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South Africa’s deficient education system

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South Africa  /News 24

South Africa’s deficient education system is the single greatest obstacle to socio-economic advancement, replicating rather than reversing patterns of unemployment, poverty, and inequality, and effectively denying the majority of young people the chance of a middle-class life.

This emerges from a report, ‘Education the single greatest obstacle to socio-economic advancement in South Africa’, published by the Centre for Risk Analysis (CRA) at the Institute of Race Relations (IRR).

Set against data showing high rates of urbanisation – reflecting a common yearning for better-paying jobs, and a shot at middle-class life in a city – as well as a marked shift in the structure of the economy towards high-skills sectors, the research at once underscores the vital importance of education, and the devastating impacts of its most chronic deficiencies.

A new approach to schooling is urgently needed, according to author of the report, CRA director Frans Cronje, and should focus on achieving much higher levels of parental involvement and control, rather than bureaucratic control.

«On the strength of our experience and analysis», he says, «the quickest way to a much-improved education system would be to greatly strengthen the scope for School Governing Bodies and communities to control schools and exert their influence in the interests of their children».

The report acknowledges that much, in fact, has changed for the better in recent decades.

Positive outcomes include the fact that pre-school enrolment has soared by 270.4% since 2000, setting a much better basis for future school throughput, that the proportion of people aged 20 or older with no schooling has fallen from 13% in 1995 to 4.8% in 2016, and that the proportion of matric candidates receiving a bachelor’s pass has increased from 20.1% in 2008 to 28.7% last year.

The good news doesn’t end there.

Higher education participation rates (the proportion of 20–24 year olds enrolled in higher education) have risen from 15.4% in 2002 to 18.6% in 2015, with university enrolment numbers climbing 289.5% since 1985 and more than 100% since 1995.

The ratio of white to black university graduates was 3.7:1 in 1991, narrowing to 0.3:1 in 2015, and the proportion of people aged 20 and older with a degree has increased from 2.9% in 1995 to 4.9% in 2016.

But, in just short of a dozen bullet points, the grimmer side of South African education is laid bare:

  • Just under half of children who enrol in grade one will make it to Grade 12;
  • Roughly 20% of Grade 9, 10, and 11 pupils are repeaters, suggesting that they have been poorly prepared in the early grades of the school system;
  • Just 28% of people aged 20 or older have completed high school;
  • Just 3.1% of Black people over the age of 20 have a university degree compared to 13.9% and 18.3% for Indian and White people;
  • Just 6.9% of matric candidates will pass Maths with a grade of 70% to 100% – a smaller proportion than in 2008 (bearing in mind that, once the near 50% pre-matric drop-out rate is factored in, this means that around three out of 100 children will pass Maths in matric with such a grade);
  • The ratio of Maths Literacy (a B-grade Maths option) to Maths candidates in matric has changed from 0.9:1 in 2008 to 1.5:1 in 2016;
  • In the poorest quintile of schools, less than one out of 100 matric candidates will receive a distinction in maths;
  • In the richest quintile, that figure is just 9.7%;
  • Just one in three schools has a library and one in five a science laboratory;
  • The Black higher education participation rate is just 15.6%, while that for Indian and White people (aged 20–24) is 49.3% and 52.8%; and
  • The unemployment rate for tertiary qualified professionals has increased from 7.7% in 2008 to 13,2% today.

Author Frans Cronje notes: «The data makes it clear that education or the lack thereof is the primary indicator that determines the living standards trajectory of a young South African.

«In the second quarter of 2017, the unemployment rate for a tertiary qualified person was 13.2% – less than half the national average of 27.7%. Likewise, the labour market absorption rate for tertiary qualified professionals was 75.6% in 2017 as opposed to just 43.3% for the country as a whole.»

Three factors were particularly worrying.

«The first is the poor quality of Maths education. A good Maths pass in matric is in all probability the most important marker in determining whether a young person will enter the middle classes. While Maths education is poor across the board, the quality is worse in the poorest quintile of schools, leaving no doubt that school education is replicating trends of poverty and inequality in our society.»

The second is the low rate of tertiary education participation among black people.

Cronje warns that «it is futile to think that significant middle-class expansion, let alone demographic transformation, will take place as long as the higher education participation rate remains at around 15% for Black people».

The third is the «still very high» school drop-out rate.

«Just over half of [the] children will complete high school at all. In an economy that is evolving in favour of high-skilled tertiary industries and in which political pressure and policy are being used to drive up the cost of unskilled labour, this means that the majority of those children are unlikely to ever find gainful employment,» Cronje writes.

Putting these three concerns together, «you cannot escape the conclusion that the education system represents the single greatest obstacle to socio-economic advancement in South Africa».

«It replicates patterns of unemployment, poverty, and inequality and denies the majority of young people the chance of a middle-class life,» Cronje concludes. «The implications speak for themselves.»

– Morris is head of media at the Institute of Race Relations (IRR).

Fuente: https://www.news24.com/Analysis/south-africas-deficient-education-system-20180507

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South Africa: Bow tie wearing teacher tackles education inequalities

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South Africa/ April 25, 2018/Source: https://www.brandsouthafrica.com

Play Your Part programme is Brand South Africa’s nationwide programme that encourages active citizenship and looks to impact the country positively in order to fulfil the bigger picture of building a positive Nation Brand.

Active citizenship means people get involved in their local communities and democracy at all levels, from towns and cities to nationwide projects and dedicating their own time/resources / talents to contribute to their local communities.

There are numerous opportunities, big and small, for each and every individual to make a positive difference in the communities in which they live and operate.

Founder of “Bow Tie Challenge”, Chris Megaffin, is a teacher who is originally from Toronto, Canada.  He is a fashion activist who is on a mission to fight for social justice and he is using bow ties to achieve this.

Earlier this year the Bow Tie Challenge was launched.  The Bowtie Challenge is a fund-raising initiative that was born as a result of his passion for teaching, interest in fashion and desire to make a difference in his local community.  Chris pledged to wear a different bow tie every day for 365 days a year starting January 1st, 2018.

“As an international teacher, I have come across educational inequalities in every country where I have taught and I have always wondered what I could do to make difference in the lives of these children”.

South Africa has some of the highest levels of socio-economic inequality in the world, and this is nowhere more apparent than in the educational system across South Africa.  Statistics South Africa also show that children from disadvantaged backgrounds spend an average of 3 years less time in school than their privileged counterparts.

Also, fewer of these children are put into early childhood development programmes – which we know to be fundamental to a child’s education and development.  The situation feeds youth unemployment, and contributes to general instability in the country, as millions of South Africans cannot afford to buy food or access healthcare, decent sanitation and other essentials of a dignified life.

Chris is using the campaign to raise awareness about the importance of education and to raise funds for Afrika Tikkun. Afrika Tikkun is a non-profit organization with a mission to provide children from underprivileged communities in South Africa with high-quality education and development from cradle to career.

Ensuring quality education is a national priority. The National Development Plan describes education as a key lever to improving the quality of life in a society. Education improves the overall skills and abilities of the workforce, leading to greater productivity which contributes to economic growth.

Chris is collaborating with some of South Africa’s up and coming designers who will help design the bow ties.  He says this is to help support local businesses and give the designers exposure.

 

Meet local designer Shwezu

Shwezu have designed a bow tie especially for the campaign in the colours of the South African flag.

“When approached with the opportunity to design and produce a range of bow ties for this initiative, we didn’t hesitate for a second. Not only is it fun, colourful, creative and inspiring but it also resonates with Shwezu.co.za‘s ultimate aim – to contribute to the growth and prosperity of our nation. For this reason, we only use local materials and producers to create our unique Shwezu Shweshwe bow ties and other products. We strongly believe that by acquiring new skills (e.g. fashion design and sewing) through a good education, the youth of South Africa have the ability to unlock countless opportunities to grow and thrive.”

Shwezu is an online store for South African inspired fashion, shoes, bags, accessories and gifts all tied together by one common denominator, Shweshwe – the iconically South African fabric.

How to get involved

  • Donate to The Bow Tie Challenge via http://thetravelingeducator.com/2017/09/the-bowtie-challenge
  • Share the Challenge on social media to raise awareness about the inequalities of education in South Africa
  • Join the challenge, upload a photo of yourself wearing a bow tie to any social media platform #bowtiechallenge

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/thebowtiechallenge/?ref=bookmarks

Twitter – https://twitter.com/bowtiechallenge

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/the.bow.tie.challenge/

Source:

Bow tie wearing teacher tackles education inequalities

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Sudáfrica: Matric pupils robbed of an education

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Por: risingsunchatsworth.co.za/Bianca Lalbahadur/04-04-2018
Angered parents of the pupils said their children were being robbed of an education due to the lack of interest by the Department of Education to employ teachers at the school and in the interim, their children are at a major disadvantage.

Irate and disgruntled SGB members and pupils of Dumisani Makhaye High School in Welbedacht West marched to the Education Board in Pietermaritzburg to demand their basic right to an education after they missed their first quarterly physical science examination due to a lack of proper staff, on Wednesday.

Angered parents of the pupils said their children were being robbed of an education due to the lack of interest by the Department of Education to employ teachers at the school and in the interim, their children are at a major disadvantage.

The only pupils who did not write their exams are those studying physical science.

“Physical science is one of the most complicated subjects that children study at secondary school level and the fact that they were forced to miss the examination is very disappointing and unacceptable,” said the parents.

Speaking to journalists, the chairman of the school governing body, Joseph Jili said, “The reason for the protest was to highlight all of the issues that the pupils have been faced with since the inception of the school.  The school has been left without six teachers and non-teaching staff as well, since early last year.  As a result of this, pupils of matric physical science class had to miss their first exam.”

He added that the principal is doing everything in his power to assist and resolve this issue.

Since the protest, the head of the Department of Education agreed to meet before the next school term to address all of the issues that are being faced at the school.

“The reason why we do not have the staff that the school requires is because the department sent out a new HRM which made it difficult to hire new teachers as there is only one person, who signs off these documents.  Members of the school governing body, and myself included are hopeful that through this meeting, we can establish a way forward for the school and the pupils in terms of their examinations which they were unable to write,” added Jili.

Spokesman of the Department of Education, Kwazi Mthethwa said, “All schools in the district do have teachers that the department of education has provided to them.  The school governing body and the pupils need to address the principal with regards to their issues.  The governing body of the school still needs to be elected.”

Principal of the school, Mr Zwane, was unable to comment on the matter at hand, due to protocol from the Department of Education.

*Fuente: https://risingsunchatsworth.co.za/109965/matric-pupils-robbed-education/

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South Africa: GroundUp. Equal Education in court against Motshekga over broken schools

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South Africa/ March 20, 2018/Source: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za

Learners and members of Equal Education (EE) gathered outside the Bhisho High Court on Wednesday with banners that read: “No more broken promises”. They were demanding infrastructure plans to prioritise the Eastern Cape’s “forgotten schools”. A huge plastic doll satirised the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, listing broken promises to fix schools.

The court case is part of Equal Education’s #FixOurSchools campaign.

The Department of Basic Education set out regulations for norms and standards for school infrastructure on 29 November 2013. These regulations set a deadline of 29 November 2016 for the replacement of schools made of inappropriate and often unsafe structures, and the provision of basic levels of water, sanitation and electricity in schools. EE had campaigned for these regulations and welcomed them: “For the first time, South Africa had a piece of law which said that a school must have decent toilets, electricity, water, fencing, classroom numbers, libraries, laboratories and sports fields.”

Photo: A huge plastic doll satirised the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, listing broken promises to fix schools. Photo: Leanne Jansen-Thomas

But the department did not meet the deadline. EE says the regulations are now being used to avoid responsibility. It wants the court to address four problems:

  • An escape clause in the regulations says the education department “is only responsible for the fixing of schools to the extent that other parts of the state (such as Eskom or Public Works) co-operate and make resources available”. EE wants this set aside.
  • The wording of the regulations apparently means that the department is only obliged to fix schools made entirely out of mud, wood, zinc, or asbestos. “This means that if an otherwise entirely inappropriate school has even one structure made of proper building materials, a brick toilet block, for example, government may ignore its duty. The law needs to be tightened so that these schools are fixed urgently,” explained an EE statement.
  • The regulations do not allow for sufficient accountability, including making regular reports available to the public.
  • Some schools, already scheduled to be built, were excluded from the regulations.

Advocate Geoff Budlender for EE began with testimonials from teachers and students from various schools describing dilapidated classrooms and appalling conditions under which children are expected to learn.

“If a child does not get basic education today, that is a breach of the Constitution,” said Budlender. He said the right to basic education includes the provision of furniture in school, transport to and from school. And if learners could not access services at school like toilets or water, then that undermined the importance of basic education.

“We make the obvious submission that there is one national government. The Minister bears a constitutional obligation as minister and also a representative of the national government to fix the norms and fulfil Section 29 of the Constitution,” he said.

Advocate Nikki Stein for SECTION27 representing Basic Education for All, which has been admitted as a friend of the court, told the court that there were thousands of schools across the country with infrastructure that is unsafe and inadequate. “This case is not about the individual circumstances of each of these schools per se. It’s about the regulations that the minister has passed.”

Advocate Chris Erasmus for the state said Motshekga should not be second-guessed and that provinces had budgetary limitations.

He said it was “common cause” that the duty to implement the norms and standards was “subject to the resources and cooperation of other government agencies and entities responsible for infrastructure”.

Erasmus said Motshekga could not speak for other departments or ministers; these included the Minister of Public Works being responsible for infrastructure of the state in general, the Minister of Water and Sanitation being responsible for infrastructure relating to water and sanitation, and the Minister of Energy being responsible for the provision of electrical infrastructure.

“None of these entities have been cited as respondents, despite a list of other respondents having been identified as necessary parties,” said Erasmus.

The case continued on Thursday. DM

Main Photo: Learners and members of Equal Education picketed outside the Bhisho High Court on Wednesday in a case over minimum standards for schools. Photo: Leanne Jansen-Thomas

Source:

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-03-15-groundup-equal-education-in-court-against-motshekga-over-broken-schools/#.WqsjO-jOXIU

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Of investment in education: is Nigeria still Africa’s giant?

Adekunle Adebajo

By Adekunle Adebajo

For as far as most Nigerians can remember, this country has been proudlyreferred to astheGiant of Africa. This title was earned by virtue of her intimidating economy, her huge population and her big brother role during the years immediately following her independence from British rule. However, the country is fast losing the respect accorded to her in the past, not only in Africa but across the globe. The factors responsible for this are not far-fetched: poor supply of electricity, poor state of infrastructure, notoriousness for internet fraud, corruption, an inferior quality of education among others.

Homing in on the last, it has been discovered that the state of the country’s schools can be easily explained financially. Comparing the budgetary behaviour of Nigeria and some other countries across Africa reveals that Nigeria’s giant status is not found where it matters the most, particularly in the level of attention paid to the education sector. While other African countries seem to have recognised the potency of education as a midwife to development, a better economy, a safer society and a more prosperous population, Nigeria’s priorities are still found in sustaining an excessively expensive system of governance and in national security, the funds for which often reflect better in foreign bank accounts rather than local battlefields. Rather than set the pace in implementing global standards, Nigeria evidently has a lot to learn from smaller and younger countries across the continent.

Kenya
Kenya’s education sector has traditionally received the lion’s share of the country’s national budget to take care of teachers’ salaries, and primary and secondary school subsidies; and this tradition was upheld in the 2015 budget.In April 2016, the Kenyan government tabled its 2016/17 national budget estimates before the National Assembly. The Budget Policy Statement (BPS) ceilings in all the sectors summed up to 1,498 Kenyan shillings; but the Gross Expenditure Estimates, after the increase by the Treasury, amounted to 1.667 trillion Kenyan shillings. Based on the BPS, education received a total of 346.6 Ksh, which in other words is 23.1% of the entire budget. This figure is topped only by the allocation to Energy, Infrastructure and ICT, some of the projects under which are also academic in nature, for instance the laptop project gulping Ksh 17.58 billion.

South Africa
In the 2016/17 budgetary year in South Africa, the country spent R213.7 billion on basic education, which is about 15% of the total budget; and, according to the National Treasury, the allocation is projected to rise an average of 7.4% annually over the following three fiscal years. In terms of percentage, this allocation, according to data from the United Nations, trumps those of the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. As projected, more recent figures are even more education-friendly. According to aUnited Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) document titled, “Education Budget, South Africa, 2017/2018”, the budget for school children is presently 17% of total government expenditure.

Ghana
Ghana has also established herself as one of Africa’s big spenders on education. In 2013, she committed a whopping 31% of her budget to education as against Nigeria’s 8% in the same year. The following year, the figure dropped to 20.5%; and it declined even more in 2015 to 17.8% and in 2016 to 13.5%. In 2017, however, the Ministry of Education’s budget experienced a 20.7% increase from the previous year’s figure; that is from 7.55 billion Ghanaian cedes to 9.12 billion Ghanaian cedes. And in 2018, the allocation has increased by another 11.6% as the government proposed last year to spend GHS 10.18 billion on the Ministry. This amounts to 16.42% of the total budget of GHS 62 billion.

Egypt
As for Egypt, one country whose universities alwaysstand out on the continental ranking, the government proposed to spend EGP 104 billion on education in the 2016/2017 fiscal year, which amounted to 11.1% of government spending in that year. This is an improvement on the allocation of EGP 99.3 billion the previous year. The increment in the allocation is partly attributable to the Egyptian Constitution. According to the document, the government is required to spend at least 3 per cent of the Gross National Product (GNP) on healthcare and at least 4 per cent on education every year. It is noteworthy that the global average education budget in relation to GDP stands at 5%.

Lesotho
This country is renowned to spend most part of its GDP on education. According to the budget speech to the parliament for the 2017/2018 fiscal year presented by Dr.MoeketsiMajoro, the Minister of Finance, the government proposed to spend a total of M2.423 billion on education and training in 2018. This, to put it differently, is 19.2% of the entire budget. The previous year, the government had spent 20.7% on

the same sector.

Now to Nigeria
In the acclaimed giant of Africa and home to the largest black population on earth, regard for education appears to be an anathema to all forms of government, whether led by a military dictator or a democratically elected individual, a Northerner or a Southerner, a Major General or a Ph.D. holder. An assessment of the trend from 1999 shows that the lowest allocation, 4.46%, to education was in 1999, and the highest, 11.44%, was in 2015. The average allocation in all 16 years of democratic rule is 9.14%. In the pre-1999 years of military rule, the sector did not fare any better as a study has shown that the average allocation to education between the years of 1981 and 1998 was a meagre 4.18%.

The situation has in fact worsened under the present administration. The first budget presented by President MuhammaduBuhari in December 2015 for the 2016 fiscal year was in stark contrast to the double digits legacy left by his predecessor. Education received ₦369.6 billion, which was 6.07% of the entire budget. In the 2017 budget proposals, N448.01billion was allocated to education, representing about 6% of the ₦7.30 trillion budget. And in the 2018 Appropriation Bill, the government proposed an allocation of ₦435.01 billion to education, which is just 7.04% of the total budgeted amount of ₦8.612 trillion.

Nigeria against the world
Across Africa, most countries are spending more and more on education by the year. As a matter of fact, government expenditure on education in Sub-Saharan Africa increased from US$12 billion in 2000 to US$67 billion in 2013 representing over 450% growth. This trend has resulted in higher literacy rates, lesser numbers of out-of-school children, improved quality of learning, and more foreign investments as well as greater industrialisation owing to greater availability of skilled labour. It has also led to a gradual increase in GDP for many of these countries as educated citizens naturally earn more than those who do benefit from formal learning.

Nigeria, on the other hand, especially under the presidency of MuhammaduBuhari, has yet to board the train of progress, despite cries from various corners. For this country, it has become an unending cycle of budgetary disregard for education, and complaints from stakeholders, accompaniedby silence from the government. The same pattern is repeated year in year out. This habit has affected us greatly, because not only are our schools not reckoned with on the international stage, the culture of academic tourism has seen our economy shed weight to the benefit of such countries as the United States, the United Kingdom and even Ghana.

In 2012, the Chairman of Exam Ethics International, Ike Onyechere, said Nigerians spend over ₦1.5 trillion annually on students studying abroad. ₦160 billion out of this goes to Ghana, while ₦80 billion goes to the United Kingdom. Likewise, in 2016, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institution and Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Senator BintaMasi, said Nigeria spends over $2 billion annually as capital flight on education abroad. With this figure alone, Nigeria can build one or two world-class universities every year, considering the fact that Pakistan planned to spend $750 million for each of its new universities of engineering, science and technology and Qatar’s Cornell University spent the same amount establishing its School of Medicine in 2002.

The country’s lacklustre attitude towards education equally reflects in the ranking of universities across the globe and in Africa. According to the 2016 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, there is only one Nigerian university in the top 15 ranking in Africa, and that university, the University of Ibadan, is number 14 on the list. On the same list, we have six universities from South Africa, three from Egypt, two from Morocco, one from Uganda (ranked fourth), one from the Ghana (ranked seventh), and one from Kenya (ranked eighth). A similar pattern recurred in the 2018 ranking.

Finally
It is high time the Nigerian government recognised that recognising the good in education is for the good of the country. We do not have to go as far as the extreme West or the far East to get examples of countries reaping bountifully from great investments in education. Right here in Africa, there are more than sufficient instances. The Nigerian National Assembly should adopt the Egyptian legislative model by incorporating, into the constitution, a benchmark for budgetary allocations to the education sector. This preferably must not fall below 5% of the nation’s GDP or 20% of government’s annual spending.

Our schools are ailing; and it is not by scrapping Post UTME or quelling industrial actions that they will get better. We must make conscious, radical efforts by investing all we can to turn things around for good. Before we complain that our graduates are unemployable, we must ask first if our schools are habitable and if our facilities are universally acceptable. But beyond just dumping huge sums of money into the sector in theory, the government has to also ensure a balance in recurrent and capital expenditures as well as an effective implementation of whatever plans are laid out on paper. If we can do this, then the return of the giant to her rightful place is not only inevitable but will happen before long, before our very eyes.

Source:

https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/263557/of-investment-in-education-is-nigeria-still-africas-giant.html

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South Africa: New scheme to boost black academics’ research capacity

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Africa/Sudafrica/universityworldnews.com

Resumen: La Fundación Nacional de Investigación de Sudáfrica (NRF) y la organización de beneficio público FirstRand Foundation (FRF) se han unido para crear un programa sabático destinado a aumentar la capacidad de investigación entre académicos afroamericanos y académicos con discapacidades. «Nos estamos centrando en la brecha de subrepresentación en la academia», dijo Nqobile Gumede, director de desarrollo de la capacidad humana e infraestructura de la NRF. «Los dos grupos están subrepresentados. Aquellos que reciban las subvenciones podrán ir de año sabático y descargar sus responsabilidades de enseñanza. Los estudiantes postdoctorales obtendrán una beca de dos años y los estudiantes predoctorales una beca de tres años. »  La subvención sabática NRF-FRF está destinada a ayudar a académicos afroamericanos, particularmente académicos afroamericanos y personas con discapacidades, empleados en el público de Sudáfrica. universidades para obtener títulos de doctorado y formación de investigación postdoctoral. Durante un período de cinco años, el programa apoyará a 175 académicos, 75 de ellos de posgrado y 100 de posdoctorado.  Según el documento marco, una «barrera importante» para el avance de la investigación y la formación de postgrado en las universidades sudafricanas es la «baja proporción de personal académico con las calificaciones adecuadas para impulsar la investigación de posgrado y la creación de conocimiento». Las cifras más recientes, de 2009, muestran que solo un tercio del personal académico permanente a tiempo completo tenía un doctorado.

South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) and the public benefit organisation FirstRand Foundation (FRF) have joined forces to create a sabbatical programme aimed at boosting research capacity among black African academics, and academics with disabilities.

“We are targeting the under-representation gap in academia,” said Nqobile Gumede, the NRF’s director of human and infrastructure capacity development. “The two groups are underrepresented. Those who receive the grants will be able to go on sabbatical and offload their teaching responsibilities. Post-doctoral students will get a two-year grant and pre-doctoral students a three-year grant.”

The NRF-FRF sabbatical grant is aimed helping black academics, particularly black African academics, and people with disabilities, employed in South Africa’s public universities to attain doctoral level qualifications and post-doctoral research training. Over a five-year period the programme will support 175 academics – 75 of them postgraduate and 100 post-doctoral.

According to the framework document, a “major barrier” for advancing research and postgraduate training at South African universities is the “low proportion of academic staff with the appropriate qualifications to drive postgraduate research and advance knowledge creation”. The most recent figures, from 2009, show that only a third of full-time permanent academic staff held doctoral degrees.

Another driver of the NRF-FRF partnership is the need for transformation in South African universities.

“Transformation continues to remain a critical imperative in post-apartheid South Africa, particularly considering the ethnic and gender composition of key sectors of society such as universities,” said NRF CEO Molapo Qhobela.

Of the 3,392 NRF-rated researchers in South Africa in 2015 only 26% were black, and 31% were female. The group of black NRF-rated researchers comprised 16% African, 3% coloured and 7% Indian academics and researchers. In addition, black African South African citizens made up only 6% of the NRF-rated researchers and only six of them had an NRF A-rating.

Why are the numbers so low? According to Gumede, the legacy of the apartheid era when education of black people was a low priority lingers on and the equalisation of educational opportunities ushered in by the end of apartheid in the mid-nineties hasn’t changed things overnight.

Gumede said it is estimated that it takes up to 20 years for emerging researchers to become established researchers. “So the historical legacy is still in play. Consequently, there are real challenges in terms of progress.”

The two main factors deterring full-time academic staff from completing doctoral degrees or undertaking postdoctoral research are lack of resources and high teaching loads. The latter is specifically addressed by the NRF-FRF sabbatical grant which also aims to promote the attainment of an NRF-rating by South African black African early-career academics, particularly black and female researchers, and persons with disabilities.

Two grants will be awarded annually to each university submitting applications and at least one of the two awards will be for a doctoral candidate. Given the transformation imperatives, 90% of the grants will support black Africans and 10% will support Indian and coloured academics and persons with disabilities. Fifty-five percent of all grants will be prioritised for female grant holders.

The grant has three budget categories: lecturer replacement costs to a maximum of ZAR200,000 (US$17,000); operational costs, including running expenses for materials, to a maximum of R100,000; and, for those applying for post-doctoral sabbatical grants only, an international mobility grant of R100,000.

Applicants with a disability may apply for an additional grant for assistive devices.

“These are devices needed to assist them in their research,” said Gumede. “They can apply for specific technology and each applicant will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. We have one million rand allocated over five years for this programme.”

Gumede said the NRF-FRF sabbatical grant initiative was not a response to the “revised model” for the Incentive Funding for Rated Researchers Programmeannounced last year to great consternation. This new model, which was effective from the beginning of the 2018 academic year, saw cuts, in some cases as high as 90%, to NRF grants aimed at incentivising “excellent research” in five rating categories.

“We were already in negotiations with FRF before that was implemented,” said Gumede, pointing out that the framework document is dated July 2017. “Our main aim is to support emerging researchers. It is an ongoing strategy.”

To that end NRF and FRF will equally contribute a rand for a rand over the five years, bringing the total investment in the programme to ZAR164.9 million (US$14 million). The first call for applications in August 2017 resulted in 43 fellows being awarded the grant for 2018.

Fuente; http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20180307114850245

: http://www.nrf.ac.za/sites/default/files/field/image/NRF%20LOGO%20rgb_0.pngImagen tomada de

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South Africa: Why Budget 2018 gets a C for addressing education crisis

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South Africa / 26.02.2018 /By:  www.fin24.com/.

Educación de jóvenes de Sudáfrica se ha destacado como una de las tres principales prioridades nacionales en discurso sobre el presupuesto 2018.

Cape Town – The education of South Africa’s youth has been highlighted as one of the top three national priorities in Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s 2018 budget speech.

Soria Hay, head of corporate finance at Bravura, says that, while Budget 2018 gets an A for the commitment to fee-free higher education and training for South Africa’s disadvantaged youth, it deserves a meagre C for inefficiently responding to the burning issues at the heart of South Africa»s education crisis.

Fee-free higher education

The 2018 Budget Speech has made good on the commitment towards fee-free education by proposing an implementation plan that will guarantee access to higher education and training for all South Africans who qualify, based on merit rather than class position. Government is committed to spending over R1trn on education in the next three years.

Post school education and training will be the fastest-growing spending category in the 2018 budget, with an anticipated annual average growth rate of 13.7%.

A budget allocation of R57bn in the medium term for fee-free higher education and training will be dispersed as R12.4bn in 2018/19, R20.3bn in 2019/20 and R24.3bn in 2020/21. There is also the inclusion of a R10bn provisional allocation made in Budget 2017.

Fee-free higher education and training (including university and TVET colleges) will be implemented in a phased approach aimed at first-year students from poor and working-class families, with a total family income below R350 000 per annum. The roll out will continue into subsequent years until all years of study are covered.

Allocation to basic education

In terms of basic education, a total of R792bn in aggregate will be spent on basic education over the medium term. Within this, the education infrastructure grant will allocate R31.7bn over the medium term and will include a R3.8bn allocation to the school infrastructure backlogs grant in order to replace 82 inappropriate and unsafe schools, and to provide water to 325 schools and sanitation to 286 schools.

A further R21.7bn over the medium term will be set aside to provide daily meals to 19 800 schools (9 million learners) through the national school nutrition programme grant. And 39 000 Funza Lushaka bursaries will be disbursed over the next three years via the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, at a cost of R3.7bn earmarked for prospective teachers in priority subject areas such as mathematics, science and technology.Furthermore, to support effective curriculum delivery over the medium term, R15.3bn is allocated to provide printed and digital content to teachers and learners. This includes the provision of 183 million workbooks and textbooks, teacher support, and increased access to information and communication technology.

But Hay questions the merit of these allocations.

«Alarming statistics and reports on the state of basic education point to the need for far more aggressive management of teacher training and classroom efficiency. Allocations do not significantly account for this,» cautioned Hay.

Basic education system broken

Budget 2018 states that fee-free education will contribute towards breaking the cycle of poverty and confronting unemployment, as labour statistics point to the lowest rate of unemployment for tertiary graduates.

Hay says that, while the budget quite rightly considers tertiary education in the light of the development of the youth as being critical to SA’s economic recovery and long-term health, it falls short in acknowledging the fact that the primary and secondary education systems continue to let down SA’s children.

«While a substantial 70% of the R1trn budget has been earmarked for basic education, it is arguable whether the specific allocations will hit the right marks to meaningfully change the prospects for the majority of school-going children,» says Hay.

«It is widely acknowledged that the basic education system in SA is completely broken.»

Hay cites an article that appeared in The Economist last year, which highlighted the fact that SA has the most unequal school system in the world with the widest gap in the world between the test scores of the top 20% of schools and the rest of schools.

The article went on to quote a study undertaken in 2007 where maths teachers of 11- and 12-year-olds sat tests similar to those taken by their class. As many as 79% of teachers scored below the level expected of the pupils. The average 14-year-old in Singapore and South Korea performs much better.

According to a ranking table of education systems drawn up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2015, South Africa ranked 75th out of 76 based on its overall education system.

In 2014, only 36.4% of those who began grade 1 in 2002, matriculated in 2014. And in 2015, Basic Education Department statistics in 2015 reflected 1.2 million learners registered for Grade 1, but only 790 000 learners in Grade 12.

The Department of Higher Education report in 2015 indicates that a vast 47.9% of university students did not complete their degrees, with black students holding the highest drop-out rate. As many as 32.1% enrolled students leave within their first year. This points to an alarming drop-off rate, which Hay says costs the taxpayer billions of rand with no outcome.

«South Africa’s historic spend on education (6% of GDP) is an appropriate percentage of our budget compared to other developing countries, if not slightly higher. Brazil spends 5.8% of GDP on education, India 3.3% and China around 4%. Yet, it seems that few countries spend as much to so little effect. The issue of quality remains highly problematic,» says Hay.

Accommodating all the additional students

«But let’s take a step back for one moment. As a result of the fee-free education programme, the anticipated number of tertiary students able to benefit in 2018 will include 340 000 university students and over 420 000 full-time equivalent students at TVET colleges. This means that by the end of 2018 around 760 000 students will have benefited from higher education and training.»

University student numbers are already near capacity. Plans have been in place to grow the current number of universities (26) that accommodate about 1 million students in order to ensure the inclusion of a further 500 000 students by 2030.

These plans, developed prior to the fee-free education commitment, could be severely impacted by fee-free education, leading to a fresh exclusion discourse based on access rather than cost.

Hay says that an important aspect of university education is to fuel research and innovation capability, which drives economic growth and competitiveness. She suggests that it is time for government to prioritise the areas and industries where they want students to focus on given that the country needs specific skills in order to grow our economy and ensure inclusive growth.

Hay cautions that, despite government’s commitment to inclusivity in education based on merit and not class position, there are numerous risks that have not been accounted for.

«Principles, theory and strategy are important aspects and Budget 2018 can be applauded for a strategic pointing in the right direction. But details of how to ensure access to higher education and training for the fee-free education recipients, coupled with how best to allocate funds in basic education to guarantee sustained improvement in education, are glaringly absent,» says Hay.

From: https://www.fin24.com/Budget/why-budget-2018-gets-a-c-for-addressing-education-crisis-20180225

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