Study Abroad in South Africa
South Africa truly is a world within one country!
South Africa is larger than France and Spain combined and
stretches from the temperate Cape to the subtropical
northern regions bordering with Zimbabwe and
Mozambique. In the boundaries of South Africa are some of the
world's most breathtaking landscapes; canyons,
wildernesses showcasing game and cliffs dropping to the ocean
South Africa, on the continent's southern tip, is
bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west and by the
Indian Ocean on the south and east. Its neighbors are
Namibia in the northwest, Zimbabwe and Botswana in the
north, and Mozambique and Swaziland in the northeast. The
kingdom of Lesotho forms an enclave within the
southeast part of South Africa, which occupies an area nearly
three times that of California.
The southernmost point of Africa is Cape Agulhas,
located in the Western Cape Province about 100 mi (161 km)
southeast of the Cape of Good Hope
Economy
South Africa has developed from an agrarian into a
modern industrial state since World War II. Today, the
economy is well-diversified and the country is capable
of producing a wide range of consumer and investment
goods. South Africa produces one fifth of the entire
production of the African continent.
The mining industry still plays a prominent part.
However, over the last few years, the country's economic
dependency on the export of raw materials, especially
on gold, has lessened.
The economy is based on foreign trade. More than half
of the gross national product (GNP) is achieved
through exports and imports. By investing in modern
production technologies after the apartheid era, South African
products became more and more competitive on the world
market. In 1996, an export surplus of about 8,7
billion Rand was achieved. Exports consist mainly of mineral
raw materials, agricultural produce, chemical
products, machinery, electric appliances and vehicles. Import
goods are machines, plastic products, chemicals and
also vehicles.
The main customer countries are: Japan (7.2 %), Italy
(6.2 %), USA (6.2 %), Germany (5.1 %), Great Britain
(4.8 %) and Zimbabwe (4.1 %). Imports mainly come from:
Germany (13 %), USA (11 %), Great Britain (10.5 %),
Japan (7.4 %), Italy (4.4 %) and France (3.2 %).
Population
Population growth rate: 0.26% (2001 est.)
Education system
Schools can be divided into two categories, namely
public schools and independent (private) schools. There
is also provision for special school education. The
levels of school education are pre-primary, primary and
secondary. Pre-primary caters for children from the age
of three years to school-going age and is not
compulsory. Primary education consists of two phases - junior
primary which includes grades 1, 2 and 3, and senior
primary which includes grades 4, 5 and 6. Secondary
education also consists of two phases - junior (grades 7,
8, 9) and senior (grades 10, 11, 12). Education is
compulsory for learners between the ages of seven and 15
years of age, or learners reaching the ninth grade,
whichever occurs first. A child enters grade 1 at the
beginning of the year in which he turns 7 years of age.
The school year in South Africa is from January to
December.
Basic learning activities during junior primary
involve learning to read, write and calculate, and the
development of language proficiency. During the senior
primary phase, learning activities centre on reading and
oral proficiency in the mother tongue and second
language, mathematics, history, geography, general science
and a skill such as needlework, woodwork or art. In the
junior secondary phase most subjects are compulsory,
while pupils have to choose two subjects in addition to
those already offered. At the end of the senior
secondary phase (grade 12), pupils write a public
examination in a minimum of six subjects. The examination in
each subject is conducted at three levels: higher,
standard and lower grade. It is this public examination
which determines whether a pupil is eligible to enter a
higher education institution.
Higher education includes technical college education,
teacher-training, technikon and university training.
There are 129 technical colleges in South Africa. The
courses at these colleges are very practice-orientated
and include theory and design. The levels of training,
examination and certification extend from N1 to N6.
South Africa has 21 fully-fledged universities and 15
technikons. Technikons provide degree studies.
Teacher-training is carried out at colleges of
education which offer three or four-year diploma courses for
initial qualifications for primary or secondary school
teachers.
Foreigners are allowed to study at South African
higher education institutions, but require a study visa to
do so. A study visa is granted on the fulfillment of
various conditions
Languages:
There are eleven official languages, including
Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga,
Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu
Some words in african are given below with their
english transaltions
| Engish | African |
| baby | mauna |
| hog | gooloo |
| back | nema |
| horse | valo |
Currency:
The official currency is the Rand (R).It is divided
into 100 Cents
Cities
The major cities of south africa :-
Messina
Pietersburg
Pretoria
Johannesburg
Upington
Kimberly
Bloemfontein
De Aar
Saldanha
Cape Town
Port Elizabeth
Mossel Bay
East London
Durban
Richards Bay
Ladysmith
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