South Africa Will Be Host to 32 Nations This Summer For Fine Art 2010

Running parallel with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, is fine art. Designed to be a showcase of global and African artistic talent, art will be be used to display the multiplicity and diversity involved with the world's favorite sport. Kicking off in April 2010, and lasting until July 11th, the final day of the World Cup, 2010 Fine Art will be a grand intellectual accompaniment to the epic competitions. It is fitting that South Africa is hosting and organizing an art event of this scale, as the oldest piece of art ever discovered was found within their boarders; their 70,000 plus years experience gives them a type of authority in the art world.

There are two distinct mass exhibitions; they are the fittingly named 2010 African Fine Art and 2010 International Fine Art; both are being run as official parallel programs to the FIFA World Cup.

The 2010 African Fine Art exhibition will have two components. First, there will be a large commercial collection to be sold to visitors to the World Cup. Second is the Pan Africa exhibition. There is to be a group of works that will be professionally curated in select galleries, by leading South African art experts. The Pan African exhibition will be announced by the Host City concerned in the near future.

The underlying concept for the exhibition is to "to provide artists from Africa with a global platform to exhibit, market, and sell their works to a hitherto untapped international clientele base...to improve Africa's global image and to combat Afro-pessimism - through the medium of fine art." according to the official website for the event. With an estimated of over 450,000 international travelers visiting South Africa during June and July, this is the best opportunity to showcase the talent that African artists has to offer. The types of art that is set to be displayed for the even include sculptures, art photographs, paintings, etchings and many other media.

The second side of this massive art event is the 2010 International Fine Art showcase. Five artists from from each of the 32 countries competing in the World Cup will submit a painting or image. 210 high quality prints - all to be individually numbered and labeled as official World Cup merchandise - will be produced for each of the works. One of each print will be showcased in Johannesburg starting in April 2010 and the rest of the 33,600 prints will be shown and auctioned in their country of origin. The purpose of this event is to let many perspectives offer their interpretation of the global unifying activity that is soccer.

Randy Chu World Cup Accommodation

What's Going on With the National Curriculum Statement in South Africa

The new system aims to put right defects in the unpopular Outcome Based Education (OBE) system and improve learner achievements.

The Committee that reviewed the process acknowledged that teachers were over burdened with curriculum and administrative duties and the department has started the process of relieving some of the pressure on them, thereby allowing them to do what they are there for- to teach our learners. The Review Committee has set in motion measures to reduce the number of projects learners need to do and portfolio files of learner assessments have been axed. Also, as of January 2010 CTAS for Grade 9 learners were stopped.

When you look at some of the statistics that are being published, these changes couldn't have come sooner. A survey found that under OBE, a million children gave up schooling every year, with in excess of five million learners having left school incapable of reading or writing effectively.

The Minister explained the aims of the new National Curriculum Statement (NCS), summarised as follows:

• The repackaging of the existing curriculum into the general aims of the South African curriculum, the specific aims of each subject, clearly delineated topics to be covered per term and the required number and type of assessments, also per term.

• Outcomes to be absorbed into more accessible aims and content and assessment requirements will be spelt out more clearly. Topics and assessments to be covered per term are being aligned to available time allocations per subject.

• The reduction of the number of learning areas in the Intermediate Phase from eight to six. That means that in grades 4 to 6 technology will be combined with science, arts and culture will be combined with life orientation and economic and management sciences will be taught only from grade 7. One of the priorities in the Basic Education budget speech in March was the development and distribution of adequate learning and teaching material. Motshekga went on to explain "A crucial pillar in the Department's determination to improve learner performance is the provision of learner workbooks. This project is a result of the injunction by the Presidency to provide resources to teachers and learners to improve learner performance in literacy and numeracy.

To this end, the Department of Basic Education has developed a plan for the development of the Work Books for Grades 1 - 6 in order to ensure the development, piloting, printing and distribution of learner workbooks early in 2011. We will pilot the workbooks in schools in 2010 and they will be available for use in all schools in 2011. The project will provide resource support to 6.5 million learners and approx 180 000 teachers in nearly 20 000 schools. This will place workbooks in the hands of each and every learner in the system.

A team of curriculum experts/materials developers/translators is developing the workbooks. These individuals have proven experience in the development of learner workbooks, are conversant with resource based methods and are able to produce high quality output according to project deadlines."

Additional recommendations that Minister Motshekga made are:

"Firstly, the Council approved the recommendation that from 2011, the language chosen by the learner as a Language of Learning and Teaching shall be taught as a subject, or as a First Additional Language, from Grade One (1) and not from Grade 2, as is currently the case. What this means, for instance, is that the teaching of English will occur alongside mother tongue instruction for those learners who choose English as a language of learning and teaching. English will not replace the mother tongue or home language in the early grades, as some commentators have interpreted the recommendation.

Secondly, Council agreed to regular, externally-set assessments at grades 3, 6 and 9 in literacy (in home language and first additional language) and numeracy/mathematics. It agreed on a weighting of continuous assessment and end of year examinations.

Council thirdly agreed that the symbols or rating scales used to rate learner performance in Grades 10-12 will, from 2011, be extended to Grades R-9, so that there is consistency across the curriculum."

The fact that the OBE problems are being addressed is indeed progress but what of the 5 million kids that have left school with limited literacy and numeracy skills - are they to be written off as lost?

David Meredith is CEO of Virtual-IT a database development company based in South Africa. The company wa established in 2001 with a management teamthat has a combined experience of over forty years, specialising in the Education Industries of South Africa and the United Kingdom. The team at Virtual-IT has the background that you can trust with your Staff Skills Development Programs, be it Facilitation Feedback, Assessment or Learner Management Reporting Systems, we understand the challenges and opportunities this unique industry offers and our Network of Industry experts allows us to add value to most areas of Training and Reportability.

For more details please go our web site http://virtual-it.co.za/ or [http://lmssoftware.org/]

Addo Elephant National Park - Best Elephant Photo Ever - South Africa

The Addo Elephant National Park was proclaimed in 1931, the park was formed to protect the remaining elephants in the Addo area, there were less than 15. At one time the Addo herd was one of the largest in the Eastern Cape with some 140 elephants, but hunting decimated these numbers over the space of around 200 years.

Not only were the elephants hunted but also black rhino and lions where made extinct in the area. The remaining elephants were 'rescued' by a land owner at Barkly Bridge - Mr J T Harvey, who allowed the elephants onto his land, preventing them from being hunted.

Elephants had to be chased to the area which had been set aside for the Addo Elephant National Park, but the fence was not strong enough to contain elephants, and they escaped and continued to be killed by farmers and by trains which travelled along the nearby line. In 1933 the manager of the park started to feed the elephants in an attempt to contain them.

In 1954 an elephant proof fence was developed by Graham Armstrong, tram rails and lift cable were used and an area of 2270 hectares was fenced off. The fence proved successful and can still be seen in the park today. Flood light were erected around the feeding areas and visitors would come to see the elephants, however the feeding caused more problems as the elephants came to expect the food and would stay in the feeding area. The plant life in the area was destroyed and the elephants became aggressive to the feeding truck and to each other, many elephants were injured, so this feeding was stopped in 1979.

The park was first opened to tourists in 1981, when they entered the park they could view the elephants easily as the numbers had grown significantly. Disease free Cape Buffalos were also protected bt the Addo Elephant National Park as were the flightless Dung Beetle. Eland, zebras, warthogs, black rhino and hippos were all introduced to the park over the following years.

Lions were reintroduced to the area in 2003 as well as spotted hyenas in 2003/2004. These are only some of the animals which can be seen jackals, kudu, red hartebeest and duikers are also found in the Addo Elephant National Park .

The Addo Elephant National Park itself has no natural waterholes; the water is supplied from boreholes. These manmade waterholes have the advantage that they are by the roads and can produce some excellent photo opportunities, with many different animals going to the waterholes at any one time.

The Spekboom waterhole and hide is fantastic for photographers. Hapoor waterhole is named after a bull elephant that was the dominant bull of the Addo herd for some 24 years, after being ousted from his herd by Lanky - an upcoming bull - Hapoor escaped through the fence developed by Graham Armstrong, he was the only elephant ever to do so. He was found grazing by Coerney Station and had to be shot as he was an aggressive animal - a cast of this giant elephants head can be seen in the restaurant at the main rest camp in Addo Elephant Park .

The main camp offers good quality accommodation from chalets to camp sites, there are also safari tents which look out directly over the park and it is not unusual to have an elephant or a herd of buffalo pass you by! Horse riding safaris are available, these tours go through the game area and can be quite nerve raking, a bit of experience is required.

Mornings, sunset and night drives are also offered from the main camp and are good value for money as well as very informative. Prior booking is essential, especially during the holidays. The park is relatively small and can be driven around comfortably in a day.

Gerald Crawford was born in South Africa, studied electronics, telecommunication, eco-travel and african travel concepts. He taught responsible tourism in South Africa. If you have any questions or comments please e-mail me on. E-mail Address: southafricantravelarticles@12234455.co.za Website Address: http://www.12234455.co.za