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Articles by Jonathan Jansen
The wilting intellectual and the decline of the humanities
SOUTH AFRICA At the dawn of our democracy, South Africa enjoyed a rich network of academic associations and courageous individuals. Some scholars who had refined a tradition of criticism and resistance focused on the apartheid state. Some, such as Ruth First, David Webster and Rick Turner died in the struggle. Since the 1990s, that network weakened and with its dissolution came the wilting intellectual within the corridors of academia, and the corresponding decline of the humanities.
Jonathan Jansen | SA’s Paris moment: A revolt is coming
Comments Gift article Bookmark 0:00 Subscribers can listen to this article Nationwide protests erupted in France over poor classroom conditions. Police used force, water cannons and tear gas to disperse high school students in front of the Hotel des Invalides in Paris on 13 October. SA is ripe for similar demonstrations over school infrastructure. Adnan Farzat/NurPhoto via Getty Images Read this for free Be among those who shape the future with knowledge.
Jonathan Jansen | SA’s Paris moment: A revolt is coming
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Jonathan Jansen | White crosses and black grace
11m ago Share Comments Gift article Bookmark Add as a preferred source on Google Share your Subscriber Article You have 5 articles to share every month. Send this story to a friend! Loading, please wait... 0:00 Subscribers can listen to this article Jonathan Jansen describes Ernst Roets as a political opportunist. Luba Lesolle / Gallo Images Read this for free Be among those who shape the future with knowledge.
Jonathan Jansen | Seven distinctions and still not educated
6m ago Share Comments Gift article Bookmark Add as a preferred source on Google Share your Subscriber Article You have 5 articles to share every month. Send this story to a friend! Loading, please wait... 0:00 Subscribers can listen to this article South Africa’s exam-obsessed schooling system trains children to perform rather than think. Gallo Images/Fani Mahuntsi Read this for free Be among those who shape the future with knowledge.
Jonathan Jansen | Seven radical fixes for SA’s broken schools
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Jonathan Jansen | Seven distinctions and still not educated
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Academic xenophobia and internationalisation cannot coexist
SOUTH AFRICA We now know that the attacks on foreigners are not confined to the streets of Diepkloof, a township near Johannesburg, or the vineyards of De Doorns in the Western Cape, but to the corridors of academia as well. In a recent book, we call this phenomenon academic xenophobia and detail how this is experienced in the everyday lives of university staff from elsewhere.
Jonathan Jansen | Smart people, dumb governance: Our universities keep imploding
Comments Gift article Bookmark 0:00 Subscribers can listen to this article We have 26 public universities, costing the country upwards of R110 billion (total income); yet, in any academic year, five or more of them are under duress with feverish coverage in local and national media. Supplied/UCT SRC Read this for free Be among those who shape the future with knowledge. Uncover exclusive stories that captivate your mind and heart with our FREE 14-day subscription trial.
Jonathan Jansen | Smart people, dumb governance: Our universities keep imploding
You have 5 articles to share every month. Send this story to a friend! Enter recipient email address Subscribers can listen to this article We have 26 public universities, costing the country upwards of R110 billion (total income); yet, in any academic year, five or more of them are under duress with feverish coverage in local and national media. Read this for free Be among those who shape the future with knowledge.
Jonathan Jansen | What just happened in schoolboy rugby?
Comments Gift article Bookmark 0:00 Subscribers can listen to this article A violent brawl broke out during the Noordvaal Cup Clash on Saturday between Hoërskool Menlopark and Hoërskool Dr EG Jansen. Screengrab Read this for free Be among those who shape the future with knowledge. Uncover exclusive stories that captivate your mind and heart with our FREE 14-day subscription trial. Dive into a world of inspiration, learning, and empowerment. You can only trial once.
Jonathan Jansen | What just happened in schoolboy rugby?
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Worth the Fight: The story behind how Jonathan Jansen revived a failing school
After learning that a local school recorded the worst matric results in the Western Cape in 2023, Jonathan Jansen signed up to help out. With his characteristic warmth and insight, Jansen takes readers inside chaotic classrooms as he works alongside teachers to reverse years of decline. Here is an extract. *** Author’s note: Cherry High School is used as a pseudonym, accepting that those who know my work and come from this part of South Africa might know the school’s real name.
Book of the Month | ‘Worth the Fight’ by Jonathan Jansen: Teaching hope on the Cape Flats
News24’s Book of the Month for August is ‘Worth the Fight: Fixing failure in South African schools’ by Jonathan Jansen. Jansen goes back to school: to the Cape Flats high school next door to where he grew up. After learning that the school got the worst matric results in the Western Cape in 2023, Jansen signed up to help out.
Jonathan Jansen | A degree in isolation: Afrikaans-exclusive education endangers us all
50m ago Share Comments Gift article Bookmark Add as a preferred source on Google Share your Subscriber Article You have 5 articles to share every month. Send this story to a friend! Loading, please wait... 0:00 Subscribers can listen to this article The Solidarity university, Akademia, in Pretoria. Supplied Read this for free Be among those who shape the future with knowledge. Uncover exclusive stories that captivate your mind and heart with our FREE 14-day subscription trial.
Jonathan Jansen | What the hate directed at deputy minister Yusuf Cassim reveals about us
9m ago Share Comments Gift article Bookmark Add as a preferred source on Google Share your Subscriber Article You have 5 articles to share every month. Send this story to a friend! Loading, please wait... 0:00 Subscribers can listen to this article Yusuf Cassim was sworn in as the deputy minister of higher education last week. Yusuf Cassim/Facebook Read this for free Be among those who shape the future with knowledge.
Jonathan Jansen | What the hate directed at deputy minister Yusuf Cassim reveals about us
What do you make of John Steenhuisen’s allegations against current and former DA leadership? Please select an option Oops! Something went wrong, please try again later. He’s right to call out betrayal It’s sour grapes after his demotion DA infighting is damaging the party Results He’s right to call out betrayal 12% - 2317 votes It’s sour grapes after his demotion 41% - 7711 votes DA infighting is damaging the party 46% - 8622 votes
Jonathan Jansen | We cannot be feted on the world stage and act like thugs at home
17m ago Share Comments Gift article Bookmark Add as a preferred source on Google Share your Subscriber Article You have 5 articles to share every month. Send this story to a friend! Loading, please wait... 0:00 Subscribers can listen to this article Protesters at a March and March demonstration in Umlazi. Sakhiseni Nxumalo/News24 Read this for free Be among those who shape the future with knowledge. Uncover exclusive stories that captivate your mind and heart with our FREE 14-day subscription trial.
Jonathan Jansen | We cannot be feted on the world stage and act like thugs at home
You have 5 articles to share every month. Send this story to a friend! Enter recipient email address Subscribers can listen to this article Protesters at a March and March demonstration in Umlazi. Read this for free Be among those who shape the future with knowledge. Uncover exclusive stories that captivate your mind and heart with our FREE 14-day subscription trial. Dive into a world of inspiration, learning, and empowerment. You can only trial once. Already a subscriber?
JONATHAN JANSEN | It was my privilege and pleasure to write for you every single Thursday
After 15 years, this is my last column for the Arena group publications. Change happens and yes, it hurts. It was, nonetheless, my privilege and pleasure to write for you every single Thursday (I did not miss one column due) even on days when I did not need to such as a public holiday or the end-of-year break.
JONATHAN JANSEN | After 15 years, this is my last column for The Times
After 15 years, this is my last column for The Times. I was told there would be layoffs because of the financial woes of media companies from the Washington Post to our own City Press. Change happens and yes, it hurts. It was, nonetheless, my privilege and pleasure to write for you every single Thursday (I did not miss one column due) even on days when I did not need to, such as a public holiday or the end-of-year break.
Prof Roy firestorm: we’re skating on thin ice
If you want to see a political mob in operation, watch the mobilisation around the speech of a Wits professor last month. On February 19, Prof Srila Roy, then head of sociology, posted on X that “South Africans have little ambition, are complacent and have a poor work ethic.” In the firestorm that followed, she deleted the tweet. Not good enough, the mob came for her. Roy resigned as head of department. A demotion is not sufficient, said the agitated. Wits placed her on precautionary suspension.
JONATHAN JANSEN | Prof Roy firestorm: we’re skating on thin ice
If you want to see a political mob in operation, watch the mobilisation around the speech of a Wits professor last month. On February 19, Prof Srila Roy, then head of sociology, posted on X that “South Africans have little ambition, are complacent and have a poor work ethic.” In the firestorm that followed, she deleted the tweet. Not good enough, the mob came for her. Roy resigned as head of department. A demotion is not sufficient, said the agitated. Wits placed her on precautionary suspension.
Response to student protests must be both firm and humane
The weary taxpayer is completely within their rights to ask: why can’t universities get their act together for a change? Once again there are protests on campus, sometimes violent, disruptive and threatening other people’s rights. It is rare these days to find a peaceful protest marked by persuasive arguments and calculated strategies for moving the needle on student exclusions, whether from class lectures or a place to sleep.
JONATHAN JANSEN | From the predictable chaos of political dysfunction at universities, patterns emerge
The weary taxpayer is completely within their rights to ask: why can’t universities get their act together for a change? Once again there are protests on campus, sometimes violent, disruptive and threatening other people’s rights. It is rare these days to find a peaceful protest marked by persuasive arguments and calculated strategies for moving the needle on student exclusions, whether from class lectures or a place to sleep.
LIFE LESSONS | Response to student protests must be both firm and humane
The weary taxpayer is completely within their rights to ask: why can’t universities get their act together for a change? Once again there are protests on campus, sometimes violent, disruptive and threatening other people’s rights. It is rare these days to find a peaceful protest marked by persuasive arguments and calculated strategies for moving the needle on student exclusions whether from class lectures or a place to sleep.
JONATHAN JANSEN | Teachable moment lost by leaders of Roedean and King David
Until two weeks ago, the majority of South Africans had never heard of two elite high schools in Johannesburg, one an Anglican school called Roedean and another a Jewish school named King David Linksfield. And yet these two institutions blew open all the cracks and fissures that run just below the surface of polite society. For that reason alone, what happened on February 3 deserves another look. Jonathan Jansen A sports team from King David showed up at Roedean for a scheduled tennis match.
JONATHAN JANSEN | What kind of giver are you?
There are literally thousands of individuals and non-profit organisations (NPOs) doing vital work in education and development among disadvantaged communities. They are the moral underground that fill the gaping holes in public services that government cannot or will not do. Salt-of-the-earth people, no doubt — but they are not all the same. Some do more harm than good for one simple reason: they do not know the difference between upliftment and empowerment.
JONATHAN JANSEN | It’s time for university students to learn the rules of engagement
I am sorry, newly minted ‘matric’ (National Senior Certificate, or NSC) learners but you are about to find out that your seven (or more) distinctions are pretty meaningless when it comes to the hard reality of university academics. Of course, congratulations. The top performers among you worked hard and it shows in your results. You drank champagne for the first time (openly?) and found yourself courted by politicians, senior education officials with our obedient media in tow.
Transport tragedies will continue until there is political will to tackle the issue seriously
On August 25 2011, Jacob Humphreys ignored signals at a level crossing in Blackheath and found himself on the tracks of an oncoming train. A total of 10 children were ushered into eternity on their way to Good Hope Primary, an Adventist Christian school. The driver survived the crash. He would admit previously slipping through the booms and having had two previous accidents with children in the taxi.
JONATHAN JANSEN | Scramble for places in schools continues to plague education system
I am sure that the founders of our democracy could not have imagined in the 1950s that their memorable declaration in the Freedom Charter that “the doors of learning and culture shall be open” would run into some heavy concrete walls in the 2020s, shutting out tens of thousands of school and university students. Somewhere in January, it was reported that 23,000 pupils in four provinces were unplaced, in the Western Cape 2,700 and in Gauteng 7,000.
JONATHAN JANSEN | Government fooling only itself over extravagant claims of matric success
We knew what to expect on Monday January 12 2026 at 6pm. An extravagant, even boastful account of the superb grade 12 national senior certificate (matric) results. Government glows in the national spotlight and the minister claims, without empirical foundation, that we now have “a far more stable system”. What we seldom ask is, why? Why this extraordinary, flashy display of the results of one grade out of 12 with its outrageous claims?
Matric exam leak: High stakes - and the alternatives
Imagine you’re a NSC candidate in 2025, that examination everyone tells you is a make or break test of your future. Then you hear in the media that three papers leaked — mathematics, physical science, and English home language. Your heart sinks, you sweat, the family around you panics. Does this mean my results in those papers are null and void? Will we all be required to re-write those papers? You don’t feel you have the emotional or intellectual energy to do that again.
Rising xenophobia targets foreign teachers in SA
It is starting to get ugly out there again. Before, the hunt for foreign nationals happened on the streets of the townships where spaza shops were set alight or in the rural vineyard areas that made seasonal workers from other African countries the target. Now it is happening within some of our universities but also in government departments where the overwhelming majority of employees are black South Africans.
JONATHAN JANSEN | Xenophobia turns us into our own worst enemies
It is starting to get ugly out there again. Before, the hunt for foreign nationals happened on the streets of the townships where spaza shops were set alight or in the rural vineyard areas that made seasonal workers from other African countries the target. Now it is happening within some of our universities, but also in government departments where the overwhelming majority of employees are black South Africans.
You can’t fix basic problems of school system by tinkering with pass rate
The BMW M5 hybrid model (2025) goes from 0-100km/h in 3.5 seconds. Asking that my beloved 1976 VW Beetle achieves the same acceleration in less than a day is the kind of fantasy that keeps comedians in business. That is why the BOSA (Build One South Africa) proposal in parliament this week to abolish the 30% pass mark in high schools is the wrong vehicle for achieving a noble goal. My friend Mmusi Maimane needs to get off this high horse and saddle another one.
JONATHAN JANSEN | Abolishing 30% pass mark is wrong vehicle for achieving a noble goal
The BMW M5 hybrid model (2025) goes from 0-100km/h in 3.5 seconds. Asking that my beloved 1976 VW Beetle achieves the same acceleration in less than a day is the kind of fantasy that keep comedians in business. That is why the Build One South Africa proposal in parliament this week to abolish the 30% pass mark in high schools is the wrong vehicle for achieving a noble goal. My friend Mmusi Maimane needs to get off this high horse and saddle another one.
Honest conversations are so important with young people with behavioural problems
It is a memorable line from a favourite movie where Jafar muses of Aladdin, “Beneath the dirt and patches you are a diamond in the rough.” Every school has a few of them. Highly talented students with mild to severe behavioural problems. Sadly, schools do not always know how to deal with young people, often cast aside as misfits. They see only the dirt and patches and make judgments that can cost the individual, the family and society the benefits of such a talented persona.
JONATHAN JANSEN | Honest conversations are so important with young people with behavioural problems
It is a memorable line from a favourite movie where Jafar muses of Aladdin, “Beneath the dirt and patches you are a diamond in the rough.” Every school has a few of them. Highly talented students with mild to severe behavioural problems. Sadly, schools do not always know how to deal with young people, often cast aside as misfits. They see only the dirt and patches and make judgments that can cost the individual, the family and society the benefits of such a talented persona.
Go with maths or do maths lit? Parents and pupils, here’s your guide
It’s that time of the year again when about 1.13-million grade 9 pupils in South Africa must make their subject choices for the senior phase, the last three years of high school. That choice could damn them or help them and no subject is more crucial in such decision-making than whether to do mathematics or its intellectually less demanding cousin, mathematical literacy. Here are seven key considerations when making that all-important decision. Parents and pupils, listen up. One, be realistic.
JONATHAN JANSEN | Go with maths or do maths lit? Parents and pupils, here’s your guide
It’s that time of the year again when about 1.13-million grade 9 pupils in South Africa must make their subject choices for the senior phase, the last three years of high school. That choice could damn them or help them and no subject is more crucial in such decision-making than whether to do mathematics or its intellectually less demanding cousin, mathematical literacy. Here are seven key considerations when making that all-important decision. Parents and pupils, listen up. One, be realistic.
JONATHAN JANSEN | Seven vital lessons I learned from teaching high schoolers and undergrads this year
I have come to the end of an exhausting but fulfilling year in which I taught both high school science (chemistry) and university undergraduates (education policy). This experience has taught me seven vital lessons that, if heeded, could change the trajectory of education in South Africa. These insights fly in the face of seven stubborn myths about schooling in our country. One, that the pupils are the problem. Not true.
JONATHAN JANSEN | The macabre mayhem of Cape Flats funerals
I have been thoroughly traumatised by Cape Flats funerals these past few months. Too many of my friends and schoolmates are dropping dead ― “it’s your age group, Dad,” offers my daughter in a reassuring voice. That’s not the problem; it’s how they go. At a Cape Flats funeral, there is predictable chaos. Half the speakers are not on the printed programme.
Stop the dance of protest and address the root cause of violence
I am sick and tired of political performance in South Africa. We dance, sing and protest before we think. The routines are now familiar. Something bad happens. Protestors show up with threatening behaviour. They shout and shame perceived wrongdoers, long before the facts are in. Rumor adds to the fog — the beaten boy was a cancer sufferer or he was a bully himself. To hell with due process; mob justice is in the house.
JONATHAN JANSEN | What we got wrong with Milnerton High
I am sick and tired of political performance in South Africa. We dance, sing and protest before we think. The routines are now familiar. Something bad happens. Protesters show up with threatening behaviour. They shout and shame perceived wrongdoers long before the facts are in. Rumour adds to the fog: the beaten boy was a cancer sufferer or he was a bully himself. To hell with due process, mob justice is in the house.
The tragic costs of Fort Hare mayhem
The tragic costs of Fort Hare mayhem Premium By JONATHAN JANSEN - 23 October 2025 It is time to face an unpleasant reality: the University of Fort Hare might not be salvageable...
JONATHAN JANSEN | The hyenas encircling Fort Hare show no sign of leaving ― why?
It is time to face an unpleasant reality: the University of Fort Hare might not be salvageable. How many assessors has the famed institution had over the years, those experts sent in by the higher education department to make sense of the crisis and to recommend intervention? How many administrators have come and gone over the years to implement the recommendations of the assessors and allow the university to reset in management and/or governance?
Prof Buhlungu has shown great courage in tackling corruption at Fort Hare | Daily Maverick
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