Aretha Linden
The Daily Dispatch
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Past articles by Aretha:
Boy, 8, drowns as he fills bottle
Eight-year-old Lukhangela Qenge drowned on Tuesday afternoon while trying to collect water for his family. → Read More
Plan to close taverns near schools
Taverns near Eastern Cape schools will be closed down by the end of this month. → Read More
Eastern Cape schools becoming dangerous war zones
Poor or rich, Eastern Cape schools have become a war zone, and the education department is fighting back. → Read More
Bhisho to find 1,200 pupils new schools
Parents from Schornville Primary School appear to have won the the battle for safer classrooms for their children. → Read More
EC teen charged with murder after stick fight turns into fatal knife fight
A 17-year-old boy was arrested after he allegedly stabbed a young man to death during an altercation in Willowvale, Eastern Cape, at the weekend. → Read More
6,483 Eastern Cape teachers bunk school every day
There are 6,483 Eastern Cape teachers bunking school every day. The province has recorded the second-highest percentage of teacher absenteeism in the country, with 12% of teachers marked absent daily. This was revealed by basic education minister Angie Motshekga on Monday when she released the 2017 school monitoring survey. → Read More
Child, 7, drowns in EC school pool
A seven-year-old pupil drowned in King William’s Town school pool on Tuesday morning. The incident happened at Central Park Primary at mid-morning. The pupil’s distraught 37-year-old father said his daughter was found floating in the water. The school called him with the dreadful news. He said: “When we got to the school she was being resuscitated by paramedics, but it was too late. → Read More
Buffalo City College students residence nightmare
A small waskom and a 5l bucket is what most female students at one Buffalo City Technical Vocational Educational and Training (TVET) College use to bath and relieve themselves. With only three functional toilets and four showers in working order for more than 300 students at the Belgravia residences in Southernwood, East London, the residents said they longed for warm showers and decent toilets. → Read More
Nehawu bars college students from classes
Thousands of college students in the Eastern Cape were told to leave campus on Thursday by striking Nehawu unionists. The union was heeding a national call to strike and shutdown the country’s colleges. The union earlier this week announced its intention to shut down all 230 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) campuses and community education and training (CET) colleges… → Read More
Pupils suffer as staff protest over unpaid overtime
Close to 300 pupils housed at St Thomas school for the Deaf are spending weekends without professional care in the midst of a staff go-slow. They are being looked after by eight extended public works programme (EPWP) workers. School governing body chair Simphiwe Mfengwana said the work-to-rule labour action by the support staff at the school situated between King William’s Town and Stutterheim… → Read More
Education’s R6.6bn for norms and standards
Building more than 30 early childhood development centres and refurbishing 20 special needs schools are among 556 multiyear projects valued at R6.6bn that the education department is engaged in this financial year. → Read More
School pilots new Ilali loo
A year after Lumka Mkethwa, five, fell and died in a pit latrine at her school in Mbizana, the department of education has been looking into alternative sanitation solutions – one being the “Ilali” loo – as per instructions from President Cyril Ramaphosa. After Lumka’s tragic death at Luna Primary School in Mbizana, Ramaphosa announced the sanitation appropriate for education (SAFE) plan. → Read More
Selborne ‘assault’ clues elusive
The circumstances over what led to the injuries on the face of a Selborne College boy remain unclear. → Read More
Selborne pupils suspended
Education MEC Mlungisi Mvoko has suspended all the Selborne schoolboys allegedly involved in assaulting a peer in the schoolyard on Friday. It follows an image posted by Buffalo City Metro spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya on his Facebook page of his grade 10 nephew, 15, with a torn lip. He claimed there had been a racial tone to the incident and that the 15 boys who beat his nephew were white. → Read More
Problems at voting stations
Most voting stations in the Eastern Cape opened on time but a tragedy within the IEC and several dysfunctional stations cast a shadow over the province’s final registration weekend. → Read More
Special needs pupils let down
Thirty-four school-age children from Mdantsane who are “slow learners” have been betrayed by the education system. → Read More
Blood on Selborne grounds
An image of a 15-year-old Selborne College boy with a bloody mouth and blood on his shirt after he was allegedly “beaten up” by 15 other pupils on the school's grounds has caused outrage on social media. → Read More
Selborne schoolyard beating causes racial tension
The department of education has launched an investigation into alleged bullying a top East London boys' school. This after an image of a 15-year-old Selborne College boy with a bloody mouth and blood on his shirt after he was allegedly “beaten up” by 15 other pupils on the school's grounds has caused outrage on social media. → Read More
NSFAS rejects 6,500 applicants
More than 6,500 first-time applicants from the Eastern Cape who were hoping to benefit from the state’s free higher education, or secure a study loan from the government, have been rejected due to “disparities” on their declared household income. → Read More
Avukile reaps fruits of success with an ‘A’ pass
Nelson Mandela once said it was through education that the daughter of a peasant could become a doctor. Now the son of a street hawker in Elliot has been named as one of the top matriculants in the country – and is well on his way of realising his dream of becoming a neurologist. Avukile Nkayi, 17, who matriculated from Nyanga High School – a no-fee school – in Ngcobo, was invited to Midrand… → Read More