Schooling

A shocking report released by Transparency International blames poor teacher training frequent teacher absenteeism, and a critical lack of textbooks and libraries for the country's poor quality of education.

Titled ‘Lessons Learned: Primary Education in Cameroon and South Africa’, the report also reveal that one in four children said schools are unsafe and that rape and violence are major problems.

The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) says that millions of girls are being forced out of school because of poverty, the threat of sexual violence and poor-quality schools – despite improved enrolment rates.

It their new report, the GCE and RESULTS call for governments and international financial institutions to redress the balance and give girls a fair deal.

The Equal Education (EE) says it will stop at nothing to get the attention of Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga.

About 100 members braved the Cape winter and spent a night outside Parliament, for the start of a two-night candlelight vigil to urge Motshekga to adopt her department's own school infrastructure standards, supposed to have been in place by March.

Government has launched the Mandela School of Technology at former president Nelson Mandela's birthplace in Mvezo village in the Eastern Cape.

At a ceremony attended by Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshega, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Derek Hanekom, and Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, the school was launched to be built as soon as possible.

The Mandela School of Technology, with a capacity of 700 students, will not only be for the Mvezo community but for other surrounding communities.

Sharing Life, a Zambian-based NGO, together with its cooperating partners - Media Friends, Barclays Bank Micano, Bank CRA Alessandria, Rotary club Parco Madonie Palermo, Sicily and Bank Prossima - have joined forces to ensure education is taken to places such as Kamaila and Kavalamanja.

In Kamaila, a school has been constructed conveniently in the community to ease the children's burden of walking long distances.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) says that investment in education by sub-Saharan African countries is paying dividends, with more children than ever before now attending school.

In its new report, the organisation states that despite increasing their overall spending on education by six percent each year since 2000, many of the region's nations are still far from the United Nations-set goal of quality education for every child.

The proportion of individuals aged between seven and 24  attending an educational institution has declined  compared to 2007, according to Statistics South Africa’s 2010 General Household Survey.

Following a steady increase in the attendance rates between 2002 and 2007, the survey found a slight decrease in attendance rates relative to 2007 in all provinces except Gauteng.

The study cites the poor state of the economy as the reason for the decline, suggesting lack of access to funds following the global recession has undermined people’s ability to pay school fees.