EDUCATION - The African Mirror

Oct

04

2024

By AMANDA BOURGEOIS and ANNEMAREE CARROLL

‘School is boring’: what it means when your child says they’re bored in class, and how you can help

EDUCATION

HAVE you ever asked your child how school was today, only to be told it was “boring”? It’s a conversation sadly all too familiar to a lot of parents. Many are left wondering why and what they can do to help. It’s important to understand why your child may be feeling bored at school. Here are some possibilities to consider. Not every aspect of school is engaging Boredom at school isn’t uncommon. Remember, a child’s learning journey is jagged, not linear. Their learning may progress quickly during some periods, and less so at other times. Sometimes they will be bored.…

Sep

26

2024

By EKATERINA RZYANKINA

South Africa needs more nautical scientists and maritime engineers – if you love the sea these may be the careers for you

EDUCATION

WHEN most people are asked to picture an engineer at work, they probably imagine a civil engineer in a hard hat at a construction site, a chemical engineer in a laboratory or an electrical engineer examining a complex circuit board. Very few, I’m willing to bet, visualise someone aboard a ship. But, for those drawn both to engineering and seafaring life, marine engineering and nautical science are ideal careers – especially in a country like South Africa, uniquely positioned where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans converge. Over 90% of the world’s goods are transported by sea. That means both marine…

Sep

20

2024

By WAYNE HUGO

South Africa has a new education law: some love it, some hate it – education expert explains why

EDUCATION

SOUTH Africa has a new law governing education. The Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act changes several aspects of how schools are managed. It was introduced to address inequalities in the school system by standardising rules on admissions, language policies, discipline, and even the operation of homeschooling. But it has sparked controversy. Education professor Wayne Hugo answers questions about the act. How does the act change the current school system? The act shifts some control such as language policy from local school governing bodies to provincial education officials, changes rules on how schools manage student admissions and on language of…

Sep

18

2024

By ANDISWA MFENGU

South African universities need to rethink how they evaluate research: social impact counts too

EDUCATION

THERE are many ways university researchers can share their work. Some of these methods are well-established in academia: people write journal articles, book chapters and entire books; they present papers at academic conferences. Other approaches are less traditional – writing blogs and opinion pieces or producing creative works like theatre performances, documentaries and more. Earlier in my career, while working as a research librarian at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa, I noticed that researchers who preferred those less traditional methods were viewed by university administrators and other academics as “less productive” than their peers. That’s because…

Sep

17

2024

By MATTHEW WINGFIELD; BETTINA VON LIERES and LAURENCE PIPER

Online classrooms where students run the show: we tested how this unconventional model can work

EDUCATION

THE Zoom meeting window opens, immediately revealing scores of smiling or anxious faces. Some people have quirky backgrounds; some are in the same room as friends and family, who appear occasionally on camera. The South African and Swedish students are running out of ambient light since it’s just gone 5 pm in their time zones. Their counterparts in Canada, meanwhile, are illuminated by the bright sun. Excited messages flood the chat box. This is a Global Classroom for Democracy Innovation meeting. The initiative was launched in 2020 as the COVID pandemic brought face-to-face learning to a grinding halt all over…

Sep

10

2024

By The African Mirror

Despite progress, more to be done on unlocking power of refugee education

EDUCATION

FIVE years on from the launch of UNHCR’s Refugee Education Strategy 2030, this year's refugee education report reveals that while remarkable progress has been achieved in global refugee education and enrolment, significant challenges remain, with nearly half of the world’s 14.8 million school-aged refugee children still out of school. Data from 65 refugee hosting countries analysed in the report shows that approximately 7.2 million refugee children are missing out on education due to a host of factors, including insecurity, a lack of inclusive education policies, capacity constraints, and language barriers, risking young people’s future prosperity and denying them the chance to fulfil their…

Sep

07

2024

By ADRI DU TOIT

Technology classes at school can also teach skills for business and life: South African teachers share ideas

EDUCATION

STARTING and running your own business takes hard work and a can-do attitude. Typically, entrepreneurs are the kinds of people who can identify and solve problems innovatively, are willing to take risks and learn from mistakes. But many entrepreneurs also have a set of skills that anyone can learn, and use in work and life. Examples include adaptability, problem-solving, collaboration, communication, creative thinking, innovation and resilience. South Africa’s Department of Basic Education sees these skills as an important part of the school curriculum, especially since about 60% of South Africans aged 16-24 don’t have work. The department’s 2016 Entrepreneurship in…

Aug

29

2024

By LUCY JAMIESON and HEIDI MATISONN

Children and the internet: helping kids navigate this modern minefield

EDUCATION

THE United States’ most senior public health official, surgeon-general Vivek Murthy, believes social media platforms should come with warning labels. The United Nations’ education, science and culture agency says smartphones should be banned in schools. Chinese regulators are pushing to limit children’s smartphone use to just two hours a day. These are just a few high-profile examples of growing global concerns about the risks young people face when using the internet. Those worries are backed by a large, global body of research. Social media use has been linked to feelings of envy, depression and anxiety among young people all over…

Aug

29

2024

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Ten African countries prioritising education

EDUCATION

IN April 2024, the African Union (AU) declared this year the 'Year of Education,' urging governments to ramp up efforts to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4—to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” While countries require an additional US$77 billion annually to meet national education goals and deliver quality education, funding for education remains largely stagnant. Government spending on education as a percentage of GDP hovers at just 3.7% —a figure that has barely budged since 2012. According to a 2024 analysis by UNESCO, nine out of 49 African countries dedicate 20%…

Aug

20

2024

By JONATHAN LOSOS

Love for cats lures students into this course, which uses feline research to teach science

EDUCATION

UNCOMMON Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: “The Science of Cats” What prompted the idea for the course? I’m an evolutionary biologist who has spent my career studying the evolution of small lizards in the Caribbean. I’m also a lifelong cat lover, but it never occurred to me to do anything scientific with house cats. They’re hard to study – ever tried to follow your cat around to see what they’re doing? And in contrast to amply studied lions, tigers and other wild felines, I was under the impression…