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04 January 2021 | Story Nonsindiso Qwabe | Photo Anja Aucamp
Dr Sekanse Ntsala

Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Language Education at the University of Free State, Dr Sekanse Ntsala, collaborated with colleagues from eight universities across South Africa to produce instructional reading strategies for Sesotho and isiZulu students in the Faculty of Education.

The project will see Dr Ntsala partner in the production of learning material in Sesotho and IsiZulu for Foundation and Intermediate phase lecturers, academics, and students. The project is centred in the Centre for African Language Teaching at the University of Johannesburg. 

Designing African language material is a progressive move 

He said there was a gap in the learning material currently being produced, as it was all produced in English, even for African languages. 

"The dilemma is that thus far, all the material that we use for teaching has been written in English. This means that lecturers have to rely on material written in English, and in some instances, they have to translate into the relevant African language. The challenge with translation is that the final product does not always come out the same. You find that even when lecturers have to compile study guides, they still have to rely on the same material. It's a challenge that affects even students themselves, as discussions and assessments have to be done in the African language in question."

He said rather than to translate the content that has been written in English, the collaboration will result in newly created material for Sesotho and IsiZulu.

The two languages were selected as pilot languages; Dr Ntsala said the aim of the project is to expand the creation of material to other languages in order to eliminate English as the main focus in teaching.

"The main rationale is that it's only fair that we have material that will be relevant to a particular language. The manner in which it is happening now is sort of degrading to other languages," he said.

Dr Ntsala said the material would be completed by the end of 2020 and would then go through the process of getting approval from the deaneries of the approved universities, as well as from the Department of Education.

"We are trying to ensure that every language gets recognition in classrooms. Having material that is language-specific is a step in the right direction to ensure that each language is given the respect it deserves."

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Varsity Cup rugby match between FNB Shimlas and FNB NMMU Madibaz disrupted
2016-02-21

State of our campuses #7

The Varsity Cup match between the FNB Shimlas and FNB NMMU Madibaz, which took place on 22 February 2016 at Xerox Shimla Park on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS), was interrupted in the 17th minute when a group of protesters moved onto the field to disrupt the game, which was already in progress.
 
The rugby players of both teams, as well as the match officials, immediately cleared the field as the protesters moved across the field towards the halfway line. Members of the UFS Protection Services gathered around the protesters, but were outnumbered. After a few minutes, spectators ran onto the field. The protesters were chased off the field and beaten by the spectators. Injured persons were treated by medical personnel. It is clear at this time that both the protesting group and the spectators included non-students in their ranks.
 
The senior leadership of the UFS condemns in the strongest terms possible the violence against the protesters; nobody has the right to take the law into their own hands. An urgent investigation is underway, using footage from the event, and no stone will be left unturned to identify those who acted violently, whether students or not.


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