Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande has condemned violence and destruction of property at several tertiary institutions.

Nzimande was addressing Parliament on Tuesday and speaking about the state of readiness for the 2020.  

The minister’s comments come in the wake of reports of violent protests at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of the Western Cape and the TUT in Pretoria.

“The beginning of this academic year has been marked by some violent student protests at a number of our institutions,” he said.

“In all these cases, my department has been working with them to address specific challenges. We wish to particularly condemn violence and destruction that has accompanied some of these protests. No matter how legitimate a complaint is, we must protect property and life at our institutions,” said Nzimande.

Earlier, Nzimande told the media that for students burdened with debt to register, they need only “sign an acknowledgement of debt form and meet the required academic targets to receive continued funding”. 

(Compiled by Charles Molele)

President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed sadness and concern following a bus accident which left 25 passengers killed and 61 injured in Centane Road, Eastern Cape.

Most of the deceased are said to be pensioners and school learners from the surrounding areas.

Ramaphosa has since directed Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula and the Provincial Government of the Eastern Cape to reach out to affected families and provide the necessary assistance, as well as to establish the factors that led to this tragedy.

“This is a sad day for the people of the Eastern Cape and our nation at large,” said Ramaphosa.

“This tragedy leaves our country deeply saddened and forces us to focus yet again on the need for transport providers and other road users to exercise care and consideration on our roads.”

“We must take care of one another as compatriots and, from this incident we see the need for us to be especially considerate towards elderly persons and children who depend on others to be conveyed around communities and the country.”

“Safer roads begin with safer attitudes and behaviour. This tragedy is, sadly, yet another wake-up call to all of us to ensure that we arrive alive and those who are entrusted to our care arrive alive.”

According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation, the bus was travelling on a gravel road near the Tafalofefe Hospital on Monday morning around 08:00 when it overturned, said RTMC spokesperson Simon Zwane.

“The Marcopolo bus was travelling from Chebe, picking passengers at locations along the road to Butterworth,” he said.

 Zwane said the driver reportedly lost control of the bus in the bushes down an embarkment.

Eastern Cape Department of Health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said they had dispatched two helicopters and ambulances after hearing about the accident between Mazeppa Bay and Cebe.

Mbalula told eNCA on Monday night that the RTMC officials were on the ground to investigate the cause of the bus accident.

“Forensics [officials] are also on the ground,” said Mbalula.  

We should be able to get a report as soon as possible. It is not business as usual for me. I want to know what happened. I suspect that the bus was overloaded.”

(Compiled by Charles Molele)

Aishat Babatunde

Renowned Nigerian academic and poet, Professor Harry Garuba, has died.

He was 61. Garuba passed away on Friday evening in South Africa, following a long illness.

A statement on Saturday by the University of Cape Town where the poet had taught for much of his career, announced his death.

The university, on its Facebook page, described Mr Garuba as ‘a masterful writer and poet’, ‘a luminary in the field of African literature and a champion of postcolonial theory and postcolonial literature.’

“His dedication to his field was critical in developing the UCT Centre for African Studies as a hub for research on the African continent.

“As part of the university’s Curriculum Change Working Group (CCWG), Professor Garuba was committed to developing thinking about what a decolonised curriculum would look like in Africa and the global south and what a multicultural curriculum would look like in the West,” the statement read.

As a revered academic, Mr Garuba was praised for his scholarly contribution to the canons of African studies and literature with his warm personality and empathy for his students.

The Acting Vice-Chancellor of UCT , Lis Lange, remembered Mr Garuba as ‘a genuine person who dedicated his time to moving the university forward and supporting his students.’

“His passing is a great loss to the university and the transformation project, but we must continue this important work in his absence and build on the foundation he has left,” she said in the statement

The statement said details of the funeral and memorial service would be shared as the university expressed its condolences to the Garuba family.

‘Humble beginning’

Born in Akure, Ondo State in 1958, Mr Garuba was a literary prodigy.

He was still a teenager when his one-act play Pantomime for Saint Apartheid’s Day was published in the Festac Anthology of Nigerian New Writing, a publication compiled on the occasion of the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, held in Lagos in 1977.

He was seventeen when he began his undergraduate studies in English at the University of Ibadan where he would later bag both his Master’s and Doctoral degrees.

While he was a student at the university, he founded ‘The Poetry Club’ which met every Thursday. It was at the club that poets like Afam Akeh, Remi Raji, Onookome Okome, Chiedu Ezeanah, Bose Shabah, Sanya Osha, Niyi Okunoye first planted their seeds of literary creativity.

He published his first academic book, Mask and Meaning in Black Drama: Africa and the Diaspora, in 1988. He taught at the university for fifteen years before migrating to South Africa to teach in the English Department at the University of Zululand.

In 1988, he edited the collection Voices from the Fringe: An ANA Anthology of New Nigerian Poetry.

In 2001, he moved to the University of Cape Town, where he taught in the African Studies and English departments until 2019, and published widely in the fields of African and postcolonial literature.

Meanwhile, in 2017, he published a second collection of his own poetry, Animist Chants and Memorials.

In addition to being an author and poet, Mr Garuba was a member of the editorial advisory board of the Heinemann African Writers Series and one of the editors of the journal Postcolonial Text.

He also served as acting dean of the Faculty of Humanities from February to December 2017, and held research fellowships at the University of Texas at Austin, Harvard University and Emory University.

In late 2019, he wrote a blurb about the emphemerality of life and the permanence of art in Wreaths for a Wayfarer, an anthology of poems in honour of late Nigeria scholar, Pius Adesanmi.

‘Literary Luminary’

The immediate-past National President, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Denja Abdullah, described the poet as a literary luminary to crops of young talented writers Nigeria is currently proud of.

“He was a great teacher and influence to many young writers of today.

“His contribution to African scholarship is highly eminent and goes beyond mere mentions.

“He will be greatly missed,” Mr Abdullah told PREMIUM TIMES.

Mr Garuba is survived by his immediate family in Cape Town, his wife, Zazi, son, Ruona (20), and daughter, Zukina (14).

• SOURCE: PREMIUM TIMES

South Africa’s higher education sector has experienced turmoil in recent years. Some of it stems from students’ financial woes. Some relates to experiences of alienation in the country’s universities.

Some students, most of them black, have also rebelled against what they see as Eurocentric instruction. As a result, South Africa’s academic institutions are starting to recognise they can’t exclude African knowledge traditions and histories from their curricula.

Apartheid in South Africa excluded black people from most universities. Twenty five years after the end of apartheid, power relations still reflect inequalities and colonial values. As scholars Ronelle Carolissen and Peace Kiguwa argue, experiences of alienation or belonging are shaped by power relations within institutions. As they argue:

In South Africa black students… despite (their) legitimate student status… continue to experience their rights within universities as conditional, contingent, marginal and circumscribed by the terms of the other.

This sense of exclusion has its roots in the country’s past. Many students are the first in their family to go to university. Their parents and the generations before them were excluded from higher education, or were unable to afford it. This means that many students aren’t accustomed to tertiary institutional cultures.

My research aimed to find sources of knowledge that help create more inclusive curricula and learning experiences. The goal was to help students feel they belong in South Africa’s universities.

For example, precolonial social and economic organisation seldom features in commerce and political science curricula. And knowledge about trade, agriculture and economics during Africa’s precolonial phase is overshadowed by models inherited from the Global North.

The research

My study considered possible roles that African knowledge systems could play in diversifying knowledge in universities. I found a useful resource in the form of a book about indigenous African institutions by the Ghanaian scholar George Ayittey.

Ayittey is a rich source of African history and insights that can balance Eurocentric modes of knowledge generation. His book highlights African ways of using human and natural resources in all kinds of activity, from agriculture to communal governance, trade or medicine. Examples include:

• Social sciences: Africa has rich and ample examples of poetry and oral histories accessed through izibongi (praise poets) and elders.
• Trade: Reviving precolonial and cross-border trading nodes could stimulate economic growth and reopen dormant African markets that were used for centuries.
• Medicine: Traditional healers have ancient knowledge of plants which researchers can study.

In well-researched detail, Ayittey sets out the thinking behind social organisation as well as scientific and social pursuits in every region of the continent. He shows how Africa’s precolonial societies were not all alike. Community structures were diverse and ranged from hunter-gatherers to monarchies and village confederacies.

Few scholars have matched the comprehensiveness of Ayittey’s book. He has been invited to economic forums around the world by people who want to learn more about African knowledge systems. Organisations such as the Institute for Security Studies recognise his contribution to the reconstruction of Africa’s social systems. They also note that indigenous ways of organisation have the potential to help prevent and resolve conflict.

Exposing students to this knowledge will give them a greater appreciation of local systems. It will counter any idea of precolonial Africa as a continent that lacks philosophy, culture and systems of social organisation.

University’s responsibilities

African universities have a responsibility to resurrect the continent’s knowledge archives. Not only can they share knowledge practices as highlighted by Ayittey’s book, academics can use multiple languages in teaching and learning. Allowing students to incorporate their own languages into coursework can help students access the African knowledge archive.

Languages reflect cultures. By welcoming all South African languages, university curricula can reduce students’ experiences of alienation and cultivate an environment of community.

Going forward

Ayittey’s book is only one perspective of precolonial Africa. But it reintroduces principles of social and knowledge organisation that were lost in South African universities.

But curricula that draw on Ayittey’s text shouldn’t be presented in an exclusive way. African knowledge and precolonial modes of organisation should be taught alongside philosophies and theories that are used by established scholars worldwide.

Applying Ayittey’s text to mainstream instruction is only one of the methods curriculum designers and instructors can use. But it’s a good resource for incorporating African knowledge systems and organisation into learning experiences.

• THE CONVERSATION

MEC for Education Panyaza has welcomed a decision by Gauteng to release the performances of primary schools, as is tradition with the annual matric results.

For the first time since the dawn of a new democracy, parents in Gauteng will get a picture of which primary schools are the best in the province.

Lesufi said he was excited about the move as it was imperative to monitor and enhance the performance of learners in the foundation phases.  

“We are looking forward to the assessment report to be released by the Premier on this issue,” said Lesufi.

Gauteng Premier David Makhura made this announcement on Tuesday during his State of the Province Address at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University in Ga-Rankuwa, North of Pretoria. .

He said his government would be releasing an assessment report of primary schools in due course.

“We have completed the assessment of all the primary schools in the public education system and are ready to publicly release the report in keeping with the commitment we made,” said Makhura.

“Most of the problems of our basic education system derive from the weaknesses of the foundation phases and primary schools. Poor performance in the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, as well as Accounting and Economics should be addressed through interventions from ECD to Grade 7.”

“It is for this reason that we made a pronounced that over the next decade more attention will also be given to the strengthening of the foundation phases and improving the overall performance of all primary schools in Gauteng.”

Makhura said the government is ready to invest not only in high school education but in early childhood development as well.

Gauteng received the second-highest matric pass rate in the country, achieving an 87.2%.

Makhura said ECD centres have been neglected for too long.

“The provincial government will support 700,000 children aged 0-4 years in early childhood development centres across the province. We will do this by providing funding, curriculum development and training of teachers,” said Makhura.  

“We want all crèches operating in Gauteng to comply with the ECD norms and standards and follow the approved curriculum so that they can offer our children a proper foundation, including numeracy, digital literacy and inclusionary education.”

(Compiled by Charles Molele)

Kobus Maree

The world of work is changing constantly, profoundly, and faster. This is clear from the outsourcing of work, waves of technological advances, increasing automation in business, and big data analysis driving the growth of industries.

The needs of industry are shifting constantly and the education system should be responding to provide needs-based support.

Education theorists, researchers, practitioners, and policy makers have to remember that the occupational situation differs from country to country. They also need to remember that changing work contexts are influencing employees and job-seekers in distinct ways. Work is becoming increasingly more complex. This means that there’s a growing need for lifelong learning, teamwork, and networking as well as an increased emphasis on digital skills to promote career adaptability and employability.

They also have to bear in mind that the industrial sector is shrinking. Accordingly, work-seekers in the Global South have been turning to the service sector as well as to the informal economy with a fair amount of success. This trend is likely to continue.

The issue is whether education systems are keeping pace with the changes.

Gateway subjects

To understand whether young South Africans have the skills required by the current world of work after 12 years in school I use the lens of the so-called gateway subjects. These are maths and physical sciences and, to an extent, accounting. These form the foundation for scientific, economic, and industrial development and research.

Multiple educationists and researchers have contended that learners who’ve passed maths and physical sciences and have acquired the basic aspects of information communication skills and robotics have a competitive advantage in the occupational world over those that have not. South Africa simply cannot afford the unacceptably low percentage of school learners who pass Grade 12 with mathematics and physical sciences.

Why the emphasis on maths and physical sciences?

Having passed Grade 12 with maths and physical sciences helps because these subjects contribute at least 22% to the economy. Likewise, having passed either information communication technology or even computer-assisted technology helps to advance the economy by reducing production costs, boosting the growth of new businesses, and improving communication.

It also helps to acquire “soft skills” such as career adaptability, emotional-social intelligence, career resilience, creativity, innovation, and the ability to collaborate and to network, among other things. These skills are increasingly being seen as “hard skills” in the 21st century workplace because they’re strongly aligned with market needs.

Unfortunately, they aren’t being taught and learned adequately at school.

South Africa’s overly academic school system

A number of problems afflict South Africa’s education system.

Black learners continue to feel the effects of apartheid’s education system which spent more on education for white learners. This means that the vast majority of black learners in the neediest environments get inadequate teaching and learning.

Unless the disparity between rich children and poor children is addressed, the gap between the achievements of learners in well-resourced schools and disadvantaged learners in resource-scarce schools will persist.

The effects of this disparity are felt for the rest of the pupils’ lives. One consequence is that they they struggle to succeed in university studies.

An added difficulty is that the country’s overly academic school system sends the message to learners and their parents that learners should strive to study at a university and that it is ‘better’ to study at a university than, for instance, at a TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) College.

I’m in favour of introducing a system that facilitates differentiated training from an early stage.

At the end of grade nine – at about 15 years old – most learners are already able decide whether they want to pursue academic or more vocational studies. This is the point where the system should start channelling them in career-related directions that will give them their best chance of eventually pursuing careers that “fit” their personalities – including their interests and aptitudes and enable them to enact their central life themes.

Another key factor that needs to be addressed is the matter of inadequate career counselling for pupils – black learners especially. During apartheid, the disadvantaged black majority of students were denied access to career counselling in schools. Even today, the vast majority of black learners still receive little career counselling at school and cannot afford to pay a career counsellor.

Funding should be made available by the government and employers to enable learners to consult career counsellors. Group-based career counselling is a viable solution to the challenge of providing career counselling in schools with large numbers of pupils.

Solutions

I maintain that there are solutions for these challenges. What’s needed is the will to use resources that are available and to move forward expeditiously.

To help narrow the disparity gap I’ve argued in favour of making it compulsory for graduating teachers and educational psychologists to do community service in rural areas and townships. These professionals must be given incentives, their safety must be ensured, and they must be paid a decent salary.

Another step that could be taken is to rehire the many teachers who have been retrenched or who have taken severance package deals.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION

(Kobus Maree is Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Pretoria)

Can you name the countries where humanitarian emergencies have forced millions of children out of school? You’d probably come up with the likes of Syria and Yemen, maybe South Sudan.

But would you think of Chad and Ethiopia? While other conflict-torn countries grab the global headlines, the “hidden” crises can be just as devastating. Here are some startling facts:

CHAD: 1.2 million children aged six to 11 are out of school because of a long-running and complex crisis. Only one in 10 girls complete middle school. 

ETHIOPIA: One million children are out of school because of conflicts and natural disasters that have damaged more than 700 schools.

These youngsters are among 75 million children and youth whose education is disrupted by humanitarian emergencies around the globe. 

“In Chad, Ethiopia and other crisis-affected countries, children’s lives have been ripped apart by conflict, forced displacement, climate change impacts and protracted crises,” said Yasmine Sherif, Director of the Education Cannot Wait fund. “We must not leave these children behind. They all have the right to develop and thrive.”

When wars, displacement and natural disasters strike, education is crucial to help children deal with trauma and return to a normal life. But only five years ago, education in emergencies was overlooked and underfunded – with less than 2% of humanitarian aid going to schooling.

Then Theirworld led the way in calling on world leaders to create an urgent fund for education in emergencies. We launched a #SafeSchools campaign and – after months of campaigning by us and other leading charities – Education Cannot Wait (ECW) was launched in 2016.

“In the beginning, there were few partners advocating for a new fund for education in emergencies – in fact many were skeptical,” said Justin van Fleet, President of Theirworld.

“But at Theirworld, we built a grassroots movement led by our Global Youth Ambassadors and joined by like-minded organisations which pushed hard until we reached the World Humanitarian Summit where Education Cannot Wait was inaugurated.”

Fast forward to 2020 … and ECW has reached more than 2.3 million girls and boys in 30 countries and raised over $500 million. This month it has invested $48 million by launching multi-year programmes in Chad and Ethiopia with the governments and partners, which help almost one million children into school. 

ECW now has a proven model in 10 crisis-affected countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Palestine, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Uganda.

“At Theirworld, we’re now focused on filling the gaps that still remain, and that’s why we partnered with Education Cannot Wait and Nationale Postcode Loterij to deliver education where international partners have failed to step in, starting with the Greek Islands emergency,” added van Fleet.

Theirworld’s project with Education Cannot Wait is allowing partner organisations to send 5,500 vulnerable refugee children to school on the Greek Aegean Islands.

In Chad, the problems are different but the effects are the same. Ongoing violence, population displacement, the effects of climate change and widespread poverty and hunger in the Lake Chad Basin has resulted in 4.3 million people needing humanitarian assistance. One result is that only 19% of girls and 40% of boys access lower secondary school education. 

ECW plans to allocate a total of $21 million over three years in seed funding grants to catalyse the additional $30 million required to fully fund the three-year programme and reach 230,000 girls and boys.

Chad’s Education Minister Aboubakar Assidick Tchoroma said: “With generous funding from Education Cannot Wait, this new programme will reach girls and boys that have been left behind as the result of ongoing crises and emergency in the region. It’s an investment in our children and in a more prosperous future for the country.” 

The Chad initiative will reintegrate out-of-school girls and boys into learning and training programmes, train teachers, provide psychosocial and school feeding services, support early childhood education and increase school enrolment and retention.

In Ethiopia, ECW plans to allocate a total of $27 million in seed funding grants to catalyse the additional $138 million needed to fund the three-year $165 million programme and reach 746,000 crisis-affected children.

To help address the country’s high drop-out rates at Grade 1, the programme will focus on early childhood education – providing improved opportunities for 213,000 pre-primary and 532,000 primary school-aged children.

“This multi-year investment from Education Cannot Wait will help address one of the most important, yet often overlooked, needs for vulnerable children and youth in times of crisis,” said Ethiopian Education Minister Dr Tilaye Gete. 

“By building a programmatic response that brings together multiple stakeholders including the local community, this is a sustainable investment in the future of our children and in the prosperity of our country.

SOURCE: THEIRWORLD.COM

Lisa Boonzaier

The University of Cape Town has been ranked 10th in the world and the best in Africa, according to the 2020 Times Higher Education (THE) Emerging Economies University Rankings, a relative ranking of 533 universities in 47 countries with emerging economies.

While these rankings use the same 13 performance indicators as for the THE World University Rankings to assess institutions across their teaching, research, research impact, industry income and international outlook, the indicators are recalibrated to reflect the characteristics and priorities of universities in emerging economies. More weighting is given to a university’s industry links and international outlook, for example.

Compared to last year, when UCT was placed 9th in the same rankings, the university’s scores increased in the teaching, research and citation categories, pointing to the growing impact and influence of UCT in these areas.

“While it uses the same 13 performance indicators as the THE World University Rankings … the indicators are recalibrated to reflect the characteristics and priorities of universities in emerging economies.”

Scores for the international outlook categories dropped only slightly, indicating UCT remains a destination of choice for international students. Despite a small drop in the industry income category score, this remains one of UCT’s strongest categories, reflecting UCT’s research impact and contribution to industry.

China led the rankings with seven universities in the top 10. Tsinghua University maintained overall top position with Peking University again taking second place. Russia, South Africa and Taiwan are the only other countries represented in the top 10.

The rankings include institutions classified by the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE Group as “advanced emerging”, “secondary emerging” or “frontier”.

Last year, UCT jumped up 20 places to 136th position in the 2020 THE World University Rankings, which assessed almost 1 400 institutions worldwide. This put UCT in the top spot in the country and the continent.

SOURCE: UCT NEWS

Charles Molele

Higher Education, Science and Technology minister Blade Nzimande has welcomed the establishment of the new university of science and innovation in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.

This follows an announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his state of the nation address last Thursday, where he also promised to resolve shortage of student accommodation at universities and other institutions of higher learning.

Although a formal name has not been agreed upon yet, an interim name of the OR Tambo University of Science and Innovation was being used.

The curriculum design would focus on engineering, agriculture, logistics, aviation and aerospace studies, as well as design

Ekurhuleni is the only metro in South Africa without a university.  

“We believe that this location, together with fresh new challenges arising from the revolution in science and technology in the third decade of the 21st century, offers an opportunity for a new initiative to provide cutting-edge science and technology innovations across crucial areas such as Data Science, Machine-Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Block Chain, Robotics, Hydrogen-powered technologies including smart transportation and logistics systems,” said Nzimande.  

Nzimande said he would outline all the details on the establishment of the University during the upcoming Departmental Budget Vote 2020 later this year. 

Nzimande also welcomed Ramaphosa’s announcement of R64 billion to be set aside for student accommodation.

“We are currently developing large projects comprising of 7 273 new beds at various universities, where there is gross shortage of student accommodation,” said Nzimande. 

Nzimande said that from the 2019/20 Historically Disadvantaged Institutions Development Grant, R147.674 million for the Mangosuthu University of Technology, University of Venda and the Walter Sisulu University recommended allocations will be allocated.

“For the two new universities of Sol Plaatjie and Mpumalanga, 2 331 beds have been funded from the New Universities Infrastructure Grant to the amount of R772.950 million,” said Nzimande.

“We have made strides by commencing the building of nine (9) new TVET colleges campus sites scheduled for completion in 2020. They include Sterkspruit, Aliwal North, Graaff Reneit, Ngungqushe, Umzimkhulu, Greytown, Msinga, Nongoma and Kwagqikazi. Construction will commence with a new campus site for Mitchells Plain in 2020.”