Spreading some festive cheer to those in need

Having raised over R21-million for charities across the country this past financial year, the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet fundraising programme offered a helping hand this past festive season through their national Spirit of Giving campaign. A collaboration between MySchool, Woolworths, kalahari.net and EvaluNet, plus the MySchool cardholders, the initiative’s aim was to mobilise the public to donate 10 000 meals, reading books and education software to four worthy recipients across the country.

Wanneer is ‘n klas te groot?

Die begin van die nuwe skooljaar en die indeel van nuwe klasse het my weereens laat besef hoe ‘n groot verskil die hoeveelheid leerders in jou klas kan maak. Ek werk by ‘n skool wat in 2011 vriendelik verplig is om te vergroot, wat meegebring het dat al die klasse vergroot het. My kleinste klas [...]

Teaching Teamwork

With the increasing popularity of social networking, instant messaging and online communication, learners are connecting to more and more people, but face-to-face communication and teamwork skills are being left out. Group task are a great way of giving learners the opportunity to communicate directly and practise positive teamwork skills.

The Story of a School Girl

It was later on during the day and I was driving home after a slightly shortened day in my schedule. The weather was also telling its own story; the heavens had opened the floodgates and the cloudburst was accompanied by formidable rumblings of thunder. The hail stones that were beating down on the car were not making it any easier either; nature was for some odd reason not in a good mood.

When spirit of failure comes in like a flood, a special kind of teacher will raise the standard against it

My mother is a former teacher in the olden days of Bantu Education. Actually I mean she was an educator; I am aware that there are those who draw a line between a teacher and an educator. But a rose by any other name still looks like a rose and smells just as sweet anyway, so the person who teaches is a teacher, finish and klaar!

Education does matter

From the 10 government priorities, twelve outcome areas were derived and one of the outcomes is outcome 5 which focuses on a skilled and capable workforce to support an inclusive growth path. In light of this Stats SA looked at education as a proxy for measuring skills in the country and focused on the educational attainment of the employed and unemployed. There results a very telling picture.

Going back to the original instruction: where on earth did it go wrong?

It is nine o’clock at a certain secondary school in the township: typical school hours. The school is surrounded by a barbed wire fence that has holes punched in at its various “strategic” points; and the huge dysfunctional iron gate does not work anymore and is therefore unlocked. Apart from the natural blessing of a thorn hedge that seemingly surrounds the school; there are traces of overgrazing throughout the entire yard of the school; in fact, one could easily mistake this school for an abandoned farmhouse.

Girls to be rewarded for not getting pregnant

Schoolgirls who don’t fall pregnant will be rewarded – if a plan by the Western Cape government goes ahead. The proposed policy is a desperate bid to reduce high teenage pregnancy rates and ease the cost burden on the provincial Department of Social Welfare. Social Development MEC Dr Ivan Meyer announced the initiative during a media briefing yesterday but could not outline the reward policy because the plan was still being researched – including how to reward boys who did not become fathers while still at school.