Opinion
Why have annual national assessments?
This year’s Annual National Assessments (ANA), which are administered in literacy and numeracy to all learners in grades 1-6 and 9, have been postponed till December following opposition to their administration from teacher unions. How should we understand the value of these assessments, the reasons for the opposition from unions and how the assessments can be improved for the future?
Stephen Taylor
Opinion | 30 September 2015
Getting the facts right on assessments
To test or not to test? That is not the question although it is the way the current row about basic education has largely been presented.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 29 September 2015
The banal evil of drug pricing
Martin Shkreli was the most hated man on the internet for a brief time this week. His company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, pushed up the price of a medicine, pyrimethamine, used to treat a life-threatening disease from $13.50 (approx R185) to $750 (approx R10,250) a pill.
Nathan Geffen
Opinion | 23 September 2015
Corruption in schools: stealing our children’s future
On 30 September 2015, thousands will march in Pretoria and Cape Town under the banner of Unite Against Corruption. This is a call across our country to reject maladministration and theft in the public and private sectors.
Amanda Rinquest
Opinion | 22 September 2015
Making robots work for us
If the rise of robots — the spread of automation — is killing jobs and threatening the world with disaster, how can this be seen as potentially beneficial? It’s a question that is frequently asked and seldom answered.
Terry Bell
Opinion | 21 September 2015
The harm of quackery
There are at least three clear ways in which pseudoscience or bad science can harm consumers.
Jacques Rousseau
Opinion | 16 September 2015
Media24’s failed attempt to stifle diversity
Last week the Competition Tribunal found Media24 guilty of predatory pricing after one of its Free State publications sank a competitor. Yet this is only one example of numerous cynical attempts by the country’s largest print media company to stifle media diversity in its quest for monopoly control, argue Micah Reddy and Carina Conradie.
Micah Reddy and Carina Conradie
Opinion | 16 September 2015
Dunoon schools: when lawyers go beyond the courtroom
The struggle to ensure access to schools for Dunoon learners illustrates the value of social justice lawyers engaging in work beyond the courtroom.
Sherylle Dass and Demichelle Petherbridge
Opinion | 15 September 2015
Watch out for more bad news on the economy
The recent volatility on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and in the rand are symptoms of the way ruling classes around the world have tried to deal with the crisis in capitalism that surfaced in the 1970s and has now engulfed China too, writes Shawn Hattingh.
Shawn Hattingh
Opinion | 15 September 2015