Education

Joy and agony as students get their matric results

Most students at Belgravia, Thandokhulu and Athlone high schools were thrilled with their results. In Masiphumelele students were relieved after a tough year.

By and

News | 6 January 2016

The Rwandan student who hung on to her dream

Alice Wamundiya comes from a background where the importance of education is emphasised. When she settled in South Africa after her family fled the Rwandan genocide, she decided to help other refugees and asylum-seekers with their education.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 15 December 2015

Students in state scheme get certificates for courses they didn’t complete

The National Rural Youth Service Corps (Narysec), set up to train unemployed young people in rural areas, seems to be in disarray in the Eastern Cape, where some students have given up hope of graduating while others say they have been given certificates for courses they did not complete.

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik and GroundUp staff

Feature | 8 December 2015

“My son will graduate because of the money from the waste pickers”

It may not seem like much to others, but the money she makes from selling food to waste pickers at the New England Road dumpsite in Pietermaritzburg has allowed 45-year-old Gugu Yengwa to pay for her son’s education at the University of KwaZulu Natal.

Ntombi Mbomvu

News | 4 December 2015

Wolwerivier school bus cancelled for 2016

Wolwerivier children may have to change schools after the bus service to their school at Vissershok was suspended, writes Daneel Knoetze, a researcher at Ndifuna Ukwazi, an organisation that recently published a report on conditions at Wolwerivier to which Knoetze contributed.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 4 December 2015

This school has 300 students and no running water

Mahlubini Junior Secondary School near Cofimvaba has close to 300 students, no electricity in the classrooms and no running water.

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik

News | 1 December 2015

Build us proper schools, students tell Education Department

Grade 11 student Achuma Mjikeliso was among a few dozen members of Equal Education protesting outside the Eastern Cape Education Department in King William’s Town yesterday. Her main complaint: leaking roofs in her classroom.

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik

News | 1 December 2015

What are the financial implications of insourcing at UCT?

On 28 October, University of Cape Town management signed an agreement with NEHAWU (the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union) which commits the university to employ catering, transport, cleaning, security, and maintenance workers who work at UCT but are employed by outside companies. This promise of “insourcing” came in response to longstanding worker demands, and a period of intense protest in which outsourced workers were joined by many students and some UCT staff.

Ben Stanwix

Analysis | 26 November 2015

Textbooks matter: the state goes to court AGAIN

SECTION27 has been engaging with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) about the ongoing textbooks crisis in Limpopo since early 2012. There have been four high court orders saying that the state’s failure to give learners their full complement of textbooks is a violation of their right to education. Tuesday was the fifth time this matter has been in court.

Kate Paterson

Opinion | 25 November 2015

School boarders develop their own online kiosk

Three students from the Cape Academy of Maths, Science and Technology have set up an online kiosk for boarders who struggle to access basic necessities while in residences at schools.

Pasqua Heard

News | 20 November 2015

University residences close early

The deadlines for students at the University of the Western Cape and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to vacate their residences came and went this week with many students refusing to leave.

Thembela Ntongana, Ashleigh Furlongand Tariro Washinyira

News | 19 November 2015

Time to get tough with schools which discriminate against pregnant schoolgirls

A total of 20,833 school-going girls fell pregnant in South Africa in the 2013-14 year, according to official statistics. A staggering 717 of them were at primary school.

Chandre Stuurman and Demichelle Petherbridge

Opinion | 19 November 2015

Report details “state of crisis” in schools for visually impaired children

Schools for the visually impaired are in such a "state of crisis" that their students suffer "fundamental impairment of their human dignity”. This is according to SECTION27’s Left in the Dark report, which was released today, detailing extensive research into the conditions in 22 schools for the visually impaired.

Ashleigh Furlong

News | 18 November 2015

UWC students to meet Chancellor

The FeesMustFall movement at UWC is to meet the university’s Chancellor Archbishop Thabo Makgoba. This was according to Lindokuhle Mandyoli, a representative of the #FeesMustFall movement, who addressed students today.

Ashleigh Furlong

News | 16 November 2015

Funds needed to end long wait for school bus

In May, GroundUp covered the story of a bus on its way for Masiphumelele High School learners. Last week, Noordhoek residents, Stuart James and Andy Taylor, confirmed that a bus has been ordered.

Pasqua Heard

Brief | 16 November 2015

Students and workers shut down CPUT

Clashes occurred between protesters and police, and campus activities were suspended after over a thousand students and a number of workers picketed and sang outside the administration building of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in Bellville.

Thembela Ntongana

News | 13 November 2015