South African schools fared poorly in WEF Report

South African primary schools were placed 132th out of 144 countries with regard to quality teaching, and 115th with regard to access by children to these schools. This is the findings of the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report 2012/2013.

A positive point however was that South Africa’s Higher Education and Training sector as a whole was placed at 84th position. This could be because South Africa has a number of world-class universties, according to Graeme Bloch, an independent Education expert.

With regards to the quality of mathematics and science education South Africa was placed second last.

Countries with the best primary education according to the report is Belgium, Finland, New Zealand, Singapore, Netherlands, Iceland and Canada.

To read more go to Alet Rademeyer’s article in the Afrikaans newspaper Beeld by Clicking Here!

To read the WEF Global Competitiveness Report 2012/2013, Click Here!

South Africa: Higher Education challenges of racism and access

Chika Sehoole, Professor at University of Pretoria, 22 July 2012, University World News

“Although admissions figures for black students and numbers of black staff have improved in the post-apartheid era, many black people still feel excluded within the university system and there are problems with a lack of available places to meet the demand for higher education. At the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, South Africa’s higher education sector made national and international news headlines.

At the end of 2011, the University of Pretoria was hit by allegations of apparent racism among its staff. A black engineering professor alleged systematic harassment and victimisation, on racial grounds.

At the beginning of the 2012 academic year, a black parent was killed in a stampede at the gates of the University of Johannesburg, where crowds of prospective students had gathered in the quest to gain admission into this university.

These two incidents – allegations of racism and the quest for access to higher education, especially by black people – are just two examples of the challenges that South Africa experiences in meeting some of the priority areas identified in 1994 by the post-apartheid government.”

To read the rest of Chika Sehoole’s article on University World News, Click Here!

Plan to expand and improve South Africa’s Higher Education sector

In a Green Paper on Post-School Education and Training, the South African government Department of Higher Education and Training recently announced its plans to raise university enrolments from the current 900 000 students to 1.5 million by 2030. Also mooted was a target of 4 million students for colleges and other post-school institutions – 6 times more than current numbers. These changes will raise the participation rate in post-school education of 18-24 year olds from the current 16% to 23%.

The Green Paper includes in its agenda:

• new funding;
• improvement of access to education and training opportunities;
• research on financial problems facing many students as well as poor living conditions and student support services;
• strengthening of institutions to improve education quality;
• the development of a post-school education and training system that is equitable, accessible and affordable to all sections of the population, with free education and training for the poor;
• support for previously disadvantaged universities, including asisstance to improve infrastructure and quality of teaching and research;
• reform of South Africa’s complex regulatory system, by doing away with duplication. and incoherence and inconsistency in the functioning parts of the system;
• building coherence between basic education and the post-school system and between the post-school system and the labour market;
• strengthening of collaboration between private and public sectors;
• expansion of distance education, using appropriate information communication technologies, other technologies and methods;
• the creation of two new universities in the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga provinces;
• improvement of throughput rates;
• addressing concern sbout low participation rate of Africans;
• addressing concern about decrease of male students;
• improvement of graduation rates in science, engineering and technology, because it is not meeting economic development objectives;
• strengthening of scholarship in the humanities;
• provision of resources and funding to strenthen teaching in universities, without reducing the importance of research;
• exploration of the possibility of partnerships between public and private institutions;
• strengthening of African languages as part of formal programmes

 The Department of Higher Education and Training also plans to work with the Department of Science and Technology to ensure increased support for postgraduate study and for senior researchers, as well as a stable funding model for all educational institutions that conduct research. This means improving research capacity as a major focus for universities with a specific focus on meeting the country’s developmental objectives.

To read more go to Karen McGregor’s article on University World News by Clicking Here!

To read more go to Kim Cloete’s article at Cross Currents on MoneyWeb by Clicking Here!

To read the Green Paper on Post-School Education and Training Click Here!

SA’s Department of Basic Education reveals its ICT plans

South Africa’s Department of Basic Education is aiming to utilise technology as a developmental tool for teacher education as well as integrating it into the school curriculum, Mr Enver Surty, Deputy Minister of Basic Education said recently at a gala dinner in Cape Town, at the Microsoft Partners in Learning Worldwide Innovative Education Forum Awards.

Surty said that an inter-ministerial committee had met at the end of October to sign an agreement that binds the Minister of Basic Education, The Deputy Minister of Basic Education, MECs and the ministers of other departments in the achievement of certain goals. While there was a commitment to the provision of quality basic education, Information Communication Technology (ICT) was highlighted.

The commitment is that by 2015 every learner who has passed grade 3 will have had exposure to ICT.

Surty also referred to the undersea cables linking Africa to the world, and vice versa, and said “technology has been taken to the heart of Africa…”

Currently South Africa has about 26 000 schools, of which only 3  in 10 have access to technology and only 1 in 10 schools has access to the Internet, mainly through dial up connections. The government is trying to roll out the Teacher Laptop Initiative which provides teachers with a R130 subsidy per month towards the purchase of a laptop, but the use of technology in teaching methodology is yet to be formally incorporated into the teacher training curriculum.

Surty then referred to the Microsoft Partners in Learning Programme, through which the Department of Basic Education has received R93 million in free software via a national schools’ agreement. More than 25 000 teachers have been trained using the programme’s Teacher Training curriculum and the aim is to foster the development of 21st century skills among learners.

To read the original article by Primarashni Gower on Mail and Guardian Online Click Here!

Blade Nzimande calls for expansion of access to tertiary education

Access to formal education and training institutions is constrained and needs to be expanded Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said recently.

Enrolments at Further Education and Training (FET) colleges in particular needed to increase if South Africa was to come close to meeting the need for mid-level skills and the demand from youth for increased training opportunities

While mindful of the need to maintain and improve the quality of education and training boldness is needed in expanding enrolments, and thus opportunities, while not compromising quality, he said at the National Skills Summit in Pretoria, recently.

This speech follows on the heel of another speech  delivered by him at the FET college summit in Johannesburg, where he called for some amendments and additions in the curriculum of Further Education and Training (FET) colleges to absorb the country’s desolate youth into its workforce and address the high unemployment rate in South Africa.

To read more go to the Sapa article on Times Live by Clicking Here!

OR read the article by Loni Prinsloo in Creamer Media’s Engineering News by Clicking Here!

South African universities raise their admission requirements

The high failure rate of 1st year university students has prompted several South African universities to raise their admission requirements for 2011.

In a snap survey by the Sunday Times recently 8 out of the 12 universities contacted said they would be implementing stricter admission criteria.

The University of the Western Cape (UWC) will no longer accept maths literacy for admission to science degrees, while University of Cape Town (UCT) will require 1st year applicants to write national tests in maths, academic literacy and quantitative literacy. Rhodes University has increased its point-based system from 35 to 40 and the University of the Free State (UOFS) from 28 to 30

To read more go to Prega Govender’s article in the Sunday Times by Clicking Here! 

More South African pupils to have access to free education

From 2011 more pupils in South African schools will have access to free education, the South African Department of Basic Education announced recently.

This has been welcomed by Naptosa, but it also warned, that the system would now have to focus on the quality of the education provided. This observation is crucial since the current roll-out of no-fee schools has drawn sharp criticism for its failure to properly resource such schools.

To read more go to Tebeogo Monama’s article in the Sowetan by Clicking Here!

Blade Nzimande announces immediate priorities for Department of Higher Education and Training

Dr Blade Nzimande, South African Higher Education and Training Minister recently announced some immediate priorities of the Department of Higher Education and Training. Speaking on post-school options for the Matric Class of 2009, he reiterrated that the next few months will see progress to many of the goals that has been set for the Department.

Some immediate priorities that Nzimande highlighted is support for the South African Deputy-president in the establishment of the HRD-SA Council, the strengthening of the National Skills Authority and paying particular attention to issues such as improving access and success rates in universities and colleges, developing the post-school funding system, advancing access to and quality of the College sector, redefining the SETA landscape and addressing efficiency challenges in the National Skills Fund.

He also announced that a higher education summit will be held in April where the challenge of transformation in higher education will be confronted. At the summit the the role of universities in interacting with and strengthening of other sectors of the system, especially colleges, will also be discussed.

Nzimande will also meet with the Chairs of Councils of the 23 South African universities to discuss the Soudien report on racial and other discrimination at higher education institutions.

The South African Government is committed to strengthen the country’s skills and human resource base, and as part of this commitment the Department of Higher Education and Training intend to broaden access to post-school education over time, Nzimande said. He indicated that the shape of the South African post-secondary system is not appropriately balanced between universities and colleges. Whilst access to universities must increase, enrolment in colleges should double in the next five years.  

For Universities, expansion of the system will be preceded by the careful prior development of capacity as part of the Department’s enrolment planning process with the sector: Enrolments must be matched to available resources, physical, human and financial. The average annual growth rate in head count student enrolments between 2005 (the base year for the enrolment planning process) and 2008 was 2.8%, compared to the target rate of 2.0% set in October 2007 by the Ministry of Education. The data available shows that student enrolments surged above these averages between 2007 and 2008. The head count student enrolment total rose from 761 000 in 2007 to 799 000 in 2008; an increase of 38 000 or 5%. The Full-Time Equivalent enrolled total, which is an indicator of the student load carried by the higher education system, rose from 519 000 in 2007 to 540 000 in 2008; an increase of 21 000 or 4%. Enrolments in Science and Technology majors grew at a rate of only 1.1% pa, between 2005 and 2008; compared to the target rate of 2.9% pa. The Department is awaiting the enrolment data for 2009, but understand that a further surge in headcount was experienced in many Universities. Work has begun on the second Cycle of System and Institutional Enrolment Planning.

He emphasized that increase in access, particularly of the poor and the working class, must be accompanied by increases in graduation rates, and success rates at all levels of study. Success is related to institutional investment in improving teaching and learning, and in student support and the social and living conditions of students.

To read Dr Blade Nzimande’s full speech Click Here!

Minister Nzimande suggests changes to the current South African education system

The Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande recently suggested that the current matric exemption system should be revised. He said the exemption rate of 18% of South African matriculants was too low to accept as a reflection of  their abilities. “It is not true that that all students who do not get exemptions cannot succeed in higher education”, he said at a briefing ahead of the education budget debate. According to Nzimande ways and means will have to be found to identify those who have potential even if they did not get an exemption.

The Higher Education Review Committee is looking at the possibility of introducing university entrance exams to give students who failed in getting exemption another chance at studying at higher education institutions.

Universities have complained that matriculants lack the necessary academic skill to cope with higher learning. According to Nzimande the universities will have to take responsibility in helping them adjust.

Nzimande also mooted the possibility of increasing the time needed to finish a standard degree from three to four years. If this is applied it could lead to the abolishment of honours degrees, and students with a degree could then proceed directly to masters, as is the case in many other countries.

To read more go to the News24 article “Nzimande moots educational changes” by Clicking Here!

Opening Access to Knowledge in Southern African Universities

“The Southern African Regional Universities Association last year published an important report titled Opening Access to Knowledge in Southen African Universities. This report identified key constraints in access to knowledge in universities in the SADC Region and builds on the findings from two earlier studies of  SARUA, A Status Review of ICT in Universities in the SADC Region (2006), and Science and Technology: A Baseline Study on Science and Technology and Higher Education in the SADC Region (2007).

The authors show that the presence of research from Africa in leading international peer-reviewed journals is diminishing, and also highlights the obstacles that prevent the majority of African research from ever receiving an adequate profile or readership within African research communities, and internationally. Reasons for the restictions on access to knowledge in Africa, and particularly in the Southern African Region are shown to revolve around restrictive copyright practices and regulations, and a lack of access to Internet-based technologies, out-dated paradigms for knowledge collection and dissimination, and the lack of creative and effective government supported enabling environments within higher education to match the vision of African leaders for knowledge and innovation in Africa in the 21st Century.” (From the foreword to the Report by Piyushi Kotecha)

To read the report Click Here!