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Faculty of Education shapes learners’ dreams

12 May 2023 | Story Kekeletso Takang | Photo Supplied

There has been a clarion call within the education sector for primary school intervention strategies. As an institution that invests in education in its surrounding areas and beyond, the University of the Free State (UFS) has heeded the call to impactfully support societal development as outlined in its Vision 130. Through its Faculty of Education, the UFS has adopted the Kgotsofalo Primary School in the Free State to help shape the minds of the learners in this rural school.

Dr Vusiwana Babane, Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, identified the school – situated about 46 km from the UFS Bloemfontein Campus – as part of a community engagement project that aims to transform the lives of children in low-income communities, in order to eradicate and break the vicious cycle of poverty in their families and communities. The project also seeks to inform stakeholders about the role that higher education institutions can play in supporting farm and rural schools.

Multidisciplinary approach

Prof Bekithemba Dube, acting Head of the Department of Education Foundations in the Faculty of Education, says the initiative with Kgotsofalo Primary School is a culmination of efforts to engage the community around the UFS. “Dr Babane and I visited the school in March 2023 to establish the needs of the school, which could help in planning and exploring intervention strategies. We established that, among others, their needs included motivation for learners, career guidance, library and sports resources. This implied that we needed a multidisciplinary approach. We invited Grade 7 learners from the school to attend motivational and career guidance sessions. We then started collaborating with colleagues from the Education Science Centre, KovsieSport, and the UFS Library and Information Services (Sasol Library) to co-host the learners and for further interventions at the school.”

On 21 April 2023, the learners, teachers, and representatives of the school governing body (SGB) visited the UFS. Hosted at the newly built UFS Education Science Centre, the learners participated in and explored various science experiments. A visit to the UFS library was also part of the package and the learners were treated to motivation, career guidance, and souvenirs from the Faculty of Education, before concluding their visit with a tour to KovsieSport.

Masontaha Mosuoe, one of the learners who delivered an acceptance speech that brought many to tears, thanked the UFS for the experience. “Today, I would like to thank the UFS for giving our school the opportunity to be here; as you all know, education on the farms is not like the ones in the city. On the farms, children struggle to go to school because the schools are not enough. Thank you for giving us the experience of varsity life and shaping our dreams at a very young age.”

The Principal of Kgotsofalo Primary School, Mmadikeledi Seepamore, also expressed her gratitude to the university. “Seed was sown and will continue to grow. The experience was educational, fun, and good and changed my learners’ way of thinking.”

Click here for more information on the programmes and other offerings and initiatives in the Faculty of Education.

News Archive

Alexander Ramm Cello Recital with Pieter Jacobs (piano)

2016-04-15

Description: Ramm Tags: Ramm

Alexander Ramm

“Ramm plays with enormous musical authority. Unlike many young instrumentalists, he is not intimidated by the reflective or the elegiac; nor is he nervous about the length of pauses, or the creation of inter-phrase silence. He has a phenomenal technique and he demonstrated it to full effect in this captivating performance.” (Cape Times)

Alexander Ramm belongs to the new generation of cellists recognised for his appealing artistic creativity and unprecedented technical skills. Alexander started his musical education at the age of seven at the Glier music school (Kaliningrad) with Svetlana Ivanova. Her extremely serious attitude to music studies and pedagogical talent revealed the rare musical capabilities of this young cellist.

After moving to Moscow at the age of ten, he was accepted to the class of Maria Zhuravleva at the Chopin Moscow College of Music Performance. From 2007, he continued his professional education at the Moscow Conservatory in the class of the renowned musician and the People’s Artist of the USSR, Natalia Shakhovskaya, an outstanding performer and pedagogue who taught most prominent Russian cellists. Since 2012, he has become a postgraduate student at the Hanns-Eisler Hochschule fur Musik under the guidance of the famous cellist, Frans Helmerson.

From the age of nine, when he made his debut as a soloist with the Kaliningrad Chamber Orchestra, Alexander brilliantly performs with solo programmes and as a soloist with leading orchestras in Russia and worldwide.

He is prizewinner at several international competitions:
1st prize: 4th Moscow Competition for young cellists (2003)
1st prize: 1st Cambridge International Boston Competition (Massachusetts, 2005)
Grand-Prix: Moscow Festival of Romantic Music (Moscow, 2006)
4th prize: 5th UNISA International String Competition (South Africa, 2010)
1st prize: 3rd Beijing International Music Competition (Beijing 2010)
1st prize: 1st All-Russia Music Competition (Russia, 2010)
Prizewinner: Janigro Cello Competition (Croatia, 2012)
Prizewinners: Swedish Duo Competition with duo partner Anna Odintsova (2012)
3rd prize: Paulo Cello Competition (2013) – becoming the first Russian prizewinner in the history of this prestigious contest
2nd prize: XV International Tchaikovsky Competition (2015)

Alexander participated in masterclass festivals at Courchevel Academy and Holland Music Sessions, where he took lessons from the famous musicians such as F. Muller, R. Latzko, M. Kliegel and U. Wiesel. In 2011, he took part in the well-known Verbier festival, where he studied with H. Hoffmann, F. Helmerson, M. Suzuki, L. Power and F. Radosh. At the end of the festival, he was awarded the Neva Foundation top-level prize for gifted students.

Alexander cooperates with such outstanding conductors as V. Gergiev, V. Spivakov, A. Levin, K. Orbelyan, V. Polyansky, S. Kochanovsky, M. Fedotov, A. Slutsky, A. Sladkovsky.

He will be accompanied by Pieter Jacobs, a graduate of the University of Pretoria, who then furthered his studies at Yale in the United States, where he pursued his performing career with considerable success as a soloist and chamber musician in Boston, Cambridge and New Haven before returning to South Africa to perform and teach at the University of Pretoria. Pieter is regarded as one of SA’s foremost pianists and chamber musicians.

Programme:
Grieg: Cello Sonata, Op. 36 in A minor (1883)
Barber: Cello Sonata, Op. 6 in C minor (1932)
Prokofiev: Cello Sonata, Op. 119 (1949)
Piazzolla: Le Grand Tango for cello and piano

Date: 22 April 2016
Time: 19:30
Venue: Odeion
Costs: R130 (adults), R90 (pensioners), R70 (UFS staff members), R50 (students and learners), R50 (group booking of 10+). Tickets available at Computicket.

More information: Ninette Pretorius +27(0)51 401 2504.

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