Children and good eating habits

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has recently issued a wide-ranging new guide on teaching good eating habits to primary school children in an effort to reduce malnutrition and diet-related diseases such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Good nutrition education makes children aware of the benefits of eating a well-balanced diet, how to prepare and handle food safely, and how to avoid food-related risks. ‘What many people don’t realize is that it is not only the amount of food, but the quality of a diet that has a critical effect on children’s growth, health and learning capacity’, said Ezzeddine Boutrif, Director of FAO’s Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division. Chronic diet-related diseases are on the rise worldwide due to new lifestyle and eating habits. Worldwide 1.6b adults are overweight and at least 400m are obese, according to the World Health Organization.

Global education spending

According to a new publication by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), global spending on education is concentrated in just a few countries, with the education budget of a single country such as France or Italy outweighing education spending across all of sub-Saharan Africa. The report finds that sub-Saharan African countries, home to 15% of the school-age population of the world, spend only 2.4% of the global education resources. By contrast, the USA spends 28% of the global education budget although only 4% of the world’s children and young people live there. The report attributes this to the large number of university students and the relatively high costs of tertiary education in the USA. Although public spending is a major source of education funding, many countries, particularly in less developed regions, rely on households and communities to cover education expenses such as tuition, textbooks, school uniforms and teachers’ salaries.

Education sector responses to HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS represents a direct threat to achieving the Millennium Development goal of ‘Education for All’. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has already cut the supply of teachers in countries with high HIV-prevalence rates and has made millions of children orphans. However, education remains one of the most effective weapons against the disease. In 2005, African education ministers highlighted the lack of information about education sector responses to HIV/AIDS. In response, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Association for the Development of Education in Africa compiled a report on evidence and examples of good practice from across the continent. The report states that ‘there are pockets of excellence in all countries, but implementation is patchy and often overlooks non-teaching staff and parents, higher education and preschool sectors, out-of-school youth and programme monitoring and evaluation’. Furthermore, ‘effective life skills programmes are not implemented uniformly and condoms remain controversial despite evidence that they reduce risk’. Recommendations for education policymakers in Africa include:

  • sharing good practices and learning materials on HIV between countries in the region;
  • developing curricula based on human rights, empowerment, sustainable development, social support, and a protective and safe teaching and learning environment;
  • reviewing training programmes so that every teacher is competent in life skills and HIV/AIDS education by 2015;
  • involving trade unions and other teachers’ organisations in strategic planning and implementation;
  • identifying and helping vulnerable youths before they ‘drop out’ and reintegrating out-of-school youths; and
  • uniting government agencies, parents, teachers, communities and civil society to improve protection, access and retention of orphans and vulnerable children in education.
Afghan schoolchildren receive landmine coaching

The government of Afghanistan and the UN Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan have recently launched an awareness campaign to educate more than 6m school children countrywide about the risks of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). The country is replete with landmines and UXO, which kill and injure about 60 people, almost half of them children, every month – one of the highest landmine casualty figures in the world.

School attendance and educational attainment

According to the February Community Survey 2007 conducted by StatsSA in all provinces, covering 246 618 households and enumerating 949 105 persons, ‘substantial progress has been made with regard to both school attendance and educational attainment during the last decade’.

  • The percentage of people aged 5-24 attending school has increased (from 63% in 1996 to 73.6% in 2007), particularly for those aged 5-17 years.
  • Provincial differences in school attendance are minimal, with percentages having increased all provinces between 1996 and 2007.
  • Both males and females have equally benefited.
  • However, disparities exist on a racial basis. Attendance at an educational institution among persons aged 5-24 years in 2007 was 68% among Asians/Indians, 74.7% among blacks/Africans, 64.4% among coloureds and 73.1% among whites. In 1996 the percentages were 70.1%, 70.7%, 64% and 70.6%, respectively.
  • The percentage of persons aged 20 and above with no schooling has decreased substantially from 19.1% in 1996 to 10.3% in 2007.
  • The percentage of persons aged 20 and above with some secondary education has increased from 33.6% in 1996 to 40.1% in 2007, while the percentage with a higher education has increased from 7.1% to 9.1%.

Based on the findings from international comparative research the SA Institute of Race Relations claims that ‘South African schools are among the worst in Africa.’ Among Southern and East African countries that participated in a study on schooling quality, South Africa scored below average on reading and mathematics proficiency for pupils in Grade 6. Only one in five Grade 6 pupils in SA had attained the desired level of reading mastery. ‘This was despite SA having a higher per capita gross domestic product, a higher human development index rating, and higher spending per primary school pupil than many of the countries that recorded better scores. The institute also raised questions over whether sufficiently skilled teachers were available to teach these basics.

Early childhood care

The government is planning a fourfold expansion of educational and care services for children under the age of six within the next three years. In his mid-term budget, Finance Minister Manuel recently announced a R7.9b cash injection for grade R (the reception year for primary school) for the three years to 2011, as well as R1.7b for early childhood development (ECD) over the same period. Research worldwide shows the first years of a child’s life are critical for all aspects of development and greatly affect the child’s chances of success later in life. In SA, almost 10% of the population is aged 0-4 years, yet only 15% of these children have access to ECD services.

New fund to save for tertiary education

In partnership with the private sector, Education Minister Pandor recently unveiled the pilot Fundisa Fund project which will give lower income earners an opportunity to save for their children’s education at colleges and university. Through this project, parents will be able to send their children to university or colleges by joining an investment scheme for only R40 per month. The three-year pilot fund will offer financial assistance to academically deserving students and parents will receive a bonus each year as a reward for saving for their children’s education. The education department has allocated R20m to the scheme and the National Student Financial Aids Scheme has committed R21m.

PhD project to strengthen corporate sectors

The National Research Foundation (NRF) supported by the department of science and technology has unveiled a South African Post-higher Degree (PhD) Project to strengthen the corporate and higher education sectors by increasing the numbers and diversity of appropriately skilled postgraduate professionals in the country. The PhD project will provide peer and mentor support networks to postgraduates as they initiate and progress through their studies and become professionals or leaders in their respective disciplines. The project aims to direct and encourage persons to appropriate PhD programmes through various mechanisms including:

  • securing and promoting foreign and local study opportunities;
  • offering competitive bursary packages to PhD and post-doctoral candidates;
  • hosting an annual PhD fair to expose potential candidates to PhD opportunities in SA and abroad;
  • promoting the professional advantages of obtaining a PhD through peer and mentor support groups; and
  • increasing the pipeline of potential candidates that can qualify for PhD studies.

The initiative aligns with the country’s National System of Innovation (NSI) and aims to position SA as a leader in knowledge production in all fields of scientific research, including social sciences, humanities, law, natural sciences and engineering and technology.

Programmes to curb smoking among learners

According to results of a research project carried out by the South African Medical Research Council, two experimental lifestyle programmes have had a significant effect on smoking rates among a group of South African high school learners. The two programmes used consisted of a life skills training programme based on a model used at thousands of schools in the USA with a strong emphasis on abstinence and resisting peer pressure and a ‘harm reduction’ programme based on the Australian ‘Keep Left’ initiative, which encourages young people to find ways of minimising the harm of smoking, by, for example, smoking fewer cigarettes. The two programmes were offered over a two-year period to about 3 200 Grade 8 learners at 24 schools in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The study found that while smoking rates in a control group of learners increased by 6% over the two years, the rate among those on the two programmes increased by only an average of 3%. There were, however, gender differences, ie, the programmes were more effective in holding back smoking rates among boys than among girls; and they were noticeably more effective among black/African, white and Asian/Indian learners than among coloured children, who had by far the highest smoking rates. Furthermore, it was found that the harm minimisation programme reduced the smoking rates among boys, while the life skills training programme reduced the smoking rates among girls.

Code of conduct for schools

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has proposed a code of conduct for schools, to be signed by parents, as one of the means to reduce violence in schools. According to DA spokeswoman on safety and security Dianne Kohler-Barnard, ‘the reasons (for the increase in crime in schools) are complex. On the one hand, it can be attributed to a failing police service, which simply doesn’t have the resources or the expertise to grapple with problems of this nature – especially something as complex as violence in schools. On the other hand, the state’s failure to deliver services properly means that where the public’s interests meet with the interests of the state, these institutions become the scene of conflict and tension.’ The DA’s action plan includes a code of conduct agreed to by parents, education and training for teachers in the management of difficult and disruptive pupils, including removing them from the school if the behaviour persists. The document also suggests that education and police authorities should develop a school violence database and ‘adopt-a-cop’ projects should be implemented at every school.

Long-distance learning via cellphone

Japanese-based Cyber University, the nation's only university to offer all classes only on the Internet, recently began offering a class on the mysteries of the pyramids on cellphones. For classes for personal computers, the lecturer downloads play on the monitor as text and images in the middle, and a smaller video of the lecturer shows in the corner, complete with sound. The cellphone version, however, which pops up as streaming video on the handset's tiny screen, plays just the Power Point images, while a professor's voice plays from the handset speakers. Cyber University, which opened in April with government approval to confer bachelor's degrees, has 1 850 students. Unlike other classes, the one on cellphones will be available to the public for free, although viewers must pay phone fees.

The link between reading and overall academic proficiency

A new report released in the USA shows that young Americans appear to be reading less for fun, resulting in declining reading test scores. At the same time, performance in other academic disciplines, such as maths and science is dipping for students whose access to books is limited, and employers are rating workers deficient in basic writing skills. The study also examined results from reading tests administered to adults and found a similar trend: The percentage of adults who are proficient in reading prose has fallen at the same time that the proportion of people who read regularly for pleasure has declined. While the statistics used in the report could not explain why reading had declined, several commonly accepted culprits were referred to, including the proliferation of digital diversions on the Internet and other gadgets, the failure of schools and colleges to develop a culture of daily reading habits, and ‘a society where the media does not recognise, celebrate or discuss reading, literature and authors.’ In the work place nearly 75% of employers polled rated reading comprehension as ‘very important’ for workers with two-year college degrees, and nearly 90% of employers said so for graduates of four-year college degrees. Better reading skills were also correlated with higher income.

Reasons for SA’s high university dropout rate

A study conducted jointly by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the Council on Higher Education (CHE), and funded by the Ford Foundation found that finances, poor school preparation and inadequate academic teaching and support are among the leading reasons cited by students who have dropped out. Some 80% of the 3 328 cited financial constraints, although this is a far greater factor for Africans and coloureds than for Indians and whites. When it comes to academic factors fuelling the dropout rate, there is generally more unanimity among racial groups. For instance, almost equal significance is given to the following reasons: ‘I realised that even with good [matric] symbols I could not cope with higher education study’; ‘I battled to learn all the new terminology and ‘think’ in my chosen field of study’; ‘The poor quality of teaching at the institution’; and ‘My lecturers were so inaccessible that I did not think I could approach them for help’. More than three-quarters of respondents cited difficulty with their institution’s language of instruction. Surprisingly, 70% of the students surveyed nevertheless found employment and raised sufficient funds to resume their interrupted studies.

Education Trends is compiled by the Institute for Futures Research.

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