The South African National Senior Certificate (NSC) and its curriculum are on par with international standards and are favourable when compared to other international qualifications.

The Cape Town-based African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), a postgraduate academic institution, is to be the model for three maths training centres on the continent.

Teachers across the country have welcomed the roll out of the Teacher Laptop Initiative (TLI), saying they were looking forward to sharing ideas, learning from each other and improving the quality of the education system.

After months of deliberations and planning by the Department of Basic Education, the Teacher Laptop Initiative (TLI) is set to be rolled out this week with a key focus on teacher training and development in ICT, computer literacy and pedagogy.

A new bursary scheme from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is working to increase the number of university graduates in South Africa by giving up to 500 underprivileged students the opportunity to further their studies at a tertiary institution over the next five years. Currently only 1% of all youth in South Africa complete their studies at university level.
 

More than R2 billion has been set aside for the building of classrooms, Education MEC, John Mchunu announced on Wednesday.

Scholars returning to classes in the rural Eastern Cape this week have a new library. This is part of a campaign to improve education in impoverished rural areas of the country.

Mpumalanga province is working on plans to establish its own university that will develop a skills base for the area and retain school-leavers, many of whom relocate after matric in search of education and jobs.

For three years in a row Mbilwi Secondary School in Limpopo has remained in the elite Club 100 with more than 100 matric pupils who passed maths and science on higher grade.

Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga has urged all learners who did not succeed in the 2009 matric examinations to try again.

Turnaround strategies implemented by the KwaZulu-Natal education department early in 2009 helped the province increase its matric pass rate by 3.5 percent, said MEC Senzo Mchunu on Thursday.

Education levels among South African adults have significantly increased in the past ten years, the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said on Tuesday.

Aspiring actuaries will now be able to get a South African qualification, instead of doing it through the UK, the Actuarial Society said on Tuesday.

The government has introduced a number of measures to give South African teachers better support and to reduce their administrative burden. The changes have been approved by cabinet, and has won the support of major teacher's unions.

The University of Stellenbosch Business School is ranked among the 40 leading business schools in the world, according to the Aspen Institute’s alternative Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey.

Sowetan train commuters are receiving free lectures from South Africa’s leading university professors who are part of the Sermon on the Train initiative.

A R9 million grant, which was awarded to the Wits University Centre for Rural-Based Education in the North West, has been hailed as a major boost for people of the province.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has come out in support of the new Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State for what he calls a "magnanimous gesture" of forgiveness and reconciliation.

The University of Cape Town has moved into the top 150 on the World University Rankings. The university is now ranked at number 146 in the world, up from number 179 in 2008 and the 200th place in 2007.

President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday pledged South Africa's support to a global campaign to ensure education for all the world's children.

With approximately nine million functionally illiterate South Africans, the launch of South Africa's first national literacy campaign marks an important milestone in the country's fight against illiteracy.

Oprah Winfrey sat rapt Friday in the front row of the state-of-the-art theater during a show put on by the poor girls she has built an exclusive school for.

The organisers of the DFL Indian Premier League have launched one of the largest community programmes in South Africa by a sport organisation, committing more than R8 million to scholarship programmes around the country. 

 

A charity concert in which former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr performed together for the first time in seven years, is expected to bring Transcendental Meditation to thousands of school children in South Africa.

The “Change From Within” benefit concert took place in New York on Saturday, in support of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. The aim of he concert is to bring meditation to 1 million at-risk school children across the world.  

Thirty thousand school children in South Africa are expected to benefit from the funds raised through the concert. 

 

The Presidency has launched a new section of its website that is specifically aimed at children, with the aim of promoting interaction between the government and the country's younger citizens.