Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
12 May 2023 | Story Kekeletso Takang | Photo Supplied
Faculty of Education shapes learners’ dreams
Stakeholders forming the multidisciplinary team and a learner from Kgotsofalo Primary School at the event on 21 April 2023, are from the left: Dina Mashiyane, Dr Vusiwana Babane, Ronet Vrey, a learner from Kgotsofalo Primary School, and Prof Bekithemba Dube.

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

UFS researcher selected as emerging voice
2016-11-03

Description: Andre Janse van Rensburg  Tags: Andre Janse van Rensburg

André Janse van Rensburg, researcher at the
Centre for Health Systems Research and Development
at the University of the Free State, will be spending
almost three weeks in Vancouver, Canada. He will be
attending the Emerging Voices for Global Health programme
and Global Symposium on Health Systems Research.
Photo: Jóhann Thormählen

His research on the implementation of the Integrated School Health Programme (ISHP) in rural South Africa led to André Janse van Rensburg being selected to become part of the Emerging Voices for Global Health (EV4GH) group.

It is a collection of young, promising health policy and systems researchers, decision-makers and other health system professionals. A total of 222 applications from 50 countries were received for this programme, from 3-19 November 2016 in Vancouver, Canada.

The EV4GH is linked to the fourth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR2016), from 14-18 November 2016. It also taking place in Vancouver and Janse van Rensburg will be taking part, thanks to his research on the ISHP in the Maluti-a-Phofung area. He is a researcher at the Centre for Health Systems Research & Development (CHSR&D) at the University of the Free State (UFS).

The theme of the HSR2016 is Resilient and Responsive Health Systems for a Changing World. It is organised every two years by Health Systems Global to bring together roleplayers involved in health systems and policy research and practice.

Janse van Rensburg also part of Health Systems Global network
The EV4GH goals relate to the strengthening of global health systems and policies, particularly from the Global South (low-to-middle income countries with chronic health system challenges). The initiative involves workshops, presentations, and interactive discussions related to global health problems and solutions.

As an EV4GH alumni, Janse van Rensburg will become part of the Health Systems Global network. Partnering institutions include public health institutes from China, India, South Africa, Belgium, and the UK.

“The EV4GH is for young, promising health
policy and systems researchers, decision-makers
and other health system professionals.”

Research aims to explore implementation of schools health programme
In 2012, the ISHP was introduced in South Africa. This policy forms part of the government's Primary Health Care Re-engineering Programme and is designed to offer a comprehensive and integrated package of health services to all pupils across all educational phases.

Janse van Rensburg, along with Dr Asta Rau, Director of the CHSR&D, aimed to explore and describe implementation of the ISHP. The goals were to assess the capacity and resources available for implementation, identify barriers that hamper implementation, detect enabling factors and successful aspects of implementation and disseminate best practices in, and barriers to, ISPH implementation with recommendations to policymakers, managers and practitioners.

“A lot of people were saying they don’t
have enough resources to adequately
implement the policy as it is supposed to
be implemented.”

Findings of project in Maluti-a-Phofung area
Janse van Rensburg said the ISHP had various strengths. “People were impressed with the integrated nature of the policy and the way people collaborated across disciplines and departments. The school team were found to work very well with the schools and gel well with the educators and principles.”

He said the main weakness of the implementation was resources. “A lot of people were saying they don’t have enough resources to adequately implement the policy as it is supposed to be implemented.

“Another drawback is the referral, because once you identify a problem with a child, the child needs to be referred to a hospital or clinic.” He means once a child gets referred, there is no way of knowing whether the child has been helped and in many cases there is no specialist at the hospital.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept