This year’s Annual National Assessments (ANA), which are administered in literacy and numeracy to all learners in grades 1-6 and 9, have been postponed till December following opposition to their administration from teacher unions. How should we understand the value of these assessments, the reasons for the opposition from unions and how the assessments can be improved for the future?
Stephen Taylor
Opinion | 30 September 2015
Nearly 2,000 people braved the cold and rain to join the Unite Against Corruption march to Parliament in Cape Town on Wednesday. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people participated in the main march in Pretoria. Smaller marches also took place in other cities, including Durban and Grahamstown.
GroundUp Staff
News | 30 September 2015
Hundreds of pensioners marched from the Company’s Garden to Parliament on Tuesday to demand a “decent living wage” of R5,000 from the current R1,410 state pension.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 30 September 2015
A temporary respite from violence in Masiphumelele ended today, as police and over a thousand residents clashed. Residents blocked the road to Kommetjie with burning tyres. Police used teargas, rubber bullets and arrests to disperse the protest.
Bernard Chiguvare, Masixole Feni & GroundUp staff
News | 29 September 2015
To test or not to test? That is not the question although it is the way the current row about basic education has largely been presented.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 29 September 2015
South Africa’s major teacher unions and the Department of Basic Education agree: standardized testing can be a useful tool to measure the progress and gaps in a country’s education. But they don't agree on the current format of the tests.
Sibusiso Tshabalala
News | 29 September 2015
Minister of Education, Angie Motshegka, will meet on Friday with stakeholder groups in a bid to resolve the deadlock over the annual national assessment tests (ANAs), scheduled for December.
Sibusiso Tshabalala
News | 29 September 2015
Controversy over the demographic composition of the Springbok team once again shows the need to invest in rugby in black schools. A non-profit organisation is trying to do just that.
Scott Sloan
News | 28 September 2015
Right2Know campaign members and other civil organisation leaders held a picket outside the Civic Centre today calling for the City of Cape Town to respect their right to protest.
Barbara Maregele
News | 28 September 2015
“There are so many things that rapists and communities do that feed myths and false notions about rape,” says Rape Crisis director Kathleen Dey.
Barbara Maregele
News | 28 September 2015
Mpho Mathebula rents a small space in a fruit and vegetable shop in Khayelitsha to sell his paintings and beadwork.
Pharie Sefali
News | 25 September 2015
Mbulelo Nkwali and Zolani Seyisi had one idea when they founded Suppermix in 2008 in King William’s Town’s Ndevana settlement: to take young people off the streets. Today the film and drama company performs at weddings, church events, and the Buffalo City carnival.
Siphesihle Matyila
News | 25 September 2015
The Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers union (Csaawu) announced today that it will not be forced to close down.
Barbara Maregele
Brief | 23 September 2015
Workers at Australian-owned Tormin mine on the west coast are still on strike after a protest two weeks ago in which a police officer and a worker were injured, and 27 people were arrested.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 23 September 2015
Martin Shkreli was the most hated man on the internet for a brief time this week. His company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, pushed up the price of a medicine, pyrimethamine, used to treat a life-threatening disease from $13.50 (approx R185) to $750 (approx R10,250) a pill.
Nathan Geffen
Opinion | 23 September 2015
GroundUp photographer Masixole Feni tried to open an account at Jet stores last month - and found himself signed up for a handful of insurance policies he didn’t want.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 23 September 2015
This is truly unfair. For three months straight, we have not received our grants, yet we submitted … Read more
I am originally from Mozambique but my parents came to South Africa with me when I was three years … Read more
All but one of the links on the AMR section of the Department of Health's Knowledge Hub are dead: … Read more
It is a disgrace that millions have been stolen from SASSA yet the culprits go unpunished. Law-abid… Read more
I was 7 years old when my parents and I moved into our 3-bedroom flat. My other three siblings were… Read more