THE Ministers of Basic Education and Minerals and Energy have officially unveiled a newly built world-class Waterkloof Hills Combined School in the mining community of Rustenburg, North West.

This comes after Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) and the North West Department of Education (NWDoE) entered into an agreement in 2019, on an equal financial contribution basis, to construct a much-needed primary and secondary school to the tune of R140 million.

According to the departments, R58 million went to local sub-contractors, while R7.3 million was spent on local suppliers.

The two schools are located within the Waterkloof Hills Estate, RBPlat’s flagship employee housing development that offers employees family housing in a secure lifestyle estate.

Minerals and Energy Minister, Gwede Mantashe, has described the school that prides itself on 32 smart classrooms, a multi-function room and science laboratories, as a state-of-the-art project.

“The infrastructure helps develop children and transform the future of our country,” he said on Friday.

The school will be a new home to 2 155 learners, 1 280 in primary and 875 in secondary school.

Additional school facilities include a 1 100 capacity school hall, 256 parking bays, a security gate, sports fields, libraries, sickrooms and dining halls.

“In the mining industry, we have something called a Social and Labour Plan, a concept of mining companies investing where mining companies operate. It’s a fee they pay for their survival and protection, and not a favour,” he explained.

Mantashe encouraged other mining companies to follow RBPlat’s example, invest in meaningful projects and pay for their “social licence” to communities where they extract minerals.

“We must change the view that all mining companies do is leave big holes in the ground and disappear. What we are dealing with in Krugersdorp is the legacy of mining, where mines leave holes and now have no owners, and we as the department, must seal those holes.”

However, according to Mantashe, it is high time mines do better.

“A project must have an impact on a community. We make that point because we saw a trend where companies were building small community halls and disappear. It doesn’t make an impact,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, the Department of Basic Education said it welcomes the construction of Waterkloof Hills Combined School, as it ensures that the infrastructural improvements are in line with norms and standards.

RBPlat CEO, Steve Phiri, said the schools will not only serve their employees’ children but also those who live in the surrounding communities.

“Our purpose has always been to create economic value that can be shared with all our stakeholders and this project offers a legacy of sustainable benefits, through quality education, for the next generation of leaders in our communities,” said Phiri.

Meanwhile, North West Department of Education MEC, Mmaphefo Matsemela, said she believes that it takes a village to raise a child.

“It means that we cannot succeed alone and without the involvement of all other stakeholders. We are extremely grateful for the RBPlat partnership, which reflects a good example of a successful public-private partnership, which is always encouraged by government,” she said.

SA NEWS

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA|

IT has been a tragic start to Women’s Month. Last week, we were once more confronted with the dark and ugly side of our society.

On Thursday, a group of men and women shooting a music video at a disused mine near Krugersdorp were attacked by armed assailants who gang raped eight of the women.

These horrible acts of brutality are an affront to the right of women and girls to live and work in freedom and safety.

While they pursue the suspects in this crime, the South African Police Service must also pay immediate attention to the concerns of the community of West Village, where the incident occurred, who say they are under siege from armed gangs in the area.

Rapists have no place in our society. We call upon communities to work with the police to ensure that these criminals are apprehended and prosecuted. Our communities must not shelter criminals in their midst.

There is always someone in our communities who knows something, who heard something or who even witnessed something. The problem is many of us choose to keep quiet because the perpetrator is a friend, a partner or a colleague. Or we are just afraid and fear victimisation. It is important to remember that all tip-offs received by the SAPS Crime Stop contact centre are treated confidentiality.

I call on anyone who has information about this crime to report it to the authorities so the perpetrators can be arrested.

Given the size of this problem in our country, it is no longer possible to avoid responsibility for reporting sex crimes.

According to a new legal provision that came into effect yesterday, 31 July 2022, in addition to our moral obligation, we all now have a legal duty to report to authorities when we have knowledge, reasonable belief or suspicion that a sexual offence has been committed against a vulnerable person. It is now a crime not to report such a sexual offence.

This is part of one of three laws that I signed earlier this year that strengthen the fight against gender-based violence and offer greater support and protection to survivors.

Among other things, the laws expand the scope of the National Register of Sex Offenders, strengthen the vetting process, and introduce additional categories of sex offences.

Processes are underway to put these laws into effect. These include training of prosecutors and magistrates, issuing directives on bail to all SAPS officials, and revising charge sheets to include the newly created offences.

We are determined that all these building blocks are in place so that our law enforcement authorities and courts can investigate and prosecute gender-based violence more effectively.

Gender-based violence and femicide is a deep-rooted societal problem.

It is not enough for perpetrators to be apprehended, tried, convicted and sentenced.

We must work together to address the drivers of gender-based violence in our communities, including patriarchal attitudes and practices.

Eradicating gender-based violence demands that we act together as a people.

This means promoting positive attitudes around gender equality in our communities, at our places of worship and in our own homes. As men, we should demonstrate our intolerance to sexism, patriarchy and gender-based violence in how we treat our partners, colleagues, mothers, sisters and daughters.

Whether as individuals, organisations, businesses or employers, we must be part of the national effort in every way we can, whether volunteering at a shelter, supporting community policing forums or joining awareness campaigns in our schools.

Just as gender-based violence is all of society’s problem, it is all of society’s responsibility to bring it to a decisive end.

We have made a start, but as the terrible crimes in Krugersdorp remind us, we need to do much more and we need to act with greater urgency and purpose.

From the desk of the President

THE ruling African National Congress (ANC) has once again reiterated calls for a comprehensive review of the education and training system in South Africa following its policy conference at the weekend.

The sixth ANC National Policy Conference was held at the NASREC Expo Centre South of Johannesburg from Friday until Sunday.

The governing party said that since 1994 the South African education system still does not foster a culture of creativity and has failed to encourage the country’s youth to pursue entrepreneurship.

The South African education system is also characterised by crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms and relatively poor educational outcomes.

The policy meeting called for the basic education sector working with the Higher Education and Training sector and the National Treasury to urgently submit a comprehensive review of the education and training system to the ANC.

The report was due for submission in April 2019.

The conference said, however, that it has noted good progress being made in the speeding up of the implementation of Operation Phakisa in Education, the Presidential Programme on ICT in schools.

Delegates said that the greatest challenges remain in rural areas where many areas do not have connectivity because of lack of ICT infrastructure and systems.

Delegates also called for the protection of public facilities and infrastructure, saying they were deeply concerned schools continue to be vandalised across the country, particularly in Eastern Cape, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

The party also said it has noted that the infrastructure programme has not performed at its best.

It also added that the Basic Education sector has not provided the ANC with details of the delivery of infrastructure against targets.

“On the average, 27 schools are delivered per annum through the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI),” said the ANC.

“The poor performance of infrastructure programmes and recurrent low expenditure have led to the decrease in budgetary allocations to
provinces.”

“At the current pace of infrastructure delivery maintenance, the current backlog of school infrastructure will not be eradicated.”

The conference also said it has noted the relocation of Early Childhood Development to the Department of Basic Education, adding that a lot of work was done, including putting systems in place to ensure that policies, laws and regulations are in place.

The transfer of the ECD from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Basic Education took place on 01 April 2022.

The conference reported that poor progress has been made by Basic Education, Departments of Social Development and Health to optimise Early Childhood Development with great emphasis on children with special needs.

INSIDE EDUCATION

SOUTH Africa needs to increase the number of researchers and technicians it has at its disposal if it wants to remain globally competitive in innovation.

This was one of the key issues raised in the 2022 South African Science, Technology And Innovation Indicators Report, published by the Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation on Friday (29 July).

Minister in charge of that department, Blade Nzimande said that the number of researchers employed in research and development (R&D) in South Africa has been on the decline since 2018, as has the number of technicians employed in R&D.

The proportion of technicians to researchers employed in R&D decreased from 32.8% in 2014/15 to 24.3% in 2019/20, and employment in R&D in the business sector declined by slightly more than one-fifth, he said.

“A critical component of a well-functioning innovation system is human capital across all the science, technology and innovation (STI) activities,” the department said.

“Previously, much of the focus was on researchers carrying out R&D activities in South Africa. However, technicians are important for the integration and translation of research ideas into demonstrators and other tangible R&D outputs. Hence, the number of researchers employed in R&D are analysed along with the technicians employed in R&D.”

The department pointed to a steady increase in researchers employed in R&D between 2010 and 2017. However, since 2017, the numbers have declined.

While South Africa’s number of researchers in 2019 (28,358) was 51.5% more than in 2010 (18,720), it said the country needs to up the number of researchers of all races to increase its innovation potential.

The upside to the latest data is that transformation is taking place in South Africa’s STI landscape, the department said.

There is an increase in the percentage of African researchers, from 26.7% in 2010 to 35.6% in 2019. However, there is a declining trend among white researchers in the country.

While the percentage of white researchers has declined, the absolute number of white researchers was in fact on the increase from 14,789 in 2010 to 15,795 in 2017. However, the numbers dropped back to 14,890 in 2018 and further to 14,224 in 2019.

The proportion of both coloured and Indian researchers increased marginally between 2010 and 2018, the department said.

When it comes to technicians, a more troubling picture emerges.

The number of technicians employed in R&D has been on the decline since 2015. As a result, the proportion of technicians to researchers has decreased from a high of 32.8% in 2014 to 24.3% in 2019.

“The decline in the percentage and number of technicians employed in R&D should be interpreted in the context of the movement of R&D in South Africa from the business sector to higher education, with more focus on basic research,” the department said.

However, even taking into account the migration from business to academics, the number of technicians employed in R&D by the higher education sector is also very low, it said.

Nzimande said that following the 2020 and 2021 Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s National System of Innovation has been “stretched to its limits”, which impacts the country’s ability to compete internationally.

“South Africa’s innovation performance is falling behind other middle-income countries with regard to outputs such as patents and high technology exports. South Africa performs better in innovation inputs than innovation outputs. Considering its level of innovation investment, the country produces few innovation outputs,” he said.

The resolve the issue, he said that his department will focus on the 2019 White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation, which aims to future-proof education and skills as one of its core pillars.

The government is trying to strengthen a future-ready workforce at both the foundational and further education levels through restructuring curriculae and introducing a broader range of subjects and courses.

BUSINESS TECH

ALMOST half of South Africa’s teachers are going to have to retire in the next 10 years, says Julian Hewitt, chief executive officer of the educator bursary programme, the Jake Gerwell Fellowship.

Speaking to 702, Hewitt said that the Department of Education’s payroll showed that the country’s schools are expected to run out of highly skilled teachers.

The latest Jake Gerwell Fellowship annual report shows that 45% of all government-employed teachers will retire in the next decade – pointing to a potential teacher crisis.

“At least half the teachers in South Africa are in their 50s at the moment, and the retirement age is 60, so there is a looming crisis.”

This is compounded by the other major challenge facing the industry, being that there is poor uptake in teaching as a career of choice, said Hewitt. According to the fellowship, a recent OECD survey revealed that only 49% of teachers in South Africa regard teaching as their first-choice career.

This is significantly lower than international standards, said Hewitt.

A shortage of skilled educators due to retirement was previously raised by private higher education institution, Mancosa, which said that South Africa is not graduating an adequate number of teachers to meet the supply and demand.

“More teachers are leaving than entering the profession. Currently, the country’s initial teacher institutions graduate 15,000 new teachers per year. This is below the 25,000-mark required to maintain an effective teacher-pupil ratio,” said professor Magnate Ntombela, principal of Mancosa.

“There is a dire need to find 20,000 newly-qualified teachers each year to maintain current teacher-pupil ratios,” he said.

More graduates

The Department of Basic Education has previously responded to claims of a skills crisis in teaching, saying that the number of new teaching graduates is increasing every year.

“The number of initial teacher education graduates has grown over the last 10 years from an output of about 7,973 in 2010 to 31,799 in 2020,” it said.

The 25,000 graduates mark was reached in 2017, it said, adding that the current enrolment trends point to the upward trajectory in graduation numbers.

The output of graduates is favoured towards the Senior/Further Education and Training Phases (SP/FET) – partly because the two qualification pathways allow for SP/FET to qualify through both the Bachelor of Education (BEd) and Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) while Foundation Phase (FP) is largely limited to BEd pathway, the department said.

The average teacher attrition rate over is 15,200 a year – largely due to retirement, but also because of resignations, ill health and death, the department said.

The teacher supply in terms of quantity is reasonably adequate, the department said, at least from the analysis of the situation in public education.

Earnings

The department’s latest information on how much the average teacher varies between post levels.

The lowest entry-level salary for educators that meet the minimum qualification (Relative Equivalent Qualification Value 13) or a matric pass plus three years of study is R214,908.

However, an educator who studied for four years earns R284,238 annually. This salary can increase gradually with experience and age.

According to the Department of Education, age does affect the earnings of a teacher; however, a promotion to a higher post could lead to a quicker increase in earnings.

BUSINESS TECH

Stéphane Verguet, Harvard University

HUNDREDS of millions of children worldwide attend class every day. With such a wide reach, schools can effectively deliver a vast array of interventions such as immunisations and hygiene education. They can greatly improve the health of the students, who will learn better as a result.

School feeding programmes are among these interventions. They take a variety of forms, either targeting the poorest and most marginalised communities or universally covering all public schools in a given country. They are deployed daily, often within broader school health and nutrition programmes, and reach hundreds of millions of children every day.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed how important school feeding programmes are in achieving equality in health and education. School closures pushed millions of children away from learning – numerous students dropped out. This means they were also excluded from the health, nutritional and developmental benefits of receiving a daily meal, as well as the social protection it affords.

The African Union, the European Union, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and more than 65 countries have now gathered behind the School Meals Coalition, which aims to expand national school feeding programmes worldwide. The coalition set up the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition, of which I am part.

The Research Consortium is charged with generating scientific evidence to guide the roll-out of effective national school health and school feeding programmes. One of its focus areas is quantifying the returns of these programmes across multiple sectors, including health, education, social protection and agriculture. To quantify the returns, it’s necessary to assess the programmes’ value for money, equity and gender impact.

Value for money of school feeding programmes

It’s costly to run school feeding programmes. But there are also potentially very large multi-sectoral returns. In a global value-for-money study, we developed a benefit-cost analysis framework that drew from secondary data on school feeding programmes in 14 countries, at various economic levels. Latin America, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa were included.

We looked at the impact and return on investment in four sectors: health and nutrition, education, social protection, and the local agricultural economy.

• School feeding programmes are beneficial for health and nutrition. For instance, they can reduce anaemia and worm burdens, which are highly prevalent among poor children. These diseases pose long-term health and education challenges. Their reduction shows the possible magnitude of the health and nutrition benefits of school feeding programmes.
• School feeding programmes yield gains for the education sector. For example, they can increase school attendance and academic performance. This would permit major wage gains into the future adult working lives of students. A review found that one additional year of education could result in up to around 9% increased lifetime earnings.
• School feeding programmes, in giving a free meal, confer social protection to households and families, especially to the poorest. To translate this into a social protection impact, we can estimate the monetary value of the meals which families would not have to pay for.
• School feeding programmes can help develop local agricultural economies by boosting local farming activities. For this impact, one can compute the number of smallholder farmers who would produce food to sustain local school feeding programmes.

All these multi-sectoral returns can be either expressed as or converted into monetary values.

Return on investment

Our analysis showed that school feeding programmes present high value for money, and can lead to very large multi-sectoral returns. There could be considerable variations between countries depending on local contexts like burden of disease, wages, the costs of feeding a child, and the extent of farming and inequalities. Yet the benefits of having school feeding programmes far exceed the costs.

The overall benefit-cost ratio of school feeding programmes would vary between $7 and $35 from each $1 of investment. The benefit is much greater across several sectors than for just one standalone sector.

Going forward

National school health and school feeding programmes are critically important for the human capital accumulation of children and adolescents. They urgently need to be scaled up worldwide.

Increased attention needs to be devoted to how to decentralise and foster long-term, home-grown school feeding initiatives to ensure local sustainability.

THE CONVERSATION

STAFF REPORTER|

LEARNERS at Curro Heritage House in Morningside, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, are getting used to having a doctor in the classroom, after their teacher Caitlin Sam, graduated with a PhD in Information Technology from Durban University of Technology (DUT) last month.

Proving that is possible to be both a teacher and a learner, the 34-year-old mathematics teacher and academic head embarked on her studies in 2020 during the hard lockdown.

Not wanting her personal goals to come at the detriment of her learners, Dr. Sam made the brave choice to continue teaching whilst studying, and in doing so sacrificed her personal free time and plenty of sleep.

It has all been worth it though, especially as she was able to use her ten years of teaching experience to form the basis of her thesis, which investigated how the use of social computing in school-based learning could help benefit learners.

She now hopes the findings can be used to inform the way South African learners are taught in the future.

“During the lockdown, I realised that so many South African learners were unable to access uncapped Wi-Fi and were relying on costly data to connect to their Learning Management System. I really want to change this, so I used my thesis to establish if using social computing platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube can help remote teach learners, with Data Mining, Intelligent Decision Support Systems and Artificial Intelligence as tools,” explains Dr Sam.

As a Bachelor of Science Honours, Post Graduate Certificate in Education, and Masters in Business Administration graduate, Dr Sam prides herself in lifelong learning and has always been passionate about mathematics, artificial intelligence, and information technology.
As well as being a great role model to her learners, she is now looking forward to putting her newly acquired qualification to good use at Curro, leading learners into a rapidly changing digital era.

“We are incredibly proud of Dr Sam’s fantastic achievement. At Curro, we are always looking for ways to inspire and motivate our learners and Dr Sam is a shining example of what can be achieved if you are passionate, work hard and stay focussed. We especially appreciate her dedication to her learners during this challenging time. Her commitment and sacrifice is something everyone at our school can aspire to,” said Arthee Rajkumar, Executive Head at Curro Heritage House.

Dr. Caitlin Sam’s full thesis can be found here: Intelligent decision support systems for managing the diffusion of social computing in school-based ubiquitous learning | DUT Open Scholar.

INSIDE EDUCATION|