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Jonathan Jansen is an internationally renowned expert in education, who in 2009 became the first black rector and vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State. He is a regular newspaper contributor, known for his views on transformation, peaceful reconciliation and unity.
After 15 years, this is my last column for The Times. I was told there would be layoffs because of the financial woes of media companies from the Washington Post to our own City Press.
If you want to see a political mob in operation, watch the mobilisation around the speech of a Wits professor last month.
The weary taxpayer is completely within their rights to ask: why can’t universities get their act together for a change?
I felt sorry for the pupils of the two schools; no-one dwelt on their interests
There are literally thousands of individuals and non-profit organisations (NPOs) doing vital work in education and development among disadvantaged communities.
On August 25 2011 Jacob Humphreys ignored signals at a level crossing in Blackheath and found himself on the tracks of an oncoming train. A total of 10 children were ushered into eternity on their way to Good Hope Primary, an Adventist…
I am sure that the founders of our democracy could not have imagined in the 1950s that their memorable declaration in the Freedom Charter that “the doors of learning and culture shall be open” would run into some heavy concrete walls in…
Education, it turns out, is the public litmus test of how well the black government is doing, even if everything else falls apart
Imagine you’re an NSC candidate in 2025, that examination everyone tells you is a make-or-break test of your future. Then you hear in the media that three papers leaked — mathematics, physical science and English home language.
The BMW M5 hybrid model (2025) goes from 0-100km/h in 3.5 seconds. Asking that my beloved 1976 VW Beetle achieves the same acceleration in less than a day is the kind of fantasy that keeps comedians in business.
It is starting to get ugly out there again. Before, the hunt for foreign nationals happened on the streets of the townships where spaza shops were set alight or in the rural vineyard areas that made seasonal workers from other African…
In a memorable line from a favourite movie, Jaffar muses of Aladdin “beneath the dirt and patches you are a diamond in the rough”.
It’s that time of the year again when about 1.13-million grade 9 pupils in SA must make their subject choices for the senior phase, the last three years of high school.
I have come to the end of an exhausting but fulfilling year in which I taught both high school science (chemistry) and university undergraduates (education policy). This experience has taught me seven vital lessons.
I have been thoroughly traumatised by Cape Flats funerals these past few months. Too many of my friends and schoolmates are dropping dead — “it’s your age group, dad” — offers my daughter in a reassuring voice. That’s not the problem;…
