Once just an obscure island dialect of an African Bantu tongue, Swahili has evolved into Africa’s most internationally recognised language. It is peer to the few languages of the world that boast over 200 million users. Over the two millennia of Swahili’s growth and adaptation, the moulders of this story – immigrants from inland Africa, […]

Leva Foundation, in Gqeberha, in partnership with Nelson Mandela University (NMU) and AWS in Communities, are on a mission to reach 10,000 learners with coding. Coding 4 Youth was launched on ENCA this past weekend. Watch below. The initiative, which runs from now until the end of March, aims to get more youth into the […]

A couple of weeks ago, Professor Jean Greyling from the computing department at Nelson Mandela University bumped into a former student. His name is Onke Dume and he was in Prof Greyling’s class around 2013. Onke grew up on a farm, where his mother tragically died when he was young, but even though he had […]

The DA has revealed that the real matric pass rate for South Africa’s Class of 2021 is 51.4%. The Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga announced the results of the NSC matric examinations last night. The results do not however take into consideration the high dropout rate. This year, the dropout rate of learners between grade […]

Parents and guardians of unplaced learners stood in a snaking queue outside the Gauteng Department of Education’s office in Marshalltown, Johannesburg on Wednesday. They are hoping to find space in schools for their children. State schools in inland provinces reopened on Wednesday. Inland schools opened on Wednesday but in Johannesburg about 700 students remain unplaced […]

Learners from five primary schools in the township of Langa, Cape Town, will now benefit from a bus transformed into a fully equipped mobile classroom. The 42-seater Atlas Digibus is kitted out with laptops, two teaching stations, and Wi-Fi for learners to participate in online teaching programmes like coding. After successfully launching its tuk-tuk mobile […]

Over the last couple of decades, factors influencing the success of first-year university students have been comprehensively studied and researched. These studies focused on a wide range of factors including personal characteristics, school performance specifically Grade 12 (Matric) entry points and school subject choices. The research also considered study characteristics like lecture attendance, tutorial attendance […]

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says the amended 2021 school calendar will be retained as is. The Council of Education Ministers (CEM) met on Friday to discuss the options. Motshekga reported that: “Three options emerged from the consultations, and these were presented to the CEM for consideration. In the end, CEM agreed that the amended 2021 […]

While South Africa has established a good foundation in research and development, the continued poor performance in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) remains South Africa’s number one hindrance to innovation, according to the latest SA Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators Report which was launched yesterday. The report, commissioned by the National Advisory […]

The Gauteng Education Department says Phase 1 of the 2022 admissions online application period is open from today until 3 September 2021, for learners who are currently in grade 7. Phase 2 of the 2022 admission period will commence on 13 September 2021 and close on 8 October 2021. According to the Gauteng Education Department, […]

It all started with Byron Batteson’s TANKS coding app in 2017, aimed at introducing learners to coding concepts without computers… writes Prof Jean Greyling, Associate Professor at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Now it’s an UNPLUGGED CODING movement inspiring teachers and learners across the country … from city to remotest village (including the late Nelson […]

A year ago, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we predicted that school closures in South Africa would result in learning losses. A loss of contact learning time would lead to lower educational outcomes, and the losses would be higher in no-fee schools (serving children from low income families) than in fee-paying schools. Now […]

Writing this piece was a difficult task because I had to shrink a book-length account to a concise paragraph (or 3)! So, I’ve put together a summary of a summary, accounting for some core events and highlighting some pillars of strength… writes Faith Moyo. The Highs amidst the Lows I left school with excellent matric […]

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Basic Education has expressed concern at yet another bullying incident in South Africa which was filmed and has gone viral. In this incident, a male Grade 8 learner at a Cape Town school was caught on camera setting alight the hair of a female learner in his class. The incident took […]

A new School of Climate Studies will be officially launched at Stellenbosch University in June 2021. Higher Education Minister Dr Blade Nzimande says with the new academic school focusing on climate change, this will hopefully enable SA’s academics and students to build a well-rounded body of scientific knowledge and skills to not only understand the […]

After reaching out to schools across South Africa with his coding project, Prof Jean Greyling from Nelson Mandela University has grave concerns regarding the new Coding and Robotics Curricula in the country. Prof Greyling has consequently written this open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa… Dear President Ramaphosa I am inspired and emboldened to write you […]

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) announced today that it will investigate the Democratic Alliance’s complaint against the management of Stellenbosch University (SU), led by rector and vice-chancellor Wim de Villiers, following alleged human rights violations against Afrikaans-speaking students. The SAHRC will investigate whether the university language policy’s prohibition on the use of Afrikaans […]

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has today launched a petition to “protect the right to mother tongue education” at Stellenbosch University (SU)… where the DA says the management’s “war” against mother tongue education has intensified over the past few weeks, with students at several residences being banned from speaking Afrikaans in their res rooms or on […]

Protests against debt escalate. By Julia Evans and Joseph Chirume. After attempting to meet with University of Johannesburg (UJ) management, over 100 students led by the South African Students Congress (SASCO) and the Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFF SC) marched along Kingsway Avenue and blocked University Road outside the Auckland Park campus. The students said […]

Masizame Junior Primary School in Centane near Butterworth, Eastern Cape, has one broken toilet for girls and teachers. The boys have no toilet at all. Masizame Junior Primary School in Centane near Butterworth has 175 learners and one broken toilet. Several grades have to share a classsroom. When the wind blows too hard, classes are […]

The university says there are over 1,600 students with debt, amounting to R88 million… By Ashraf Hendricks UCT students marched to the Kramer Law building to protest against financial exclusion. The action follows protests by students in Johannesburg this week over the same issue. UCT says there are over 1,600 students with debt at the […]

In the aftermath of the police killing of a bystander, Mthokozisi Ntumba, during a student protest on Wednesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa says the South African government will not abandon its students. Addressing the National House of Traditional Leaders in Parliament on Thursday, the President said: “We will not abandon our students. We will fund their […]

The university has previously said that only students who have less than R10,000 debt could register. By Masego Mafata.   Wits students are demanding that all students be allowed to register regardless of how much they still owe the university. Wits University has previously said that only students who have less than R10,000 debt could […]

Lebohang Ngake from Botshabelo in the Free State has received raving reviews for a video he created introducing the popular TANKS coding game in a fun, creative way. “We know that our target audience is learners, and therefore we are extremely excited with the video Lebohang created,” says Prof Jean Greyling from Nelson Mandela University, […]

South Africa’s Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, has spoken frankly about the ongoing struggle with the price of school uniforms as parents around the country battle to make ends meet. “This is very close to my heart and I think anybody who comes from a poor background – like ourselves – or a township will […]