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Mail & Guardian
David Macfarlane

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David Macfarlane

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Students unseen and unheard as UKZN ushers in its new VC

Despite glowing accounts of the new VC at his inauguration, Albert van Jaarsveld’s address failed to offer real solutions to students’ problems.

Loving: Nola Darling paints in her brownstone studio. Photos: David Lee/Netflix
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Nene is no Tom Cruise, even if his mission is impossible

Nhlanhla Nene has little good luck and plenty of tough luck for the country’s millions of children, young people and universities as well.

Media mogul Iqbal Survé. (Lerato Maduna/Gallo)

Iqbal Surve dumps UCT over ‘lip service’

The Independent Media boss cites "jobs for pals" and lack of change in his resignation letter from various University of Cape Town bodies.

Angie Motshekga provided no understanding of the facts around the cheating in the matric exams of 2014.

Best response to a cheating scandal? Completely confuse everybody

The conflicting statements about cheating during the 2014 matric exams equals complete national confusion.

Last week, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced that the matric class of 2022 achieved a national pass rate of 80.1% in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams, a 3.7 percentage point improvement from 76.4% the previous year. Photo: Madelene Cronje

Best response to a cheating scandal? Completely confuse everybody

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‘Outsider’ Albert van Jaarsveld is new UKZN vice-chancellor

Scientist Albert van Jaarsveld has been appointed the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s new vice-chancellor, ahead of two internal candidates.

Throwing the book: The Western Cape High Court is to decide on an application to submit the government to supervision in

Education’s legal fires ‘need dousing’

In an unusual case, activists want the government to be legally bound to extensive education reforms.

The department of basic education has denied that some Limpopo schools are still without textbooks.

Government violated Limpopo childrens’ right to education, says court

The Pretoria high court has ruled that government violated the right to basic education by failing to deliver textbooks to all Limpopo schoolchildren.

Time for Motshekga to meet Sadtu’s crazed antics with political muscle

Government must show Sadtu the door, otherwise just hand the entire ministry of education over to this power-crazed union, writes David Macfarlane.

Dropouts and passes: How far has education really come?

The launch of Blade Nzimande’s white paper and the audited data on universities exposes the steady pattern of dropouts, failure and graduation.

Eight SA universities feature in new top 100 list

Quacquarelli Symonds has published its top 100 universities in the five Brics countries, of which eight are South African.

Critics slap down Motshekga’s confidence over ANAs

Educationists have cast serious doubt over Angie Motshekga’s conclusion about the 2013 annual national assessments of numeracy and literacy.

Education’s next step: Ensuring compliance

Basic education’s new infrastructure norms do not deal with issues of capacity and accountability.

A report has argued for an increase in the minimum time for degree and diploma programmes.

Five SA universities ranked in top 100 emerging economies list

Five South African universities have made it into the top 100 of new global rankings that assessed more than 700 institutions in emerging economies.

Gordhan’s rhetorical commitment to school infrastructure

The allocation to school infrastructure in the mid-term budget is inadequate, writes David Macfarlane.

Minister Blade Nzimande is set on steering the humanities field in a new direction.

Varsities and colleges must join forces

Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande has set out to eliminate post-school education’s dead-ends and roadblocks.

Damning CHE report into university performance

Less than 5% of black African and coloured youth succeed at university, and more than half of all first-year entrants never graduate at all.

One only has to look at the basic education department’s version of events in court this week, and alarm bells of the kind textbooks set ringing last year start pealing all over again. Skyler Reid

Education sagas come to a head

The issue of payments to matric markers raises the same questions as the textbook debacle.

Sweet nothings add up to nought, Zille

Helen Zille’s defence of Angie Motshekga relies on straw targets and dodgy logic.

Will Habib heal Wits divides?

Wits vice-chancellor designate expresses sympathy with angry staff’s grievances.