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13 August 2018
Technology and mentoring key in UFS approach to learner success
The University of the Free State has been changing the lives of high school learners through its Internet Broadcast Project.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has been changing the lives of high school learners through its Internet Broadcast Project (IBP). The project was established in 2011, with the vision of taking quality education to all learners across the Free State province, regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds.  

The UFS IDEAS Lab, located on the UFS South Campus, is home to the IBP. Every day, the IBP transmits lessons to 83 schools spread across five districts in the Free State for learners in Grades 8 to 12. Learners also have electronic access to this material, which is presented for more than 15 school subjects. 

The benefits of technology

A collaboration with the university and the Free State Department of Education, the project includes support for subjects such as Mathematics, Physical Science, Life Science, Economics, Accounting, and Geography. The technology provided at each school allows learners to communicate with the presenter in the studio during a broadcast at no cost to the school or learner.

"The UFS is proud to be associated with the Department of Education and salutes it for the many initiatives in schools across the province, which contributed to outstanding matric results,” said Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor. 

In 2017, Free State MEC for Education, Tate Makgoe, made special mention of the IBP for the role it played in contributing towards the best matric results in the Free State for the second consecutive year. Other former successes of the IBP include the announcement of the project as the winner of the 2015 Enterprise Video Award (EVA) in the category Video in Education Scholarship. This makes it two in a row, since the IBP also won an EVA in 2014 for Innovation in Pedagogy.

Motivated by dreams of something better

Makgoe said that part of the success of the province can be attributed to the project. Many of the top-performing schools had learners who participated in the IBP. In 2017, the Xhariep District, one of the districts forming part of the project, was named the top-performing district in the province, and second in the country. 

“Dreams and goals that you set for yourself are what keep you motivated, even if you are on the verge of giving up. Your dreams will motivate you to work harder and keep going,” says Lefu Matlala, a former IBP learner from Lefikeng Secondary School in Botshabelo. Lefu successfully used the IBP to support his learning and matriculated as one of the top five in the province in 2017. Through the help of the IBP and his teachers, Lefu scored 99% for Mathematics, 96% for Physical Sciences, and 85% for Geography. 

Social Responsibility Enterprises 

The Social Responsibility Enterprises (SRE) focuses on the mentoring of teachers in order to make a sustainable impact. A total of 78 schools in the Free State, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape benefit from this programme. SRE mentors assist school principals with school management, while teachers in Mathematics, Physical Science, Accounting, and English as a language of learning are assisted in mastering of curriculum content, pedagogy, and classroom management. The project has an annual budget of more than R15 million – all of which comes from sponsors outside the UFS.

Mentors visit schools and share knowledge, extra material, and technology to improve the standard of teaching. The change has been significant. Matric results, Mathematics pass rates, and Physical Science pass rates have improved dramatically in these schools. Another aspect is the identification of learners with potential (so-called first-generation students) to go to university. They are assisted through extra classes and in applying for tertiary education and bursaries.

Many of them (782) are currently studying at the UFS, and also receive mentorship at the university. HS van der Walt, Head of Social Responsibility Enterprises, says his team is proud to be part of the process of helping the Free State to become the No 1 province in the country again.

News Archive

The failure of the law
2004-06-04

 

Written by Lacea Loader

- Call for the protection of consumers’ and tax payers rights against corporate companies

An expert in commercial law has called for reforms to the Companies Act to protect the rights of consumers and investors.

“Consumers and tax payers are lulled into thinking the law protects them when it definitely does not,” said Prof Dines Gihwala this week during his inaugural lecture at the University of the Free State’s (UFS).

Prof Gihwala, vice-chairperson of the UFS Council, was inaugurated as extraordinary professor in commercial law at the UFS’s Faculty of Law.

He said that consumers, tax payers and shareholders think they can look to the law for an effective curb on the enormous power for ill that big business wields.

“Once the public is involved, the activities of big business must be controlled and regulated. It is the responsibility of the law to oversee and supervise such control and regulation,” said Prof Gihwala.

He said that, when undesirable consequences occur despite laws enacted specifically to prevent such results, it must be fair to suggest that the law has failed.

“The actual perpetrators of the undesirable behaviour seldom pay for it in any sense, not even when criminal conduct is involved. If directors of companies are criminally charged and convicted, the penalty is invariably a fine imposed on the company. So, ironically, it is the money of tax payers that is spent on investigating criminal conduct, formulating charges and ultimately prosecuting the culprits involved in corporate malpractice,” said Prof Gihwala.

According to Prof Gihwala the law continuously fails to hold companies meaningfully accountable to good and honest business values.

“Insider trading is a crime and, although legislation was introduced in 1998 to curb it, not a single successful criminal prosecution has taken place. While the law appears to be offering the public protection against unacceptable business behaviour, it does no such thing – the law cannot act as a deterrent if it is inadequate or not being enforced,” he said.

The government believed it was important to facilitate access to the country’s economic resources by those who had been denied it in the past. The Broad Based Economic Empowerment Act of 2003 (BBEE), is legislation to do just that. “We should be asking ourselves whether it is really possible for an individual, handicapped by the inequities of the past, to compete in the real business world even though the BBEE Act is now part of the law?,” said Prof Gihwala.

Prof Gihwala said that judges prefer to follow precedent instead of taking bold initiative. “Following precedent is safe at a personal level. To do so will elicit no outcry of disapproval and one’s professional reputation is protected. The law needs to evolve and it is the responsibility of the judiciary to see that it happens in an orderly fashion. Courts often take the easy way out, and when the opportunity to be bold and creative presents itself, it is ignored,” he said.

“Perhaps we are expecting too much from the courts. If changes are to be made to the level of protection to the investing public by the law, Parliament must play its proper role. It is desirable for Parliament to be proactive. Those tasked with the responsibility of rewriting our Companies Act should be bold and imaginative. They should remove once and for all those parts of our common law which frustrate the ideals of our Constitution, and in particular those which conflict with the principles of the BBEE Act,” said Prof Gihwala.

According to Prof Gihwala, the following reforms are necessary:

• establishing a unit that is part of the office of the Registrar of Companies to bolster a whole inspectorate in regard to companies’ affairs;
• companies who are liable to pay a fine or fines, should have the right to take action to recover that fine from those responsible for the conduct;
• and serious transgression of the law should allow for imprisonment only – there should be no room for the payment of fines.
 

Prof Gihwala ended the lecture by saying: “If the opportunity to re-work the Companies Act is not grabbed with both hands, we will witness yet another failure in the law. Even more people will come to believe that the law is stupid and that it has made fools of them. And that would be the worst possible news in our developing democracy, where we are struggling to ensure that the Rule of Law prevails and that every one of us has respect for the law”.

 

 

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