Social Impact of Gambling in South Africa

An initial assessment for the National Gambling Board

Learning to Teach in South Africa is a collection of key texts by one of South Africas most respected thinkers in education. The essays span the crucial years of democratic transition in South Africa and display the essential unity of the authors thought as he reflects on the idea of epistemological access, a prominent feature of disciplined thinking about education in South Africa, as well as teacher education, the primacy of the practice of teaching in any system of education, and the continuing struggle with relativism, one of the strands of the Apartheid and colonialism legacies. The collection bears the authors hallmark intellectual passion and incisive thinking which has helped sculpt the landscape of educational debates over three decades.

South Africa has participated in a number of local and international achievement studies in the field of education over the last 20 years and responses to the results have been somewhat mixed. Critics argue that participation in international assessments is a pointless exercise because of the slow pace of improvement in South African education. Supporters point out that international assessment results can be useful at many different levels of policy and planning, especially when studies are repeated across time. The purpose of this book is to provide a measured assessment of what has been achieved in South African education over the last 20 years based on the evidence provided by Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMMS), to redefine what good progress means in light of South Africas developmental pathway and to recommend what evidence based interventions can be considered as the next realistic steps in South Africas educational development.

Did the transition to democracy improve the state of the South African people? This multi-disciplinary study examines the distribution of wealth, collective identity and citizen participation in civil society. In addition to an historical overview, the book registers the changes in political opinion, attitude and behaviour of South Africans from 1994 to 2000.

The detrimental impact of poverty on child development, educational outcomes, job prospects, health and behaviour is well known, and governments worldwide have committed themselves to eradicating child poverty as well as the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Yet more than 60% of South African children live in households with annual incomes below $1 360 (2006 value) and mortality and maltreatment rates remain high.