The difficulties of getting an education in South Africa

Ethembeni Enrichment Centre, a school in a run-down part of Port Elizabeth, the largest city in Eastern Cape, South Africa’s poorest province, has achieved a remarkable 100 percent pass rate for a dozen years. But officials from the education department, sent on a fact-finding mission to learn from the school’s success, are running more than two hours late.

Irritation is discernible in the voice of school principal Elbe Malherbe – punctuality is one of the few rules that must be abided by teachers and pupils alike. “When … [it's time to] start, you start,” Malherbe told IRIN in clipped replies during a telephone interview. Then, in a sudden change of tone, she said: “I wish you could see through the phone what I am seeing.”

It is the first day of applications for the 2011 school year and a woman in traditional Xhosa attire is filling out a form for her child. Ethembeni only accepts pupils whose mother tongue is Xhosa, which generally translates into poor and black. The annual school fees are R3,800 (US$506), excluding stationery.
Many poor parents make sacrifices to keep their children in school, but Malherbe believes in affordable – not free – education, because it is an “investment by pupils, parents and teachers [that] everyone must buy into”.

The language of instruction is English. Apart from not brooking tardiness, the school’s other non-negotiables are that class attendance is compulsory, home work must be completed, pupils must clean the classrooms and grounds every day, and parents must be involved in their child’s education.
“The classrooms were barely furnished. The driveway to the school was a rocky, narrow passage … The school hall was packed with a few hundred eager faces, the children virtually sitting on top of one another on the floor … I saw struggle, hunger and poverty etched into each child’s countenance,” educationist and vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, Jonathan Jansen, recounted after a recent visit.

“For any child to pass under these difficult circumstances, it would take a miracle,” he wrote. Yet nearly two-thirds of the 70 pupils in Ethembeni’s 2009 matric, or final year, class achieved a university-entrance pass, while other financially comparable schools hung on at the bottom of the academic achievement ladder.

The school has no library, no science laboratory, although there is a computer that gives the 400 pupils internet access. The government pays for 11 of the 17 teachers; the salary shortfall of the six other teachers has to come out of the school fees.
The compactness of the school is part of its success. “In schools of a thousand [students], how can you know all the parents? If I have a problem with a child, or they have not done their homework, I phone their parents and they are here in five minutes,” Malherbe said.

“We’re not Einsteins here – we teach. It’s nice to be part of a winning team. With nothing, you can still be successful if the heart is right and the spirit is right.”

Ethembeni, which means “place of hope”, swims against the prevailing national current in education, where standards have been steadily declining – in contrast to school fees.

More money, less education

The government’s answer to the malaise is to throw more money into the education system; in the 2010/11 financial year it budgeted R165 billion (US$8.6 billion) for the sector, a 17 percent above inflation increase from the previous year.

The matric, or final high school exam, is used as a benchmark for the state of education in South Africa. Of the 550,227 pupils who wrote their final examinations in 2009, 61 percent passed, and 19.9 percent of those achieved the required marks to qualify for tertiary education.

Marius Roodt, an education analyst at the South African Institute of Race Relations, a policy and research organization, told IRIN the current teaching standard was akin to Bantu education – the system imposed by apartheid prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd, who said blacks should only be educated to be “hewers of wood and drawers of water”.

“It is very unlikely that there will be an increase in matric pass rates. In 2004 the pass rate was 71 percent, and it has been on a steady downward trend since then, with each year reflecting a decrease. This is a trend that is likely to continue into the future, at least in terms of the quality of the qualification,” Roodt said.
He attributed the decline to the political influence of the 240,000-member South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), the country’s largest teacher union and an affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), which is an alliance partner of the ruling African National Congress.
“An example was when the union encouraged members to campaign for President Jacob Zuma prior to last year’s general election, instead of teaching,” he said.

“Although teachers should be allowed to be unionized – like any profession in any democracy – the influence of SADTU is malignant and not benign. It is possible that SADTU has the interest of only its members at heart, and not that of the pupils in South Africa’s schools,” Roodt commented.
“The reintroduction of the ’school inspectors’ system, which would greatly improve the quality of the country’s teaching, has been resisted by SADTU for some time. The union has also opposed systems to monitor teacher performance,” he said.

School inspectors

Zuma announced in his 2010 State of the Nation address that a system of oversight would be instituted to monitor schools and ensure that teachers were in class to teach.

SADTU spokesperson Nomusa Cembi told IRIN that the union objected to the reintroduction of school inspectors, and did “not know where the president got the information that teachers are only in class for three hours, or so, a day.”

Zuma first made the claim in a speech to school principals in KwaZulu-Natal Province, who gathered at the Durban International Convention Centre in August 2009. “We need to confront certain realities. For example, teachers in former whites-only schools teach in class for an average of 6.5 hours a day, while teachers in schools in disadvantaged communities teach for around 3.5 hours a day. The result is that the outcomes are unequal.”

A recent survey published by Tokiso, an independent labour dispute resolution body, found that the teachers’ union was responsible for 42 percent of all work days lost through industrial action between 1995 and 2009. Cembi said this gave the impression that SADTU members “strike at the drop of a hat”.

Tanya Venter, CEO of Tokiso, told a local newspaper, Business Day, that SADTU’s participation in the 2007 public sector strike was the main reason for the union recording such a high rate of absenteeism.
A recent World Bank working paper: , found “each additional 5 percent increase in teacher absence reduces learning by 4 to 8 percent of a year’s learning for the typical student.”
Cembi said responsibility for the deterioration of education should be shared among learners, teachers, the education department and the government. She was unable to provide any data on whether or not a SADTU teacher had ever been dismissed for poor performance.

Zimbabwe’s loss, South Africa’s gain

Government has been widely blamed for creating a critical shortage of teachers trained in science and mathematics after it closed teacher training colleges in 2000 and put the onus on universities to produce educators. The government is now considering re-opening the teacher training colleges.

One solution has been to recruit teachers from Zimbabwe. Dickson Masemola, head of education in Limpopo Province, which borders Zimbabwe, said his department had hired 600 Zimbabwean educators to teach maths, science and commercial subjects, resulting in a turnaround in academic performance.

Mbali Thusi, a spokesman for the education department of KwaZulu-Natal, said a number of foreign teachers, especially in maths and science, were working in the province, and more would be hired because of the shortage of qualified teachers in these fields.

“The problem is more severe in rural schools – most maths and science teachers prefer to work in urban areas,” Thusi said. “But we are eager to recruit more foreign teachers because of the shortages … We have sent requesting documents to the national department to give us a go-ahead. We want to recruit hundreds of these teachers to plug the holes in our system.”
The head of the KwaZulu-Natal School Governing Bodies Association, Reginald Cheliza, told IRIN: “We would like our children to succeed in school, but it is clear that this is not happening.

Filed under: Africa, Latest News

Two Zimbabwe cricketers go missing in England

HARARE-Two Zimbabwe cricketers Graeme Cremer and Brendan Taylor have gone missing in England enroute to Zimbabwe following their tour of the West Indies.

The Zimbabwe cricket squad arrived the country on Thursday minus the two player amid fears that they might have defected. The team were granted six months transit visas by the British Embassy when they went toured West Indies.

Sources in the team said the players had decided to stay behind in England. Zimbabwe Cricket said they would issue at statement later on the fate of the players.

This is not the first time that Zimbabwe sportspersons have defected in the United Kingdom. Six CAPS United players went decided not come to back to Zimbabwe when the club played a controversial friendly match in the United Kingdom in 2004.

Crèmer – a leg spinner made his Test debut against Bangladesh in Dhaka on January 6, 2005, a match that Zimbabwe went on to lose handing the Bangladeshi Tigers their first ever Test match victory.

Cremer then played Tests against South Africa and New Zealand. Unfortunately Cremer, seen by many as a Test specialist, had his opportunities limited thereafter due to Zimbabwe’s self-imposed exile from Test cricket. After several years on the fringes of the national team Cremer finally broke into the limited overs squad against the West Indies in late 2005.

Taylor made his debut for Zimbabwe at a time when many of the country’s leading players rebelled against Zimbabwe Cricket (formally known as the Zimbabwean Cricket Union) and made themselves unavailable to represent the side.

He is a good all-round player, who has in the past been successful bowling off-break deliveries. He was recently Zimbabwe’s first choice wicketkeeper until the return of Tatenda Taibu behind the stumps.

Despite his young age, Taylor is among the most experienced players in the current Zimbabwean team, and is considered the team’s best batsman with 11 ODI half-centuries to his name, and a top ODI score of 98. Radio VOP

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Zimbabwe talks go in second day along with reports of breakthrough

Harare – A second round of talks between Zimbabwean rivals President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was due to get underway Thursday in Harare amid reports of a breakthrough.

South African President Jacob Zuma, who is mediating the talks on behalf of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community, has been in Zimbabwe since Tuesday to try to resolve a long-running dispute in the country’s shaky power-sharing government over the implementation of reforms.

Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara all expressed satisfaction at the progress made on key sticking points when they emerged from around two hours of talks with Zuma on Wednesday, but gave no details.

Reports of a breakthrough came after Zuma met later with Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, Attorney General Johannes Tomana and Tsvangirai’s deputy agriculture minister designate Roy Bennett.

The three men are at the centre of some of the worst wrangling between Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Bennett was arrested in February last year and charged over a purported plot to topple Mugabe. He is currently being tried by the High Court for possessing weapons for the purposes of terrorism, banditry and insurgency.

The MDC sees the charges as a plot to keep the outspoken white farmer out of government and has demanded for the past year that Mugabe swear him into his post.

The MDC is also demanding that Mugabe rescind his unilateral appointment of Gono and Tomana to their positions. Both are staunch Mugabe allies.

Several sources close to the negotiations, who did not wish to be identified, said a compromise had been reached, which would see Tomana step down, Gono remain and Bennett sworn into his position pending the outcome of his trial.

If confirmed, it would represent a coup for Zuma, who is under pressure to achieve success in Zimbabwe after a series of setbacks at home.

South Africans are dismayed by revelations that the polygamist leader fathered a child out of wedlock last year as well as by his inability to curb infighting in his African National Congress party.

Even if the parties reached a compromise on Bennett, Tomana and Gono, a raft of issues remain, including the drafting of a new constitution, the reform of repressive media laws and the gazetting last month by a Mugabe minister of controversial new black empowerment laws.

The MDC accuses Zanu-PF of reneging on its commitments under the Global Political Agreement, the agreement signed in 2008 which resulted in the creation of the power-sharing government.

Zanu-PF, for its part, holds Tsvangirai responsible for failing to persuade Western governments to lift targeted sanctions against Zanu- PF’s top brass.

Filed under: General, Latest News, Politics

Zimbabwean man held hostage by lover, saved by wife

A CANADA-based Zimbabwean man, studying for his PhD at the University of Ottawa was held hostage at gunpoint for cash by his mistress and three of her friends.

His worried wife sent police to rescue him after they had a conversation in Shona.

Canadian women Catiuska Catou Charmant, 32, and Max Adrien Jeannot, 20, are on trial charged with conspiracy to extort, attempted extortion, forcible confinement and break and enter with intent in connection with the alleged May 16, 2008 incident.

Jeannot is also charged with using an imitation firearm and assault.

Charmant and Jeannot — along with Yves “Ice” Louis and Natasha Anderson — went to Harold Sharara’s home to shake him down.

“Some people chose to use their knowledge of the unfaithful and selfish actions of Mr. Sharara to extort money from him and to ensure he would not call the police,” Prosecutor Matthew Humphreys told a jury in the case.

Sharara, 39, candidly admitted seeking extramarital relationships by wooing women with cash, drinks and hair extensions, but said he wasn’t successful.

He stopped seeing Charmant when she became “too demanding financially” without becoming romantic.

On the day of the incident, the father-of-two testified he was on his way to the University of Ottawa, where he is a PhD student, when he was confronted by the foursome at his home.

He was on edge because someone had been pounding on his doors and windows that morning and his house had recently been burglarized.

Louis insisted Sharara owned money to Charmant, who kept asking to be let inside for some water.

“I had a sixth sense that if we went inside the house something bad would happen,” Sharara said.

Sharara felt threatened, but he went to get the water.

He found himself being escorted into his study with something he’d later see was a pistol pressed against his neck.

There were more cash demands, threats and violence — including having his hand pistol-whipped until he dropped his phone, Sharara told the court.

Jeannot took a knife from the kitchen which he exchanged for the gun.

Before going into the house, Sharara had accidentally dialled his wife on his cell. She called back, worried. When his captors turned off his cell, she called their home. Sharara said he had to answer or his wife would call police.

He told her in the Shona language which his captors didn’t understand, to call police.

The trial continues today.

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UZ producing totally substandard Lawyers-Chinamasa

 

 

THE University of Zimbabwe Law Faculty is producing half-baked lawyers who are seriously denting the reputation of the country’s legal fraternity, Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said.

Giving oral evidence before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs on Monday, the minister accused UZ law teaching staff of engaging in politics instead of concentrating on their core business.

“The quality of graduates from our university is dismal.

“The problem is deeper and more pervasive than meets the eye.

“In the past, we used to go to the faculty and address students, but now the faculty is a no-go area for the Ministry of Justice.

“Intellectuals should not be afraid of a clash of ideas; what kind of an intellectual is that?

“If you are employed to teach contract law, then teach contract law.

“If students want politics, there is a department for Political Science at the institution,” he said.

Minister Chinamasa said some graduates could not perform basic tasks like drafting letters of demand.

He said his ministry had not been spared and at times he had to do work meant for junior officers.

Turning to the state of justice delivery in Zimbabwe, the minister said like any sector, they were facing critical resource shortages that had seen experienced personnel leave for greener pastures.

“Until we have adequate funding, I will always come to this committee to moan and groan.

“The result of inadequate resources is that it ends up breeding corruption and achieving the opposite of what the justice delivery system is intended to achieve,” Minister Chinamasa said.

Minister Chinamasa said the magistrates’ courts were relying on non-degreed staff to carry out some duties.

Last year, the ministry was allocated US$15 million but received only US$5 million in the national budget. (Herald)

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A Zimbabwean jailed for 12 months: faces immediate deportation

DUBLIN, United Kingdom – A 35-year-old Zimbabwean man Allan Dambuka who committed burglaries at a number of B&Bs, by gaining access to rooms with filed down keys, was jailed for 12 months this week and could face deportation following his release.

(PICTURED CRIME SCENE: Dambuka, who had also been a guest at the B&B, had been seen taking money from a wallet but immediately put it back when the couple entered the room)

Allan Dambuka with an address at 203A Collins Avenue, Whitehall, Dublin 9, appeared before Galway District Court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to the offences brought against him.

Garda Patrick O’Shea gave evidence that on January 4, 2010, there had been a report of a burglary at Griffin Lodge, Fr Griffin Place. When he arrived at the scene a French couple, who had been staying at the B&B, told him that when they had returned to their room after breakfast they had found the defendant rifling through their belongings.

Dambuka, who had also been a guest at the B&B, had been seen taking money from a wallet but immediately put it back when the couple entered the room. Garda O’Shea said that the defendant had only been in Galway for the night and had returned to Dublin.

Dambuka then returned to Galway on March 12 last and booked into Anbelle Lodge in Lower Salthill. From his investigations, Garda O’Shea was able to track the defendant down and when he entered the room Dambuka was seen discarding a “quantity of keys”.

Garda O’Shea explained that a lot of older B&Bs use Basta door keys and that there is only a small number of these types which means that “one key can open many doors”. He said that the defendant had filed down one key “in an effort to gain access” to doors in the B&B. Garda O’Shea later told Judge Mary Fahy that B&Bs that have been in existence for a number of years, and which would use these types of locks and keys, were targeted.

“To say that he was caught red-handed would be appropriate,” said Judge Fahy.

Defence solicitor Adrian MacLynn said that his client was orginally from Zimbabwe and that his application for aslyum was currently in process. He said that Dambuka, who is married with one child, had left his country because of political turmoil and has been in Ireland since 2008.

Inspector Sean Glynn then informed the court that Dambuka has no previous convictions in this jurisdiction. Garda O’Shea also explained that Dambuka had been refused asylum in this country in August 2008, and that this was affirmed in August 2009. He also said that according to the immigration system Dambuka did come to the attention of the UK authorities when he was residing there.

“You’re here seeking the mercy of this country and this is the thanks you give by stealing from the inhabitants,” Judge Fahy told the defendant who then attempted to go down on his knees to beg for leniency.

“Just get up, I don’t want any of that nonsense,” said Judge Fahy, before imposing a total of 12 months in jail. Judge Fahy then told Garda O’Shea that it was incumbent on him to ensure that Dambuka was deported.

“He’s of no use to this country,” she said, before commending Garda O’Shea for his work in preventing the defendant from targeting more B&Bs.

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