In the City Press newspaper on the 1st of June 2008, I saw an article on 11 with the title Univen is given a cyber boost, varsity opens it’s first computer laboratory. Many schools in South Africa cannot or don’t (it’s arguable how it really is) offer the option of computer classes but I was a bit distressed when I heard that the University of Venda did not have a computer lab prior to a donation by PetroSA, EVER!!

The PetroSA spokesperson was quoted saying “It is very disturbing that in 2008 a higher learning institution such as Univen has never had a computer laboratory…” I cannot begin to try and imagine how difficult it is for students and lecturers there. Unless they have a very good library the search for information must have been laborious and slow, perhaps a majority of assignments were handwritten which is a bit of a disadvantage for both the lecturer and student where illegible handwriting is concerned. Also upon entering the work place a Univen graduate must have had to undergo computer training of some sort.

Paging backwards through the same paper to page 2, 62 000 Teachers needed, was the headline screaming at me in large bold letters. So many problems in the education department- the skills shortage, under or inappropriately qualified teachers, the slow filling of teaching posts even when candidates are available, many people leaving the teaching profession and hiring foreign teachers has become a problem because of Xenophobic attacks.

Then you hear of the poor quality of schools; a week ago a relative of mine, a 13 year old girl who attends a school in Thulamahashe (Mpumalanga province), was telling me that she didn’t want to go to school because all their chairs had been taken and given to the matrics (Standard 10s) who are currently writing supplementary exams. As she went on telling me some anecdote about one of her classmates, she mentioned how the friend had been leaning against a window and it broke, she was laughing as she spoke because there are many broken windows at her school and to her it was normal, she found her friends expression very funny though.