NEEDU Report released

On 2 May 2013, the first NEEDU Report (for 2012) was released. What follows is a selective, adapted summary of the report, which confirms that all is not well in the SA education system.   Background The National Education Evaluation and Development Unit (NEEDU) is a unit which is independent of that part of the [...]

The more things change … the more they stay the same!

“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.” Does this sound familiar to parents [...]

German International School Cape Town inaugurates new state-of-the-art library

Today the German International School Cape Town celebrated the official opening of their new state-of-the-art two-level multimedia library as part of their 130th anniversary commemorations. The library is one of the new additions to the school which recently underwent an R18 million upgrade to their facilities, partly funded by the German Government. In attendance at [...]

A Modern School?

I recently saw the following question posted on www.edchatsa.co.za, “Is there still place for a teacher-librarian in a modern school?”. What I find more interesting than the question itself is, what is a ‘modern’ school. There are those who believe that the biggest priority of a school, in order to be classified as ‘modern’, is [...]

How to break into the educational software market

With education in the 21st Century becoming decidedly digital, software companies are jumping onto the bandwagon by developing products that they hope will be snapped up by the educational channel, thereby increasing their sales revenue. And apparently there is much money to be made from educational software. Recently revealed statistics from the US demonstrate that this industry is indeed booming and enjoying steady growth.

Preparing for failure

The Department of Basic Education announced at the end of last year that learners in the FET Phase (Grades 10 – 12) may only repeat a grade once.  What does this mean in practice? There are a number of scenarios: Learners who ‘fail’ Grade 10 will need to repeat the grade. However, if they fail [...]

Creating High Impact Learning Environments in Low Income Areas

Numeric is a South African based non-profit company interested in creating high impact learning environments in low income areas.  As the name suggests, we’re focused primarily on mathematics and in particular on how Khan Academy can be used to generate strong learning outcomes. In South Africa, as in many other countries around the world, there [...]