Evaluation of the effectiveness of the 360-credit National Professional Diploma in Education (NPDE) programme

We investigated the effectiveness of the 360-credit National Professional Diploma (NPDE) as a programme that is aimed at the upgrading of currently serving unqualified and under-qualified educators, with a view to improving the quality of teaching and learning in schools and Further Education and Training colleges. To this end, the National Professional Diploma in Education Effectiveness Scale (NPDEES) and Classroom Observation and Assessment Form (COAF) were used. The findings indicated that educators differed in the extent to which they regarded the 360-credit NPDE programme as effective. The findings also indicated that component 3 (competences relating to teaching and learning processes), component 1 (competences relating to fundamental learning) and component 4 (competences relating to the profession, the school and the community) were the best predictors of the effectiveness of the 360-credit NPDE programme. It was found that educators differed in the extent to which they performed during the classroom-based evaluation. Suggestions are made for measures to improve educators’ performance in the classroom.Keywords: classroom-based evaluation; competences; components; exit level outcomes; National Professional Diploma in Educatio

TRAV1-2⁺ CD8⁺ T-cells including oligoconal expansions of MAIT cells are enriched in the airways in human tuberculosis

Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells typically express a TRAV1-2+ semi-invariant TCRα that enables recognition of bacterial, mycobacterial, and fungal riboflavin metabolites presented by MR1. MAIT cells are associated with immune control of bacterial and mycobacterial infections in murine models. Here, we report that a population of pro-inflammatory TRAV1-2+ CD8+ T cells are present in the airways and lungs of healthy individuals and are enriched in bronchoalveolar fluid of patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). High-throughput T cell receptor analysis reveals oligoclonal expansions of canonical and donor-unique TRAV1-2+ MAIT-consistent TCRα sequences within this population. Some of these cells demonstrate MR1-restricted mycobacterial reactivity and phenotypes suggestive of MAIT cell identity. These findings demonstrate enrichment of TRAV1-2+ CD8+ T cells with MAIT or MAIT-like features in the airways during active TB and suggest a role for these cells in the human pulmonary immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis

COVID-19, Food Insecurity and a Government Response: Reflections From South Africa

The goal of this paper is to examine how life, already hard before the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has further deteriorated and compounded the ability of South Africans to access food.  Departing, this paper argues that while food insecurity has always been a feature in South Africa, however, COVID-19 has laid bare the ineffective policy response by successive governments over the years. Food insecurity in the country not new, however, the government's ineffective response allowed COVID-19 to intensify poverty and inequality among the most vulnerable. To explore how COVID-19 exacerbated the food insecurity problem in the country, this paper employed a qualitative research approach where secondary data was collected through a review of the literature. From the onset, it became observable that government responses to COVID-19 were not only going to cost jobs and further entrench poverty and inequality, but they were also going to exacerbate the food insecurity problem in the country. Even though government measures to cushion the poor and vulnerable were largely welcomed, they were tainted by corruption, thus clouding their overall effectiveness. It was recommended that the government ought to be proactive rather than reactive in addressing issues around food insecurit