Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Education

Future of education in flux as SA schools remain closed

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By Lizzie Stricklin

MAIN IMAGE: South African schools remain closed as the nation’s lockdown continues until the end of April. SOURCE: Henk Pijper, Pixabay

With the South African government having extended the country’s lockdown until the end of April, concerns are rising about whether the school year can still be completed on time.

The concern is being raised especially because so many students lack the technology to work remotely and because a number of school buildings have been damaged and vandalised.

Since the nationwide lockdown began on March 18, 183 schools across the country have been vandalised,the Minister of Education, Angie Motshekga revealed this week. . This includes 55 schools in Gauteng Province, 72 schools in Mpumalanga, seven schools in North West and three schools in KwaZulu-Natal.

In a letter to the nation released on Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa denounced these acts of violence as “despicable”.

“It is a great indictment of our society that dozens of schools have been burgled, trashed or burnt to the ground,” he wrote. “When the lockdown is lifted and learning resumes, thousands of our children will have no school to return to, depriving them of the right to education.”

Even for students whose school buildings remain untouched, difficulties stand in the way of completing the school year as planned. According to StatsSA’s 2016 report, only 9.5 percent of households have internet access, and more than half of those surveyed primarily use their mobile phones to access the internet.

In an editorial for the DispatchLIVE, former DA Shadow Minister of Basic Education Wilmot James argued that switching to online schooling would therefore prove difficult for most South African students. Instead, he wrote that students in poorer areas and informal settlements should be provided with “software-ready tablets for online education”.

The government is reportedly considering efforts to try to “save” the school year, according to Sunday Times. Possibilities include earlier starts to the school day, evening and weekend classes, scrapping ‘nonessential’ parts of the curriculum in certain subjects, and scrapping the June and September school holidays.

According to Department of Basic Education Spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga, a committee will be deciding whether students in grades 1 to 12 will still need to write their end-of-year exams.

Plans for future school years have also been put on hold. The South African government announced on April 4 that applications for the 2021 school year have been indefinitely suspended.

In addition, the South African government has been broadcasting educational material on SABC, according to Business Tech. These broadcasts started on April 9 and have been meant to support curriculums for grades 10 to 12 and Early Childhood Development.

However, some of the broadcasts have been criticized by viewers, especially for the decision to include some celebrities in educational broadcasts. The hashtag #CelebritiesAreNotTeachers has been gaining traction across social media.

The broadcast featuring socialite Mohale Motaung-Mhlongo, which aired on April 1, has been especially ripped apart. In the broadcast, Motaung-Mhlongo said that acronyms and abbreviations are “short words that are used to modify our nouns”, and that in the sentence, “I’m sitting quickly”, “quickly” is an adjective that describes the “noun”, “sitting”. The link to the lesson has been removed from his Instagram account.

As schools have closed, so too has a regular source of food for many students. Several organisations, including Equal Education, the Children’s Institute and the Equal Education Law Centre, have penned a letter to request Motshekga to reopen the national school feeding program despite the closure of schools.

“With the president announcing the extension of the lockdown until the end of April, a pressing need is ensuring that learners have continued access to critical nutrition provisioning,” the letter said. “Nine-million children ordinarily benefit from the scheme. For many of these learners, the meal received at schools is often the only meal in the day.”

The letter also added that the use of food vouchers should be considered in places where school-based feeding programmes are not available.

Suicide spike jolts varsities

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OLIVIA DECELLES & AISHA HAUSER

Academic and financial pressures taking their toll on students.

A spike in suspected suicides at South Africa’s top university has campus managers seeking the help of depression and anxiety experts.

Six University of Cape Town students have died from unnatural causes on its campuses so far this year.

Last year it was three, with the university management establishing a mental health task team after the deaths.

Read More

White, Black, Purple or Green: Talking to Children about Race

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You might not want your child to necessarily watch Sarafina when they are three or read Biko to them at that time, there are age-appropriate ways of introducing complex topics to a child and, as [a] parent, it is important to do that with race, gender and everything.                          – Blogger on motherhood Nokulinda Mkhize

Bongekile Macupe takes a deeper look into the difficulty, but importance of talking about race to children. Bloggers, Parents, Professors, and Psychologists offer their perspectives on when and how you should talk to your children about race.

Read full story here: You Can’t Not Talk to Kids About Race

Become a part of the art at 3D interactive exhibition in Cape Town

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By Sealy McMurrey

Capetonians are capturing moments of themselves hiking the Grand Canyon‚ featuring in The Last Supper‚ and riding a camel without breaking a sweat.

An interactive 3D painting exhibition by world-renowned American pavement artist Kurt Wenner‚ currently on display at the V&A Waterfront‚ is making all of this possible.

Incredible Illusions is different to most art shows.

Instead of the typical museum instruction to “look‚ but don’t touch” people are encouraged to interact with the paintings for a photograph that will make it look like they’re actually there.

Wenner said that the art was chosen specifically “to provide an interactive experience to the public”.

“I wanted to share to [with] them the possibilities art offers to change our environment with imagination‚” he added.

Sealy McMurrey at 3D artist and inventor, Kurt Wenner’s “Incredible Illusions” exhibition at the V&A Waterfront Watershed. Photo by Ruvan Boshoff

Cape Town is the first international city to host Wenner’s travelling showcase.

Wenner said he got the idea for the showcase after setting up a museum in the Playa Del Carmen in the Mexican Riviera‚ and decided to start the showcase in Cape Town because of how impressed he was with the city when he first visited some years ago.

“I grew up in Santa Barbara‚ California‚ which is similar in many ways‚ although I must concede that Cape Town is even more elegant and spectacular. Naturally‚ I was delighted with the opportunity to display my work in such an enviable venue.”

For those who crave a more scholastic angle‚ there is also an educational zone that provides a history on pavement art and shares the crucial role that geometry plays in the creation of 3D interactive artwork. More creative museum-goers can learn about the foundation of 3D art and make their own masterpiece at the Art Jamming zone.

While Wenner was aware of the political situation in South Africa‚ he said that he generally avoided politics in his art because he felt “that my message is one of inclusion and hope rather than protest”.

“The whole world seems to be unstable at the moment and there is certainly plenty to protest about across the globe.”

The exhibition started on April 4 and runs until July 23. — TMG Digital/TimesLIVE

Read this article online here

Inanda Seminary Promoting Confidence in Young Women

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Due to the legacy of Apartheid, most of the private schools in South Africa contain predominantly white students. But Inanda Seminary School is purposefully made up of only young black girls. Inanda is an independent boarding school, founded by American Missionaries in 1869 and situated among the hills of Inanda Township, 25 kilometers from the city of Durban. Emily Rizzo interviewed two archivists and experts of the school. Their jobs are to collect and organize the school’s and students’ important documents and artifacts. Today the two women tell us about the warm familial environment of Inanda Seminary and how it nurtures confidence and pride among the young women. The students truly exemplify the schools’ motto, Shine Where You Are.

Listen to the audio piece below:

By Emily Rizzo

I Care: A Safe Place for Durban Street Children

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I Care is a non-profit organization based in Durban, South Africa. Their mission is to help solve the problems of street children. This is an interview with Donation, an I Care employee. His job is to attempt to convince the children to experience the safety and comfort that is I Care and to get off the streets. I Care provides a get-away for the children. They are served meals, provided beds for naps, books to read, and games to play. The kids can even do arts and crafts or listen to music. But I Care hopes to eventually get the children in school or back living with a family member. Today, Donation tells us what it’s like to be a child begging on the street, and how we can help as citizens. Listen to the audio piece on sound cloud below:

If you want to get involved or just learn more, check out I Care’s website:

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By Emily Rizzo

An Interview from Cato Manor

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Interviewee Name: Romilla Nkosi

Photo courtesy of Romilla Nkosi

Romilla is a 38 year old woman from rural KwaZulu Natal. I met her while she was staying at her mother’s home in Cato Manor. Romilla is of Indian descent. She has been married to a black Zulu man for nine years, and she has a twenty- one year old half- Zulu son from a previous relationship. She described how she lives alone, as her son is at university and her husband works far away. Her extended family consists of her six siblings with 13 grandchildren and 5 great- grandchildren in the family. Romilla works for a non- profit old age home in Inanda outside of Durban. This past week she was visiting her mother, and nieces and nephews in their Cato Manor home. I interviewed Romilla to inquire what she has witnessed and her experiences with Afro- Indian culture in and around Cato Manor.

A: When did your family first come to Cato Manor?

R: My mother has lived in Cato for over fifteen years now. She must have come in about 2000.

A: Do you feel that there are tensions between Indian and black populations in Cato Manor?

R: I would say that you see tension in all areas. It’s not exclusive to Cato. There are even tensions where I live in the rural areas, since I’m an Indian and most people are Zulus. But tension comes from not wanting to communicate constructively. Communication comes in levels. Some people only want to talk about the negatives. If you have one person that wants a real conversation and the other person only wants to talk about what’s bad, it creates tension. If both people only want to talk about the negatives it creates tension. You have to be willing to communicate well in order to move forward, but there are some people who don’t want to do that.

A: What would you say are some of the success of the government post- apartheid?

R: Now we have freedom of rights. We are no longer oppressed from exploring our futures, our careers, schools, and traveling; we can go wherever we want now. We get to interact with different people are at schools now. I think it’s so good that we good to school with people who come from different cultures from our own. And because we can explore our own futures and careers we have control of our own lives.

A: What are some of the failures of the post- apartheid government and society in these past 20 years?

R: Overall in the past 20 years, the government has not been failing. The government is failing now. Despite developments, they are lacking in their promises. The presidents now are different. Mandela focused on education because he knew education is freedom for the future. In the rural areas where I live, I work for nonprofits for kids who have so much potential but they have no future because the schools are bad, and then the government doesn’t care to make them better. Now all we hear from our leaders is about their wives and personal lives. No one cares about education. People now will vote but our leaders are not keeping their promises.

A: Are people in the rural areas in high support for the ANC?

R: Yes, people in the rural areas still love the ANC even though they aren’t keeping their promises, but they are still voting. The leaders will say whatever because they know the people will vote. They don’t care about making improvements for education.

A: What are your thoughts on the mixing of Afro- Indian cultures in South Africa, along with interracial relationships and marriages between the two groups?

R: In terms of interracial marriages, people need to see that we are all one. It [race] doesn’t matter because we’re all people. You must learn to respect the culture, the religion, and the people, and see each other as people. I would say when it comes to people’s opinions on interracial relationships, 70% of people are in support, 25% of people would say maybe, and 5% say no. Definitely most people are for it and would consider being in one, some people are not sure, and there are a few people who have the same mentality of before.

A: That’s all I have for you! Thank you so much Romilla for speaking so openly with me.

R: You’re welcome, and thank you so much for speaking with me. I think it’s so important for when American students come to SA to talk to people about the issues we are currently going through. I hope you can come to the rural areas and see what education is like out there, and how are the kids there work. We are always excited to see American students who want to help and work with the nonprofits.

Thobani Ndlovu on being black and gay in South Africa

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By Sealy McMurrey

Thobani Ndlovu is a 27-year-old black gay man. Originally from a small rural town called Ndwedwe, Thobani came to Durban for university at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal where he still studies Gender and Sexuality. Thobani came to talk to SIT South Africa: Social and Political Transformation, where I first met him. The way Thobani talked about the context of race and sexuality and how they overlap in South Africa made me want to know more. As noted later in the interview, Thobani’s inflection in his voice is a little more obvious to passersby that he MAY be gay, being less deep and overbearing as stereotypical male voices sound.

Have you found a community and place where you feel comfortable?

It’s taken a while in Durban to find that community, but I have. I found that I couldn’t quite fit in because I didn’t identify with any of those things [top or bottom] so it was really, really hard for me to find people who understood me because I was always being forced to be one thing or the other. I’ve found that I was comfortable with my race… but they were homophobic so I was comfortable in other areas like… when we were talking about race and stuff they get it. But when we’re talking about things like sexuality or even sexism they didn’t get it. So I sort of had to build my own community and then stay within those confines because I found that every time I decide to venture out I’d come back hurt because of something [they said].

How has being black impacted your experience being gay and how has it impacted your role in the LGBTQ community?

They [other black people] say that black people don’t behave like that. It’s not a black thing to be gay so I always found that my sexuality allowed people to deny me my race, like I’m not black enough because I’m into guys… But in terms of the LGBTQ community, my sexuality and my race have kind of come together to allow me to see like the intersectional issues. The fact that it’s not just the fact that I’m black, it’s not just the fact that I’m gay, but these things make it very complex because I’m black… Then I’ve found that dating is also [hard]. I always thought that because you’re gay you understand being discriminated against. But if you go online on a site and then you chat with someone and if you don’t have your picture there then they ask you your race and then you’re like “I’m black” and they’re like “Oh sorry I’m not looking for blacks, just whites only.” Yeah that and the gender performance as well as the “No fats, no fems, no blacks”… And we don’t really get much mixing of races… I haven’t had friends that were dating outside of their race.

How has being gay impacted your experience in racial discrimination and the black community in general?

I used to lead by my sexuality first but then I realized that when I came out of Ndwedwe that even before a person can notice my sexuality or before I can pronounce my sexuality, they see my race. I’m treated in accordance to my race. In black communities you don’t want to be seen as weak. So you’ll try to… buff up and change how you walk. But when I’m in white spaces in the white community, you don’t want to be seen as threatening, as a danger, so you try to be less macho so it’s always something that I need to catch myself [doing] because it’s not something that I do consciously. Because sexuality was a thing that was most prominent. It forced me to speak about it because that’s what I’ve always lived with. But when I got out of it, there were other issues I also deal with. So it’s made me want to be more active and speak out more against race issues and stuff.

Have you noticed a rural and urban divide in how people treat you?

There’s this assumption though that the people in the rural areas are more homophobic than people in the cities. [But] nobody has ever heckled me in Ndwedwe. Nobody has ever verbally abused me when I was walking on the street, but it’s happened here in Durban. Generally, the assumption is that people are more homophobic in rural areas, but where I come from they are… more tolerant of it. Perhaps it’s because when you come to Durban, because it’s a bigger town and it’s within the city, people are more comfortable to express themselves. So maybe that’s why there’s such a strong pushback.

By not being a “Born-Free” (black South Africans born after Apartheid ended in 1994), what is the difference between the experience you’ve had in the LGBTQ community versus the experience of “Born-Frees” in the LGBTQ community?

Younger black males are more likely to come out earlier now because it’s legal. And that was [passed] after 1994. So whereas we were bombarded with “you shouldn’t do that, boys don’t do this, don’t act that way” and stuff, they probably didn’t get that as much. Or even with like the media, it’s showing more representations. Over the years we’ve had shows showing gay relationships which have been taboo in the past, so I definitely think that there is a difference. When I was in school I was trying to find participants for my research and I would ask them “So how do you feel about that?” And they’d be like “well that’s who he is, so there really isn’t any issue.” I actually had a lot of experiences where I would have thought that my friends would stick up for me but they didn’t because they are now associated with this guy that everyone either suspects or they’re sure that he’s gay so if they stick up for me, then they also stand a chance of being bullied as well. Whereas now, the kids when I talk to them they say “No! I stick up for him if this happens or if someone says this to him.” So yeah, I definitely think that there’s a difference, but there’s still a long way to go.

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