Education

'Writing the Wrongs: International Benchmarks on Adult Literacy' argues that governments are not investing in programmes sufficiently to achieve the UN goal of reducing illiteracy by 50 percent by 2015. Published by the Global Campaign for Education, the study attempts to systematise experiences of what works in adult literacy by analysing 67 successful literacy programmes in 35 countries.

The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) says the demand for free education by students at higher education institutions is justifiable considering the high number of students who dropped out because they could not afford higher education.

SAIRR deputy CEO, Frans Cronje, says the students’ protests raised questions about how the government prioritised its programmes.

The Limpopo Department of Education says it has contracted about 600 teachers from Zimbabwe, to cope with the shortage of science, mathematics, commerce and technology teachers in the province.

Education MEC, Namane Masemola, has described the teacher provisioning for the province’s schools as an important exercise to ensure quality learning and teaching.

Meanwhile, the department has also extended the contracts of temporary teachers until end of March this year, to allow the redeployment exercise to be completed.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

SADTU welcomes Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget speech presented in Parliament this afternoon. We welcome the fact that education continues to be our government’s number one priority. The R165 billion given to education attests to this.

We note the following on matters of education:

Wow, another R2,7 billion for basic education. The more one watches the depressing matric results, the more one thinks that money is not our problem. Poor rural schools often out perform urban schools with better facilities. We need to refocus on the basics such as teaching and learning in a stable well managed environment.

No real mention was made in the budget of ABET, the adult literacy campaign Gha Re Kude or the difficult work of the FET colleges in producing skilled people for the labour market.

The United States has suspended a five-year US$7 million programme for Kenya's education ministry over a massive corruption scandal.

Washington's ambassador, Michael Ranneberger, who points out that the programme was scheduled to begin this year, says that the suspension will be effective until there is a credible, independent audit and full accountability.

"Those culpable for the fraud should not merely be sacked; they should be prosecuted and put behind bars," says Ranneberger.