Back in 1925, Dayton, Tennessee was home to the famous Scopes “monkey trial”, which saw teacher John Scopes violating a state statute by teaching evolution in biology. Almost a century of science, research and cultural development later they’re still dealing with the same problems.
In 2009 Madonna broke ground for a new school in Malawi, side by side with the country’s Minister of Education. Now the singer’s plans to build a $15 million academy for girls have fallen by the wayside. Her Raising Malawi foundation announced recently that it would instead channel $300 000 into an existing NGO which builds schools, making some Malawians very unhappy.
Less than a week after Helen Zille’s latest Twitter-storm about comments she made about the state of education here in the Western Cape versus the same in our neighbours – she called students from the Eastern Cape who attend school here “refugees” – she has gotten all up in the ANC’s grille once more with fresh comments regarding the state of health here versus there.
Despite a lull in tension, all is still not well in sleepy Grabouw. Residents are still at each others throats over the apparent discrimination in the administration of local school facilities. So much so, that the Presidency has taken an unusual step to actually do something about it. More of this alleged good governance after the jump!
Black and coloured residents of sleepy Overberg town, Grabouw, were at each others’ throats yesterday as racial tensions exploded over attacks on a local school.
Late last month we reported how several posh Gauteng private schools were planning to make iPads mandatory learning aids in their classes, and now several rural schools are getting sponsored iPads for their learners, too. We like. We like a lot.
Eight years after leaving his home country, this Congolese refugee can finally say his expectations of a better future in South Africa have been met. Fernando Brice Olivier Ogadi, 35, has just received a job offer in the profession he is qualified in – as a school maths teacher. His new employer noticed him in a parking lot giving free maths lessons.
With the news that Apple looks set to revolutionise school learning with its textbook initiative, comes another report that a Johannesburg private school is going to make iPads compulsory this year, at parents’ cost. How long until other schools follow suit?
As part of their ‘reinvention of the textbook,’ Apple yesterday unveiled three new applications for use in the digital educational under their Apple in Education program: iBooks 2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U. The tools are designed to allow for interactive textbooks, digital textbook creation, and open-access educational resources from top universities, respectively.
Regular visitor to South Africa, Oprah Winfrey, is in the country again. She’s here to attend the graduation of the first batch of girls to matriculate from her school, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. The former talk show host will also try to squeeze in a catch up with her buddy Madiba, if he’s up to it.
The .xxx domain, set to launch by the end of the year, is meant to be the domain of choice for porn sites. Which is dandy, but means that opportunists could register ‘google.xxx,’ for instance, and capitalize on Google’s popularity – so American universities are purchasing .xxx domains to keep people from making porn sites with their names in them.
Black schoolboys in the UK are deliberately underachieving because academic success is seen as “gay”. Apparently there is a cultural misconception that being clever is a sign of homosexuality. Instead, many of these boys rather turn to a so-called “hustle culture” to make money, because it is more “manly”.
The First Grader is the inspiring true story of Kimani Maruge, a Kenyan ex-Mau Mau freedom fighter, who at the age of 84 fought the system for his right to an education he could never afford. This powerful biographical drama tells of Maruge’s struggle as he and primary school teacher, Jane Obinchu, stood up to a community […]
That’s right fellow civilians, superheroism is no longer reserved for super-babies in rockets from other planets. The days of microwaving spiders, trying to recreate Spidey’s powers are over! Behold, now you too can slip out during your lunch break and save the world, and all it will cost you is a ticket to the Big Apple.
To all the overworked and swamped scholars in South Africa, we’d like to say please hang on a little bit longer – help is on the way! The education department has announced that students will now also get June 17 and August 8 off from school. This is due to the those dates’ “proximity to public holidays”.
Well I don’t know about you, but I think marine biology just got slightly more interesting. A 2005 paper observing a menage a trois coupling between right whales recently appeared online, with photos that are NSFW but only if your boss knows what you’re looking at or has a working knowledge of whale genitalia.
Have you always wanted to get into rap music but never did because you don’t understand the lyrics? Well that’s now been taken care of by William Buckholz who took it upon himself to pen a book that “explains all the confusing lyrics and terms in rap songs via language that even your elderly relations can understand”. Finally.