A Historical Analysis Of The Post-Apartheid Dispensation Education In South Africa (1994-2011)

The period 1994-2011 introduced a new historical era for school education in South Africa. Outcomes-based Education (OBE) was introduced and was controversial from the outset for educators and policymakers alike. The reason given for the implementation of OBE was to move away from the apartheid curriculum and to address skills, knowledge and values. However, there were various shortcomings and many implementation problems that had to be addressed. Educators perceived the OBE approach to education as so problematic that it has now, finally, had to be scrapped. At this stage, the National Senior Certificate (NSC) is the exit point for school leavers and serves as a benchmark for tertiary education. Standardization is the tool used to make adjustments to Grade 12 results to correct fluctuations in performance that are the results of factors within the examination processes rather than the knowledge and abilities of candidates but this has a direct impact on the results of candidates. International benchmarking tests (e.g. TIMSS) have been introduced at the end of Grades 3, 6, and 9 to test the competency of learners in Mathematics and Science. Compared to other participating countries, the outcome for South African learners was exceedingly poor and this is seen as a reason for serious concern

Die voorkoms van lewenstylverwante koronêre risikofaktore by Suid-Afrikaanse bestuurslui

The presence of lifestyle related coronary risk factors among South African business executivesThe general health status of an employee often displays a direct relationship with his productivity. This phenomenon, to a large extent, initiated the trend in several companies to provide the so-called “employeesupporter programmes" which concentrate on a holistic approach towards total well-being. The lifestyle of the South African executive is to a large extent destructive of health and total well-being. In many cases this leads to premature retirement, serious illnesses and even death. Executives (388) of 20 companies representing the mining, steel, construction, financial and motor industry, were evaluated for the purpose of this article. The mean age of the respondents was 44,6 ± 0.6 years. In 74,3% of the cases a low physical working capacity was found (<2,5 Watt kg-1), while 4,6% of the executives showed a percentage body fat of >20% which is regarded as a coronary risk factor. In 38,7% a n d 58,2% of the cases elevated systolic a n d diastolic blood pressure values were respectively found. The following amount of respondents showed elevated values with regard to the biochemical parameters: total cholesterol(69,5%), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (64,8%), triglycerides (24,1%) and total cholesterol/HDL ratio (77,0%). In 42,2% of the cases an abnormally low level of high density lipoprotein was found.

Interprofessional knowledge and perceptions of selected South African healthcare practitioners towards each other

Background. Interprofessional collaboration is internationally and popularly envisioned as a successful paradigm for the management of disease, disabilities and injuries. Despite this, the opinion of South African (SA) healthcare practitioners towards this idea is incoherent; this division of opinion needs to be changed to serve the common goal of better patient care.Objective. To provide a narrative overview of literature-based evidence of interprofessional knowledge and perceptions of SA doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians, speech and hearing therapists, as well as biokineticists regarding interprofessional collaboration.Methods. An electronic search of Google Scholar, Crossref, PubMed and Sabinet databases identified 701 records, which were synthesised to 11 articles that were published during 2005 - 2016. Individual article quality was appraised using the modified Downs and Black scale.Results. Of the 11 records, 3 were Master’s theses reviewing the interprofessional knowledge and perceptions of doctors, physiotherapists and biokineticists towards the profession of chiropractic therapy; 3 examined the perceptions of chiropractic therapy, occupational therapy, speech and hearing therapy and biokinetics towards physiotherapy and chiropractic therapy; while the remaining 5 were supportive of interprofessional collaboration. The nature of the research designs of the selected studies were: survey (n=6), short communication (n=1), clinical commentary (n=1), randomised controlled trial (n=1) and focus group interview (n=2). An incoherence underlies the perceptions of the abovementioned practitioners regarding interprofessional collaboration owing to lack of interprofessional knowledge regarding each given discipline’s scope of profession (SoP). This is compounded by uneasiness with regard to patient competition. Some physiotherapists are against collaborative relationships, while occupational therapists, biokineticists and chiropractors are inclined to support the notion of a multidisciplinary physical rehabilitation team. There is a paucity of literature-based evidence reviewing the knowledge and perceptions of medical doctors, nurses and physiotherapists with regard to the SoP of occupational therapists, speech and hearing therapists, biokineticists, dieticians and chiropractors, thereby warranting future investigation.Conclusions. There are mixed perceptions of interprofessional collaboration among the selected healthcare practitioners owing to negative perceptions

Present-day dilemmas and challenges of the South African tertiary system

The Education White Paper 3 on Higher Education aimed to transform the higher education system. Change within tertiary education included adjusting the size and shape of institutions, the meaning of autonomy and accountability, the nature of higher education, the character of student demographic distribution, management and governance, roles of student politics, models of delivery, the notion of higher education in terms of the relationship between free trade and public good, programme changes and the nature of the academic workplace. At this stage, transformation in higher education is leaping outwards to fulfil the criteria set by international competitiveness and related efficiency criteria that can be attributed to globalisation pressures and to deeper factors inherent in the nature of higher education, especially in terms of its resistance to change and modernization. In this regard, the tertiary higher education system in South Africa is faced with many multi-dimensional challenges that need to be addressed in this article. This includes stating whether Grade 12 results as the outcome of this exit point at school level are, internationally speaking, a reasonable predictor of first-year academic success at university. In South Africa, there is no benchmarking of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination; therefore, first-year students have difficulty in adapting to the university environment as they find themselves devoid of indispensable bases for the pursuit of their studies and the weakness of the level of education given at school level in a large number of instances. Furthermore, five universities were placed under administration in the 2011-2012 period because of appallingly poor levels of management, which adds extra layers of suspicion to the notion of the impact of higher education in South Africa. Many other challenges are facing the South African tertiary education system, which will be analysed and recommendations arrived at that will attempt to contribute to an enhancement of tertiary education in South Africa

The Prevalence of health risk behaviors among learners in selected urbanized secondary schools in Namibia

Research indicates that destructive lifestyles during adolescence may lead to serious health risks in later years of life. The prevalence of health risk behaviour among school leaners should signal significant red flags to authorities as well as communities. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of some health risk behaviour among learners in selected urbanized secondary schools in Namibia. For this study, 294 leaners (boys = 133 and girls = 161) from four secondary schools in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, were randomly selected. To determine the prevalence of health risk behaviour in each age group, height, body mass, body mass index (BMI) and percentage body fat (%BF) were determined and the Youth Risk Behaviour Survey Questionnaire (2003) was completed by each participant. The following constructs were studied, viz. physical activity participation, overweight/obesity, smoking, sexual activity, suicidal ideation, alcohol and drug usage. Data were analysed by using the Statistica for Windows (version 6 software) to calculate the descriptive statistics as well as two-way analysis of variance, to determine the relationship between physical activity participation and health risk behaviour. The effect size (ES) was calculated in order to determine the practical significance of the difference. Descriptive analysis indicated some alarming prevalence of health risk behaviour among the learners. The highest prevalence of health risk behaviour in boys and girls combined are; alcohol intake (47%) and overweight/obesity (39%) respectively, followed by smoking (28%) and sexual activity (25%). For the boys, alcohol intake (46%), sexual activity (30%) and smoking (30%) ranked first, second and third respectively, while for the girls, overweight/obesity (61%) showed the highest prevalence with alcohol consumption (47%) and physical inactivity (28%) in the second and third place respectively. The age group (boys and girls) which revealed the highest prevalence of health risk behaviour is the 15-year-old boys (70% alcohol intake) and 14-year-old girls (80% alcohol intake). It also appears that participation in physical activity can be associated with a decreased prevalence of risky behaviour, although different responses occurred between boys and girls – as well as between age groups in the same gender. This study reveals alarming red flags that should not be ignored by the public and authorities

Cardiovascular responses in sedentary adult men, following a 12- week whole-body vibration training

Whole-body vibration training has become increasingly popular as a training modality in fitness and health centres hence some evidence also indicates that it can produce salutogenic outcomes in patients suffering metabolic such as blood pressure and other defects. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of a 12-week whole-body vibration training intervention on cardiovascular performance of apparently healthy, but sedentary male adults. Fifty (50) adult males (age 18 – 40 years) were recruited and randomly assigned to two groups to participate in a 12-week intervention study. During baseline testing, the following parameters were determines namely; heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and double product (SBPxHR). Cardiac ultrasound recordings were used to determine end-diastolic volume, end-systolic volume, stroke volume and ejection fraction. The intervention group (IG) followed a 12-week progressive whole-body vibration training (WBVT) regimen, while the control group (CG) continued with their normal daily activities. Following the 12-week WBVT, 23 and 17 participants in the IG and CG respectively were re-assessed. Results showed a statistically significant changes after 12 weeks of WBVT in the following cardiovascular parameters: systolic (132 mmHg vs. 116 mmHg) and diastolic (85 mmHg vs. 78 mmHg) blood pressure, double product (9176 vs. 8446) and end-diastolic volume (312 ml vs. 437 ml) in the IG, while in the CG, a significantly lower ejection fraction occurred in the post-intervention assessment. During pre-intervention assessment significant differences were observed between the IG and CG in the variables, viz. systolic blood pressure (132 mmHg v. 124 mmHg), double product (9196 vs. 8902), enddiastolic volume (312 ml vs. 363 ml) and end-systolic volume (141 ml vs. 101 ml). In the posttest assessment all differences in the pre-test assessment were statistically corrected for. The results in this study therefore indicate that WBVT could be used as an  ffective training modality to improve cardiovascular function in adult males. As such, WBVT is recommended for use in sedentary adults given its benefits.Keywords: Whole-body vibration training, heart rate, blood pressure, cardiovascular responses

The effectiveness of training and retraining at various frequencies on the aerobic capacity and intrinsic cardiovascular dynamics (systolic time intervals) in south african employees

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains a serious health threat in most countries globally, placing a severe burden on the workforce in the corporate environment. Physical activity intervention has already been indicated as an effective regime against CVD. The purpose of this study therefore, was to examine the effect of training and retraining, following different exercise programme frequencies on the aerobic capacity, and some intrinsic cardiovascular dynamics (systolic time intervals) in a cohort of male employees. In this study, 60 employees (28 and 49 years) from an academic environment were randomly assigned to 3 groups namely; experimental (A and B), and control (C) groups. Groups A and B trained 3 times/week for 12 weeks, detrained for 12 weeks and retrained (A=2 times/week and B=4 times/week) for another 12 weeks. Aerobic capacity, myocardial function (double product) and systolic time intervals were determined at baseline and at the end of each phase. Experimental groups showed significant improvement in aerobic capacity (V O2-peak) and myocardial function after 12 weeks of training. Furthermore, the results showed a significant increase in aerobic capacity for groups A (2 times/week) and B (4 times/week). Systolic time intervals (STIs) namely, Pre-ejection period (PEPc), Left ventricular ejection time (LVETc) and Intra-ventricular contraction time (IVCT) showed inconsistent responses during rest, while 30 and 120 seconds during recovery from a standardized workload, PEPc peak ratio and LVETc peak ratio showed the same tendency as the aerobic capacity. Physical intervention can improve both the aerobic function and selected cardiovascular dynamics (PEPc and LVETc). These responses of the STIs were clearer after a standardized physical exercise test than at rest. Programme frequency remains an important factor, which determines the outcome