Education

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1GOAL Our big chance to score

August 26, 2010 in 1GOAL, Education, Social Responsibilty | No comments

Can you believe it’s already been 6 weeks since we heard the last World Cup vuvuzela blast?

But for the millions of us who came together for 1GOAL, our big chance to score the right to education for all the world’s children is still ahead. And once again, we need your support to make it happen.

Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan

Here’s the situation: in just a few short weeks, heads of state from every country in the world will gather in New York City for the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals. 10 years ago, world leaders committed to an ambitious plan to cut global poverty in half by 2015. Now, with only five years left, it’s time to assess how much progress we’ve made, and agree on a plan to finish the job.

www.join1goal.org/r/ENbankimoon

If we’ve learned one thing in the last 10 years, it’s this: education beats poverty. That’s why two of the Millennium Development Goals discuss getting all boys and girls into school by 2015. So this upcoming summit is a huge chance to secure commitments from world governments to make this dream a reality — and end poverty once and for all.

1Goal Ambassador Danielle Lineker

But our governments won’t act unless we citizens speak up — and there’s no time to lose.

As we speak, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is working on a plan for the summit that will determine its focus and how ambitious the proposals will be. To make real progress on education, this “Summit Outcome Document” must get it right. And that’s where you come in.

Click here to send a short message to the Secretary General, letting him know that you support quality education for every child — and that you expect education to be a top priority at the Millennium Development Summit.

You’ve probably never been asked to write a UN official to influence the agenda of an upcoming global summit. It may even seem a little strange. But if we really want to make a difference, we can’t wait until the dignitaries land in New York and fill the headlines. We have to speak up now, when the outcome is still wide open for input.


You may not think you have the power to change what the leaders of all the world’s governments discuss or decide. But if we work together, we can achieve anything. You’ve already told us you support education for all when you joined the 1GOAL campaign – please take a moment now to tell the UN Secretary General the same thing. It is a crucial time please simply click below –and sign your name on behalf of those who can’t.

www.join1goal.org/r/ENbankimoon

Thanks for making a difference,

The 1GOAL Team

JOIN 1GOAL TODAY!!!

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UN Millennium Development Goals: primary education goal reached

August 19, 2010 in Education, South Africa | No comments

UN Millennium Development Goals

South Africa has delivered on Goal 3 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which calls for the elimination of gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2015.

According to Engendering Statistics, the primary education enrolment rates of girls about doubled in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa, rising faster than boy’ enrolment rates. This substantially reduced large gender gaps in schooling.

Transforming gender relations

Reflecting on the country and department’s successes during an inaugural Women’s Legacy Dialogue in Pretoria last week, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said research shows that 98% of young people aged 7 to 15 are involved in education programmes.

“Youth literacy in South Africa is at 90%, which is above the average of developing countries. The adult literacy rate has reached 77%, bringing South Africa in line with the average for developing countries.

“Clearly, South Africa is committed to transforming gender relations and to women’s empowerment,” she said, pointing out that the country had a progressive constitution that guaranteed the right to education.

Action Plan to 2014

The department has also developed a comprehensive plan for improving basic education – “Action Plan to 2014: Towards the realisation of Schooling 2025″.

She told delegates that the country has introduced gender-sensitive legislation, like the Domestic Violence Act and the Sexual Offences Act.

Motshekga acknowledged that despite these successes, the country also had challenges, including the implementation of Outcomes Based Education (OBE).

Many teachers believe that the way the curriculum is organised places too many burdens and too great a workload on them, she said.

The department has since established a review committee that aims to reduce these burdens by making the curriculum easier to read and understand and by reducing the marking and reporting requirements.

Source: BuaNews, donateabook.co.za, sasix.co.za, teleread.com

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Education empowers communities

August 18, 2010 in Education, South Africa | No comments

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has stressed the importance of education to a developing society, saying it does not only benefit an individual, but rather empowers the community.

“Education is without a doubt a lever to uplift individuals, their families and society at large. Nowhere is this true than in South Africa, where education should serve as a weapon against the scourge of poverty among our people,” Motlanthe said on Monday.

He was addressing the Vincent Tshabalala Education Trust Fund’s Fundraising dinner at the Killarney Country Club. The trust raises funds and gives opportunities to top performing learners from Alexandra Township to further their studies at tertiary level.


Motlanthe told the delegates that education is one of the five priorities of government, the others being health, crime, rural development and the creation of decent jobs.

He also used the opportunity to pay tribute to Vincent Tshabalala.

“Vincent was confident that when democracy and justice dawned in his country, there would be a need to create opportunities for quality education for all which would lift the fortunes and well-being of South Africans, especially those from the poorest families and communities,” said Motlanthe.

Source: BuaNews, zunia.org, telegraph.co.uk, ncgs.org, barefootfoundation.com

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Education key to developing women

August 10, 2010 in Education, South Africa | No comments

It is only through placing issues underlying the misery of women high on the transformation agenda that government can achieve equal opportunities and progress for all, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Sunday.

“Working in partnership with women in all sectors for social transformation must be intensified…The development of young women must be prioritised, with young women included in progressive structures,” she said at a memorial lecture to commemorate Women’s Day in East London.

The Eastern Cape town will host this year’s main Women’s Day event where thousands are expected to gather at Absa Stadium on Monday to commemorate the day. She said education must be a precondition for development, empowerment and progress adding that without education, women would find it difficult to talk of equal opportunities in a free and democratic society.

Motshekga paid tribute to the women who led the daring protest march against the pass law system on 9 August 1956. “We salute the pioneers that paved the way for us, we remember the gallant heroines and heroes who rose against colonialism, those who protested the pass laws; those who took united action against unjust labour laws,” she said. The women included Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Sophie Williams- De Bruyn and Rahima Moosa.


Motshekga said the promotion of gender equality and strengthening of the gender machinery within government, the legislature and within civil society must also be emphasised.

Motshekga said the women, who under severe conditions of poverty, oppression and exploitation, created homes, educated and developed and produced leaders of yester-year and today.


She said her department will introduce stringent measures to promote the schooling of young girls while strategies to empower them with leadership skills were also in place.

“There is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls. No other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity, lower infant and maternal mortality, improve nutrition and promote health – including helping to prevent the spread of HIV and Aids”.


Minister for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya said while current data indicated that the gender parity index was in favour of girls at secondary school level, there is a need for government to put additional measures to increase the number of young women enrolled in areas of mathematics, science and technology.

“We cannot deny that we are still faced with major inequities in our society. The burden of poverty and unemployment falls unevenly on women, young people and children. We know for instance that children in female-headed households are more likely to experience poverty and hunger,” she said.


She said government had committed to intensify programmes to improve the social condition of women children and youth in the next five years. These include increasing the number of children accessing child support grants up to the age of 18, pushing the number of beneficiaries of the grant from 22 000 in 1998 to 8 million children in 2008.

Source: BuaNews, puku.co.za, scrapetv.com, columbiamissourian.com

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SA’s tech-savvy teachers closer to finals

August 6, 2010 in Education | No comments

South Africa’s top five innovative teachers are one step closer to the finals of the “World Cup” of education technology after winning their categories at Microsoft’s Innovative Teachers Forum (ITF) Awards.

The five winning entries are Linda Bradfield of St John’s College in Johannesburg, Chris Gatsi from General Smuts High in Vereeniging, Warren Sparrow from Rondebosch Boys Preparatory School in Cape Town, a group of teachers from Bloemfontein schools and Peter de Lisle of Hilton College in KwaZulu-Natal.

The teachers will travel to Mombasa, Kenya, later this month for the Pan-African finals of the ITF Awards. The winners of the Pan-African event will compete against 500 teachers from around the world in the global finals in Cape Town in October.

Steve Balmer, Microsoft CEO

The five winners were chosen from a host of entries submitted by teachers countrywide.

Their projects were judged to best demonstrate how technology can transform teaching and learning in South African schools, and benefit broader communities at the same time.

“Technology plays a critical role in bridging the education gap, especially as the world adapts to a new economic era,” said Edward Mosuwe, Acting Deputy Director General: Curriculum Policy, Support and Monitoring at the Department of Basic Education.


The awards, which are in its fifth year, are run in partnership with the Department of Basic Education. The awards review projects in four key areas of innovation – community, content, collaboration and challenging contexts as well as a special peer review prize, where the finalists vote for their favourite project.

Bradfield won the Innovation in Collaboration category award for her ‘Trash-to-Treasure’ project, which saw 6 and 7-year-old boys working together to collect eight tons of waste in six weeks.

This waste was sorted, weighed and sold to recycling companies or donated to informal recyclers. They then created a “Trash-to-Treasure” Wiki and several e-books around the subject.


Gatsi won the Innovation in Community category for his ‘Zero Tolerance for Bribery Campaign’, where learners produced a media campaign, published articles on a website and produced a DVD to raise community awareness on the effects of bribery and ways to stop it.

Sparrow, from Rondebosch Prep, won the Innovation in Content category for his ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ project. Here, Grade 4 learners learnt about economic management sciences and entrepreneurship by designing board games and creating videos. The learners used of a variety of technology resources, online surveys and blogs and wikis.

A group of teachers from Bloemfontein won the Innovation in Challenging Contexts award for their combined ‘Children who care’ project.


Sunia Dokter from Dr Blok High School, Shireen Persens from Heatherdale High School, Ngaka Ralekoala from St Bernard’s High School and Lehentse Seekoei from Lereko Secondary School worked together over the past 18 months to train their learners in ethics and research methodology, and conduct research in their local community to determine the needs of vulnerable children.

The learners gained valuable exposure in working with both the University of the Free State and De Montford University in the United Kingdom.

De Lisle won the special Judges’ award for his ‘Biodiversity: Creatures and Contexts’ in celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity.


Learners used various thinking and research tools to get a general understanding of biomes and then used creativity tools to create a biome as a context for a computer game, and to design a suitably adapted creature to live in it.

A sixth educator, Rae Gagiano from Eunice High School in Bloemfontein, was voted by the finalists as their Peer Award choice for her project ‘Paying it Forward’, where learners attended workshops to learn new skills and then put these skills to work by doing something worthwhile for the community.

Projects included creating books for abandoned babies and creating movies for terminally ill orphans.


“The awards represent the pinnacle of work done to create local communities of teachers who can share challenges, ideas and best practice solutions with their peers,” said Vis Naidoo, the head of citizenship at Microsoft SA.

The awards benefited significantly from major support by SMART, Vastratech, Dell SA Development Fund, the Africa STIC, Mindset, Learnthings Africa, NEC, SchoolNet SA and The Teacher.

The five winners each received a Dell laptop, while each of the 20 finalists received digital curriculum content from Mindset and Learnthings Africa and Encyclopaedia Britannica from Sangari.

The peer review winner received a SMART SB680 interactive whiteboard and NEC projector from SMART Technologies.

Source: BuaNews, Microsoft.com

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