Explore the vast range of titles available.

Twenty Years of Education Transformation in Gauteng 1994 to 2014: An Independent Review presents a collection of 15 important essays on different aspects of education in Gauteng since the advent of democracy in 1994. These essays talk to what a provincial education department does and how and why it does these things whether it be about policy, resourcing or implementing projects. Each essay is written by one or more specialist in the relevant focus area. The book is written to be accessible to the general reader as well as being informative and an essential resource for the specialist reader. It sheds light on aspects of how a provincial department operates and why and with what consequences certain decisions have been made in education over the last 20 turbulent years, both nationally and provincially. There has been no attempt to fi t the book's chapters into a particular ideological or educational paradigm, and as a result the reader will find differing views on various aspects of the Gauteng Department of Education's present and past. We leave the reader to decide to what extent the GDE has fulfilled its educational mandate over the last 20 years.

The death of Nelson Mandela on 5 December 2013 was in a sense a wake-up call for South Africans, and a time to reflect on what has been achieved since ‘those magnificent days in late April 1994’ (as the editors of this volume put it) ‘when South Africans of all colours voted for the first time in a democratic election’. In a time of recall and reflection it is important to take account, not only of the dramatic events that grip the headlines, but also of other signposts that indicate the shape and characteristics of a society. The New South African Review looks, every year, at some of these signposts, and the essays in this fourth volume of the series again examine and analyse a broad spectrum of issues affecting the country. They tackle topics as diverse as the state of organised labour; food retailing; electricity generation; access to information; civil courage; the school system; and – looking outside the country to its place in the world – South Africa’s relationships with north-east Asia, with Israel and with its neighbours in the southern African region. Taken together, these essays give a multidimensional perspective on South Africa’s democracy as it turns twenty, and will be of interest to general readers while being particularly useful to students and researchers.

These essays give a multidimensional perspective on South Africa's democracy as it turns twenty, and will be of interest to general readers while being particularly useful to students and researchers.

INTRODUCTIONSince 1994 the South African school system is believed to have been performing relatively poorly in comparison to the Zimbabwean system, although the expenditure per learner is much higher and the Zimbabwean schooling system has been severely affected by the economic chaos of the last decade. Comparing school systems, however, is a dangerous academic exercise because every system is innately different, with its own history, structure and processes. With a warning, this chapter tries to do exactly that. The justification for this perilous venture is that as South Africans deal with the low performance and high cost of their school system some commentators have been comparing its failure to what is seen as the success of the Zimbabwean school system. This chapter explores to what extent that comparison is valid and, if if it is, what South Africa can learn from the Zimbabwean school system. It looks at the development of the school systems in both countries from before independence to the present and then engages in a limited comparison based on a few salient factors. It is not meant to be exhaustive and is more suggestive than conclusive.The assertion that the South African school system is worse than the Zimbabwean school system is largely based on two indicators: the relative positions of the two countries’ scores in the learner comparability tests and the claim that Zimbabweans living in South Africa tend to speak better English and seem better educated and more employable than their South African counterparts. These are partial and subjective indicators.COMPARATIVE DATA FROM BOTH SCHOOL SYSTEMSThe only international comparability testing process in which South Africa and Zimbabwe both participate is the Southern and Eastern African consortium for Monitoring Education Quality (SACMEQ). Zimbabwe is not a participant in either Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) or Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). The basis for comparison based on test scores is therefore limited. However, it is worth exploring SACMEQ. In the Grade 6 tests in 2007 the scores were as follows:There is a substantial difference between the two countries’ scores, particularly for mathematics.

Malada's analysis chooses to focus on those aspects of the green paper and the NDP that best serve to justify his message of \"a cabinet speaking with many mouths\". The figures proposed in the NDP refer specifically to enrolments in FET Colleges, while those proposed in the green paper include enrolments in these colleges and also in \"other post-school institutions such as the proposed community education and training centres and other public colleges\". No discrepancy. Even in his analysis of higher education Malada's arguments are confused. He talks to the issues of foundation programmes at university, through which universities are compensating for the inadequacies of the schooling system, and |wonders whether this is a means |for the minister \"to smuggle in... lower admission requirements to increase access\". This misses the point that a green paper is a discussion document, so nothing is being \"smuggled\".

On-target activities and genome-wide specificities of Cpf1 nucleases in human cells. The activities and genome-wide specificities of CRISPR-Cas Cpf1 nucleases 1 are not well defined. We show that two Cpf1 nucleases from Acidaminococcus sp. BV3L6 and Lachnospiraceae bacterium ND2006 (AsCpf1 and LbCpf1, respectively) have on-target efficiencies in human cells comparable with those of the widely used Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 . We also report that four to six bases at the 3′ end of the short CRISPR RNA (crRNA) used to program Cpf1 nucleases are insensitive to single base mismatches, but that many of the other bases in this region of the crRNA are highly sensitive to single or double substitutions. Using GUIDE-seq and targeted deep sequencing analyses performed with both Cpf1 nucleases, we were unable to detect off-target cleavage for more than half of 20 different crRNAs. Our results suggest that AsCpf1 and LbCpf1 are highly specific in human cells.

CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases are widely used for genome editing, but the range of sequences that Cas9 can recognize is constrained by the need for a specific protospacer adjacent motif (PAM); here the commonly used Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) is modified to recognize alternative PAM sequences, enabling robust editing of endogenous gene sites in zebrafish and human cells not currently targetable by wild-type SpCas9. SpCas9 variants with altered PAM specificities Although CRISPR–Cas9 nucleases are widely used for genome editing, the range of sequences that Cas9 can recognize is constrained by the need for a specific protospacer adjacent motif (PAM). Keith Joung and colleagues modify the commonly used Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) to recognize alternative PAM sequences and demonstrate robust editing of endogenous gene sites in zebrafish and human cells not currently targetable by wild-type SpCas9. They also identify and characterize another SpCas9 variant that shows better specificity in human cells. The engineering strategies developed for this work can extended to Cas9 proteins from other species to yield altered and improved PAM specificities. Although CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases are widely used for genome editing 1 , 2 , the range of sequences that Cas9 can recognize is constrained by the need for a specific protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 . As a result, it can often be difficult to target double-stranded breaks (DSBs) with the precision that is necessary for various genome-editing applications. The ability to engineer Cas9 derivatives with purposefully altered PAM specificities would address this limitation. Here we show that the commonly used Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9) can be modified to recognize alternative PAM sequences using structural information, bacterial selection-based directed evolution, and combinatorial design. These altered PAM specificity variants enable robust editing of endogenous gene sites in zebrafish and human cells not currently targetable by wild-type SpCas9, and their genome-wide specificities are comparable to wild-type SpCas9 as judged by GUIDE-seq analysis 7 . In addition, we identify and characterize another SpCas9 variant that exhibits improved specificity in human cells, possessing better discrimination against off-target sites with non-canonical NAG and NGA PAMs and/or mismatched spacers. We also find that two smaller-size Cas9 orthologues, Streptococcus thermophilus Cas9 (St1Cas9) and Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 (SaCas9), function efficiently in the bacterial selection systems and in human cells, suggesting that our engineering strategies could be extended to Cas9s from other species. Our findings provide broadly useful SpCas9 variants and, more importantly, establish the feasibility of engineering a wide range of Cas9s with altered and improved PAM specificities.

CRISPR-Cas Cpf1 nucleases have recently been described as an alternative genome-editing platform, yet their activities and genome-wide specificities remain largely undefined. Here we show that two Cpf1 nucleases function robustly in human cells with on-target efficiencies comparable to those of the widely used Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9). We also demonstrate that four to six bases at the 3' end of the short CRISPR RNA (crRNA) used to program Cpf1 are insensitive to single base mismatches but that many of the other bases within the crRNA targeting region are highly sensitive to single or double substitutions. Consistent with these results, GUIDE-seq and targeted deep sequencing analyses of two Cpf1 nucleases revealed no detectable off-target cleavage for over half of 20 different crRNAs we examined. Our results suggest that the two Cpf1 nucleases we characterized generally possess high specificities in human cells, a finding that should encourage broader use of these genome editing enzymes.