Sudáfrica

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South Africa: Police Fire Teargas At Nehawu Protesters Outside University of Pretoria

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South Africa/22 de Mayo de 2017/Allafrica

Resumen: La policía usó gases lacrimógenos contra los miembros de Nehawu quienes protestaban fuera de la Universidad de Pretoria el viernes por la mañana.  Los trabajadores exigían un 13º cheque, una mejor asistencia médica y un aumento del 8%.

Police used teargas against protesting Nehawu members outside the University of Pretoria on Friday morning.

The workers were demanding a 13th cheque, better medical aid, and an 8% increase.

Protesters tried to get onto the university grounds at an open gate on Lynnwood Road after the main gate was closed.

Police fired two canisters of teargas at the protesters, who responded by throwing stones and bricks at the police, before being calmed down by Nehawu leadership.

Regional branch chairperson for Nehawu Joseph Makhasa said other universities not only paid their employees more, but that they also provided a 13th cheque.

Makhasa said if their demands were not met, they intended on disrupting the university’s open day, to be held this Saturday.

Nehawu members continued singing and dancing outside the university’s main gate in Lynnwood Road.

Fuente: http://allafrica.com/stories/201705190904.html

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Sudáfrica: Dlamini-Zuma says education is ‘number one‚ number two and number three’ priority

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Sudáfrica/Mayo de 2017/Fuente: Times Live

Resumen: Acompañado por el primer ministro de KwaZulu-Natal, Willies Mchunu, y el ministro de agua y saneamiento Nomvula Mokonyane, Dlamini-Zuma aconsejó a los estudiantes que era importante estudiar y preparar su futuro para trabajar en Sudáfrica. Dijo que nadie debería pisotear su derecho a aprender. «Debo enfatizar también que, como estudiantes, usted tiene derechos, el derecho a ser educado, el derecho a la salud, el derecho al uniforme y su responsabilidad es estudiar y aprender», dijo. Dlamini-Zuma dijo que la educación era una gran prioridad para el país. «La educación es número uno, número dos y número tres, todo comienza a los cuatro años, por eso se necesitan habilidades porque son un ecualizador y la economía crecerá si se tienen habilidades y talento», dijo a los alumnos.Mchunu introdujo anteriormente Dlamini-Zuma a los estudiantes como una madre y un político carismáticos.

Accompanied by KwaZulu-Natal Premier Willies Mchunu and water and sanitation minister Nomvula Mokonyane‚ Dlamini-Zuma advised learners that it was important to study and prepare their future for a working South Africa. She said nobody should trample their right to learn.

«I must stress also that‚ as learners‚ you have rights; the right to be educated‚ the right to health‚ the right to uniform. And your responsibility is to study and learn‚» she said.

Dlamini-Zuma said education was a huge priority for the country.

«Education is number one‚ number two and number three; everything else starts at four. This is why you need skills because they are an equaliser and the economy will grow if you have skills and talent‚» she told the learners.

Mchunu earlier introduced Dlamini-Zuma to the learners as a charismatic mother and politician.

«It’s through her humility that we even forget that she’s a doctor. She’s Dr Dlamini-Zuma. She’s an accomplished doctor‚ accomplished politicians and accomplished mother‚» he said.

Dlamini-Zuma then moved to a door-to-door visit.

Clad in a huge grass hat and a yellow ANC-themed short dress and black leggings‚ she went to Goodness Mnyandu’s modest home. The 72-year-old urged Dlamini-Zuma to build a pension paypoint point closer to the community.

«We also want some houses. Some of us have been here longer but the houses are only obtained by new people in this area‚» said Mnyandu.

Dlamini-Zuma promised to take up all her issues with the leadership of the party.

She then handed over ANC T-shirts and pamphlets bearing the face of Ward 6 councillor candidate‚ Zamani Mathe. She is in Nquthu as part of the ANC’s all-out attempt to win the local municipality.

The by-election takes place next week‚ with every ward up for grabs after the entire council was dissolved.

The area includes the well-known international tourist destination Isandlwana‚ which was the site of the historic Anglo-Zulu war battle of 1879.

Fuente: http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2017/05/18/Dlamini-Zuma-says-education-is-number-one%E2%80%9A-number-two-and-number-three-priority

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South Africa: Free Higher Education by 2020

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 South Africa –Johannesburg/ 16 may 2017/By: Khaya Koko/ Source: http://www.iol.co.za

Although the ANC admits that the policy on free higher education for poor students has not been adopted and is still under discussion, the party wants this practice implemented by 2020.

This was the ambitious announcement made by Naledi Pandor, the chairperson of the ANC’s national executive committee’s subcommittee on health and education, at a briefing at the party’s headquarters in Joburg this morning.

Pandor said that the «policy on free higher education to all poor undergraduate level students has not been formally adopted as yet and is still a subject of discussions»; but asserted that this policy must be ratified and implemented by 2020, with renewed focus also on accelerating development in training and community education colleges.

«The (higher education and training) sector recommends that the ANC ensures that sector accelerates and completes the opening of professional colleges to increase training in agriculture, nursing and teaching; ensure that the sector finalises and puts into operation the model for free higher education for poor students and increased support for families that cannot afford higher education costs by 2020 as the process of ensuring free higher education for all students from poor families,» Pandor announced.

The renewed focus on training colleges, Pandor added, should should see the ANC develop poicies that clarify «the nature and role of the entire college sector that comprises Community Education and Training colleges, Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges and other colleges for specialised purposes such as agriculture, nursing, emergency care, policing and teaching.»

Source:

http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/news/free-higher-education-by-2020-9120841

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African history is a discipline on the rise – and one that raises many questions

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África/Sudán/Ruanda/Sudáfrica/África del Norte/África Occidental

Mayo del 2017/Noticias/https://theconversation.com/

 

African history has gone through many incarnations as an academic discipline.

Most recently, there’s been a global turn in African historiography. This shift has been prompted by a greater awareness of the powerful forces of globalisation and the need to provide an African historical perspective on this phenomenon. This has helped to place the continent at the centre of global – and human – history.

It’s important to explain the role of Africa in the world’s global past. This helps assert its position in the gradual making of global affairs. As an approach, it’s a radical departure from colonial views of Africa. It also complements the radical post-colonial histories that appeared from the 1950s and 1960s. And it may offer another framework for thinking through the curriculum reform and decolonisation debate that’s emerged in South Africa’s universities over the past few years.

The history of African history

Afrocentric history emerged strongly during the 1950s and 1960s, in tandem with Africa’s emergence from colonial rule. Newly emerging histories served as an antidote to the pernicious views of imperial and colonial historiography. These had dismissed Africa as a dark continent without history.

But demonstrating that Africa has a long, complex history was only one step in an intellectual journey with many successes, frustrations and failures.

The long 20th century ended. A new one beckoned. It brought new sets of challenges. South Africa euphorically defeated apartheid. The decolonisation project that started during the 1950s in west and north Africa was completed. These achievements were overshadowed by a horrific post-colonial genocide in Rwanda. Another genocide loomed in the Sudan. Coups, civil wars and human rights abuses stained the canvas on which a new Africa was gradually being painted.

Africa’s woes were deepened by the emerging HIV/AIDS pandemic. State-driven, pro-poor policies and programmes founded during the early post-colonial period atrophied. This decay was driven by hegemonic global neoliberal economic policies.

And the study of history on the continent took a knock. Student numbers declined as post-colonial governments shifted their priorities. Global funding bodies focused their attention on applied social sciences and science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines.

Nearly two decades into the new century there’s been another shift. The subject of history, alongside other humanities disciplines, is attracting growing attention aimed at averting their further decline. This can be explained in part by the subject’s own residual internal resilience and innovative research in newer areas of historical curiosity. There’s an emerging interest in history as a complementary discipline. Students of law, education, and political science are taking history as an additional option.

In South Africa in particular, history cannot be easily ignored, although it is contested. The country is still redefining itself and charting its new course after decades of apartheid and colonialism. However, a great deal of newer interest in history as a subject can be ascribed to university student movements. These movements have garnered greater public attention for ongoing debates about decoloniality and decolonised curricula.

Decoloniality is a radical concept. Its main aim is to degrade the coloniality of knowledge. In South Africa, the decolonisation movement has been tied to bread and butter issues: tuition fees and access to higher education. Decoloniality affords both the language and the reason for seeking to dismantle what are regarded as western and colonial systems and structures of knowledge production and dissemination.

Rethinking decolonisation

But while decolonisation is riding a wave of academic interest, the histories of precolonial Africa are receding as an area of primary research focus. The histories of resistance to colonialism continue to resonate with current struggles for transformation and decolonisation. They have long been popular among historians in and of Africa. Indeed, several social and political movements have used decolonial interpretations of African history as their currency.

However, questions continue to be asked about the kind of history curriculum that should be studied at university level at this moment. And what are the purposes of such curricula? Is an African history module a necessarily transformed one? What new conceptual and methodological tools should be deployed to describe and explain colonial encounters from a decolonial lens? What modes of ethics should inform such approaches?

The challenges go beyond the conceptual aspects of decolonisation in the domain of African history. There are historical structural formations, hierarchies and tendencies within academia that are rooted in coloniality. These make it a huge challenge to articulate newer forms of knowledge. At the same time, decoloniality should operate through other forms and frameworks. This will allow it to find application beyond its own self-defined frames.

In addition, new approaches should challenge received wisdom and develop new kinds of curiosity. Newer curriculum should, for instance, grapple with the fact that there is no single Africa. A unitary model of Africa is a colonial invention. Ordinary people’s identities form and evolve via multiple networks and knowledge forms. An Africa approached from its diverse histories and identities could help forge new, purposeful solidarities and futures.

Fuente :

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Sudáfrica: No Respect for Learners in Farm Schools

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Sudáfrica/Mayo de 2017/Fuente: All Africa

Resumen: Juez acusa a la educación MEC de irrespetar los derechos de los estudiantes. Tribunal pidió al gobierno que considere la posibilidad de expropiar tierras cerca de las cuevas de Cango. Juez visita la escuela de Grootkraal antes de llegar al veredicto. La comunidad Grootkraal, cerca de Oudtshoorn, y los propietarios, el Kobot Besigheid Trust, se enfrentaron en el Tribunal Superior de Cabo Occidental en abril sobre el destino de la histórica escuela rural y la tierra en la que se encuentra. La Fundación quiere desalojar la escuela para dar paso a una atracción turística. Igualdad de Educación hizo presentaciones como un amigo de la corte.

«What will they use the land for?» asked the lawyer representing the owners of the land from which the Grootkraal Primary School faces eviction. Seated in the public gallery in court, I was tempted to shout: «It’s none of your damn business! Give the community of Grootkraal their land back for the education of their children!» Of course I couldn’t do this, because Judge Elizabeth Baartman would have thrown me out, or worse, held me in contempt of court.

Read about the Grootkraal case:

Judge accuses education MEC of disrespecting learners’ rights

Court asked to tell government to consider expropriating land near Cango Caves

Judge to visit Grootkraal school before reaching verdict

The Grootkraal community near Oudtshoorn, and the owners, the Kobot Besigheid Trust, faced off in the Western Cape High Court in April over the fate of the historic rural school and the land on which it stands. The Trust wants to evict the school to make way for a tourist attraction. Equal Education made submissions as a friend of the court.

Counsel for the MEC for Education in the Western Cape (Debbie Schafer) also made submissions. The Department is not opposing the application for eviction and if the eviction is granted, the school will be moved 17km away to Oudtshoorn.

Judge Baartman was at pains to point out that the Department during this land dispute has treated children of farmworkers in Grootkraal with disdain and disrespect.

This is true and I can vouch for it. The DA government’s actions in this case show why many people believe it does not care for the interests of poor black and coloured working-class people. The case has highlighted that, not unlike the current ANC government, the DA government too has no interest in dealing with the ever-emotive issue of the land; in fact the MEC for Education proclaims that she is under no obligation to consider expropriation of land. Even though the South African Schools Act gives her the powers to do so «if it is in the public interest or … for any purpose relating to school education in a province».

In the euphoria of the first years after 1994, the newly-elected government brought together some of the best minds in the country to form a committee to prepare a more equitable and just public education system in South Africa. Transforming the invidious position of farm schools formed part of that agenda. Alive to the history of these schools as a tool for extracting labour from black rural children and a symbol of Bantu Education at its very worst, the committee recommended expropriation as a first step to improvement. Fast-forward 20 years later and the future of these schools still hangs in the balance.

Equal Education has drawn Judge Baartman’s attention to this context and argued that the MEC should consider expropriating the land in the best interest of the Grootkraal learners. The land has been in use by the community for 185 years and during this time a primary school came into existence. Surely any government voted in by the will of the people would want to protect children, especially when it comes to education?

Yet the Western Cape government is not willing to do so. Instead it keeps many poor working-class people in the dark. Visit any school built on private property in the Winelands – you will see what I am talking about. Children born of farmworkers are being taken to run-down schools, and in reality are being prepared to become low-paid farmworkers like their parents and the generations before them. The cycle of poverty is in full swing in the Western Cape Winelands under the watchful eye and couldn’t-care-less attitude of the Western Cape government.

To rub salt into a wound inflicted by colonial domination and oppression, the MEC for Education has not been to the Grootkraal school. Yet her court papers label learners’ sentiments about their school as without merit and ill-informed. During court proceedings and while the Judge was being critical of her decisions in protecting the learners, the MEC took to twitter to say that the issue pre-dated her time as MEC for Education. This does not make sense: she and previous MEC Donald Grant are both members of the DA.

On 10 May 2017 Judge Baartman will conduct an inspection to see for herself the conditions at he school. This visit by the Judge is interesting because the MEC for Education in the Western Cape has never met the community of Grootkraal in all her years of occupying that office.

It is shocking that the MEC of Education is enabling the anti-transformative and cruel actions of private profit-driven actors and proving her loyalty to them by disrespecting the rights of learners.

The area that is under dispute in this case only makes up 0,2% of the land. This makes one wonder: if the Department and the trust are putting up such a massive fight now, what will happen when we argue that far bigger chunks of the land should given back to its rightful owners?

Fuente: http://allafrica.com/stories/201705040651.html

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Africa: UNESCO Calls On Governments to Make Higher Education Equitable, Affordable

Noticias

África/Abril de 2017/Autor: James Karuanga/Fuente: All Africa

Resumen: Dice un nuevo informe que conseguir y garantizar la equidad y la asequibilidad en los marcos regulatorios son dos de las formas que los responsables políticos deben considerar para hacer que la educación superior sea equitativa y asequible para todos. El nuevo Informe de Seguimiento de la Educación Global, publicado por la UNESCO, también recomienda que los gobiernos establezcan agencias nacionales para asegurar la igualdad de oportunidades; Y varían los criterios de admisión para responder a las necesidades de diferentes individuos. «Al crear y transmitir conocimientos vitales, habilidades y valores fundamentales, la educación superior es una piedra angular para alcanzar los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible», dijo Irina Bokova, Directora General de la UNESCO. «La demanda de educación superior va a seguir aumentando y los gobiernos deben responder introduciendo una serie de nuevas políticas que aseguren que la expansión no deje atrás a los marginados y que el acceso se base en el mérito y no en el privilegio».

Ensuring those who need help the most are getting it and guaranteeing equity and affordability in regulatory frameworks are two of the ways policy makers need to consider in order to make higher education equitable and affordable for all, says a new report.

The new Global Education Monitoring Report, released by UNESCO, also recommends that governments establish national agencies to ensure equal opportunities; and vary admissions criteria to respond to different individuals’ needs.

«By creating and transmitting vital knowledge, skills and core values, higher education is a cornerstone for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,» said Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO.

«Demand for higher education is going to continue rising. Governments must respond by introducing a range of new policies that will ensure the expansion doesn’t leave the marginalised behind, and that access is based on merit, not privilege.»

Governments have also been urged to limit student loan repayments by combining low tuition and fees with income-based loans to cap student repayment burdens at less than 15 percent of monthly income as anything more threatens to leave the disadvantaged behind.

The UNESCO paper released countries are struggling to keep pace with rapidly rising demand and large disparities in access, with a large cost of higher education often falling to families, many of whom cannot afford it.

And it shows that the number of university level students doubled to 207 million between 2000 and 2014.

Analysing global trends, it outlines, Six ways to ensure higher education leaves no one behind, addings that the fast expansion of higher education is mostly happening in countries with an expanding middle class.

«Access to higher education has expanded most rapidly in wealthier countries: Only eight percent of young adults are enrolled on average in the poorest countries, compared to 74 percent in the richest countries. The greatest gender disparities are found among the poorest countries as well. Women made up only 30 percent of bachelor students in low-income countries in 2014.»

«In certain countries with deeply rooted social inequities, affirmative action through quota or bonus systems may be necessary to expand access to underrepresented groups, even if these mechanisms are controversial,» says Suzanne Grant Lewis, director of the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), the UN’s only specialised organisation with the mandate to support educational policy, planning and management.

The paper draws on a range of examples to show how different countries are expanding and diversifying higher education offerings to achieve greater equity.

It is noted that loan boards and education trust funds in Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, and Tanzania addressed «some of these administrative challenges by instructing employers to deduct repayment from wages.»

Though not cited in the report, in Rwanda, the Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD) last year requested all people who benefited from the student loans scheme from 1980 to comply with the 2015 law governing the student loans and bursaries.

«The last thing we want is for higher education to be the ball and chain around students’ ankles,» said Aaron Benavot, Director of the GEM Report.

«Coping with dramatic student expansion is not easy, but there are policy solutions governments can put into place to stop the bill falling to households.»

Insufficient funds are reportedly a key reason for the fact that some disadvantaged groups are being left behind.

Governments simply can’t afford to pay for the growing number of students, and this is leaving households footing the bill, it adds, and this issue will become even more salient in the future with demand for higher education rising and enrollments growing.

UNESCO says governments have an array of policy tools – which work hand in hand – to foster equity and help families afford not just tuition fees, but all the other costs of attending higher education like books, housing and transportation.

Fuente: http://allafrica.com/stories/201704210054.html

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Sudáfrica: Racism, anti-ANC bias at public schools not the norm – education dept

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Sudáfrica/Abril de 2017/Fuente: News 24

RESUMEN: El Departamento de Educación Básica dice que cualquier episodio racial o políticamente sesgado en escuelas públicas y en escuelas modelo C son incidentes aislados, y no como resultado del plan de estudios. El departamento emitió una declaración el martes que parecía contradecir las afirmaciones de Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, candidato presidencial del ANC, de que los estudiantes en las escuelas modelo C anteriores eran «enseñados contra el ANC». La declaración se basó en un informe del equipo de trabajo entregado a la Ministra de Educación Básica Angie Motshekga este mes, que ha estado evaluando libros de texto y otros materiales de aprendizaje desde febrero.

The Department of Basic Education says any racially or politically biased episodes at public and former model C schools are isolated incidents, and not as a result of the curriculum.

The department released a statement on Tuesday which appeared to contradict ANC presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s assertions that learners at former model C schools were «taught against the ANC».

The statement was based on a task team report handed to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga this month, which has been evaluating textbooks and other learning materials since February.

«While the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) clearly outline what should be taught in schools, some teachers have, however, been found to have overstepped the boundaries,» spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said.

«Where such incidents had taken place, such as teachers using racial slurs on others, swift action had been taken against the implicated teachers, he said.

«It must be stressed that, where such isolated incidents have taken place, these do not arise as a result of a defined norm or practice of a particular school, nor a dictate from the CAPS.»

It is, rather, individual teachers who tended to do so, the statement added. Motshekga would receive the full report at the end of the year.

Mhlanga stressed that CAPS was based on the principles of social transformation, equal educational opportunities, and ensuring the ills of apartheid were addressed.

DA MP Gavin Davies welcomed Motshekga’s statement on Wednesday, and claimed it was a clear sign that the minister disagreed with Dlamini-Zuma.

«[Motshekga’s statement] is a polite way of saying that Dlamini-Zuma was talking rubbish,» he said on Wednesday.

«If learners believe that the ANC is corrupt, it is not because of an anti-ANC propaganda campaign being waged in public schools. It is because evidence of ANC corruption is all around us.»

‘Kids taught at schools that ANC is corrupt’

On Thursday, Dlamini-Zuma raised concerns over what she termed a negative narrative against the governing party, saying it was perpetuated at schools and universities.

«They [kids] are actually taught against the ANC,» Dlamini-Zuma said in Zamdela in the Free State.

«It’s not surprising that kids will think the ANC is corrupt‚ [or that the] ANC is useless, because this is what they are fed at school.»

She alleged that some universities, such as the University of the Witwatersrand, refused to allow their students to call South Africa a democracy.

She claimed most schools would only say there is democracy and freedom in South Africa once another party took over.

ANC members needed to constantly be aware of the balance of power, and could not allow a leadership vacuum to form in the party and in government.

«We must be honest when we analyse what’s going on. We can’t not admit that the organisation is weak at this point in time,» she said.

Once we are weak and once we are divided, we cannot mobilise and unite society, she added.

Fuente: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/racism-anti-anc-bias-at-public-schools-not-the-norm-education-dept-20170419

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