Author: Nola Jones

Along with members of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department and City Power security staff, representatives from the Revenue Protection Unit of City Power arrived at Curro School in Noordwyk, Midrand, early on Tuesday, June 23. The Curro Sagewood campus’s electricity supply was quickly cut off. At least for an hour, the school, which is a part of one of the most well-known private education groups in South Africa, went dark. What transpired was not a low-key administrative issue. With statements flying from both sides, a High Court intervention, and inquiries that directly addressed how billing accountability functions between institutions and…

Every year at this time, a certain level of tension arises over the N3 Toll Route. Hundreds of thousands of South Africans start the well-known migration between KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng as schools close and bags are packed. It’s almost routine. However, that is not how the road handles it. The road safety authorities’ warnings arrived in tandem with the traffic on Friday, June 26, the start of this year’s winter school holidays. The N3 Toll Concession (N3TC), which oversees the 415-kilometer stretch between Heidelberg in Gauteng and Cedara in KZN, acted swiftly to warn drivers. The message was clear: avoid…

Gert Sibande TVET College has something noteworthy about it that isn’t mentioned in any brochure. It is located in Mpumalanga, a province that is frequently overlooked when discussing educational and economic opportunities. Since 2002, it has been producing graduates in fields that genuinely lead somewhere while doing steady, unglamorous work. It chose to remain pragmatic early on, not because it had the greatest resources or the most well-known reputation. Three distinct organizations—the technical colleges of Ermelo, Evander, and Standerton—combined to form the college. It’s reasonable to assume that those initial years had some conflict because school mergers are rarely smooth.…

When you read about Hilton College, you’ll notice right away that it has its own declared nature reserve, which distinguishes it from almost every other school in South Africa. Not a garden. There isn’t even a tiny green area behind the science block. Teenagers are studying for exams somewhere nearby in this 650-hectare wilderness where giraffes, zebras, servals, and caracals roam freely and about 300 species of birds go about their daily lives. It’s a peculiar combination. It also provides some crucial information about the nature of this institution. Located close to the small town of Hilton in the KwaZulu-Natal…

When you consider that the University of Zululand started out in 1960 with 41 students—five of whom were women—in a region of South Africa that the majority of the academic community had at the time chosen to ignore, there is something worth stopping to think about. Over 16,000 students visit its campuses every day. The proportion shifted. It appears that the ambition has evolved even further. The institution, known as UNIZULU, is located in KwaZulu-Natal, north of the uThukela River. This geographical detail may seem insignificant, but it was once used to delineate the boundaries of formalized higher education in…

One type of institution doesn’t make a big announcement about itself. It doesn’t have the name recognition of older, more illustrious universities or make weekly appearances in international headlines. Nevertheless, it is hard to overlook the Durban University of Technology when considering what is going on in KwaZulu-Natal. There, something is slowly, methodically, and quietly taking shape. In 2002, two technikons, Technikon Natal and ML Sultan, merged to form DUT, as most people refer to it. It wasn’t a glamorous start. During that time, mergers in South Africa’s higher education system were frequently complicated, politically charged, and challenging to handle.…

Every year, students at the University of Sydney experience a subtle sense of unease around the middle of June. It’s about schedules, not tests or assignments. It sounds insignificant. It isn’t. An entire semester can be thrown off before it even starts if your class schedule is incorrect, you miss the preference window, or you just don’t know how the system operates. The Sydney Timetable platform facilitates the USYD timetable process, which is divided into phases that not all students fully comprehend at first. Students had access to preliminary schedules for Semester 2, 2026, starting on June 15. The preference…

The Mornington Peninsula feels different during school breaks than it does on a typical weekend getaway. The parking lots start to fill up a bit earlier. The lines at the café are a little longer. Gumboot-wearing children show up out of the blue. It’s one of those locations that seems to be made for just this kind of chaos—the well-planned, slightly sunburned, snack-heavy chaos of family vacations. The Peninsula is both close enough for an impromptu day trip and far enough to feel like a true getaway for Melbourne-based families. The options this winter break are truly amazing. It is…

Three days into the school holidays, a specific type of low-grade panic strikes. The kids are staring at you with that particular look that demands amusement, the novelty of sleeping in has worn off, and the house feels smaller than it did during term time. This winter break is looking to be among the best in recent memory if you live in Geelong or the surrounding area, and it’s not because anyone made an effort to create excitement. It just so happens that the area has a really strong lineup from late June to mid-July 2026. This year’s Geelong school…

The timing has a certain cruelty to it. For the past two years, millions of Americans have watched as their student loan situation has fluctuated between press releases and courtrooms, between cautious optimism and bureaucratic reversals. Now that summer is just getting started, the last phase of the Biden-era SAVE plan seems to be coming to an end, leaving borrowers frantically trying to figure out what comes next. This week, the Department of Education confirmed that borrowers who are presently enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education plan won’t have to change their repayment plans until at least September…