Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
01 October 2024 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Kaleidoscope
S4F2024
The Science-for-the-Future (S4F) unit in the Faculty of Education hosted a summit on 13 September 2024. The event, which was held on the University of the Free State Bloemfontein Campus, was well attended by nearly 300 guests from across the country.

Teachers from across the country and representatives of nine other universities recently gathered at the University of the Free State (UFS) to celebrate the achievements of the S4F Teacher Professional Development programmes as well as the successful collaboration between the UFS and other universities in this regard.

The Science-for-the-Future (S4F) unit in the Faculty of Education hosted a summit in the Centenary Complex on the Bloemfontein Campus on 13 September 2024. The acting Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UFS, Prof Anthea Rhoda, delivered the keynote address at the summit. Representatives from the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) – the official funder of the Science for the Future initiative – were also present, along with about 300 attendees, representing teachers, participating universities, representatives from the Department of Basic Education, and other stakeholders.

In her welcoming address, Prof Matseliso Mokhele Makgalwa, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Education, said the event focuses, among others, on fostering collaboration and innovation across academic and professional communities. She later highlighted the fact that the project implementation period of three years makes provision for continued visits to the participating schools to sustain the continuity over time.

Dr Cobus van Breda, Programme Director of S4F and Project Manager of the Universities Collaboration initiative, elaborated on the rationale of the project as well as the collaboration with nine other universities. He stated, “We know from research that there are many factors that prevent learners, especially in rural areas in South Africa, from excelling in Mathematics and Science. These include subject content knowledge, lack of teaching resources at school and at home, language of learning and teaching that differs from home language, along with a lack of parental involvement, among others.” He said the project aims to address these rampant challenges by not only empowering teachers with the necessary teaching skills and content knowledge, but also providing classroom resources to benefit learners and adding a parental involvement component to the project. 

To scale the project benefits for the rest of the country, the UFS has partnered with nine other universities; collectively, more than one hundred thousand project participants (teachers, learners, and parents) could be impacted during 2024. The collaborating universities are Nelson Mandela University, the Walter Sisulu University, the University of Limpopo, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the University of Mpumalanga, Sol Plaatje University, the University of Venda, Stellenbosch University, and Nort-West University.

Representatives from the Department of Basic Education and other institutions were also given the opportunity to highlight the impact of the initiative in their respective institutions. Maki Molale, Senior Education Specialist  from the Free State Department of Basic Education, reflected on the contribution of the project and said, “In the Department of Education we report on these key areas: teacher development, direct learner support, parental involvement, the utilisation of resources and partnerships … they are all addressed in this project.” She thanked the University of the Free State and the funder, SANRAL. Dr Glynnis Daries from Sol Plaatje University spoke on behalf of the collaborating universities and explained from an academic perspective to attendees how the project implementation strategy of S4F relates to Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory of human development and how the respective project components showcase the five levels of this theory.

During the keynote address, Prof Rhoda emphasised the importance of Mathematics skills, teaching children the capacity to solve problems and how it is extremely important to be analytical in one’s approach to resolving complexities and to work through problems in a methodical and logical manner. In the end, if one does this, no challenge is insurmountable. She commended the teachers present for fulfilling a vital task and pointed out the heavy responsibility on their shoulders. In this regard, she said, “As the UFS, and through the Science for the Future project, we are proud to support you in your work. The project is a vehicle through which we fulfil the central goals of the UFS, which are to impact the community in a positive way, and to instil a culture of excellence in a caring environment. We will continue to support you in your work and do all that we can to make your work more fulfilling and impactful – this is the promise of the UFS to our partners through this project.”

In acknowledging the contribution of the respective collaborating universities, Prof Rhoda emphasised that partnerships and collaborations are not easy to build, and most importantly, to maintain … “but what I’m hearing through these engagements today is that these partnerships are not just being maintained, they are expanded … the collaboration impacted the different institutions as well as, most importantly, the communities, close to and around them”. She alluded to the fact that universities’ roles are not just to retain and accept students, but universities have an important role in being the anchor within the society and communities in which they find themselves. According to her, the contribution of SANRAL and other project funders thus extends far beyond teachers’ professional development and community empowerment, it contributes towards assisting universities in engaged scholarship activities.

In reflecting on the parental involvement component of the programme, Themba Mhambi – Chairperson of the SANRAL Board – said that apart from being a maths and science project, and a project that is developmental, that is nation building, “… it becomes a kind of template for perhaps how our education system needs to be re-constructed … reclaiming the old times when parents and teachers worked together with the child in the centre”.  

News Archive

Lecture on interpretations and translations of San place names
2011-09-23

Prof. Peter Raper, recently appointed as Honorary Professor: Linguistics, in the Department of Language Management and Language Practice at the University of the Free State, will deliver his inaugural lecture on Tuesday evening, 27 September 2011. His topic for the evening is “Interpretations and translations of Bushman (San) place names”. With this inaugural lecture, he also introduces an interesting one-day international colloquium on the theme: “Name-change planning – striving towards authenticity”.A panel discussion about street-name changes in Bloemfontein forms part of this colloquium and promises to elicit a stimulating debate.

Prof. Raper is probably better known for three popular place-name dictionaries, Streekname in Suid-Afrika en Suidwes, published in 1972; the Dictionary of Southern African Place Names, published in 1987, updated in 1989 and published in 2004 with some additions as New dictionary of South African place names; and Hottentot (Khoekhoen) place names, a dictionary compiled in collaboration with the famous Prof. G S  Nienaber (a former Kovsie). In fact, Prof. Raper’s work is a continuation of their world-renowned series, Toponymica Hottentotica, which was published between 1977 and 1981. It is generally regarded as the most authoritative work on Hottentot place names. His current interest in Bushman place names builds on this pioneering work and is actually also a re-evaluation of the underestimated role of the Bushman with regard to place naming in South Africa up to now. His work offers a new perspective on what could be regarded as the “first” or earliest names of places in South Africa and brings a sobering perspective to the current debates regarding place-name changes where various claims are made about “who has given the name first”.

However, Prof. Raper is also known for his role in the standardisation of place names, both nationally and internationally. In South Africa, he has served on the South African National Place Names Committee (1972-1999), the South African Geographical Names Council (1999-2002) and, since 1981, on the Names Society of Southern Africa. Currently, he is an honorary member of this association. Since 1984, he has also been serving on the United Nations Group Experts on Geographical Names and has even been the Chairperson of this Leading international standardisation body (1991-2002).

Apart from this, Prof. Raper regularly publishes his research on geographical names in a variety of academic journals and still participates in the most important national and international conferences on names on a regular basis. Prof. Raper is honoured as South Africa’s foremost names expert.

His inaugural lecture will introduce a colloquium on names planning, presented by his host department. Experts from Lesotho, Zimbabwe and the USA are participating in the proceedings, amongst others, the current Chairperson of the Names Society of Southern Africa, Prof. Adrian Koopman (University of KwaZulu-Natal).

RSVP: Joy Maasdorp on +27(0)51 401 2405 or maasdorpjh@ufs.ac.za before or on Thursday, 22 September 2011.

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