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OVERVIEW<br />
Education<br />
Online schools are booming.<br />
The new School for Climate Change at Stellenbosch University has faculty status. Credit: SU<br />
The University of <strong>Cape</strong> Town announced the establishment<br />
of an online high school in 2021 with virtual classes due<br />
to start in January <strong>2022</strong>. The school hopes to close the<br />
opportunity gap for poor students in under-resourced<br />
areas. UCT is partnering with the Valenture Institute, a South<br />
African education technology company specialising in high school<br />
education. By September 2020, the school had received more than<br />
4 000 applications.<br />
Online learning is one of the world’s fastest-growing sectors<br />
and the investment of $3-million by Construct in a new <strong>Cape</strong> Town<br />
office is evidence that the trend is well and truly established in the<br />
<strong>Western</strong> <strong>Cape</strong>. The Construct Learning Lab supports universities in<br />
Boston, Doha and Oxford as well as companies and government<br />
bodies. The company expects to increase its staff complement by<br />
150 over three years.<br />
Tuberculosis continues to affect the lives of thousands of South<br />
Africans so the efforts of UCT Professor Keertan Dheda and a team<br />
of researchers is a most welcome and relevant application to local<br />
conditions. They have developed a new method of diagnosing<br />
tuberculosis from skin which is non-invasive, fast and highly accurate.<br />
Another relevant piece of work by a UCT academic won for Associate<br />
Professor Gina Ziervogel the institution’s Social Responsiveness Award. As<br />
a climate change adaption expert and geographer, Ziervogel played a key<br />
role in a team that advised the City of <strong>Cape</strong> Town during the severe drought<br />
SECTOR INSIGHT<br />
Stellenbosch University has<br />
established a School for<br />
Climate Studies.<br />
that threatened water supplies.<br />
An important contribution was<br />
to stress the importance of<br />
community understanding and<br />
involvement. She and renowned<br />
environmental journalist Leonie<br />
Joubert have produced a book<br />
called Day Zero: One city’s response<br />
to a record-breaking drought.<br />
Another climate adaptation<br />
has been observed at<br />
Stellenbosch University where<br />
a School for Climate Studies<br />
has been launched in response<br />
to growing interest in climate<br />
resilience and trying to move<br />
away from fossil fuels. It is the first<br />
such institution in the country to<br />
enjoy the status of faculty and it<br />
WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS <strong>2022</strong><br />
40
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