William Smith | |
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Born | |
Education | St. Andrew's Preparatory School Union High School, Graaff-Reinet |
Alma mater | Rhodes University University of Natal |
Occupation(s) | television science and mathematics teacher |
Notable work | Order of the Baobab (silver) [1] |
Parents |
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William Macdonald Smith (born 25 June 1939 [2] ) is a South African science and mathematics teacher who is best known for his maths and science lessons on television. [1] Born in Makhanda (Grahamstown), he is the son of the ichthyologist Margaret Mary Smith and Professor J. L. B. Smith, the renowned chemist and ichthyologist who identified the coelacanth.
He attended St. Andrew's Prep before matriculating at Union High School in Graaff-Reinet. He then went on to study at Rhodes University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and chemistry, followed by an honours degree ( cum laude ) in chemistry at the same institution. Following that, he obtained a master's degree from the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg campus) in only seven months. [2]
During his time at school and university, Smith showed an interest in film and camerawork, scripting, shooting, and producing the 50-minute feature documentary, ‘The Garden Route,’ in 1960. The film was digitised and relaunched in 2010. [3]
He started working at African Explosives and Chemical Industries (AECI). [2] Deciding that he would rather pursue a teaching career, Smith left the industry and moved to the education sector, where he started 'Star Schools,' named for the mass-circulation Johannesburg newspaper, The Star, which published material that Smith prepared to support his lessons. [4] The aim of these schools is to provide value-for-money supplementary education with top-class teachers to prepare learners for their matriculation exams. During the next 25 years, Smith became famous throughout South Africa, winning a 'Teacher of the Year' award in 1991. [2]
Smith ran his first multi-racial school in the 1970s, despite problems with the Apartheid authorities. [4] At that time, education facilities were segregated under legislation such as the Bantu Education Act (1953), and black children were prohibited from attending classes on campuses that had been reserved for whites. Smith, however, never turned any black student away from any class, and made Star Schools more accessible by offering instruction in subjects that weren’t adequately covered by the Bantu Education system - such as mathematics and physical science. (Bantu Education was reserved for black learners, while Christian National Education was reserved for whites. Under Apartheid legislation, South Africa had as many as nineteen different education departments).
In 1990, Smith began producing The Learning Channel educational television programmes [5] with the financial backing of Hylton Appelbaum, then executive director of the Liberty Life Foundation. As a result of his work on this programme, Smith was voted as one of the top three presenters on South African television in 1998.
Smith is also a renowned conservationist and owned the Featherbed Nature Reserve in Knysna, where he lived until the sale of the land and company in 2008. [6] He was also the owner of 'Rivercat Ferries', which has several craft that cruise in the Knysna lagoon and out to sea.
He appeared along with Jeremy Mansfield in the popular South African television quiz show, A Word or 2. [7] Smith was also a judge for the Miss South Africa Pageant [8] in 1998 and 1999.
The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
The University of Cape Town (UCT) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest university in Sub-Saharan Africa in continuous operation.
Rhodes University is a public research university located in Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the province's oldest university, and it is the sixth oldest South African university in continuous operation, being preceded by the University of the Free State (1904), University of Witwatersrand (1896), University of South Africa (1873) as the University of the Cape of Good Hope, Stellenbosch University (1866) and the University of Cape Town (1829). Rhodes was founded in 1904 as Rhodes University College, named after Cecil Rhodes, through a grant from the Rhodes Trust. It became a constituent college of the University of South Africa in 1918 before becoming an independent university in 1951.
Knysna is a town with 76,150 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. and is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It is situated 60 kilometres east of the city of George on the N2 highway, and 33 kilometres west of the Plettenberg Bay on the same road.
The Bantu Education Act 1953 was a South African segregation law that legislated for several aspects of the apartheid system. Its major provision enforced racially-separated educational facilities; Even universities were made "tribal", and all but three missionary schools chose to close down when the government would no longer help to support their schools. Very few authorities continued using their own finances to support education for native Africans. In 1959, that type of education was extended to "non-white" universities and colleges with the Extension of University Education Act, and the University College of Fort Hare was taken over by the government and degraded to being part of the Bantu education system. It is often argued that the policy of Bantu (African) education was aimed to direct black or non-white youth to the unskilled labour market although Hendrik Verwoerd, the Minister of Native Affairs, claimed that the aim was to solve South Africa's "ethnic problems" by creating complementary economic and political units for different ethnic groups.
James Leonard Brierley Smith was a South African ichthyologist, organic chemist, and university professor. He was the first to identify a taxidermied fish as a coelacanth, at the time thought to be long extinct.
Education in South Africa is governed by two national departments, namely the Department of Basic Education (DBE), which is responsible for primary and secondary schools, and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), which is responsible for tertiary education and vocational training. Prior to 2009, both departments were represented in a single Department of Education. Among sub-Saharan African countries, South Africa has one of the highest literacy rates. According to The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency as of 2019, 95% of the population age 15 and over can read and write in South Africa were respectively literate.
Bonginkosi Emmanuel "Blade" Nzimande is a South African politician, sociologist, philosopher, educator, anti-apartheid activist and Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology. He was Minister of Transport from 2018 to 2019, and Minister for Higher Education and Training from 2009 to 2017. He was the General Secretary of the South African Communist Party from 1998 up until 2022.
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ThenjiweMoseley born Thenjiwe Maphumulo on 29 September 1977 is a South African comedian, actress, master of ceremonies and entrepreneur originating from KwaMashu, Durban. Professionally, she is simply known as Thenjiwe. She created and acted in Judge Thenjiwe Khambule and Meet the Khambules which aired on Moja Love. She is a goodwill ambassador for Southern Africa Embrace Foundation, Toronto and Great Impact, Durban. She is also a YouTube content creator and influencer, having been made famous by the sketches she posts on social media.
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Dirk Gysbert de Villiers, popularly known as Gys de Villiers, is a South African actor, musician, sculptor and writer. He is best known for the roles in the television soap operas Binnelanders and 7de Laan, as well as for the films; Traitors, Vehicle 19, On the Wire, and Inside Out.
Roberto Kyle, is a South African actor and vocalist He is best known for his role as Lee-Roy Foster in the soap opera Arendsvlei.
Featherbed Nature Reserve is a privately owned nature reserve on the Western Headland of the Knysna River Estuary on South Africa’s Garden Route.
Celeste Mitzi Karin Matthews is a South African actress, playwright, and City of Cape Town local government official elected to the City Council in 2021. She is best known for her roles as Gertie Cupido in kykNET & kie's Arendsvlei and Auntie Hester in David Kramer and Taliep Petersen's award-winning 2002 revival of District Six: The Musical (1987). Vincent Colby of the District Six Museum cites the musical play as the material which steered a pivotal discussion held in 1994 at the 'old church hall' in former District Six to establish a dedicated museum.
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