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Tanzania: Govt Employs 6,495 new teachers

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Tanzania: Govt Employs 6,495 new teachers

Alawi Masare

The government said on Wednesday that it has employed 6,495 teachers for both secondary and primary schools to fill gaps left after sacking of those with fake certificates.

Deputy minister in the President’s Office responsible for Regional Administration and Local Governments Joseph Kakunda said in 2016/17 and 2017/18 financial years, the government audited the certificates and 3,655 teachers were disqualified due to fake certificates.

“You can see we employed more than we sacked,” he said.

Kakunda was responding to a supplementary question asked by Juma Kombo (Wingwi-CCM) who wanted to know how many teachers were employed to fill the positions left by sacked teachers

Earlier, Nassor Omar (Ziwani – CUF) asked how many employees lost jobs in the education sector following the audit of fake certificates.

Halima Mdee (Kawe-Chadema) also wanted know if the sacked teachers would be paid their retirement benefits.

“Many teachers were using fake certificates but they upgraded themselves and become professional teachers. And they were doing their job well… Why then doesn’t the government consider them for a send-off benefit?” asked Mdee.

However, the Minister for Minerals Angela Kairuki said there was no such possibility.

“You cannot benefit from your own wrong,” she said.

According to her, a total of 1,907 civil servants appealed and were reinstated after discovering that they were mistakenly sacked.

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Africa cannot industrialise without a strong focus on education

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Africa cannot industrialise without a strong focus on education

Thuletho Zwane

The consensus among world leaders is that for Africa to truly industrialise, African states should heavily invest in education.

President of World Bank Dr. Jim Yong Kim highlighted the importance of education in Africa. He was speaking at the  official Opening Ceremony of the African Development Bank’s  (AfDB) 2018  Annual Meetings in Busan, South Korea.

This year’s annual meetings are themed: Accelerating African Industrialisation.

South Korea moved from abject poverty in the 1960’s with its people living below the poverty line to become one of the richest countries in the world. This was in just one generation.

The country moved from an agriculture-based economy in the 1960’s to become the 11th largest economy in the world in terms of gross domestic product.

The reason behind South Korea’s success are often placed on the country’s industrialisation programme.

In his address, Kim said: “To industrialise, you must first educate. Korea invested heavily in education; earlier than advised; before anyone thought we should – and this was how we were able to leapfrog to wealth.”  

He said correlation between human capital investments and economic growth were always very strong and that at the core of South Korea’s industrial policy success was the focus on health and education.

Unlike the much popular neo-liberal discourse, South Korea did not conform to any pre-existing mode of development.

In his essay, Professor Do Hyun Han writes that during the period of industrialisation in the 1960s, the income gap between the urban and rural areas increased. Most rural areas suffered from seasonal starvation every year.

There was a great deal of rural migration to cities, which resulted in serious over-urbanization. Slums were quickly formed within major cities.

Korea faced many problems, including: bad roads, lack of adequate bridges, sanitation problems, lack of healthy drinking water supply systems, shortage of fuel materials from the denudation of mountains, lack of electrification, much like the majority of African states.

The Saemaul Undong model was adopted and integrated into South Korea. The model offered a comprehensive approach to tackle the problems mentioned above and, at the same time, it offered special education so that no villages were left out.  

“Education of female village leaders was an outstanding achievement for women empowerment in Korea,” writes Do Hyun Han.

African states are also beginning to pay focus on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. However, the implications of the industrial revolution on education have not yet been addressed by African governments.

The disconnect between the education system and the skills that will be required from the youth to fully participate in the industrial revolution runs deep.

South Africa’s  Minister of Higher Education and Training, Naledi Pandor, said South Africa needed its higher education to produce responsive skills and to development research in order to fully benefit from the industrial revolution.

“We’re in the age of the pervasive influence of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence. I intend to create a multi-stakeholder task team to advise us on how we should take up opportunities of the 4th Industrial Revolution, “ said Pandor who was delivering the 2018 Budget Vote speech in Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa.

In Nigeria, university graduates find it tough to enter the job market.

Nigeria’s Daily Trust reported that Minister of State for Education Professor Anthony Anwuka proposed that a one-year post-graduation training be offered in some specialized institutions in order to make Nigerian graduates employable.

He spoke at a retreat organized by the National Universities Commission [NUC] for members of Governing Councils of federal universities. The retreat, which took place in Abuja, had the theme Elements of Statutory Governance, Procurement and Financial Accounting in Nigerian Universities.

Anwuka said many university graduates were not good enough to be employed by industries.

This shows that governments in Africa are not bridging the gap between universities and industries.

President of the African Development Bank, Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina, shared the same sentiments at the 2018 Annual Meetings Media Breakfast meeting on Tuesday.

“If you look at the universities today in Africa, many of them train students for jobs of the past, not the future. The labour market needs specific skills and these skills are simply getting produced,” said Adesina.

He said with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, focus has shifted towards digitization, material sciences, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, the Internet and robotics.  Adesina said new skills are needed, especially in sciences, engineering, mathematics and computer sciences.

“About 70% of enrollments are in social science fields, with less than 2% being in engineering. More incentives will be needed to shift this concentration, to produce more graduates with such skills, which will be needed to turn them into entrepreneurs for the fourth industrial revolution,” said Adesina.

This is why the bank has funded the ICT Center of Excellence in Kigali – a joint initiative between the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology and the Carnegie Mellon University – to produce the next generation of computer experts for Africa.

The Bank has also supported the establishment of digital technology parks in Senegal and Cape Verde. Young entrepreneurs are being supported through business incubators to help them grow their businesses.

President of the World Bank Kim said countries that invested in education and health were the ones that did the best in early development. He said Africa needed a two-fold strategy: to accelerate Africa’s growth while meeting basic social needs.

Kim said Africa’s governments needed to engage the private sector to drive industrialisation and reduce public debts so that they could commit public funds to finance healthcare and education.

Kim added, “Africa will remain poor as long as health & education comes from generosity of donors & not a top development priority of governments. Things as crucial as Girls’ education, for instance, shouldn’t be a donor-led effort.”

Zimbabwe: High Court Judge and Zimsec in exam results printing row

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Zimbabwe: High Court Judge and Zimsec in exam results printing row

New Zimbabwe

A former High Court judge has been dragged to court for demanding thousands of dollars from the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (Zimsec) after his company was granted a tender to bind results slips.

It is alledged that Justice Moses Chinhengo ‘s company also nflated figures for the work done.

In 2011, Chinhengo through his company, Tarch Print, won a tender from Zimsec for the binding of “O” level and “A” Level result slips for the year 2004 to 2010 worth $71 620.

The binding exercise was to take 21 days. However, Tarch Print only managed to complete the job in 2014 and was paid $69 255 leaving a balance of $2 365.

Tarch Print raised invoices, which had a balance of $43 708 from a new figure of $112 963 and Zimsec declined to pay the revised figure and offered to pay $2 365. The two parties declared a dispute and the matter was referred for arbitration and the arbitrator ordered Zimsec to pay Tarch Print $18 129. The public examination body also declined to pay and appealed against the arbitrator’s ruling at the High Court.

At the High Court, before Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo, Zimsec argued that the arbitral award was “contrary to public policy, outrageous in its defiance of logic and intolerably injured the concept of justice in Zimbabwe”.

Zimsec also complained that the arbitrator did not interpret the contract between the parties but had gone on to make a new contract for the parties, thus violating the principle of sanctity of contracts.

In her judgment, Justice Matanda-Moyo said it was an accepted principle that judicial officers had a duty to interpret contracts and not to contract on behalf of litigants.

“Having made findings the arbitrator was supposed to end there and dismiss respondent’s claim,” ruled Justice Matanda-Moyo.

“By going further to award damages not proven the arbitral awardbecomes outrageous. It then goes beyond mere faultiness and clearly does not fall under those damages which are by their very nature difficult to assess with certainty.

To allow the present decision to stand will erode and undermine the concept of justice in Zimbabwe,” the judge ruled before setting aside the arbitral award.

Tarch Print was also ordered to pay costs of the application suit.

Read original article here.

Outgoing UCT vice-chancellor farewell cut short by protesting students

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Outgoing UCT vice-chancellor farewell cut short by protesting students

Jenna Etheridge

A farewell event for outgoing University of Cape Town (UCT) vice-chancellor Max Price was cut short on Monday afternoon after a group of protesters drowned out proceedings with their singing, the university said.

On its website and on social media, UCT invited students to join it in the Memorial Hall for a “heartfelt send-off” for Price and promised a “fun-filled celebration” with live entertainment.

A small group arrived and held up posters with slogans such as “UCT and exploitation”, “Decriminalise Fees Must Fall” and “Workers pay Max Price”.

They also sang struggle songs.

UCT spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala said the group’s singing was so loud that the event could not continue.

“It is a great disappointment as many students had gathered to recognise the [vice-chancellor’s] contribution to UCT [and] were not able to hear from him and share their thanks for his contribution to UCT over 10 important years at the university.”

 Price did not end up delivering his speech.

He did, however, have time to pose with students for selfies and enjoy a marimba band and other entertainment at some point.

Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng will take over the reins when Price steps down from his position on June 30.

Price was no stranger to these interruptions, having dealt with a string of protests related to the Rhodes Must Fall and Fees Must Fall movements over the last few years. – News24

South Africa: Minister Suspends Equal Education Programmes

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South Africa: Minister Suspends Equal Education Programmes

Tariro Washinyira

Western Cape Minister of Education Debbie Schäfer has instructed Equal Education (EE) to stop operating in the province’s schools by 22 May until her department holds a meeting with the organisation.

This follows allegations of sexual misconduct against former General Secretary Tshepo Motsepe, former Head of Organising Luyolo Mazwembe, and former Treasurer Doron Isaacs.

However, in an email sent to GroundUp Equal Education said the organisation has not yet received a letter from Schäfer. Although the minister has suggested that some of the allegations might be coming from school children, this is not true, said the organisation. None of the men accused of sexual harassment had any regular interaction with Western Cape school learners.

“None of the allegations relate to school children. Once we receive a letter from the MEC we will be in a position to consider her requests. We look forward to receiving it and will answer any questions posed to us in detail,” said Equal Education.

In a statement on Monday Minister Schäfer said that Equal Education works in schools across the province, and while at least some of the allegations appear to be from people within the staff of the organisation, it is not clear whether any learners are involved. “If the allegations are correct, this is hardly the type of person we need working in our schools.”

“I have therefore written to Equal Education requesting that they furnish me with the details regarding every interview or engagement conducted by Mr Motsepe, Mr Mazwembe or Mr Isaacs so far this year, with any female learner in the Western Cape. I have requested the names of learners, the school that the learners’ attend, the date of the interviews and who was present during the interviews. I require this information by this Friday, 25 May.”

“I have also demanded an undertaking by 5pm tomorrow, Tuesday 22 May, that they will cease operations in Western Cape schools until such time as we have had an opportunity to meet with them and discuss the way forward. Should we not receive such undertaking, we shall instruct our schools not to allow anybody from Equal Education, and who is not a learner at the school, onto school premises,” she said.

Schäfer also wanted to know whether Equal Education conducts background checks on their staff and if so, whether Motsepe, Mazwembe and Isaacs passed the checks.

“Sexual abuse against young female learners is prevalent in our communities, as raised by Equal Education on a number of occasions, and it is distressing that such allegations have been made against high ranking members of their own organisation.”

She has also requested that the Chief Director for Districts immediately investigate what measures are taken by NGOs working in schools to vet their members, and put necessary processes in place.

The organisation said, like the minister, Equal Education takes sexual harassment seriously. It said it had acted swiftly to address every allegation of misconduct that has been put before it. Equal Education has clear staff and volunteer policies and procedures that prohibit sexual harassment in the workplace, it said. Its policies prohibit relationships between staff or volunteers and learners. This offence leads to immediate dismissal. The organisation said it also has a clear sexual harassment policy and provides training on sexual harassment for members, volunteers and staff.

It said that this year it held a two day staff seminar titled “Gender, Power, and Consent”, which it initiated and created together with the Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education. It also had follow up workshops on the drafting of staff values for a safe and welcoming workspace, and a review of its sexual harassment policy.

Equal Education said its youth facilitators are trained on sexual harassment and “informed on the severity of engaging in this misconduct”.

“We remain resolute in our commitment to ensure that the actions of our members and staff reflect Equal Education’s values of respect, equity and accountability.”

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South Africa’s apartheid schools

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South Africa’s apartheid schools

Francois Cleophas

South Africa’s history of segregation has left its footprints in many places. Take the case of semi-rural Franschoek in the country’s Western Cape province. In one part of the town, which draws tourists from around the world to enjoy award winning wine and food, is a private school that boasts excellent sports facilities.

There’s an indoor sports gymnasium where tennis, hockey, netball and soccer are played. There are two swimming pools – one for beginners who are just learning and one for water polo and senior swimming. Elsewhere on the school campus are six tennis courts and two cricket ovals with turf wickets. New sports fields, including two more cricket ovals, are being developed.

A few kilometres up the road is a public school that caters for pupils from an informal settlement. It has no sporting facilities.

This scenario is repeated across South Africa; a modern echo of the country’s history of racial segregation. Patterns of neglect, established in the 19th century when formal schooling was introduced in South Africa, persist.

An understanding of and reckoning with segregation history is important in coming to grips with the current state of poor school sport provision in black and coloured communities. South Africa will not address the great inequalities that still exist in school sport if it keeps ignoring history.

The mission years

Formal schooling was introduced in South Africa during the 19th century. Black pupils were largely educated at mission schools run by a wide range of denominations.

Most mission schools had no decent sporting facilities. They practiced and played sport separately from white organisations and schools. For instance, when the Western Province Rugby Football Union created the Junior Challenge Shield League in 1898, the competition was open only to learners of “European extraction” – that is, white.

This exclusion stretched across sporting disciplines. When the Good Hope Education Department organised the Physical Training Coronation Competition in 1902 at the Green Point Track, a separate division was organised for “coloured” or mission schools. The winner of the 1902 Coronation competition in the Mission School division was the St Cyprian’s School in Ndabeni Location.

This location, as living areas for black Africans were called, was established for families who were forcibly removed from District Six in Cape Town in 1901. The school was a zinc structure with no playing facilities.

In 1928 mission schools set up the Central School Sport Union. Its first athletic meeting was held at the Mowbray sports ground, the home ground of the City and Suburban Rugby Union. Newspapers from the time, which I’ve studied, reported that the grass was knee high. This situation existed by design: the South African Institute of Race Relations reported regularly on how much more money was spent to provide sporting facilities for white schools.

At a national level, the first inter-varsity athletic meeting was held in 1921 at the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg between the Transvaal University College (later Pretoria University), Grey University College (later Free State University) and the Johannesburg University College. These were all white colleges in the northern parts of the country. When institutions from southern regions were included the following year, black colleges were excluded.

These black colleges established the Ciskei Bantu Amateur Athletic Association in the Eastern Cape under the auspices of the South African Bantu Amateur Athletic Association.

Apartheid school sport

Then came formal apartheid, and the situation worsened.

During the 1950s and the decades that followed, the education department wouldn’t provide black and coloured schools with decent facilities like rugby fields or athletics tracks. This was because, according to the influx control laws, Africans could not obtain permanent residence in cities. Why, apartheid authorities reasoned, spend money on people who legally weren’t allowed in certain areas?

The colleges playing in the Ciskei Bantu Amateur Athletic Association, meanwhile, received no support for sporting facilities while the nearby prestigious St Andrew’s College and Rhodes University benefited from excellent fields and tracks.

Apartheid legislation closed the Mowbray sports ground, leaving the Central School Sports Union without a place to play. A whites only school was built on the facility. The sporting past of this lost facility is largely unknown; no commemoration plaque, for instance, exists to mark its history. Another example of history forgotten and heritage ignored.

Few shifts after democracy

With the arrival of democracy in 1994 some organisations dedicated to championing non-racial school sport, like the Western Province Senior Schools’ Sports Union, closed their doors. But while desegregation in school sports was introduced in theory, the reality was rather different.

Many historically white schools appear reluctant to compete with township schools in mass competitions. They continue to hold closed inter-school derbies and athletic meetings catering for other similarly resourced schools on their well maintained sport fields.

But ironically, former whites-only schools have realised the potential of black and coloured pupils to shine on the sports field. A cursory overview of the senior national rugby and cricket teams in 2018 shows that more than 90% of black and coloured players attended historically white schools. Such players were often “poached” from township schools with scholarships and bursaries.

This “poaching” has benefited individual players but it’s happened at the expense of township schools.

Addressing history

The colonial and apartheid education project still echoes in South Africa’s post-1994 school system. For real change to start happening, it’s important for administrators, school authorities, parents and pupils to look to and understand the imbalances of history – and start working to set them right.

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Nigerian university graduates find it tough in job market

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Nigerian university graduates find it tough in job market

Daily Trust

Minister of State for Education Professor Anthony Anwuka last week proposed a one-year post-graduation training to be offered in some specialized institutions in order to make Nigerian graduates employable.

He spoke at a retreat organized by the National Universities Commission [NUC] for members of Governing Councils of federal universities. The retreat, which took place in Abuja, had the theme “Elements of Statutory Governance, Procurement and Financial Accounting in Nigerian Universities.”

Anwuka said many university graduates were not good enough to be employed by industries.

The minister partly blamed the un-employability of graduates on the failure of the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme [(Siwes) in Nigerian universities.

He said Siwes is not playing its role in bridging the gap between universities and industries.

The proposed one-year re-schooling, Anwuka said, would serve as a training ground for graduates to be well equipped with the rudiments of the course studied in the university.

The Siwes programme, which was introduced in Nigerian universities, provides for undergraduates in all science and applied courses to go for industrial attachment in industries and companies relevant to their courses of study.

The minister buttressed his suggestion this way: “Law students attend Law School for one year before going for NYSC and medical students go for one-year housemanship before they are allowed to practice. So, it will be necessary for other courses to go through this process.”

He said, “the universities are producing products that are not matching the needs of the industries” and that Lagos Business School could be used to provide the proposed one-year post-graduation training.

The minister also urged the Committee of Pro-Chancellors (CPCs) and the Committee of Vice Chancellors (CVCs) to end the decline in the standards of education.

Professor Anwuka’s assertion on the un-employability of Nigerian graduates is controversial and it is open to two different interpretations.

It is not clear from his statement which between two factors makes Nigerian graduates unemployable. Is the minister saying that the quality of education or training received by students in the universities is so poor that graduates are not employable or that Nigerian graduates are otherwise proficient but do not fit smugly into the needs of industries?

The minister’s argument that Nigerian graduates are not employable because they do not fit the needs of industries suggests that there are jobs without competent graduates to employ.

This, given the deplorable state of the country’s industrial sector, is not true.

The viewpoint which blames the un-employability of graduates on the failure of Siwes programme in universities is also a controversial position. Many of the challenges confronting Siwes programmes have more to do with the industries than with the universities.

This is because the practical training expected to be received by students through the Siwes programme is the exclusive responsibility of industries. Regrettably, many of the industries that will provide students with the desired industrial experience are either operating at very low capacity or not operational at all.

As a former vice chancellor, the minister should know better than many Nigerians that the problem with some Nigerian graduates being unemployable lies more with the fallen standards in the quality of teaching and learning at nearly all levels of the country’s education system.

The one-year post-graduation training proposed by the minister isn’t, therefore, a viable solution to the problems associated with the low quality of Nigerian graduates.

A functional education system supported by value-added Teacher Education is one sure way of making Nigerian graduates globally marketable. While we encourage the CPCs and CVCs to re-think the Siwes programme in universities given the uncertain state of Nigeria’s economy, we also remind the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, that it is time to declare the state of emergency that he promised Nigerians earlier this year.

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Youths to play a part in South Africa regeneration

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Youths to play a part in South Africa regeneration

Mthulisi Sibanda

South African youths are set to play a crucial role in the much-anticipated campaign Play Your Part launched to promote active citizenry and ensure locals contribute to positive change.

Play Your Part, a scheme of Brand South Africa which also aims to spearhead social cohesion, has been launched for schools nationwide.

The official activation has been held at the Dr William Frederick (WF) Nkomo

Secondary School in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria.

This has paved way for more activations at schools around the country.

Brand South Africa, in collaboration with the renowned comedians Goliath and

Goliath, have arranged a series of masterclasses aimed at Grade 11 and 12 learners. The objective is to promote innovation and entrepreneurial culture under the theme “Play Your Part, turn your ideas into currency.”

Goliath and Goliath are also Play Your Part ambassadors.

In an interview with CAJ News, Brand South Africa’s General Manager of Marketing, Sithembile Ntombela, said it was essential to get youth involved in Play Your Part.

“South Africa is a very young country, with almost all of our population being youths,” she said. She pointed out the scholars Brand South was targeting would in the coming years be active in the economy.
“We are talking to tomorrow’s leaders. It is in these youngsters that we are

culminating the spirit of starting something. There is more you can do and start that demanding a job after competing studies,” she said.

Youths are worst affected by unemployment in South Africa.

Donovan Goliath said the current generation of scholars urged the youths to make the most of technological advancements to empower themselves, uplift their communities and subsequently enhance the country’s development.

“The current generation has access to a lot more information and access to the world essentially with the development of smartphones, social media and the internet. They won’t really have an excuse not to be educated in certain topics. It’s all out there for them. It’s only how they mobilise it,” Donovan Goliath said in an interview with CAJ News.

Nare Salmina Rankale, Principal of Dr WF Nkomo Secondary School, expressed pride after the school was chosen to host the launch of nationwide school activations.

“It is befitting that the school will be 50 years this year as well as our high pass rate in national exams. Last year, we achieved a matric exam pass rate of 91,22 percent, and we were the best performing school in Attredgiville,” said Rankale.

The next activation will be held in Mpumalanga later this month.

“Our objective is to go nationwide, with our focus on township and semi-rural schools, which we believe are hungry for information and need motivation,” Ntombela said.

She expressed encouragement at the launch in Attredgeville.

“It was overwhelming! We reached over 1 000 youngsters. This is just the beginning. We intend to reach a whole lot more. These learners are enthusiastic. They are willing to play a part they just don’t know how to start,” Ntombela concluded.

South Africa’s reading crisis: Focus on the root cause

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South Africa’s reading crisis: Focus on the root cause

Ingrid Willen​berg

Nearly a quarter of a century into democracy, four presidents and several curricular revisions later, South Africa has made little headway in its reading crisis.

Calling it a crisis is no overstatement. South Africa ranked last out of 50 countries in the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) study which tested reading comprehension of learners in their fourth year of primary schooling. The study found that 78% of South African pupils at this level could not read for meaning.

South Africa’s reading crisis is a topic of ongoing debate and several strategies for improvement have been proposed: promoting a culture of reading; encouraging parents to read to their children; making books accessible in schools and improving initial teacher education.

Addressing the problem by increasing access to books and developing a reading culture is helpful but only to a limited extent. Ultimately the buck stops with the Department of Education. Inadequate instruction is the root cause – the rest are peripherals.

No reading culture

Without a doubt, South Africa needs a stronger culture of reading. A survey of adults’ reading behaviour found that most spent an average of four hours per week reading compared to 7.5 hours per week watching TV or DVDs.

In response to these figures and children’s consistently poor reading performance, the Department of Basic Education has introduced the Read to Lead Campaign. This aims to “make reading fashionable” by encouraging teachers and parents to “drop all and read”.

Promoting a culture of reading is a highly worthwhile enterprise. But it does presuppose that older children and adults are able to read. Reading campaigns and better access to libraries will benefit those who are already able to read for meaning by providing more opportunities to practise the skills they already have.

Individuals who have difficulty reading – either because they cannot identify words or comprehend what they read or both – will be less motivated to read more or visit the library. And with good reason. If you’re a swimmer who uses incorrect techniques, easier access to a swimming pool will not improve your swimming. Instead it will allow you more opportunities to practice your incorrect strokes.

Strong research evidence suggests that parents’ involvement in children’s literacy is highly beneficial. This has given rise to family literacy programmes worldwide which aim to support and encourage parents in supporting their children’s literacy development. One such South African example is the Family Literacy Project in KwaZulu-Natal, which has implemented a range of projects to ignite a love of reading in poor communities.

Helping families to support their children’s literacy development is important and worth doing, provided that the burden of responsibility does not become theirs. There is a strong tendency to blame the literacy crisis on parents not reading to their children. Many teachers lament: “If only parents would read to their children.” And it must be conceded that this is frequently the case: my own body of research has found that many parents with low but not poverty level incomes and lower levels of education did not always read to their children or visit the library regularly.

This was not due to parents’ lack of concern about their children’s literacy development. Instead it stemmed from a lack of awareness about the importance of these activities and because reading and library visits had usually not been part of their own childhood experiences.

Family literacy intervention is an appropriate strategy. But it must be acknowledged that because an estimated 55.5% of South Africans live below the poverty line, survival concerns rather than literacy may be uppermost in many parents’ minds.

Also, many parents may either not be literate or have low levels of literacy despite having completed grade 7, which is considered to be an indicator of literacy achievement. Although parents with low literacy levels are still able to provide literacy support for their children, they are limited in how much they can do.

Family literacy initiatives, then, should be viewed as a complement to early childhood and foundation phase education, not as a substitute. Placing the responsibility or blame on parents takes the responsibility away from public education.

Access to books

Increasing access to books is another popular response to the literacy crisis. A survey found that six out of ten South Africans older than 16 years lived in households without a single book present. One initiative to increase access to books is the Read to Lead Campaign which aims to create 1000 school libraries by 2019.

While the strategy aimed at making books accessible is commendable, there are two provisos: quality and mediation.

Children need access to high quality books. But they also need access to skilled readers who can mediate their encounters with books by, for example, pointing out print concepts such as reading from left to right and encouraging their awareness of speech sounds. Skilled readers can also help children to use books as resources for enriching vocabulary, and asking questions that facilitate comprehension of the story. Children need skilled adults to scaffold their encounters with books.

This leads to the issue of initial teacher training, arguably the most critical strategy for addressing the literacy crisis.

Schools’ responsibility

While the above strategies have their place, the ultimate responsibility for educating South Africa’s children lies with the school system. The PIRLS results and recent investigations have provided incontrovertible evidence that initial teacher education programmes are not producing graduates sufficiently equipped to teach reading.

Processes are under way to support more effective initial primary teacher education in literacy by developing curriculum frameworks and resources for university courses and building university academics’ capacity to deliver higher quality teacher education. But this will take time and will not help the learners currently in the foundation phase of schooling. So it is crucial that in-service teachers have access to ongoing professional development to support reading instruction.

It is critical that accelerated efforts be made to equip teachers for their task of teaching children to read. South Africa’s children deserve no less.

Ingrid Willenberg, Senior Lecturer in Education, Australian Catholic University

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Dad takes on private school over son’s financial exclusion

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Dad takes on private school over son’s financial exclusion

Tania Broughton, Correspondent

The father of a private primary school pupil, who was prevented from writing exams because of unpaid school fees, has challenged the constitutionality of this policy.

On his side are two Durban-based advocates, appointed to represent the boy who was aged 10 and in Grade five at the time, who say the effect of the policy is “calculated simply to pressure parents” and punish the child.

“Independent schools can sue parents for fees, rather than victimise and humiliate learners,” advocates Laurence Broster SC and Camilla Du Toit said in their written argument handed in to court.

While other courts have acknowledged the “contractual rights” of private schools and ruled that pupils can be excluded for non-payment of fees, the matter before Judge Mokgere Masipa in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban is believed to be the first to focus on the rights of the affected children.

If Judge Masipa rules in favour of the father – a teacher at a government high school who cannot be named to protect the identity of his son – it will affect all 760 private schools in South Africa.

When the matter was set down for argument recently, lawyers acting for John Wesley Primary School in Pinetown argued that it was “moot”, because the fees had eventually been paid and the child had written the exams a few weeks later.

Evidence was that the family had short-term financial problems at the time and were in arrears of about R3 800. Their offer to pay off what they owed in installments was rejected by the school.

After the boy was excluded from writing exams in May 2016 – and forced to sit by himself in the art centre – they cashed in a funeral policy and settled what they owed.

‘Breathtakingly offensive’

But the dad, who represented himself, insisted that he wanted the matter heard “on an issue of principle”.

The judge asked that the advocates come on board as “friends of the court” to represent the child.

At the heart of the application, they say, is the best interests of the child, and “his parents’ trauma at not being able to pay his school fees on time should not under any circumstances be visited on him”.

“The conduct of the school, on its own version, influenced by Independent Schools Association of South Africa (Isasa), was appalling and it cannot pass constitutional muster.”

They labelled the Isasa’s policy as “breathtakingly offensive”.

The advocates said the fact that the policy affected so many schools, and about 160 000 pupils, was reason for the matter to be properly ventilated and, if necessary, curtailed.

“Judging from the jurisprudence thus far on the difference between public and independent schools, the effect of the contractual arrangements between the school and the parent have not been properly examined. Only the interests of the school, and not the child, are taken into account.

“Isolating the child in the art room while he should be writing an exam is not only victimising, but also extremely humiliating. His co-learners would be curious to know why he did not write the exam… confessing that his parents had not paid the fees must be excruciatingly humiliating.

“In this case, the child had done absolutely nothing wrong. He was a well behaved diligent learner.”

‘No one is obliged to remain at a private school’

In his written argument, advocate Warren Shapiro, for the school, questioned how a private school, whose sole source of income is school fees, could be expected to educate “on risk”, and wait for a litigation process to unfold.

“This ignores that the parents elected to have the child educated as a private school and undertook contractually to pay the fees, and accepted the consequences of failure to do so.

“If this court finds those contractual limitations are unconstitutional, the court removes a significant and recognised difference between private schools and public schools.

“To add to this, is the consequence of an inability of the school to fund its operations, which is prejudicial to all of its learners and staff.

“No one is obliged to remain at a private school.”

He questioned what rights of the child had actually infringed and what harm had been caused.

“There is nothing on the papers to suggest that the temporary exclusion was anything but that. It was no more than a proportionate means of securing payments for amounts agreed to be due.”

Arguing that the issue remained moot, he said the court should not be determining “these weighty issues” when there was no need to do so.

Judgment has been reserved. News24

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