Education students feel “disconnected” from their council
Several Education students have expressed concerns about their current Education Student Council.
Capturing education in Africa
The Everyday Education exhibition opened at the Museum of African Design on May 13.
Cool kid on campus: Thando Gumede
Thando Sibongiseni Gumede, a final year Law student at Wits, is not only an Allan Gray Scholarship recipient and a Brightest Young Minds (BYM) awardee, but is also an advocate for the education of black girl children and substantive equality. A self-proclaimed feminist, she remains highly competitive in a male dominated industry.
COOL KID: Thando Gumede, a final year law student is not only interested in Law but in the advancement of black girl children through education. Photo: Katleho Sekhotho
You are studying Law but also have a keen interest in entrepreneurial activities, why?
Where the world is going is something I like to call cross-educational pollination. It means that gone are the days where law students go to law school to become a lawyer. So now, faculties will be teaching skills, skills that can go anywhere and in any way they want to.
Entrepreneurship is a mind-set where you identify inefficiencies and then solve those problems. So when you have cross-educational pollination, then someone who’s an engineer has got the hopes of becoming the president, not just a politics student.
You were chosen as one of the ‘Brightest Young Minds’. What exactly does that mean and how do you feel to be chosen as one?
It’s about collecting the brightest young minds on the African continent, 100 people all over Africa came together through a selection process. It wasn’t about marks, it was really just about people who presented ideas and presented themselves in a genuine way. All I can say is wow! The event was a great networking opportunity.
What are you currently working on?
There are basically two things I’m working on, it’s a new technology for sanitary pads and the other is a tech company. I’ve written a research paper on that [the former], it was about the right to basic education for black girl children in rural South Africa; one of the hindrances of going to school is [a girls] menstruation, so their biological disposition.
The postulation I make is that I say to the state, it has a constitutional obligation to balance the scales for both boys and girls.
You say you are an advocate for education and particularly substantive education, what does that mean?
Government needs to provide proper sanitation in schools, pads and panties to girls, particularly to girls in that community, either through social grants or making those things freely available to them.
That is called substantive equality. It’s better than formal equality, substantive equality asks why? At the starting line you need to remove all the rocks and boulders that are on the race track for girls to be able to manoeuvre themselves freely and equally.
Prof leaves the Big Apple for Braamfontein
After an eight year stay in the United States, Professor Hlonipha Mokoena has finally decided to come back to South Africa and has chosen Wits University as her new academic home.
BACK HOME: After many years abroad educating and learning, Professor Hlonipha Mokoena will make a permanent move to South Africa in June. Photo: John R. Harris
In June, the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) will welcome South African Professor Hlonipha Mokoena back home.
Mokoena, 38, originally from Soweto but left for KwaZulu-Natal at the age of 12 to go to boarding school, took on her first job as an associate professor in anthropology at the Columbia University in New York a few years after graduating with her PhD from UCT (University of Cape Town), in 2005.
Her move to Wiser comes after three years of planning and describing this new challenge, Mokoena said, “I mustn’t disappoint.”
Mokoena hopes to have the intellectual space and time in which to complete a new book. No stranger to publishing, she wrote her first book titled Magema Fuze: The Making of a Kholwa Intellectual in 2011.
“Mokoena now feels that she can quite soundly critique American notions of “knowledge”
After 8 years of teaching at Columbia University, Mokoena now feels that she can quite soundly critique American notions of “knowledge”, and she describes some of the innovative ways in which students are taught in the US as viable options in South Africa.
“I think in South Africa we tend to argue about eurocentrism as if [it’s] sort of widespread, whereas really the world currently is dominated by the American approach to creating knowledge, including African studies. It’s really American-centric,” Mokoena said.
Mokoena spoke to Wits Vuvuzela about the differences between universities in the States and those here at home, “American private universities [such as] Columbia University are very different from South African universities at the basic level of competition.”
According to Mokoena, there is a high degree of competition for staff and students to get into institutions like Columbia.
Mandarin in Mzansi
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has signed off on plans to introduce Mandarin as a second additional language in the South African education curriculum.
The South African Department of Basic Education (DBE) announced this week that Mandarin will be introduced into the South African curriculum.
Scholars in Grades 4 to 12 will have the option of taking Mandarin as a second language option as from January next year.
Plans to introduce the language started last year when Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga signed an implementation plan to strenthen educational ties between the Ministry of Education in China and the DBE at an institutional and policy level.
Over the years South Africa and China have joined together and signed several strategic agreements that aim to strengthen bilateral relations, trade co-operation and create sustainable investment. China is also one of South Africa’s top tading partners.
Not a replacement for existing languages
Motshekga’s spokesperson, Troy Martens told Wits Vuvuzela that the introduction of mandarin is part of a language and cultural exchange between the two countries.
Although the DBE says that the implementation plans were still being finalised, Mandarin will be available to scholars in a select number of schools around South Africa from 2016.
Mandarin will join the likes German, Serbian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu, as alternative language options for students.
“It must be emphasised that this is not a replacement for any of the existing languges offered. It is a second additional language option,” Martens said
Trish Cooper, course coordinator at the Wits Language School (WLS), said “[Mandarin] is an exceptionally difficult language to learn. It takes about 600 to 800 hours to learn a European language whereas it takes more than 2000 hours for Mandarin.”
“My concern is that kids are already coming out of school with little mother tongue competence. Which makes it difficult to transfer the necessary skills into a second language,” said Cooper.
Although acknowledging the importance of Mandarin for business reasons, Cooper adds that she believes that African languages and culture need to be promoted more and should come first.
Wits Plus goes digital with DigitalCampus
DigitalCampus is offering 100% online Wits accredited certificates. Photo: File
DigitalCampus , the online platform that offers courses Wits online courses, has teamed up with Wits Plus to revolutionise the learning experience using an online learning platform.
Online enrollment began in December 2014, and for now only one course (A certificate in Managing Labour Relations) is on offer. 18 students are presently enrolled in the program. Courses that will be offered are aimed at corporate individuals who are looking to develop their professional skills.
According to their website the program offers more than just online courses. DigitalCampus assures that their courses are focused on the practical skills you need, to get ahead in your career.
What do I need to do to enroll for a course?
To get started you will need a Grade 12 or matric certificate (or equivalent). In the absence of a Grade 12 certificate, recognition of prior learning will be considered on a case-by-case basis. If you are over the age of 23 and have 3 years working experience you may be considered.
The courses provided by DigitalCampus are 100% online.
The course duration is 10 weeks. These are divided into 8 modules, with one module a week. The 9th week is a study break which is then followed by a final exam in week 10.
Lecture videos are provided for a more comprehensive engagement with the content. Assignments and information are distributed online and via email correspondence.
Exams take place online. You must have access to the internet, a laptop and a webcam for identity verification.
All content is provided by Wits Plus, the Centre for Part-Time Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand which offers various qualifications and a wide range of high-level short courses to mature professionals.
The qualification provided is a NQF Level 5 Wits certification.
The course will cost you between R10000 and R12000 per course.
All course material is in English and all assessments are delivered in English.
Register online at www.digitalcampus.co.za
Q & A with Arabile Gumede
AFTER graduating from the University of Johannesburg with a BCom in accounting, Arabile Gumede, accepted an internship at CNBC Africa. He rose swiftly through the ranks most recently becoming a permanent financial news anchor last year at eNCA at the age of 25.
He spoke to Wits Vuvuzela about his career and being employed as a young person.
What was your motivation for getting into financial journalism?
The important thing for me is to be able to actually give you the underlying story of how important your money really is, not just for yourself but to the South African consumer [as well].
Has it been something that you always wanted to pursue and for what reason?
I guess, a lot of it is because it’s not a huge segment in South African journalism. I really wasn’t even keen on journalism to begin with because I did a lot of accounting in varsity. I actually have an honours degree in accounting. A lot of it for me was being able to tell that story.
Financial news anchor at eNCA, Arabile Gumede, talks about his career and youth unemployment. Photo: Luke Matthews
What challenges have you had to overcome while pursuing your career?
Well, I think there are still challenges every single day. [When] one is a young, black financial journalist, people look at you with a sense of “he’s too young to know certain things” or “he hasn’t reached that level of experience to understand certain elements”. That continues to be your stumbling block and you continue to take it and say “well, I’m going to grow from this and I’m going get to speak to people who will help me get to understand those concepts a whole lot better”.
Recently Stats SA released figures that 25,5% of youth are unemployed, 15% of these are black youth. Would you say this is a result of the quality of education South Africa has, specifically to disadvantaged black youth?
I’m 25 and that lifetime in itself doesn’t mean we have solved every single problem that has been faced in terms of creating jobs and creating an ability for a family to continue to create jobs. Understand that how a family creates jobs is being able to [in the Western context] take their kid to high school and varsity and that ultimately leading to an education, leading them to a job.
You are an exception to the statistics, how would you advise black youth to create a better future for themselves?
Nobody is going to do it for you. It starts off at a point where if you want to get to a certain place you are going to have to get there yourself. Nobody is going to give you favours, nobody is going to give you hand-outs, and if you do then you better grab those with all your might and all your strength and run with it. It gets really difficult and one thing for sure, what you get given, if you can produce that tenfold you are likely to succeed no matter what industry you are in. It’s about making what you feel is important to remain important.
No “good story” for African languages
More than a decade after Wits agreed to adopt Sesotho as a second language, the university is no closer to implementing this commitment.
In 2003 Wits University drew up a language policy that said the university would use an African language, Sesotho, as a medium for teaching and learning.
“The resources of the university need to be mobilised to enhance the language competencies of staff and students and, in partnership with the government, play a role in the development of one of South Africa’s African languages,” reads the policy.
However, while the policy has remained in effect its implementation has been hampered by a lack of resources.
“Unfortunately, I do not have a good story to tell … I think we must take some responsibility, we say one thing and we do another,” said Vice-chancellor Prof Adam Habib.
Habib said the current language policy was “all for show” and the university needs to be realistic about its ability to implement an African language for teaching. “We love the policy but where are we going to find the millions of rands? It’s all for show and not for the reality of where we are. It’s a symbolic statement we make [more] than a real statement,” he said.
The 2003 policy outlined the implementation of Sesotho in four phases however, a decade later, not a single phase of implementation has taken place. Phase one, offering Sesotho classes for staff members, was supposed to have been implemented in 2010.
The policy was adopted by Wits because government made it a requirement for all higher educational institutions to further transform. The university signed the policy but took little action to implement it.
THE ISSUE: Vice- chancellor Prof Adam Habib in conversation about the Language Policy. Photo by: Anazi Zote
“The university said ‘let’s go into compliance and let’s tick the boxes’ and we kept quiet and nobody asked,” Habib said.
The university began to look at revising and implementing its policy last year after government said it would conduct a survey of indigenous languages at higher education institutions.
Prof Libby Meintjes, head of the School of Language and Literature Studies, said the first draft of a new language policy would be released in October.
“We are moving back to mother tongue teaching and if we cannot manage it in lectures we will have it in tutorials,” Meintjes said.
According to Meintjes, last year the university sent an email survey asking what was the preferred African language as a medium of learning and teaching. The results showed that isiZulu was in demand more than Sesotho.
“Staff and students put isiZulu ahead of Sesotho because of the language competence and the number of people that speak it but we don’t feel that because isiZulu has replaced Sesotho we will only go for isiZulu,” Meintjes said.
Habib said Wits needed to be honest about what it can do in terms of using African languages with current resources.
“We cannot spend so much time lying to ourselves. I think we should come into terms with it, if we don’t have the resources, the will, and we don’t have the courage, let’s not pretend that we do,” he said.
However, he concluded that Wits can achieve some kind of transformation, but it would be skewed by South Africa’s history.
OPINION: Youth Day – a lost understanding but not a lost opportunity
The length of the pause a South African teenager took on television today was a little more than just awkward. She was asked, in an interview, about the significance of June 16th.
The pause led to nothing but a confession that said she did not know the significance of the day, except to say that “on this day we wear our school uniform and don’t go to school”.
That pause though was more than enough time for me to formulate my dramatic shock at the ignorance of young South Africans who now understand very little of the patriotism and hope for a bright future which was expressed by the youth of 1976.
I guess that’s it, we have reached an era where the sacrifices made by the young people that came before us have become insignificant, merely a small slice of the great history that makes up this young democracy.
This young girl was indeed just one of the millions of young people in South Africa who are celebrating the lives they’re afforded today, non the wiser of the blood which was shed so that we could walk into an elevator used by white people also, share the same public toilet seat as our white fellow citizens and also, but most importantly benefit equally from an education system which was previously reserved for those South Africans who were not black.
I cannot help but wonder about the relevance of these all these celebrations which we’re a part of today in commemoration of the anti-apartheid struggle given the lack of understanding of the occasion particularly among the youth of today.
The baton was passed onto us a long time ago and even though we have run a long way, we have a really long way to go.
I cannot fully exclude myself as I doubt that I, or you as the reader, will ever fully understand the plight of the people that lived during the apartheid regime and the struggles they willingly pursued so that I may be able to write my thoughts to share and that you may be able to read them, freely.
The students who protested in 1976 did so with the prospect of a quality education and essentially a better life; many of them lost their lives and in doing so lost out on the opportunity to see the fruits of their labour.
They did however leave a platform on which we can appreciate their work in the name of freedom as well as advance it by utilising it to the best of our ability the opportunities that have been given to us.
But have we pioneered on to ensure that we can curb our vulnerability to the dirty remnants of discrimination, unemployment and inequality that are ever so difficult to make clean. I would hate to think that the courage expressed by the youth that came before us was in vain.
I figure that if we don’t fully understand the efforts of those that participated in the June 1976 protests we should at least try our level best to grab all the opportunities that have been laid out for us to seize and make the best of.
The baton was passed onto us a long time ago and even though we have run a long way, we have a really long way to go.
Aside from the annual celebrations we are to do the best that we can to make sure that we live, and we live well, for those who made the decision to afford us this opportunity.
We must rise above our circumstances, as the youth of 1976 did, to make the best of our lives in this democracy.
SCIENCE INSIDE: Inside SA’s SciFest
What is the state of South Africa’s science education? This week’s episode of The Science Inside followed a trip to SciFest Africa in Grahamstown (a science event geared toward inspiring school children with science) to answer this question.
Along the way stories from the festival, including one about robots, another on the future of hydrogen and rocket-powered cars, idols for scientists, and a couple of marine biologists who work with fishing communities to make sure they can keep their businesses afloat.
Listen to the full podcast here.
Education students gatvol over food
Education campus students still don’t have enough choice for food options, despite having raised the issue with Vice Chancellor Adam Habib at the Town Hall meeting in June last year.
During last year’s Town Hall meetings on Main campus and Education campus, students were able to raise their concerns with Habib in a public forum
Lack of food outlets
At the Education campus Town Hall, former ECS (Education School Council) vice president Njabulo Mkhize raised his concerns about the inadequate food options on the campus. Olives and Plates is the only food outlet available on Education campus. The students find the restaurant expensive.
Mkize told the VC that students could not afford to purchase food at the café because the prices were very high. His concern was that the students had absolutely no other option to get food other than Olives and Plates.
.[pullquote align=”right”]“He even said that having seen the quotes for Olives and Plates, he had decided to cut down on food expenses for staff functions,” [/pullquote]
At the Town Hall meeting Habib was said to have acknowledged this was a legitimate concern.“He even said that having seen the quotes for Olives and Plates, he had decided to cut down on food expenses for staff functions,”said Mkize
What the students have to say
Students on education canpus opt to bring packed lunches to campus as they feel the food from Olives and plates is too expensive.
Having served on the ESC for two years, Mkize said he was aware that there are students who could not afford to buy food from Olives and Plates.During lunch break, students grouped together at various spots at campus, most eating their packed lunches. Many also had polystyrene boxes of slap chips, the most affordable item on offer from Olives and Plates.
[pullquote]“You get a burger here for R22 and it doesn’t have chips, but on Main campus a meal is R25,” [/pullquote]Two fourth year students, Zama Khumalo and Anna Lekata, sat outside Olives and Plates eating their lunch – a Butcher’s Grill meal that they had got from Main campus. “You get a burger here for R22 and it doesn’t have chips, but on Main campus a meal is R25,” said Khumalo.
Khumalo and Lekata had left at 11am to come to Main campus because they had no classes to attend. The two said they would have been late for classes in the afternoon had they not been able to leave early.
Ami Sonnenburg, 2nd year BEd, said she always brought lunch from home because she was Jewish, only ate kosher food and Olives and Plates did not provide that option. She added that she disliked buying food from Main campus,“The food at the matrix is disgusting and the matrix is filthy”.
A group of students studying a PGCE said that they had noticed a big difference in a availability of food variety since they left Main campus.“We don’t actually buy food, we just buy snacks,” said Daniella Regal. Mutshutshudzi Tshikule, secretary of the ESC, told Wits Vuvuzela that nothing had been done about most of the issues that were raised at the Town Hall forum.
Alongside the food issue, students had raised concerns about the high international upfront payment fees.
Supreme matric deception
Matric learners at the Supreme Educational College in Braamfontein have accused their school of short-changing them by only registering them for five subjects instead of the seven required for a matric certificate.
Wits Vuvuzela interviewed six Supreme College learners, who asked not to be named.
“They are saying we must do five subjects this year and do two subjects next year. This means we cannot apply for university now,” said one of the learners.
The learners said the college’s deputy principal demanded that the they sign a form promising to only take five subjects. The deputy principal threatened to de-register them if they did not sign, according to the learners.
Part-time versus full-time
Nkululeko Ncube, principal of Supreme College, said the school has full time learners who are taking seven subjects and part time learners who are taking only five subjects.
The learners provided Wits Vuvuzela with forms listing the schools full-time and part-time “candidates”. They said they were full time learners however their names appeared on the list for “part-time”.
“We did not sign for part-time. They told us that it is because we will not be able to manage the workload. I don’t understand because we are still taught seven subjects but we will only write five for finals,” another learner said.[pullquote align=”right”]“Every time we ask what is happening we are sent to a different person in management. They all say it is not their concern.”[/pullquote]
Management does the shuffle
The learners told Wits Vuvuzela they asked school officials about why they were only taking five subjects but were refused a direct response.
“They told us ‘that is for us to know’,” one student said.
[pullquote]“The school fee is R800 per month. Learners who agreed to the five subjects are only paying R600. I am still paying R800 but now I am being forced to be part-time.”[/pullquote]Another student added: “Every time we ask what is happening we are sent to a different person in management. They all say it is not their concern.”The learners said some agreed to take only five subjects because they received a discount on their school fees.
“The school fee is R800 per month. Learners who agreed to the five subjects are only paying R600. I am still paying R800 but now I am being forced to be part-time,” the learner said.
The learners said the school had disregarded their right to choose and did not take their financial status into consideration. The learners admitted that they had become disheartened and had nothing “driving” them to attend classes.
Wits Vuvuzela spoke to a parent who did not want to be named in order to protect her child.
“My child’s education is suffering. She is getting old now. She cannot return again next year. This is not fair.”
Department of Basic Education response
Wits Vuvuzela approached the provincial department of education with the learners’ allegations but were told that regulating independent school’s like Supreme College was difficult. However, the department said that it had made enquiries at Supreme and it found “no evidence” to support the learners’ allegations.[pullquote align=”right”]’You guys think you are clever going around telling people what is going on at the school. Why are you doing that? When you have a problem with your father do you go around and tell the neighbours?’[/pullquote]
“Departmental documents indicate that all 47 learners are registered to write seven subjects this year,” the department said in an email to Wits Vuvuzela.
Intimidation
Following enquiries by the department, the learners alleged that Ncube gathered the matrics and accused them of stirring trouble.
“’You guys think you are clever going around telling people what is going on at the school. Why are you doing that? When you have a problem with your father do you go around and tell the neighbours?’,” the learner recounted.
The learners said their parents were even confused as to what was happening.
“My dad went and asked. They confused him with long answers,” the learner said.
Learners accused the school of fabricating their marks. They said they had not written a third Afrikaans examin June but had still received marks for it.
Ncube told Wits Vuvuzela that the third Afrikaans exam was not written as the teacher left. The marks on the learners’ report card for the third exam reflected an aggregate of their marks throughout the term.
shandu@witsvuvuzela.com
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