School-leavers fully prepared for unemployment, says Education Department

<p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="color: #990000;"><strong>The national Department of Education has hailed as a “runaway success” more than a decade of outcomes-based education, theoretical cul-de-sacs, wholesale cooking of results and being held hostage by robber-barons posing as teachers’ unions, saying that school-leavers are finally being adequately prepared for a lifetime of unemployment.</strong></span></span></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXju98j9D4FV_18HpZSa3bpYmArOVzx65tg1TyQVEEpG9I9Fi1wk6jcGqS92lVMCXsWHNVyOPik-ArZDrKB3pSkyX92n873wZKr9KRa0lx7ouAyrTVXNWrFsyk9CckKcbHv4XeS0Xgdef6/s1600/DrunkStudents6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="462" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXju98j9D4FV_18HpZSa3bpYmArOVzx65tg1TyQVEEpG9I9Fi1wk6jcGqS92lVMCXsWHNVyOPik-ArZDrKB3pSkyX92n873wZKr9KRa0lx7ouAyrTVXNWrFsyk9CckKcbHv4XeS0Xgdef6/s640/DrunkStudents6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="font-size: small;">This morning Suxtobiyu Khumalo, head of the department’s Committee for Planning Potential Education Outcomes That Result Potentially from Planning By Committee, said that South Africa could now consider itself a world leader in providing school-leavers with the critical lack of non-skills they needed to be competitively uncompetitive in today’s over-saturated unemployment market.<br /><br />“Like the academically disinclined 22-year-old in Matric, our motto is: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” said Khumalo. “You know, like the national education policy for the last five years: do the same thing every year and hope for exponentially improving results, and when those don’t happen, do the same thing again, except this time make disappointed comments in the Sunday newspapers before you get redeployed as Deputy Minister of Forestry.”<br /><br />According to Khumalo, the Committee’s research had concluded that traditional education was too focussed on equipping students for productive, professional careers.<br /><br />“Everybody knows that unemployment is a growth industry at the moment, and if you’re going to get in on the ground floor – or in the gutter, where many of our finest graduates now find themselves – you’ve got to plan accordingly.”<br /><br />He said that as a result, most schoolchildren in South Africa were now placed in “post-school simulation scenario role-play simulations – did I already say ‘simulation’?”<br /><br />“We provide a totally realistic model of their careers as unemployed people,” he explained. “They sit in dark, overcrowded rooms, and are sporadically shouted at, ordered around or molested by people in leadership positions.”<br /><br />He said many graduates had written to him, often in soot scribbled on UIF forms, thanking him for preparing them for the realities of modern South Africa.<br /><br />“At least I think they were thanking me,” he said. “Or maybe they were asking for medical attention and emergency rations. That’s the great thing about Outcomes-based Education: you can totally make up your own mind about stuff.”<br /></span></span><br /><em><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.hayibo.com/school-leavers-fully-prepared-for-unemployment-says-education-department/">Source</a></span></em><p>

School-leavers fully prepared for unemployment, says Education Department

The national Department of Education has hailed as a “runaway success” more than a decade of outcomes-based education, theoretical cul-de-sa...

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Who's Fooling Who

<p align="center"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Matric results 'manipulated'</span></strong> <p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#990000;"><strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioEwLlWFklgLI4U3Gyp8bQckqcW8J8BAaMwY7i-yFDf-uKQVxG_KR0ATcOI-UnO5VAkHjuBMuBSgg_gnvPK3Tw9eBBSEHTB9QGFM0dC87CbU4ITJJHUuBcSPf3N00Z1fDa3t83s0aQS_i6/s1600/education.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em"><img border="0" height="441" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioEwLlWFklgLI4U3Gyp8bQckqcW8J8BAaMwY7i-yFDf-uKQVxG_KR0ATcOI-UnO5VAkHjuBMuBSgg_gnvPK3Tw9eBBSEHTB9QGFM0dC87CbU4ITJJHUuBcSPf3N00Z1fDa3t83s0aQS_i6/s640/education.jpg" width="640" /></a> </strong></span></p><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; CLEAR: both" class="separator"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioEwLlWFklgLI4U3Gyp8bQckqcW8J8BAaMwY7i-yFDf-uKQVxG_KR0ATcOI-UnO5VAkHjuBMuBSgg_gnvPK3Tw9eBBSEHTB9QGFM0dC87CbU4ITJJHUuBcSPf3N00Z1fDa3t83s0aQS_i6/s1600/education.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em"></a></div><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em><span style="font-size:85%;">by Peter Gibbs<br /></span></em><br />It would appear to me that the pass percentage for the 2010 exam results is being manipulated to make the Department of Education (read Minister) look good.<br /><br />I quote: "The Chief Director of Exams Nkosinathi Sishi said 364 513 pupils passed their exams. There were 643 546 candidates who sat for the exams, of whom 537 543 wrote all seven subjects."<br /><br />If one calculates the number of learners that passed as a percentage of the learners that "wrote all seven subjects" then the figure of 67.8% is correct.<br /><br />But what happened to the 106 003 learners, the difference between the 643 546 candidates, who sat the exam and the 537 543 candidates who wrote all seven subjects?<br /><br />They seem to mysteriously have fallen into one of the gaping cracks in the South African education system.<br /><br />Calculating the number of learners who passed as a percentage of the number who "sat" the exam one gets a new and more realistic figure of 56.6%.<br /><br />This would appear to me to be the true percentage as surely those that did not complete the exams must still remain part of the statistics.<br /><br />I don't know how the number-crunching was done last year, so cannot comment whether the percentage is up or down on last year.<br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">www.news24.com/</span></em></span><br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#990000;">SA Education system the 4th worst in the world according to Newsweek<br /></span></strong><br />Bottom of the pile - Newsweek‘s (16 August 2010) list of the world’s best countries put South Africa at 82nd overall, and ranks our education system 97th out of 100, which is 4th from the bottom. South Africa’s education performance is even ranked below countries like Mozambique, Bangladesh and Iran, states less wealthy or less free.<br /><br />Let's be honest: our dysfunctional education system cannot continue as is. We've known this for a long time, and now the international community knows it. We've won a pitiful "race to the bottom", something for which we should feel ashamed. Now it's time to make the hard decisions, commit to a standard of excellence, and get our education system on track.</span></span><p>

Who's Fooling Who

Matric results 'manipulated' by Peter Gibbs It would appear to me that the pass percentage for the 2010 exam results is being mani...

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'Why I left South Africa'

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:medium;">There are views for and against SA as it stands now. Here is my 50 cents on the state of affairs.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjlnPT7vu_DScC03C57c09ae9za99JdWJkQGpWueYtE8jpnPrsTbGipl5I7UQR54nPs6Qlp20mX0eBC4YLuBO9Bcz8kXJ0bfHwUPryWTVpOrY7WsUc30hNhW8AEUZ4NiCQqGry1JKfgOZ9/s1600/EXPATS.gif"></a>Pros:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xh144ieKf8YksdhWUrRjzj0L-eFMXhODscwHjus5wVvLzQrYOyQmprGSCQH5T-TbNNXa3XrRWuediyvU0ZRKZY5qTzHVKTnlgjHICKpOheA5kCXTq_7HTXarul9QMpK9BnuedLnEU2dJ/s1600/EXPATS.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5550750283061566210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1xh144ieKf8YksdhWUrRjzj0L-eFMXhODscwHjus5wVvLzQrYOyQmprGSCQH5T-TbNNXa3XrRWuediyvU0ZRKZY5qTzHVKTnlgjHICKpOheA5kCXTq_7HTXarul9QMpK9BnuedLnEU2dJ/s400/EXPATS.gif" style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 250px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 170px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>1. Weather is generally great all over SA.<br /><br />2. Freedom of Movement.<br /><br />3. Great outdoors.<br /><br />4. Big 5.<br /><br />5. Huge opportunities.<br /><br />6. Infectious SA humour and camaraderie.<br /><br />There are many more, and to each person they hold a different weighing of importance. Just so that you all know, I left SA, for these reasons...<br /><br />Cons:<br /><br />1. Crime. Why is there a massive disparity between the police stats and the SAMA stats? Even so, the level of violence that goes with a house breaking etc. is off the scale, and don’t let them bull dust you, it is getting worse. (I have friends who own security companies, and their stats are all going up rapidly; why are the cops going down?)<br /><br />2. Water. Why was the report by Dr Anthony Turton blocked by the CSIR? We have acid mine drainage and Government just set up a task team to “look into the matter” time has gone for this, action is required.<br /><br />3. Sewerage. Government refused to release a report on the state of sewage, saying that it would cause panic amongst people, who didn’t understand. Yeah right. You have to love this minister, who says you only have a crisis when there is a country-wide outbreak of cholera. Just look to Haiti to see how well that idea worked! Read the <a href="http://www.dwaf.gov.za/Documents/GreenDropReport.pdf%20">report here</a><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:medium;">4. Corruption. There is almost zero appetite for tackling corruption. People get “redeployed” rather than fired and jailed.<br /><br />5. Education. The highest per capita allocation in the world, and the results are dismal. I say no more.<br /><br />6. Economy and social grants. People in SA need grants, that’s a fact, but you cannot have 4.5 million tax payers feeding 14 million (and counting) people. At some point, you have to give less to be able to give more. The tax base in SA is too small for all these election promises, SA has to become more prudent.<br /><br />7. BEE. The idea was noble, the execution a disaster. For a white guy to get a shot at goals in SA he has to start a company. Once successful, he has to take on a BEE partner to get business, and the inevitable “SA handshake” Note, not all do business like this, but I have been around enough businesses to know this is de rigueur.<br /><br />8. SARS at roadblocks. I have queried this with about 40-odd people who live in other countries, and they don’t know of any in those countries that have dedicated people from SARS/IRS etc at a roadblock. This tells me the fiscus is desperate for money.<br /><br />9. Land reform. Why not use a partnership model? Who does Government expect someone to walk onto a farm and suddenly know how to run it profitably? The distribution plan is noble, and again, terribly executed.<br /><br />10. Infrastructure. Not enough money to fix the roads. And oh yes, we pay taxes on our licenses, and then again on petrol, why then do we pay AGAIN for toll roads? Where is the money going to?<br /><br />11. Plastic bags tax. Where is all that money people?<br /><br />12. Quasi-militant unions. Utterances like, “we will make the country ungovernable” and “they will be war”, “we cannot guarantee we can control our members” wake up! This is a low-grade war. Since when do soldiers storm the Union Buildings? That is high treason people. We cannot afford to pay more for civil servants but they hold a gun to our head. Why do these people loot and trash the streets, cars and shops? Basal thuggery, endorsed by their handlers.<br /><br />There are many more points I can raise, but stand back a little and look at all the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle and SEE what your eyes and ears are telling your brain. It has been declining slowly for years. Forget the NP or the ANC. Who is running it matters not, how they are running it matters. Unless the so-called great unwashed realise they are getting a raw deal every 5 years, it will keep getting worse.<br /><br />I am grateful to my Father in heaven for the chance to leave. I will not throw stones when asked by people about my former country, but I will be candid about the facts.<br /><br />It is indeed, Cry The Beloved Country. I sleep now with open windows; don’t worry about the guy selling a paper at the traffic light (robot) or the lights behind me on the way home. SA citizens, you are going to have to stand up and demand accountability. Call me what you wish, but I am happier now than I have been in 20 years.<br /><br />My children have a genuine shot at goals. To those who choose to remain and those who cannot leave, I salute you.<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:medium;"></span><p></p>

'Why I left South Africa'

There are views for and against SA as it stands now. Here is my 50 cents on the state of affairs. Pros: 1. Weather is generally great all ov...

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The Zuma shuffle

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">All those taxpayer-funded luxury sedans have barely lost their 'new car' smell and already we are faced with a fresh batch of ministers. Not that we're complaining. Most – bar one, perhaps – of the ministers who were booted unceremoniously out of Zuma's Cabinet were simply living it up instead of living up to our not-particularly-high expectations. As long as the new ministers don't feel the need to splurge on newer cars and houses... But I have my doubts </span></strong><br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjng75yiqK1riacivyxZqJGYXQA7ZI8N17_DhU2Ku6NhyjgomNt-SKlr-709WM6-cFDkN0iqVVxAz01UiPs5oApzgkKEnRgRMo_-98dlYAmq-wSPTt6rR1P1u3A7BpYXeZvYofVsXsFX4l8/s1600/ditwits.jpg"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535273670540313058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjng75yiqK1riacivyxZqJGYXQA7ZI8N17_DhU2Ku6NhyjgomNt-SKlr-709WM6-cFDkN0iqVVxAz01UiPs5oApzgkKEnRgRMo_-98dlYAmq-wSPTt6rR1P1u3A7BpYXeZvYofVsXsFX4l8/s400/ditwits.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 372px; CURSOR: hand" /></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Most of those fired, especially Women's Minister Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda and Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana, thoroughly deserved the axe.<br /><br />The most suspicious exit is that of Geoff Doidge, who was known to play by the rules in his Public Works portfolio. Is his departure linked to his decision to investigate the controversial R500-million office-block tender for new police headquarters in Pretoria that police commissioner Bheki Cele signed off on?<br /><br /><span style="color:#990000;"><strong>New appointments made to please, not to improve -</strong> <em><span style="font-size:85%;">Times LIVE<br /></span></em></span><br />What is worrying about Zuma's announcement, however, is that many of the high-profile appointments appear to have been motivated more by his desire to keep all factions that make up the ANC satisfied, rather than improve the work of government.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">To appease the ANC Youth League, he awarded Fikile Mbalula the Department of Sports and Recreation. Zuma also promoted Paul Mashatile to be the full minister of arts and culture, therefore winning ruling party structures in Gauteng.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><span style="color:#000000;">Deputy ministers - the vaguest job in government</span><br /></span></strong><br />Zuma has automatically created new support bases for himself by bringing in a slew of deputy ministers who can act as extras to protect him. Because they don't have defined roles, deputy ministers simply do whatever their ministers deem them to be capable of and in some cases they can keep an eye on the minister.<br /><br />The creation of four new deputy ministerial positions increases the size of an already bloated administration at a huge cost to taxpayers.<br /><br /><span style="color:#990000;"><strong>Zuma axes ministers in bid to regain control -</strong> <em><span style="font-size:85%;">Financial Times<br /></span></em></span><br />William Gumede, a political analyst, said the president “had been voted in not because people think he’s a great leader but because he promised to deal with health, poverty and education. But on all those things there has been no success whatsoever.”<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="color:#990000;"><strong>Zuma keeps friends close, enemies closer -</strong> <em><span style="font-size:85%;">Mail & Guardian Online </span></em></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The reshuffle was designed to create a “perception” that ministers were being held to account, Mr Gumede said, but was primarily aimed at neutralizing political rivals. “If he can lock those people in by giving them cabinet posts, they might support him in 2012 – or at least not oppose him.”</span> </p><p></p>

The Zuma shuffle

All those taxpayer-funded luxury sedans have barely lost their 'new car' smell and already we are faced with a fresh batch of minist...

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'Dear Government'

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiixztUxfVNE4OL180rVcmKzdK51yJqtaYxB_-rB6bHfWcQkPTyJpUIISzozXgy5mKGxLUIXauOgb-WfyXme2ozyumG8f53RQHmYWFcyOmZWC0RQKNeXvGQ33IFveTwfzJ0-BC3rXcLn5Z1/s1600/garethcliff01.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5531739878972046594" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiixztUxfVNE4OL180rVcmKzdK51yJqtaYxB_-rB6bHfWcQkPTyJpUIISzozXgy5mKGxLUIXauOgb-WfyXme2ozyumG8f53RQHmYWFcyOmZWC0RQKNeXvGQ33IFveTwfzJ0-BC3rXcLn5Z1/s400/garethcliff01.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 252px; CURSOR: hand" /></a></p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:medium;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><em>Radio jock</em></strong></span> <a href="http://www.garethcliff.com/chronicles.php?articleid=791" target="_blank" title="Read entire letter on this link"><span style="font-family:Arial Black;font-size:130%;color:#800040;"><em>Gareth Cliff's "Dear Government"</em></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color:#990000;"><strong><em> </em><em><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#990000;">letter may have been criticised this week, but the Idols judge has done what many ordinary citizens – and journalists – have been unable to do. Not only did he get a prompt response from the Presidency to his letter but he also secured a meeting with President Jacob Zuma at the Union Buildings on Tuesday. Now his scathing attack on the government has spawned more public letters to Zuma, including one from University of the Free State head Jonathan Jansen, as well as a website, </span></em></strong></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color:#990000;"><strong><span style="color:#111111;"><a href="http://www.deargovernment.co.za/"><em>http://www.deargovernment.co.za/</em></a></span></strong></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"> </span><p></p><div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none" class="arcticle_text" align="left"></div><div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none" class="arcticle_text" align="left"></div><div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none" align="left"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color:#990000;"><strong></strong></span></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color:#990000;"></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#990000;"><a href="http://www.garethcliff.com/chronicles.php?articleid=791"><strong>Dear Government</strong></a></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><span style="color:black;">OK, I get it, the President isn't the only one in charge. The ANC believes in "collective responsibility" (So that nobody has to get blamed when things get screwed up), so I address this to everyone in government - the whole lot of you - good, bad and ugly (That's you, Blade).</span></span></div><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color:black;"><div align="left"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWobuvyWQNw5r47wnMWVHzHSa-kFqyeaaisDOcih9UeyTWRhXIcHc-Ftvb0wccu39hmncUfUTNqG4ZCoBolAY8OSt4gasenqJgelbMpZmIwJ4yYulB2vTleGVDPmxK3ECbJJ7bIaulTSBV/s1600/garethcliff01.jpg"></a><span style="color:black;">We were all so pleased with your renewed promises to deliver services (we'll forgive the fact that in some places people are worse off than in 1994); to root out corruption (so far your record is worse than under Mbeki, Mandela or the Apartheid regime - what with family members becoming overnight millionaires); and build infrastructure (State tenders going disgustingly awry and pretty stadia standing empty notwithstanding) - and with the good job you did when FIFA were telling you what to do for a few months this year. Give yourselves half a pat on the back. Since President Sepp went off with his billions I'm afraid we have less to be proud of - Public Servants Strikes, more Presidential bastard children, increasing unemployment and a lack of leadership that allowed the Unions to make the elected government it's bitch. You should be more than a little worried - but you're not. Hence my letter. Here are some things that might have passed you by:<br /><br />1. You have to stop corruption. Don't stop it because rich people moan about it and because it makes poor people feel that you are self-enriching parasites of state resources, but because it is a disease that will kill us all. It's simple - there is only so much money left to be plundered. When that money runs out, the plunderers will raise taxes, chase and drain all the remaining cash out of the country and be left with nothing but the rotting remains of what could have been the greatest success story of post-colonial Africa. It's called corruption because it decomposes the fabric of society. When someone is found guilty of corruption, don't go near them - it's catchy. Making yourself rich at the country's expense is what colonialists do.<br /><br />2. Stop complaining about the media. You're only complaining about them because they show you up for how little you really do or care. If you were trying really hard, and you didn't drive the most expensive car in the land, or have a nephew who suddenly went from modesty to ostentatious opulence, we'd have only positive things to report. Think of Jay Naidoo, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi and Zwelinzima Vavi - they come under a lot of fire, but it's never embarrassing - always about their ideas, their positions, and is perfectly acceptable criticism for people in power to put up with. When the media go after Blade Nzimande, Siphiwe Nyanda and the President, they say we need a new piece of legislation to "make the media responsible". That's because they're being humiliated by the facts we uncover about them daily, not because there is an agenda in some newsroom. If there had been a free press during the reigns of Henry VIII, Idi Amin or Hitler, their regimes might just have been kept a little less destructive, and certainly would have been less brazen and unchecked.<br /><br />3. Education is a disaster. We're the least literate and numerate country in Africa. Zimbabwe produces better school results and turns out smarter kids than we do. Our youth aren't usemployed, they're unemployable. Outcomes-based-education, Teachers' Unions and an attitude of mediocrity that discourages excellence have reduced us to a laughing stock. Our learners can't spell, read, add or subtract. What are all these people going to do? Become President? There's only one job like that. We need clever people, not average or stupid ones. the failure of the Education Department happened under your watch. Someone who writes Matric now hadn't even started school under the Apartheid regime, so you cannot blame anyone but yourselves for this colossal cock-up. Fix it before three-quarters of our matrics end up begging on Oxford Road. Reward schools and teachers who deliver great pass rates and clever students into the system. Fire the teachers who march and neglect their classrooms.<br /><br />4. Give up on BEE. It isn't working. Free shares for new black partnerships in old white companies has made everyone poorer except for Tokyo Sexwale. Giving people control of existing business won't make more jobs either. In fact, big companies aren't growing, they're reducing staff and costs. The key is entrepreneurship. People with initiative, creative ideas and small companies must be given tax breaks and assistance. Young black professionals must be encouraged to start their own businesses rather than join a big corporation's board as their token black shareholder or director. Government must also stop thinking that state employment is a way to decrease unemployment - it isn't - it's a tax burden. India and China are churning out new, brilliant, qualified people at a rate that makes us look like losers. South Africa has a proud history of innovation, pioneering and genius. This is the only way we can advance our society and economy beyond merely coping.<br /><br />5. Stop squabbling over power. Offices are not there for you to occupy (or be deployed to) and aggrandize yourself. Offices in government are there to provide a service. If you think outrageous salaries, big German cars, first-class travel and state housing are the reasons to aspire to leadership, you're in the wrong business - you should be working for a dysfunctional, tumbledown parastatal (or Glenn Agliotti). We don't care who the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces is if we don't have running water, electricity, schools and clean streets. You work for us. Do your job, don't imagine you ARE your job.<br /><br />6. Stop renaming things. Build new things to name. If I live in a street down which the sewage runs, I don't care if it's called Hans Strijdom or Malibongwe. Calling it something nice and new won't make it smell nice and new. Re-branding is something Cell C do with Trevor Noah, not something you can whitewash your lack of delivery with.<br /><br />7. Don't think you'll be in power forever. People aren't as stupid as you think we are. We know you sit around laughing about how much you get away with. We'll take you down, either at the polls - or if it comes down to the wire - by revolution (Yes, Julius, the real kind, not the one you imagine happened in 2008). Careless, wasteful and wanton government is a thing of the past. The days of thin propaganda and idealized struggle are over. The people put you in power - they will take you out of it. Africa is tired of tin-pot dictators, one-party states and banana republics. We know who we are now, we care about our future - and so should you.</span></span></div><span style="font-family:arial;"><div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none"><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#000099;">Source -</span> </span></em><a href="http://www.garethcliff.com/chronicles.php?articleid=791"><em><span style="font-size:85%;">http://www.garethcliff.com/chronicles.php?articleid=791</span></em></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></div></span><p></p><br /></span>

'Dear Government'

Radio jock Gareth Cliff's "Dear Government" letter may have been criticised this week, but the Idols judge has done what man...

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Good stats, bad stats

<p><em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">by George Annandale</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;"></span><br /></em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Seems we are really making progress in this great year that saw the great African event of the century, the Soccer World Cup, taking place right here in our country.</span></strong><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigrGMTrMY-dmIm4isjuOyaMRCDi4JAb8K8VKniEHzkismE-AUihxbWtAjLbSz2d3NbrwUDozDrMwv9NsYrAw58YvT_Bn39Timo9RkBamecSbxUke4FddTGTlN_4NDiUMMxAt46hsU2Yn-X/s1600/crime-statistics.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515363438867978066" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigrGMTrMY-dmIm4isjuOyaMRCDi4JAb8K8VKniEHzkismE-AUihxbWtAjLbSz2d3NbrwUDozDrMwv9NsYrAw58YvT_Bn39Timo9RkBamecSbxUke4FddTGTlN_4NDiUMMxAt46hsU2Yn-X/s400/crime-statistics.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 385px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 296px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>Hot on the heels of the World Cup, we are told that our murder rate is down. We now, collectively, murder only 46.3 people per day compared to 50.7 in the previous year.<br /><br />That is not all. According to the Minister, all but one of the top ten violent criminals are in prison, the only exception being one Msilikathsi WaAfrica, a violent man who, according to the Minister, fought off an army of policemen and was only subdued once the Hawks, Budgies and Parrots stepped in to lend a hand in subduing him, after which he was brought to court where, unfortunately the case collapsed, probably as a result of corruption in the National Prosecuting Authority and he was released.<br /><br />Happily it is not only the murder rate that is dropping; it seems life expectancy is also dropping rather sharply, from 65 years in 1995 to 47 years currently. It is no wonder then that health workers had to take a few days off, to celebrate this milestone and to demand a bit of monetary recognition for their efforts in controlling a rampant population growth rate.<br /><br />Talking about flagging fortunes, our Universities are putting in some stellar performances in the race to achieve African standards with the highest ranked SA university, The University of Cape Town, dropping in world rankings from number 146 to position 164. No wonder a local professor inferred that, given the current deterioration rate, we should soon have our universities competing with the top high schools of the world.<br /><br />Whilst the universities are making solid progress our basic education system has arrived. We are now officially ranked as the worst in Africa. No mean achievement I have you know.<br /><br />We should however not rest on our laurels. If we can stop the striking teachers from sending their children to functioning former Model-C schools, we can still aim lower. Let us however not deny these teachers their just deserved praise; without their dedication to cultural pursuits such as strikes and boycotts and the commitment of several education ministers and the ANC to transform to African standards, we would never have reached this great point in our history.<br /><br />However, like all great champions, this title should not be allowed to go to our heads. If we can get rid of the remaining Model-C dinosaurs and the private schools with their haughty teachers and all we can plunge depths never seen before.<br /><br />As in all things, everything revolves around money. Money obtained from selling and trading things; things that have to be manufactured and produced competitively. Well; we shall not be disappointed.<br /><br />Our efforts over the last 15 years are also being rewarded with the exhilarating, but not unexpected, news that South Africa has dropped nine places, from position 45 to 54, in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Ratings. For a few years now we have just seemed to have gotten ourselves stuck around 45; unable to achieve that critical break through.<br /><br />Now finally – thanks to our remarkable education system, the relaxed disposition of our workers and a shift away from old western styled business leadership, we have finally dropped through that barrier that, to some, must have what seemed like a solid wall of burning tyres.</span> <p><br /></p>

Good stats, bad stats

by George Annandale Seems we are really making progress in this great year that saw the great African event of the century, the Soccer World...

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Matric mess: look out, the government has lied to you

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><em><span style="font-size:78%;">Andile Mngxitana - from the Sowetan</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Shocking Education results</strong> - Black man writes...</span></em><br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCR6RjT04EvlI3jSv5MsXqQBbZplbOA9rUUJmV_E_lUF_O1xOYBMDHL_qaeqUYLiIOGYPOthLs6BPVDej5N2FSRLEkKi61iGIuSHKhKRRPVdIWO2MI33SEy840x8b5hanRx9Aq1XM2FG9h/s1600-h/ancgovlies.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448653316888699474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCR6RjT04EvlI3jSv5MsXqQBbZplbOA9rUUJmV_E_lUF_O1xOYBMDHL_qaeqUYLiIOGYPOthLs6BPVDej5N2FSRLEkKi61iGIuSHKhKRRPVdIWO2MI33SEy840x8b5hanRx9Aq1XM2FG9h/s400/ancgovlies.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 150px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>DEAR reader, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your government lied to you when it said 60 percent of matriculants have passed. The truth is only 21 percent actually passed and I’m being generous here.<br /></span></strong><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrEQaHPZ24mwAX0uCCA0v1znbzkvHZIUvKoL9iqfTSdjwmZ9cHN0HfhfYWdg92hpV2gMv4HxfjMSwobEM5z1-2IeNv1Y34ONZTV0foqyGDukCZaFFCWXaAjq9CSiwt-sbxxKew4q5DCqab/s1600-h/sa_education.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWQ-PUt0eBgH5FwhyphenhyphenEaSsDP1KoDl2GRrHIB08ObajdCFumqFzqfnlIMfIuF4b4lHCuDpSc46Qf91EGjVW0EDVylbBD1XOCgBtCCC_UG_3L4-T8LrqrgVW-DepB9YFowpYjMPjlLl6-IHv8/s1600-h/anc+incompetence.jpg"></a>Basically we have a situation where, if you had 100 children who were supposed to be in matric last year, only about 20 would have passed.<br /><br />Let me tell you about a well-kept national secret and monumental scandal. The media and most education commentators missed it.<br /><br />In 1998 about 1,5million children started school. Of these only about 500000 wrote matric last year. This means that during 12 years, the schooling system lost almost a million pupils.<br /><br />Yes , almost a million children who started school in 1998 dropped out before matric. We must ask President Jacob Zuma what the democratic government has done with a million of our children. We have lost these pupils under ANC rule so no need to blame apartheid .<br /><br />Only about 40 percent of those who started school in 1998 wrote matric last year. So the real pass rate is a shocking 21 percent as Martin Prew of the Centre for Education Policy Development said<br /><br />The pass rate could be as low as 10 percent if we discount those who got 30 percent and 40 percent in certain subjects. Yet our democratic government says if our children do not know 60 to 70 percent of a subject they have passed.<br /><br />Incredible!<br /><br />Further , those with university exemptions are likely to fail the first year, because they are hugely under-prepared.<br /><br />Black-wash, the Soweto based youth movement, explains the crisis thus:<br />“The reality is that even though blacks and whites are supposed to have equal opportunities, blacks in township schools have few opportunities or skills. For example, a Grade 7 pupil in a white school is more likely to have better mathematics and literacy skills than a black matriculant.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br />So blacks fail Grade 12 because they have been systematically under-prepared since Grade 1.”<br /><br />As we know, 97 percent of children in private schools, which is essentially a white system, have passed and of those, close to 80 percent have university exemption .<br /><br />These differences speak to different resource allocations, teacher preparedness, salaries and conditions of work. They also speak to the unchanged socioeconomic conditions of blacks.<br /><br />We need to blame the government 100 percent for the shocking state of our education. We must demand to know where the million pupils we lost in the 12 years are. We must demand that Zuma and his government declare our education system a national disaster. This means we need urgent and extraordinary intervention to correct the situation.<br /><br />We need to really stop the pretence we call education. If need be, we must stop schooling for two years to sort things out.<br /><br />Right now there is educational genocide for the black child. Truth is, if half the energy we put into the FIFA 2010 World Cup was focused on education we could turn the situation around within five years.<br /><br />But then, again, we care more about games and jamborees than our people, so don’t count on it.<br /><br />Next year this time I will reissue this same column. Expect no changes in our education disaster.<br /><br />I wonder how one can be positive under these circumstances.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><p></p>

Matric mess: look out, the government has lied to you

Andile Mngxitana - from the Sowetan Shocking Education results - Black man writes... DEAR reader, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but ...

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Where the hell are we going?

<p><div align="left"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Meltdown the inevitable result of ANC policies</span></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><em><span style="font-size:78%;">Dr. David Klatzow</span></em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzRScjp1Iun1DIAtY9_HcWiil3HYzt7ggrkuaRzbHEqAaRsQ8vvc8zc7ic-or6dNBcxI5oSWSRwKLjdjgIQoJoU2SDYPZDHqplJ4LDCgNnPYPIlBTVLbalAg-imAGVg1NR4_N8EbA7qc1P/s1600-h/ancpastsellbydate.jpg"><span style="font-size:180%;"></span></a><strong><span style="font-size:180%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQfkBLXJkBbkXPK8kSRR3vR7AceIGTQ7-0PQElUsne1WW3iXhFsFyr_7dHsguUz0AysyrtAbzny3eGz-MlOqKNAx0NqH1eJWfy8MN8qo69bBDWw17MIDPI9mQvNwg6hMmrdXOl_IrNoI1/s1600-h/ancpastsellbydate.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443727198134663122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQfkBLXJkBbkXPK8kSRR3vR7AceIGTQ7-0PQElUsne1WW3iXhFsFyr_7dHsguUz0AysyrtAbzny3eGz-MlOqKNAx0NqH1eJWfy8MN8qo69bBDWw17MIDPI9mQvNwg6hMmrdXOl_IrNoI1/s320/ancpastsellbydate.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 263px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>T</span>he ANC</strong> led alliance came to power with many stated and lofty ideals. They flowed from the American rhetoric of such greats as Martin Luther King. “An injury to one is an injury to all”; “Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere”. </span></div><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Our government, post Madiba, has been slow to give reality to these lofty ideals. Mbeki (Mr. Delivery) turned out to be Mr. Non-Delivery. All functionaries in government were replaced by loyal party cadres. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Everything became <strong>ideology driven instead of ability driven</strong>. Government interference in the universities has become much more overt and destructive than ever it was under the Nationalists. <em><span style="font-size:100%;">(Exemplified by the turnabout on the honorary doctorate for Thabo Mbeki).<br /></span></em><br />Our health system was functional to a high level, even for rural black and the urban “non-European” hospitals, whilst an abominable reflection of the apartheid system, worked well with standards high and no shortage of drugs and equipment.<br /><br />Now in 2010, we contemplate exactly what has been achieved in the 15 years of post Apartheid South Africa.<br /><br />A previous vice-Chancellor of UCT, Ramphele Mamphela, is on record as saying that Bantu Education was better than the mess we have now.<br /><br />Our hospitals are dysfunctional for all South Africans who are unable to afford private health care.<br /><br />The Johannesburg General, Groote Schuur, Pretoria Hospital and many others around the country are mismanaged to such an extent that they have become a threat to health. The hospital accounting systems are in a shambles and suppliers have cut off supplies until their bills are paid. The standards of repair and cleanliness have plummeted. The equipment, supplies and linen have been pillaged and pilfered.<br />Recently at Groote Schuur I encountered a Neurology ward that had no toilet seats, no toilet paper, no soap and no towels. The chief neurologist there informed me that he would not use the toilets on his ward because they were too disgusting. The legacy of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang speaks for itself.<br /><br />Our police service is severely dysfunctional. Too many of the serving officers are corrupt. A recent PhD Thesis on the subject put it as 10% and probably higher.<br /><br />Out erstwhile chief cop, Jackie Selebi, stands accused of corruption whilst he was head of Interpol moreover. This is a national disgrace. The arrogance of the man to run around with the likes of the criminal gangsters that he associated with and not see the conflict of interests is astounding to say the least. The government, who should be doing all in their power to prosecute Selebi to the full, are wasting taxpayers’ money trying to keep certain witnesses out of court on the spurious basis of national interest.<br /><br />Our education system is a complete mess. We have the results of the OBE debacle to contend with where the only certainty is that we will produce a generation of educationally crippled youth.<br /><br />We have the ANC government with its ludicrous policies of “quiet diplomacy” which have allowed the stability of the region to deteriorate .The influx of refugees across our borders is fuelling xenophobic violence and is placing scarce resources under huge pressure. Our water supplies are dwindling and those that we have are polluted with faecal matter from the squatter camps along their courses. Cholera is waiting. Much of the water measuring equipment installed at key points on our rivers has been vandalized.<br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:78%;">The Cape Times (8/2/10) informs me that ‘DIRE SHORTAGE AT FORENSIC LABS STIFLES JUSTICE”</span><br /></em><br />What do you expect?<br /><br />In my private capacity as a consulting forensic scientist, I have been warning about this state of affairs for some years. Approximately 4 years ago I warned of the coming ”Melt Down”. To no avail.<br /><br />The analysts in the Health Department labs are appointed in terms of ethnicity and ideology and not in terms of their ability to do the work. When a previous head of the Laboratory in Pretoria, (Dr Viljoen), attempted to set an examination to regulate the incoming analysts he found that he was expected to appoint people who scored single figure results for the elementary chemistry examinations. The labs are swamped with incompetents and the work does not get done The net result was that he and the other heads of the laboratories have all left the state employ and are lost to the system. Their expertise is not even available to assist the state in pulling itself up by its bootstraps.<br /><br />At present there are nearly 5000 samples from the Salt River Mortuary which have not been analyzed. The talk is that they will be discarded. So much for justice. The departmental heads are not called to account for this disaster.<br /><br />Our courts have, for some time now, been grinding ever more to a halt because of the incompetence and disorganization of the laboratories that should be there to assist them.<br /><br />Morale at the police laboratories is low and the good scientists who are still there would leave if any other opportunities cross their path.<br /><br />Recently I became aware of a delay of 3 years in obtaining a post mortem report from the Tygerberg forensic department. This is just not good enough.<br /><br />I have not yet started on the disaster that is coming our way when the productive farms are taken and given to persons who cannot even use them for a proper subsistence, let alone a high technology productive farm to feed South Africa.<br /><br />There is only one way to stop the rot before it destroys the entire country.<br /><br />The government must stop the insane racist and aggressively affirmative policies that it has put in place.<br /><br />Corruption should be rooted out tooth and nail.<br /><br />All the available talent should be used in getting this country back on track. Stop the centralist interference in every aspect of our lives. It is not for the government to decide as to whether I may open a medical practice where so ever I wish. All that will happen is that the available source of doctors will dwindle as they head for greener pastures. The collective that have brought us to this pass will be blissfully prepared to blame it on the racist government. They are right there about the racism but it is their own racist policies that have brought us to the brink and not those of the previous dispensation.<br /><br />Education and security must take priority in government policies and non-performing ANC appointees should be kicked out forthwith. The business of suspension on full pay is an inducement to under-perform.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">Z</span>uma</strong> is a national embarrassment is so many ways that it would be impossible to list them in the limited space at my disposal. However, his exuberant fecundity is the least of the issues.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7v4V13oy0cq-oN9IGpLjaEKqkVSDVi8TOSlXQuJILr0jpIl37sXLfeL4RmpNGK7GRtll_Mueeah5mXbGqfIKwCZlMNY1eWIg7Pn3mJanXguaabdqPibRtgIdTlpF3QLL5AdGqh2sw_IJl/s1600-h/zumatoilet.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7IxMahEzLHBiJ3oC3YfdFOOzDvy4ZI84e_cPlx4sXny_PYR2IqEj_f4tDuKZgAZDJPPqowFyEVO2HIdvVTlG0pUS1UuBqONQWAKH-79bg7tIcr9QNZqDvEz8kt6PoYv4P0iEyeRCiRj6T/s1600-h/zumastink.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441504303299291330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7IxMahEzLHBiJ3oC3YfdFOOzDvy4ZI84e_cPlx4sXny_PYR2IqEj_f4tDuKZgAZDJPPqowFyEVO2HIdvVTlG0pUS1UuBqONQWAKH-79bg7tIcr9QNZqDvEz8kt6PoYv4P0iEyeRCiRj6T/s400/zumastink.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>My primary problem with Zuma is his lack of appreciation for anything other than immediate gratification without appreciation for the consequences. He says what he feels the audience wants to hear, without a jot of sincerity or any intention to perform.<br />The appointment of Jon Qwelane as ambassador to Uganda sends the wrong message. Why send an openly homophobic man to a country where this lately achieved tolerance is under severe threat?<br /><br />Why appoint Menzi Simelani to his present position? The man is constitutionally and experientially unsuited to the job and in any event it kicks the notion of separation of power (enshrined in our constitution) in the teeth. One is left with the only rational conclusion that Zuma wants a pal who will not come after him in the little matter of corruption that seems to follow him like a black cloud. For a man who publicly demanded his day in court, he has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid it.<br /><br />The disgraceful release on parole of Shaik is a slap in the face to our already foundering justice system. The only sense in which he was dying, was he was dying to get out and shop. Shame on you!<br /><br />It is high time, Mr Zuma, that you stop your philandering long enough to see that your party is systematically destroying this country. As a group, the ANC hierarchy is as racist and as corrupt as the Nationalists. History will judge you harshly.<br /><br />And by the way, we do not need aircraft (that nobody can fly) and corvettes to sit and rust in Simon’s Town, above education, policing and health.<br /><br />Maybe I could leave you as I started with two quotes from Martin Luther King:<br /><br />“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”.<br /><br />And finally, ”A riot is at the bottom, the language of the unheard”. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><em>Dr Klatzow is an independent forensic consultant.</em></span><br /></p><em><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span></em><p></p>

Where the hell are we going?

Meltdown the inevitable result of ANC policies Dr. David Klatzow T he ANC led alliance came to power with many stated and lofty ideals. The...

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Three lying, cheating SAPS staff bust for matric fraud

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Three police administration workers appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court on Friday for allegedly being in possession of fraudulent matric certificates.</span></strong><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NrOdEFbjVFD_CxzQgQlMa0XJohrv8pMaOxk2dIblL0HZ2kXmBQ9z56ECRwghgvaZ27u1q8hZVjHGphL6Oxwco18JevF1eFod74f5cJnpnDzqan8E2ySxXa2H1Ye06PDGr_ILBCKkLQiN/s1600-h/SAPS-police-dept-lazy.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429974989481874818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NrOdEFbjVFD_CxzQgQlMa0XJohrv8pMaOxk2dIblL0HZ2kXmBQ9z56ECRwghgvaZ27u1q8hZVjHGphL6Oxwco18JevF1eFod74f5cJnpnDzqan8E2ySxXa2H1Ye06PDGr_ILBCKkLQiN/s400/SAPS-police-dept-lazy.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 260px" /></a>Police spokesperson Captain Leonard Hlathi said the three were granted R1 000 bail each and the case was postponed to February 3.<br /><br />Both Maurine Sibulelani (40) and Phetheni Annah Ngwenya (35) were allegedly caught with fraudulent matric certificates which they bought through a colleague, 41-year-old Nelly Zulu.<br /><br />Zulu, whose qualificaiton was authentic, was stationed at the Nelspruit police station. All three women have worked for the SA Police Service for about three years.<br /><br />"It is alleged that Zulu arranged fraudulent matric certificates for her two colleagues," said Hlathi.<br /><br />Earlier this month, five other people who were also found with a pile of fraudulent certificates were arrested in Nelspruit and Barberton. They sold the papers for between R150 and R1 000.<br /><br />Among those arrested was Daniel Velaphi Gumede (35), who was allegedly the mastermind who sold certificates to the administrative personnel.<br /><br />He was arrested along with 25-year-old Benedict Mavo Mhlabane, one of the suspects in the 2009 matric papers scandal in Mpumalanga, Gugu Morobane (31) and siblings Doris and Sifiso Nkosi.<br /><br />The group was granted R1 000 bail each, and were expected to appear in the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court on February 3.<br /><br />More arrests were imminent, Hlathi said. - Sapa </span><p>

Three lying, cheating SAPS staff bust for matric fraud

Three police administration workers appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court on Friday for allegedly being in possession of fraudule...

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The difference between Black and White

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#990000;"><em><span style="font-size:100%;">Sandile Memela is an author and chief director for marketing & public relations at the Department of Arts & Culture. He writes in his personal capacity</span></em> ...</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH_cW6OMjnTmqvtKlRaiVNgBv3KfU3q4z6GE6Yj64fChIKxnZT7_MhLC2HpIXqhBFjqGFrC1lqDPuA5cth29CVbvTHIUlH2k_YQHTYHmDHm3LUuVLBQ2gTE63lnF3wVpkFgNmEhvQX5-vZ/s1600-h/nigger2a.jpg"></a><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425600791886475202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRQCs3QAI21sHhd5Bo4HwaWubrLJUv4GsUfvP_DqtttJN0h4in562N-_jY9KO00p5g8YgBGgY62kFZNTpl4QXFK3EdpetMd2nQJaTMltfHc4_JlkgLQ1oXL5JZ-mOBD1aAngiWGb3Emr0a/s400/nigger-maths-fail.bmp" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />For almost 30 years I have debated the subject of matric results with many different people from different walks of life. One thing that strikes those with eyes to see is that white students continue to dominate and outshine the ranks of matric super-achievers followed by so-called Indians.<br /><br />There is a perception that African students are the worst performers.<br /><br />If you look at the faces of smiling and happy pupils who have obtained more than six distinctions in matric this year, they are mostly white.<br /><br />Of course, that tells us something not about who has superior intelligence but who is willing to put their shoulder to the wheel.<br /><br />After all, the greatest determinant of how many distinctions a student is going to get at the end of the year is the amount of work they are willing to put in.<br /><br />One thing that has struck me over the last 15 years is that African students seem to be more interested in song, dance, fashion and booze than self-discipline, focus and hard work.<br /><br />Of course this is a generalisation that makes the innocent suffer but one needs only visit festivals, night clubs and other places of entertainment to find out which direction African students channel their energies.<br /><br />The reality of the situation is that white and Indian pupils are too few a minorities for them to dominate matric results.<br /><br />It is time that we asked a hard question of African students: how long are they going to depend on affirmative action to make headway in life?<br /><br />Of course, it is a justifiable government policy to demand that tertiary institutions make special provision for enrolling African students to be enrolled at universities. But who should be given special treatment between a super-performing white student and a time-wasting African student with low marks?<br /><br />I would be wary to answer, without any reservation, and with the deepest conviction of my heart and soul that the opportunity should go to an African student.<br /><br />It is time that special focus was put on matric results and the performance of African students at high school level and beyond.<br /><br />Since 1994 African students have had the power to choose to be great super-achievers or mediocre talents. Their parents and government continue to make huge sacrifices huge amounts of money for them to attend the best former whites-only schools under the best conditions.<br /><br />It is just an excuse for us to accept that African students face racism, victimisation and that we continue to blame white teachers and principals for their poor performance.<br /><br />Fundamentally, African students are the product of what they choose to be.<br /><br />Their matric results have very little to do with their genes or the upbringing and environment they live in.<br /><br />Certainly, the issue of language, genes and culture, if you like, often influence how students learn but this does not predetermine their results. The excuse that African students are so-called Historically Disadvantaged Individuals has been bandied about for far too long, now.<br /><br />The essence of the difference in matric results between White, Indian and African students is simply a matter of self-discipline, focus and hard work.<br /><br />It is time more was demanded of African pupils rather than encourage them to continue to believe that they future is secured simply because of their skin colour.<br /><br />This whole attitude of entitlement makes it easy for conservatives to say that affirmative action is reverse racism.<br /><br />African pupils make choices based on the values they learn from their families and communities.<br /><br />African leadership and management at family and institutional level is, largely, a product of a culture of entitlement. This misleads the youth.<br /><br />The ability of pupils to reinvent themselves and surpass all expectations in matric performance is what this country needs, especially from African youth.<br /><br />The best gift that the white and Indian youth have given this country is the example of focused, disciplined and hard working young people.<br /><br />Let us not discriminate against them, later, to make way for African youth who are not a source of pride for this nation. It is time that merit and a willingness to work harder were the new criteria to decide who gets an opportunity in the New South Africa and who does not.<br /><br />African pupils must choose whether they want to succeed or perish as fools.<br /><br />If they choose the latter, they must face the consequences of their own choices. The future of Africa deserves better quality leadership than our youth are putting on the table. </span></p>

The difference between Black and White

Sandile Memela is an author and chief director for marketing & public relations at the Department of Arts & Culture. He writes in hi...

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Schools of Shame

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Nelson Mandela Bay pupils are being taught in shocking conditions as the Education Department washes its hands of crumbling classrooms that have become potential deathtraps.<br /></span></strong><br />Many schools in the region have not undergone any kind of maintenance in more than 40 years, resulting in roofs blowing off and walls disintegrating.<br /><br />Pupils have to fight over a handful of desks, sports facilities are often non-existent and school libraries, computer rooms and science labs are something many pupils can only dream of.<br /><br />At one school in Chatty strong winds blew the roof off last year. With no funding forthcoming for repairs, the classrooms are now useless.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/M4U_osq1RRo&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/M4U_osq1RRo&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FDgjKVQH5GA&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FDgjKVQH5GA&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />An investigation by The Herald into the state of public schools in the region also found that:<br /><br />Teaching is continuing in dilapidated buildings that have been condemned by health authorities;<br /><br />One primary school in Jeffreys Bay has four toilets for 750 pupils – and all are broken;<br /><br />A science lab sits unused at a school in Zwide as staff cannot afford to buy the necessary chemicals; At the same school, a computer room with 20 computers donated by Telkom is permanently deserted as there is no qualified teacher to give computer lessons;<br /><br />Lack of fencing at a Jeffreys Bay primary school has resulted in squatters settling on school land; Many schools have minimal electricity, and some have none at all; Some schools have more than double the maximum number of children they are built to accommodate; and Two high schools in Humansdorp have to accommodate pupils from within a 200km radius.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#990000;">The provincial Education Department says it needs R23-billion to address infrastructure issues in the Eastern Cape and that the backlog will take 20 years to clear.</span></strong><br /><br />However, with an annual budget of R18-billion – only R981-million of which is earmarked for infrastructure – the situation at many schools is likely to get worse, not better, in years to come.<br /><br />Provincial Education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said the department’s main priority was to demolish schools made from mud and shacks and replace them with proper buildings.<br /><br />“We are building 12 schools this year in the province and replacing these structures is our current priority.<br /><br />"Unfortunately, the budget does not allow for us to see to every individual school’s problem,” he said.<br /><br />However, most schools say even though their schools fees are modest, only a small percentage of parents bother to pay, leaving them with little funding to buy equipment and do maintenance.<br /><br />At Republiek Primary in Windvogel, one block of classrooms has crumbled to such an extent that teaching can no longer take place. It is now used for storage.<br /><br />“We have tried to get the department to repair it, without any luck,” said deputy principal Charles Adams.<br /><br />The roof inside the toilets is also cracked and worn. Adams said the only sport played at the school was netball. Pupils used “patches” of land around the school for training.<br /><br />“Our kids cross the busy and dangerous Stanford Road to go to municipal grounds to play other sports. A parent was killed while crossing the road last week,” Adams said.<br />In Uitenhage, two school buildings have been condemned by health officials yet teaching continues in them.<br /><br />CW Hendrickse Primary School principal Dawood Ryners said the school had been built as a temporary structure 30 years ago but nothing had been done since then to build a proper school building.<br /><br />Jubilee Park Primary School principal Lorna Bosman said she feared for the safety of the pupils if a fire were to break out because the school was made from old planks and had not been maintained since the school was built in 1952.<br /><br />Loyiso High School in Zwide has produced many business and sports leaders including former ANC provincial chairman Stone Sizani, businessman Saki Macozoma and Springbok rugby player Solly Tyibilika. Last year, the school had a 79% matric pass rate, yet the conditions in which teachers and pupils work are appalling.<br /><br />The school walls are crumbling and there are holes in both the roof and the wooden floor.<br /><br />Of the 30 classrooms, 28 do not have electricity while 10 of the 12 toilets are blocked.<br /><br />“We are scared the roof might fall on our heads one day,” said teacher Zoleka Sithole.<br /><br />"Teachers and pupils recently discovered a wild cat living beneath the floorboards in a Grade 10 classroom.<br /><br />Although the school has a library, a shortage of teachers means it is closed most of the time.<br /><br />The school also has 20 computers donated by Telkom. However, there is no qualified teacher to give lessons and so the equipment stands idle.<br /><br />“The government does not give us enough money to fix all our problems,” said the school’s deputy principal Jerry Mbenge.<br /><br />“The school was built in 1966. Since then no maintenance or renovations have been done by the government.<br /><br />"If we were to renovate the school ourselves we couldn’t afford the equipment that is needed.”<br /><br />Loyiso High also has a science lab but, like many high schools in the areas, no lessons have taken place there because the Education Department has not supplied any of the necessary chemicals “since FW de Klerk was president”.<br /><br />Mbenge said when they applied to the department for the chemicals, they were told to raise the money themselves.<br /><br />The result is that the school’s science and biology labs are now used as general classrooms.<br /><br />This is also the case at Masiphathisane High School in Motherwell.<br /><br />“We cannot do experiments with the chemicals that we have.<br /><br />"They are outdated and we are scared that if we use them they will explode and cause danger to our pupils and teachers,” said principal Mzoli Maarman.<br /><br />He said the school had last received chemicals in 1992.<br /><br />At Sipho Hashe Comprehensive School in Kwazakhele, pupils dream of having a school hall, library and computer and science labs.<br /><br />“The school has grown from a primary school to now accommodating Grade 8 and 9 as well.<br /><br />"Having either a science laboratory or a computer room is essential for our pupils,” said teacher Nokuzola Mabeqa.<br /><br />Grade 8 pupil Aviwe Kekana said he would love to use a school library.<br /><br />“I do not have the time to go to a community library.<br /><br />"It is far away from where I stay and when I come home from school my parents expect me to do chores round the house.<br /><br />“At least if the library was at school I could use it during breaks and free periods.”<br /><br />In the city’s northern areas, Dr AW Habelgaarn Primary in Chatty was dubbed “the school of hell” by former Public Works MEC Christian Martin a few years ago.<br /><br />A visit by The Herald found the roof on one block of the school had not yet been repaired after a gale-force wind destroyed it last year.<br /><br />Teaching has been suspended in these classrooms.<br /><br />Principal Leonard Schoeman said had been communicating with the Education Department about the roof issue but to no avail.<br /><br />Only the administration building now has electricity.<br /><br />“The school has also been vandalised numerous times,” Schoeman said.<br /><br />“They (the vandals) removed the electricity box and some copper wires, leaving almost all the classrooms without electricity.”<br /><br />He said unemployed parents who could not afford to pay school fees were required to get an affidavit to this effect from a police station, but many were “abusing this privilege”.<br /><br />Even those who could afford to pay school fees where obtaining the affidavit to not pay fees.<br /><br />“However, it must be noted that the school serves children who come from poverty-stricken homes.”<br /><br />Schoeman said sporting facilities were non-existent and the school did not have equipment for any sporting codes. “We don’t play any sports in the school.”<br /><br />Desmond Grove, who is the principal of David Livingstone Secondary in Schauderville’s Searle Road, said its rugby field was “overgrown” and pupils had to use municipal grounds for all other sports.<br /><br />While the school looks well maintained from the outside, Abraham Levy Primary in Searle Road, Schauderville, is facing a shortage of classrooms.<br /><br />Principal Gordon Geduld said: “We are using the staff room as a computer lab, so our teachers hang around the tuckshop during lunch breaks.”<br /><br />Geduld has to share his office with his secretary.<br /><br />The school also does not have a “conducive playground”, as the current one “is very small”.<br /><br />While they renovated the school themselves, Geduld said they could not continue with this because only about 39% of their 620 pupils paid the annual R350 school fees.<br /><br />In Jeffreys Bay, the 750 pupils at Makukhanye Primary School share only four toilets.<br /><br />One stall does not have a door and the toilets are often not working.<br /><br />Classrooms are so overcrowded that two classes are forced to share one classroom.<br /><br />There are also not enough desks to go around. There are two Grade 7 classes of 78 children sharing one class and two Grade 6 classes of 81 sharing one classroom.<br /><br />And the school’s tiny school yard was made even smaller when a squatter settlement encroached on the school premises before a fence around the school was built.<br /><br />Principal Zanoxolo Kama said the school was in dire need of more classrooms, but if the new classrooms were built they would have to be placed on the school’s only sports field since there was no other space.<br /><br />He said the school received little to no assistance from the Education Department, especially when it came to pleas for new classrooms, desks and toilets for the school.<br /><br />In Addo, Addo Primary School has been closed by the department because of the shocking state of the facilities.<br /><br />The children have not attended school for the last month while the teachers and the principal are assisting the district office with administration work.<br /><br />In Thornhill, the only two primary schools share the same school yard.<br /><br />There are eight toilets per school in a prefab structure and not all of them are always in proper working order.<br /><br />One toilet is blocked and the other does not flush, causing a terrible smell and health concerns for the 488 pupils.<br /><br />Nomzamo Madikizela Mandela Primary school principal Shumikazi Zuba said pleas to build a proper school building has fallen on deaf ears.<br /><br />“We need a school building made from bricks and cement.<br /><br />"We also need a school library because you give the children homework but there are no books to do research from.<br /><br />"We do not have a school library and there is no library in Thornhill.<br /><br />The closest libraries we have are in Jeffreys Bay and Port Elizabeth and the children here cannot afford to travel there for homework. It is very difficult for us here,” she said.<br /><br />Both the principals of the Thornhill and Jeffreys Bay primary schools said there was an alarming shortage of high schools in the area, forcing pupils who want to continue with high school to travel to Humansdorp.<br /><br />This has caused the only two non-former Model C high schools in Humansdorp to buckle under the strain of the massive influx of pupil. </span><p>

Schools of Shame

Nelson Mandela Bay pupils are being taught in shocking conditions as the Education Department washes its hands of crumbling classrooms that ...

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We don't need no education

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2zbDjUIb9ezbaxp-7qt5-L7XPIpn7XxAcS8rlGt9Y2DE0DMtp7X6ME6C0JqnOfQpzCnD8Ww0DKZ-hagxk8s6745F4of5esNUZR2TOpDu1cXwQ8bhwrEcrh-i8SjgbrymcNCsR_43iRaA/s1600-h/malema-education-books.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386107240488230322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2zbDjUIb9ezbaxp-7qt5-L7XPIpn7XxAcS8rlGt9Y2DE0DMtp7X6ME6C0JqnOfQpzCnD8Ww0DKZ-hagxk8s6745F4of5esNUZR2TOpDu1cXwQ8bhwrEcrh-i8SjgbrymcNCsR_43iRaA/s400/malema-education-books.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><em><span style="font-size:78%;">Article By: The Point</span></em><br /><br />The Point has been dabbling in a little mathematics. And by dabbling I mean groping aimlessly in the dark and by mathematics I mean numbers generally... and the Fibonacci sequence specifically.<br /><br />Ah, you see how I casually threw that out there — the product of a misspent youth. Or, to be more honest, far too many episodes of 'Criminal Minds'.<br /><br />So, back to those Fibonacci numbers. This is the sequence:<br /><br />0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55...<br /><br />Basic principle: each number is the sum of the two previous numbers. This brings me to the point — a South African Fibonacci sequence for the week.<br /><br />0: John Hlophe (call ups to the Constitutional Court bench);<br />1: SA police (the number of times crimes stats have been released in the past year);<br />1: Jacob Zuma (maiden speech at the UN);<br />2: Julius Malema (current count of charges against him);<br />3: Wives of Jacob Zuma (well, that's pretty self-explanatory);<br />5: Springboks (number of games won in the Tri-Nations);<br />8: Pius Langa (number of years since he was appointed deputy chief justice);<br />13: Blade Nzimande (number of times he has insisted he is, in fact, a communist);<br />21: Helen Zille (the number of times she uttered Jacob Zuma's name this week);<br />34: Leonard Chuene (number of lies told about Caster Semenya);<br />55: Michel Hulley (the number of times he's tried to get JZ out of trouble).<br /><br />Okay, okay... I confess, from 13 down they're all just approximations. But hey, who said journalists could count?<br /><br /><strong>WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION </strong><br /><br />So, he pops up at spot number four in my sequence, but, really, you could probably put him anywhere. Yip, I am talking about the invaluable Julius Malema. The consistency with which he provides fodder for humour is truly remarkable.<br /><br />If mention of the chubby-one's name causes you to break out in a sweat, froth at the mouth and start biting the furniture, I advise you to simply skip over this section. If the symptoms continue, then you may have rabies. There's nothing I can do about that.<br /><br />Right, back to this week's double whammy of Malema-madness. Yip, not only was he in court, he also threw a big bash at his Sandton home and may or may not have assaulted a grumbling neighbour.<br /><br />Let's begin with that </span><a href="http://news.iafrica.com/sa/1715238.htm" target="new"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">court appearance</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">.<br /><br />In his testimony, Malema whined (like a petulant child) that instead of helping to educate him the women's rights organisation dragged him to court.<br /><br />"They should have seen an opportunity to educate a young man... I must say I am highly disappointed... the first opportunity they saw to educate a young man, was to rush to court."<br /><br />Ah, yes, but Malema assumes that the young man in question can actually be educated.<br /><br />"I'm not an expert. I'm a layman who can only respond to the utterances I've made. On statistics… it's something you have to argue with your learned friend [his lawyer]. I know nothing about statistics. That's why I didn't even bother myself to read this document… which I would not (have) the capacity to do."<br /><br />I think that proves my point. But, just in case you're not convinced, here's what he had to say after his </span><a href="http://news.iafrica.com/sa/1937664.htm" target="new"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">party</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">.<br /><br />"If there was going to be any beating surely it was not going to be done by me. It is really unfair to try and paint us as a wrong picture. "<br /><br />Hmm… that's a little ambiguous. Is he suggesting that he, the former child-soldier, is incapable of beating someone, or is he suggesting that now he gets his henchmen to do his dirty work?<br /><br />"Even after the party, we cleaned up everything so there should not be any accusations that there were bottles all over and there were condoms."<br /><br />Well, I think we can take a positive out of this: condoms reduce the chances of procreation.<br /><br /><strong>WELCOME TO GANGSTA'S PARADISE</strong><br /><br />When she wasn't sending her cronies to spy on Malema (yes, he really said that), the Zillenator was frothing at the mouth over JZ's <a href="http://news.iafrica.com/sa/1930880.htm" target="new">lawyer's</a> latest attempts to pervert the course of justice. There is also the possibility that she had just read a newspaper containing the most recent tidbits from Malemamunchkin.<br /><br />"The latest move by President Zuma's lawyers demonstrates once again how important it is not to be beguiled by the president's personal charm. His public relations will not protect the Constitution. In fact, it is a convenient smokescreen behind which the assault on the Constitution continues unabated."<br /><br />Ah, see, she's falling for his personal charms. Zumilla: you read it here first.<br /><br />"We are sinking into a kind of gangsterism when the decisions of the state justice system depend not on the law but on party intrigue."<br /><br />Despite the impending descent into gangsterism, Zuma seemed to be pretty firm on the rule of law.<br /><br />"The extreme manner in which some of our citizens tend to express their grievances lately is totally unacceptable. We cannot continue to loot shops, burn tyres, throw garbage on our streets, blockade roads, damage property, or, most disturbingly, march in violation of court orders, to voice your dissatisfaction."<br /><br />Perhaps this is the smokescreen.<br /><br /><strong>MISSING THE IRONY</strong><br /><br />Earlier this week, the US shut down its embassy and consulates in the face of some mysterious threat. The South African government, worried that this would scare tourists and investors off, issued the following statement.<br /><br />"Obviously, the closure of the embassies is not something that is a good thing because it creates an impression that we are not a safe country... We want to reassure the public that South Africa is indeed a safe country."<br /><br />This in the week that they finally released the crime statistics. I suspect the fact that 50 people are murdered every day will hold a little more sway than the temporary closure of the embassy of a country paranoid about national security. </span><p></p>

We don't need no education

Article By: The Point The Point has been dabbling in a little mathematics. And by dabbling I mean groping aimlessly in the dark and by mathe...

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More black pupils failing matric

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRsmtOAQGM8acjlyCIR_q1D9uFigvJroaugJQeGHgt5fpykFSdpudDXGYd9GbqouUeKaWxb9a25zKSdZ9YQz1b4JMzzyPFQduZNKIyYsl4MWtxsOalx4JbD3vtPRpprRTJqcGOip86dFw/s1600-h/edu_computers_nigger_racist.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379926543172416802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRsmtOAQGM8acjlyCIR_q1D9uFigvJroaugJQeGHgt5fpykFSdpudDXGYd9GbqouUeKaWxb9a25zKSdZ9YQz1b4JMzzyPFQduZNKIyYsl4MWtxsOalx4JbD3vtPRpprRTJqcGOip86dFw/s400/edu_computers_nigger_racist.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">The statistics confirm what everyone knows, but they look grim in black and white: Barely half of South Africa's black schoolchildren passed matric last year, while nearly every white pupil who wrote the exam sailed through.</span></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/PDFs/MatricpassesRNW665-090908.pdf">DOCUMENT: Matric race data by province</a><br /><br />The damning figures were published by the minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, in response to a question from the Democratic Alliance.<br /><br />The Eastern Cape fared worst with only 45% of black candidates passing matric at any level.<br /><br />Limpopo, with a black pass rate of 49.3% was the other province to fail more than half the cohort.<br /><br />The figures, which were published without any comment from Motshekga, underline the handicap facing black children trying to break out of the cycle of poverty and the challenge facing the department of education.<br /><br />With a budget of R140-billion for this year, education takes the biggest single slice of government spending, but has failed over the first 15 years of democracy to make any inroad into the inherited backlog in traditionally black townships and rural areas.<br /><br />Educationist Mamphela Ramphele was the first to acknowledge that apartheid actually gave black pupils a better deal than they get now, but the refrain has been picked up by cabinet ministers.<br /><br />The figures show that in the Eastern Cape, 52 998 black pupils wrote matric and 28 878 failed, while only 33 of 3 130 white pupils who wrote the exam failed.<br /><br />In Limpopo, 40 190 of the 87 171 black candidates failed, while seven of the 1 386 white pupils didn't make the cut.<br /><br />Gauteng managed to pass 70.4% of the 71 687 black candidates and all but 136 of the 15 291 white candidates, while the Western Cape graduated only 60% of the 11 767 black candidates.<br /><br />Only 32 of the 8408 white pupils who wrote matric failed.<br /><br />In total, 56.6% of the 460 828 black matric candidates passed.<br /></span><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Brendan Boyle</span></em> </span><p></p>

More black pupils failing matric

The statistics confirm what everyone knows, but they look grim in black and white: Barely half of South Africa's black schoolchildren pa...

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Rape and murder stalk South Africa’s playgrounds and classrooms

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lSWKU1Ti-w50ILsdwPdix7AXx7rpeb_KE4a-6Yxz-TjCqTFy7pLMqPhEkPtooYptCTf1VZmNbjBmHtRxnvG3AM-uZUCrc5Yi6uj56IcST_YXZiIaW0z88S6B5ydzVa7mJlnmA9Yb0jo/s1600-h/black_school_violence.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378128313872010674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lSWKU1Ti-w50ILsdwPdix7AXx7rpeb_KE4a-6Yxz-TjCqTFy7pLMqPhEkPtooYptCTf1VZmNbjBmHtRxnvG3AM-uZUCrc5Yi6uj56IcST_YXZiIaW0z88S6B5ydzVa7mJlnmA9Yb0jo/s400/black_school_violence.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 324px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 243px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">In a moment of terror frozen in time, the grainy CCTV picture shows a teenager, high on drugs, stabbing another young man in the head with a knife.<br /><br />The shots are all the more chilling for having been filmed in a classroom in one of Cape Town’s most notorious townships. In the corner of the frame, pupils as young as 12 look on as violence once again engulfs a South African school.<br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#990000;">In one of the biggest but least talked about challenges to President Jacob Zuma’s new government, schools have descended into a spiral of crime that has seen murder and rape in playgrounds and classrooms.</span></strong><br /><br />As terrified teachers leave the profession in large numbers, security in schools is being beefed up to include police sniffer dog patrols and hand-held metal detectors. Psychologists are being drafted in to help staff to cope with trauma.<br /><br />A recent survey in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province, revealed there were <strong><span style="color:#990000;">11 murders, 280 rapes and more than 2,500 violent assaults in its schools last year.</span></strong> A further 3,000 cases of drug possession were recorded, a pattern repeated across the country.<br /><br />Alcohol and drug abuse are rampant. In the Free State, bars close to schools were reported to be selling alcohol and drugs to <strong><span style="color:#990000;">pupils who would often arrive drunk and armed with guns for their classes.</span></strong> The province also reported playground murders and the seizure of ammunition and knives.<br /><br />Throughout the country there are daily reports of shocking violence. </span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">Two 60-year-old women died after they were allegedly <strong><span style="color:#990000;">doused with petrol and set alight by pupils</span></strong> at Manhlenga high school in Manguzi, KwaZulu-Natal. Reports suggest the children believed the women had cast a spell on them.<br /><br />A teenager from Thornwood secondary school near Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal, was sentenced in Durban for murdering a teacher who had “humiliated” him in front of his fellow pupils. A 14-year-old from the New Drift high school near Paarl, in the Western Cape, appeared in court after stabbing a fellow pupil in the heart after an argument on a school bus. Also in Durban, mobile phone videos showing the rape of a schoolgirl were circulated in playgrounds, leading to the arrest of three schoolboys.<br /><br />In Cape Town there have been at least <strong><span style="color:#990000;">60 stabbings in schools in the past three months</span></strong>. The murder of a headmistress, shot in the head in her office, has led to calls for a permanent police presence in schools.<br /><br />According to Avril Knott-Craig, chairwoman of a Quaker campaign for nonviolent schools in Cape Town, the onslaught could leave its mark for generations. “Children learn from their environment and in particular that violence appears to be the most effective way to solve problems and so, when they are angry, they resort to fighting, bullying, stabbing, shooting and other forms of assault, just as their adult counterparts do,” she said.<br /><br />Teaching unions claim that depression and anxiety are becoming common among teachers. In township schools it is not uncommon for 30% of teachers to be off work with trauma-related stress.<br /><br />According to some critics, tough government measures, including head teachers given search-and-seize powers for guns, knives and drugs, do not seem to have had much impact.<br /><br />Some heads have admitted that they are afraid to use their powers for fear of retribution. </span><p></p>

Rape and murder stalk South Africa’s playgrounds and classrooms

In a moment of terror frozen in time, the grainy CCTV picture shows a teenager, high on drugs, stabbing another young man in the head with a...

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234 teachers probed for rape, assault

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLrpZwgUCpQqqseCVQiqWQ0Lu3TcJga9GZ3H62-ZAmply51w3xgqAueqsvG5wsiUApjWffAGZgLm6X_IJygz6hLJYbVdyqzjlcyYT6nv_Oo6UJSgwtyENU1fDdwF9kSL7ow2PsR8AFy-w/s1600-h/school_sex.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374834617462921346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLrpZwgUCpQqqseCVQiqWQ0Lu3TcJga9GZ3H62-ZAmply51w3xgqAueqsvG5wsiUApjWffAGZgLm6X_IJygz6hLJYbVdyqzjlcyYT6nv_Oo6UJSgwtyENU1fDdwF9kSL7ow2PsR8AFy-w/s400/school_sex.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 296px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">The SA Council for Educators (Sace) was investigating 234 teachers for rape, fraud, sexual assault and physical assaulting pupils<br /></span></strong><br />Sace is among other things responsible for promoting professional conduct among teachers and removing teachers from the roll who are found guilty of serious offences.<br /><br />"The number of cases reported to our office has risen in the past few years because more and more people are beginning to realise that it is important to report. We currently have 234 cases that we are investigating," said George Moroafui, Sace's manager for ethics.<br /><br />In the 243 cases there were complaints of corporal punishment, rape, fraud and sexual harassment.<br /><br />"We are worried that many sexual harassment cases are withdrawn because the perpetrators struck deals with parents in exchange for money. Most of them are hidden."<br /><br />Another challenge was that teachers were reluctant to report their colleagues.<br /><br />"Teachers must report incidents of misconduct for the benefit of pupils. They should not defend the perpetrators."<br /><br />Moroafui said some teachers were being investigated for receiving social grants fraudulently.<br /><br />"We urge teachers, pupils and parents to contact our office if they feel that certain teachers are misbehaving and harassing pupils."<br /><br />Sace officials can be reached on 012-679-9528 and complaints can also be emailed to info@sace.org.za </span></p>

234 teachers probed for rape, assault

The SA Council for Educators (Sace) was investigating 234 teachers for rape, fraud, sexual assault and physical assaulting pupils Sace is am...

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SA gets dumb and dumber

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Varsity students can’t read. </span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">THE shocking state of South Africa’s education system was laid bare in Parliament yesterday.</span></strong><br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Most of the country’s first-year university students cannot read, write and comprehend, according to a report presented by education management body Higher Education SA to the portfolio committee on higher education.</span></strong><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcKh5uZEjkEEDJxkvZ1GebeqqkAwX77R9HVarAulcMvkvkZjhJ-9n3CTnYoOHE1_Mut4KF9JR2ikDw4YQEmIjpA9-bcH8ibbdYvAAW-A94k-ax0ExArJKs1awVPrMZaijTtO5F7_0W298/s1600-h/anc-education.jpg"><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369254515684203714" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcKh5uZEjkEEDJxkvZ1GebeqqkAwX77R9HVarAulcMvkvkZjhJ-9n3CTnYoOHE1_Mut4KF9JR2ikDw4YQEmIjpA9-bcH8ibbdYvAAW-A94k-ax0ExArJKs1awVPrMZaijTtO5F7_0W298/s400/anc-education.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 292px" /></span></strong></a>The education body chairman, Theuns Eloff, told the committee the outcomes based curriculum has failed to produce competent pupils.<br /><br />Eloff said: “As university managers we are concerned that the ability of learners from high school to read, comprehend and write is declining … and they are bad spellers.”<br /><br />He said universities that conducted competency tests in English and Afrikaans — the dominant languages of instruction — have reported a decline in standards.<br /><br />Among the universities that participated in the study were Pretoria, Free State, North West and Rhodes.<br /><br />Eloff told The Times: “One may say we must do the tests in indigenous languages, but we have always done it in the two languages for black students in the past as well and the outcome was a higher level of understanding then.<br /><br />“One of the unintended consequences of the OBE [outcomes based education] is that we stopped having comprehension tests and reading and spelling.<br /><br />“You don’t learn to spell and comprehend, and that is nonsense.”<br /><br />Eloff’s remarks come hard on the heels of a recent report, compiled by a panel of educationists led by University of the Free State vice chancellor Jonathan Jansen, which concluded that the country’s schooling system was “dysfunctional”.<br /><br />The panel reported that there was “confusion” among teachers about outcomes based education.<br /><br />Professor George Euvrard, Dean of Education at Rhodes University, said he has noted with concern the competence levels of students arriving at varsity, and has found that many are “significantly unprepared”.<br /><br />Euvrard said: “It’s asking an enormous amount of lecturers. They are prepared to teach at a certain level and when they deal with students who [don’t have basic skills] it can be quite frustrating.”<br /><br />He said the problems experienced by universities with first-year students was an indication of the need for the education department to go back to the drawing board.<br /><br />“I agree there is a lower standard and students are less prepared. It probably suggests it [OBE] needs to be reworked,” he said.<br /><br />Euvrard said universities are having to extend their teaching programmes to ensure that students reach the standard required for entry into the work force.<br /><br />“We spend time making up for the deficits,” he said.<br /><br />DA MP Wilmot James said university resources are being used to deal with under-prepared students and the result is that those resources are being diverted from where they should be.<br /><br />James, a former University of Cape Town academic, said: “If we had a system where students in universities are qualified to be there in terms of skills and expertise, we would have a much better university system.”<br /><br />Eloff said the problem was compounded by the belief that the country’s further education and training colleges are inferior. This, he said, has resulted in universities being flooded by students who otherwise would be in these colleges.<br /><br />He said academic staff in most universities can no longer cope with the increasing numbers.<br /><br />“So we have serious understaffing in some subjects. By and large we have too few staff members to cope, and this is aggravated by the fact that we now have more students who need more attention, and we are struggling,” Eloff said.<br /><br />In an apparent contradiction of recent calls for the broadening of access to higher education for the poor by Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande, Eloff said some universities were considering capping student numbers to improve the quality of teaching.<br /><br />The growing numbers of students have made this impossible for lecturers, many of whom are expected to publish scholarly articles in areas of their expertise.<br /><br />Higher Education SA’s figures show that student enrolment has been growing by 6.6% a year 1995, resulting in a current student population of about 800,000.<br /><br />Eloff said the decline in university funding has hampered universities’ ability to address shortages of staff.<br /><br />Nzimande last night declined to comment, saying he had not yet seen the report.</span> </p>

SA gets dumb and dumber

Varsity students can’t read. THE shocking state of South Africa’s education system was laid bare in Parliament yesterday. Most of the countr...

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KZN pupils shocking in maths

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYORZpwMmymk2__4g-YnauxmbZ0UNgSa_SmVonCkq4aFuaaWhb3GT6ukBQmLvmYf5dRalWLuGxCH7VnYJbJ-7MqryT98jZwpqOZszalfZd55mIBu0ug2wOuIsuP76s9w1IV88_bzCAxAQ/s1600-h/expand-math.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369138540421354050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYORZpwMmymk2__4g-YnauxmbZ0UNgSa_SmVonCkq4aFuaaWhb3GT6ukBQmLvmYf5dRalWLuGxCH7VnYJbJ-7MqryT98jZwpqOZszalfZd55mIBu0ug2wOuIsuP76s9w1IV88_bzCAxAQ/s320/expand-math.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 294px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">More than 30 000 of KwaZulu-Natal’s 46 000 maths pupils failed the first quarter of 2009, the SA Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) said on Wednesday.</span></strong><br /><br />“We are very worried that we are heading for yet another bad matriculation pass rate,” said Sadtu provincial secretary, Mbuyiseni Mathonsi.<br /><br />Sadtu said the figures came from the provincial education department.<br /><br />He said the union had managed to get more than R1m from the Moses Kotane Institute to train matric maths and science teachers.<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><blockquote><strong><span style="color:#990000;">“It is shocking that 26 000 maths learners got between 0 and 29% during the first assessment.<br /><br />"On top of the 26 000 pupils who failed dismally, another 6 000 maths pupils got between 30 and 39%, which is also a failing mark.”</span></strong></blockquote><br />Mathonsi said the union’s attempts to persuade the provincial department of education to implement a programme to improve the pass rate had failed.<br /><br />He said 18 000 pupils had failed science.<br /><br />Mathonsi said the failure rate was high because the department did not have enough qualified teachers to teach maths and science.<br /><br />“We believe that the training of teachers will still help this year’s matric pupils.”<br /><br />He appealed to private companies to fund the training programme, saying there was a dire need to re-skill maths and science teachers.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000000;"><em>- SAPA</em></span> <p></p>

KZN pupils shocking in maths

More than 30 000 of KwaZulu-Natal’s 46 000 maths pupils failed the first quarter of 2009, the SA Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) said...

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The Great Matric Fraud

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyj-lkhAbWQUy2xwpYJi3kyvlBIyyKVcPqtJX_UmacU2SY1VIo0n_-GX1fZEw24pMPqmfwg0OmykT_gwc6PUhXIlVVGc6fLw5FGZImMqBif8Iq63vHFgoZqOQvrB5s80qBSLTLs3BXMEU/s1600-h/chart-cognitiveDevelopment.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368785791588567570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyj-lkhAbWQUy2xwpYJi3kyvlBIyyKVcPqtJX_UmacU2SY1VIo0n_-GX1fZEw24pMPqmfwg0OmykT_gwc6PUhXIlVVGc6fLw5FGZImMqBif8Iq63vHFgoZqOQvrB5s80qBSLTLs3BXMEU/s320/chart-cognitiveDevelopment.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 316px" /></a></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#000099;"><em>sairr.org.za</em></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">An analysis of last year’s matric examinations is to be published in the upcoming South Africa Survey, and a worrying trend emerges. Although a cursory glance at the results would suggest that South African pupils are doing relatively well, a more detailed analysis shows that there is cause for concern.</span></strong><br /><br />Currently in order to pass a subject, or to ‘achieve’, to use the parlance of the Department of Education, a pupil needs to get only 30% or more for a subject. One of the primary roles of high school education is to prepare children for tertiary education and the world of work. At university, a student needs at least 50% to pass a subject, while employers will also expect that more than 30% of an employees’ work is satisfactory. It is questionable whether allowing pupils to pass with only 30% prepares them adequately for educational opportunities after school.<br /><br />In order to be granted a National Senior Certificate (NSC), or to pass matric, a pupil is required to pass three subjects with at least 40%, one of which must be an official language at 1st language level. The pupil must also achieve 30% or more in three other subjects to be granted an NSC.<br /><br />Despite these low matriculation standards, the number of pupils passing, or ‘achieving’, in certain subjects, is cause for concern. Below shows the proportion of pupils writing these subjects who failed outright (by failing to get 30% or more), and those who failed to get 40%. The proportion failing to get 40% or higher includes those who failed outright.. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong>Mathematics</strong><br />Number of candidates who wrote - <strong>298 821</strong><br />Outright failure (proportion of candidates who failed to get 30% and above) - <strong>54.3%</strong><br />Proportion of candidates who failed to get 40% and above - <strong>60.5%</strong></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong>Physical Science</strong><br />Number of candidates who wrote - <strong>218 156<br /></strong>Outright failure (proportion of candidates who failed to get 30% and above) - <strong>45.1%</strong><br />Proportion of candidates who failed to get 40% and above - <strong>62.8%</strong></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong>Accounting</strong><br />Number of candidates who wrote - <strong>176 078</strong><br />Outright failure (proportion of candidates who failed to get 30% and above) - <strong>38.6%</strong><br />Proportion of candidates who failed to get 40% and above - <strong>60.0%</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4PwpkItt62tgjGJ_nk5aYkHGsD2Zocht0aWdP1d6gIniOZeUa17JIbxNBKeE4h3sCggMqppQXkW0tbs9dRMyflgGlxuScJwZLQuvEVF5jr2rmPqk6GdEvLwSZBKnTqSz6PTYf-vdK1f8/s1600-h/EDUCATION_cidiadigital_pyramid.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368781506614233586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4PwpkItt62tgjGJ_nk5aYkHGsD2Zocht0aWdP1d6gIniOZeUa17JIbxNBKeE4h3sCggMqppQXkW0tbs9dRMyflgGlxuScJwZLQuvEVF5jr2rmPqk6GdEvLwSZBKnTqSz6PTYf-vdK1f8/s400/EDUCATION_cidiadigital_pyramid.gif" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 321px" /></a>Less than 40% of the pupils who wrote matric in 2008 managed to pass Mathematics or Physical Science with more than 40%. The figures for Accounting are not much better. Only 40% of pupils who wrote Accounting managed to get 40% or more. For Geography and Life Sciences, only about 50% of pupils who wrote managed to get 40% or more for these subjects. These figures show that the wish of the minister of higher education and training, Dr Blade Nzimande, to increase access to university education will be extremely difficult to fulfil in the near future.<br /><br />Conversely, pass rates for certain subjects, especially languages, are very high. More than 97% of pupils got 40% or more for 1st language English. The proportion of pupils who got more than 40% for 1st language Afrikaans was over 99%. The figures are similar for South Africa’s other nine official languages. Of these languages, the one with the lowest proportion of pupils who got 40% or more for the subject at 1st language level was Ndebele, where 97.8% of those who wrote managed 40% of more. In every one of the other languages more than 98% of pupils managed to get 40% or more.<br /><br />Why is there such a gap between the proportion of pupils passing languages, and those passing more figure-oriented subjects? Either South African pupils are linguistic geniuses, but dunces when it comes to anything involving figures and calculations, or there is something wrong with our school system. The latter is probably the correct explanation.<br /><br />The current threshold needed in order to pass a subject at school level is too low. This will encourage mediocrity rather than excellence in the school system. It must be asked of the new minister of basic education, Ms Angie Motshekga, who clearly demands excellence when it comes to her official vehicles, whether she will be so accepting of academic mediocrity in the South African school system. </span></span></p>

The Great Matric Fraud

sairr.org.za An analysis of last year’s matric examinations is to be published in the upcoming South Africa Survey, and a worrying trend eme...

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Idle minds, social time bomb

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Nearly three million of the 6,7-million young South Africans in the 18-to-24-year age group were unemployed or not receiving education and training in 2007 -- and they pose a threat of “serious social disruption”.</span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364591148609679506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEKKHcqZJ1vZFuZfE7OgV3sRvyeJCaQ60rEg4K4Jx7uzKcJSVFuJu7CS7YmbJKKMbZcRd-dL2_LAuA5Znk_MxL3sfdiOoHVsW8uj1izL0M-roCs1PtaL-IXSFOyf5vqobvUgcnV2j8-1o/s400/BLACKS-sudansmoke.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 258px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />These facts have been revealed by research funded by the Ford Foundation and undertaken by the Cape-based Centre for Higher Education Transformation and the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) Further Education and Training Institute.<br /><br />Youthful protesters have been central to the current wave of service-delivery unrest, notably in the East Rand township of Thokoza.<br /><br />Conducted last year using Statistics South Africa’s 2007 Community Survey and education department statistics, the study, “Responding to the educational needs of post-school youth”, says that of the 2,8-million who were unemployed and not in education institutions, 44% are African and 41% coloured.”<br /><br />Reasons for young people not being in education or jobs include:<br /><br /></span></p><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Lack of a diverse post-school public or private college sector;<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Reduction in educational opportunities because of institutional mergers;<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Failure of the sector education and training authorities to provide ­adequate learnerships;<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Less labour market absorption because the government is not meeting the Asgisa target of 6% annual economic growth; and<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The uncontrolled introduction of more than two million relatively well-educated foreign workers into the labour market.</span><br /></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">John Butler-Adam of the Ford Foundation speculated that most idle youngsters are “at home, or wandering the streets, or both. Joining gangs will be an option -- a social security blanket” -- and crime is an option.<br /><br />“They could be a social time bomb and could start taking social action. They are a lost generation and need to be found,” he said, referring to recent looting by beleaguered unemployed people at a protest in Durban.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdf56RptmIMoX5RIKAJHRQaW_BYKP2X1FrdMRQvxwXpaNtdBbP8WYCPG8Y1g0R3PK0V893K7rjKfvxwhOMzRc649B25rnTGM7AcOCfQX6U6PNhYPRj8lpe4X9SW37MGYKTezXxX5JcaLk/s1600-h/crime-society.jpg"></a>The study examined attendance at educational institutions in the 18-to-24-year age group for 1996, 2001 and 2007. While South Africa’s population grew and more learners were studying, in real terms there was a decline in the number attending educational institutions.<br /><br />While 46% of 21-year-olds were studying in 1996, this dropped to 36% in 2001 and 32% in 2007. At the same time, the number of learners in secondary schools has grown.<br /><br />In 2007, 508 600 youths had not reached grade 10; and almost a million left school after completing grade 10.<br /><br />“This is not only an enormous waste of educational resources, but it is also the group that seems the most ­vulnerable to unemployment,” the study points out.<br /><br />They warn that “the decrease in participation [in educational institutions] for the 18-to-24-year age group severely affects the life opportunities of young people”.<br /><br />Butler-Adam believes learners could be dropping out before reaching grade 10 for financial reasons, or because they are “frustrated that schools are not serving them well and could drop out, ” he said.<br /><br />Pointing out that the number of unemployed youths not receiving education or training has increased since 2007, he warns that the number will continue to grow each year as young people leave school without completing grade 12, grade 12 leavers fail to find jobs or gain access to universities and university students drop out.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br />The report of the study argues for the expansion of educational and training and internship opportunities and special youth-service programmes. In particular it recommends that the existing Further Education and Training (FET) vocational college sector be enlarged and strengthened.<br /><br />One option is for some FET colleges to be franchised by universities to offer programmes and award credits towards university degrees.<br /><br />Seamus Needham of the University of the Western Cape said public FET colleges are running three-year programmes, but learners needed to earn an income.<br /><br />“It’s not a realistic option,” he said, adding that shorter courses are needed.<br /><br />Butler-Adam agreed that a wider range of educational institutions is required to absorb the youth. But he said: “We can’t afford to continue like this. We need people with skills, who pay taxes and strengthen and enrich society.” </span></p>

Idle minds, social time bomb

Nearly three million of the 6,7-million young South Africans in the 18-to-24-year age group were unemployed or not receiving education and t...

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