Of the 23 government-funded universities, only five managed to use their NSFAS allocations in full.
‘Schools-in-a-box’
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has dispatched 58 so-called ‘schools-in-a-box’ to flood-hit areas of Zambia to assist pupils whose families have had to flee their homes because of rising flood waters or whose school buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Each school-in-a-box contains enough supplies for 100 children. Pawan Kucita, chief of UNICEF Zambia’s education section, said ‘the kits are designed to provide support for teachers and children and to ensure a sense of normalcy remains despite the difficult circumstances that tragedies such as floods can bring’. The kits, designed for grade one to nine learners, contain exercise books, student slates, an inflatable globe, a student register, crayons, pencils, pencil sharpeners, ballpoint pens, felt-tip pens, erasers, chalkboards, chalk and chalk dusters, scissors, tape, a clock, flipchart markers, a compass, coloured wooden cubes, educational posters, book bags, rulers and a metal box for transport and storage. About 400 000 people are estimated to have been affected by this season’s floods in Zambia, while up to 36 000 people have been displaced and almost 3 500 homes and 44 schools have collapsed because of prolonged heavy rainfall.
HIV/AIDS in Mozambique
More than one-sixth of Mozambique’s 9 000 teachers are dying of AIDS-related diseases annually, lowering the quality of education and jeopardising future development. Mozambique’s Education and Culture Minister Aires Aly recently stated that ‘we are losing 17% of our 9 000 teachers each year, which means we are talking of 1 360 workers lost to HIV/AIDS, and the disease is spreading very fast at national level’. According to health officials, more than 16% of the 20m Mozambicans aged 14-49 are HIV positive, while an estimated 500 new infections occur on a daily basis.
Fill the Cup campaign
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) recently unveiled a new global fundraising and awareness campaign to benefit the 59m children around the world who go to school hungry. The new initiative called ‘Fill the Cup’ literally aims to fill a cup with food for hungry schoolchildren, thereby increasing their chances for health, education and a better future. According to the WFP, it will take about $3b annually to feed all 59m children worldwide who go to school hungry, while $1.2b can provide meals for 23m children in 45 of the neediest African countries. A mere $0.25 can give one child one cup of porridge, rice or beans and provide girls with a monthly ration to take home.
Gender parity in education
On 8 March International Women’s Day was celebrated and according to UNESCO it provided a timely occasion to take stock of progress in reducing barriers to girls’ and women’s education. ‘The international community pledged to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieve gender equality in education by 2015. The first target has not been met – but many countries are making significant inroads.’ UNESCO says gender disparities tend to increase at higher levels of education. Approximately 63% of countries with available data have achieved gender parity at the primary level of education, compared with 37% at secondary and less than 3% at the tertiary level. In many parts of the world, school environments remain physically unsafe for both boys and girls; teacher attitudes and practices, curricula and textbooks continue to be gender-biased; and fields of studies and occupational choices remain clustered by gender.
According to UNESCO, ‘reducing the gender gap in education does not automatically translate into equality between men and women. There are many overt signs of enduring gender inequalities, such as salary gaps, minimal access to certain fields of study and jobs, and a lack of political representation. Clearly gender parity is a necessary but not sufficient condition for gender equality. Promoting gender equality in education requires altering gender socialization processes and certain learning conditions in school.’ As highlighted in the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2008, effective policies and progammes should ensure safe and non- discriminatory school environments; the presence of enough female teachers to act as role models, as well as unbiased teacher training and classroom dynamics; unbiased learning content; and less gendered choice of subjects in tertiary education.