Thousands of 2012 Matrics are chewing through their nailbeds as we chew the cud, awaiting the state school Matric results. No one expects them to be as spectacular as the IEB ones...which had commentators gushing about the quality of South African private schools - comparable to the best in the world, etc, etc. And then we have the quality of "the others", producing results that compare well with the worst in the world.
Everyone knows there is a problem, lurking somewhere in the chasm between the two. Everyone has something to say about the probable causes, and admirable initiatives to improve South African education abound. Between activist NGO's, corporate support initiatives, private and faith-based projects and sheer dogged determination on the part of selected individual learners, progress is made on a variety of fronts. I have three suggestions, aimed at producing sustainable results in the medium term while making school immediately a lot less torturous and senseless for most learners, especially the underserved rural ones:
1. Forget about the constant harping on maths and science education as a priority. Maths and science will always be there for those interested and drawn to them. GET THE BASICS RIGHT FIRST. Concentrate on language issues, and make sure that ALL learners go to school and learn new concepts in the language they are most comfortable with. The rest, believe me, or if you don't, check worldwide statistics and experience, will follow by itself. Sending children to school in a language they battle with is a sure-fire way of screwing up their heads for life. Killing off the potential of generations of children through sheer laxity, neglect or lack of political will is heinous. Stop it. You have the resources and the expertise, government. Make it happen if you are in the least interested in the well-being of the people who have elected you to govern.
2. Foster a culture of pride in obtaining knowledge and lifelong learning. That would be the equivalent of "kill the NAFI germ" that seems to have reached endemic proportions in the majority of South African children, teens and young adults. To start on this project, one of the first steps would be to remove all traces of the entitlement mentality that has teachers, administrators, unions and learners in its thrall. Nothing is gained by doing nothing, holding your hand out and blaming others for your lack of success. This needs to be drilled into learners from the first contact with formal schooling. Maybe, over a generation or so, it will be drilled in at home as it will become the prevalent way of thinking. The worst example South African children have is the Sunday Times Mampara of 2012. The current South African dream is a dreadful, nightmarish twist on the American one: you can become president even if you have no education to speak of. Then you can have lots of wives, children and things ( = consume madly), act like a fool, do the most seriously corrupt and stupid things, and still try to act like you're not only president but also a champion psychologist in trying to "decolonise people's minds". We have to move away from any thinking along those lines, otherwise any and all current initiatives aimed at improving education in SA are doomed to fail in the long run.
3. Encourage a wide frame of reference. The more things, people, places, ideas and facts children know about, the more intelligent choices they are able to make when the time comes for career decisions. And the better they will know themselves and where they fit into the bigger picture. At the moment, because of past inequalities, even many in decision-making position know preciously little about not only their own subject matter, but seriously important issues around it. That not only results in a "lack of capacity", but in the worst cases PERPETUATES ignorance and has horrendous practical implications for anyone in that particular sphere of influence. To illustrate the last complicated sentence: I am aware of an FET-level work-readiness programme of which the tender gets awarded to the same company year after year - and the programme is based on outdated Scientology material, full of glaring inaccuracies and techniques that are utterly useless for South African circumstances. Is the person who awards the tender, spending South African taxpayers' money on advancing Scientology, a closet Scientologist working undercover? Or just terribly uninformed and in the process jeopardising thousands of students' ability to perform meaningfully in their field of study?
I have seen more than one tender process go very wrong through either corruption (subject of other blogs and opinions) or sheer ignorance on the part of those in control. South Africa could have had a thriving agritourism industry in the rural areas if the consortium with the knowledge and expertise had been awarded a certain tender in 2005. But because people in control were greedy and UNINFORMED it never happened, and is still not happening.
These things do not get sorted out in a year. But we can make a start this year, in our respective spheres of influence. We MUST immediately embark on a scientific approach to language in education. We MUST kill nafiness and its causes wherever we encounter it. And we MUST provide resources and access to them to all children so that they can see the world as a whole and spot their place in it. At FUNDAMENTAL SKILLS we are committed to these ideals, and we will support - with encouragement or materials or expertise, wherever we see them implemented elsewhere.
Everyone knows there is a problem, lurking somewhere in the chasm between the two. Everyone has something to say about the probable causes, and admirable initiatives to improve South African education abound. Between activist NGO's, corporate support initiatives, private and faith-based projects and sheer dogged determination on the part of selected individual learners, progress is made on a variety of fronts. I have three suggestions, aimed at producing sustainable results in the medium term while making school immediately a lot less torturous and senseless for most learners, especially the underserved rural ones:
1. Forget about the constant harping on maths and science education as a priority. Maths and science will always be there for those interested and drawn to them. GET THE BASICS RIGHT FIRST. Concentrate on language issues, and make sure that ALL learners go to school and learn new concepts in the language they are most comfortable with. The rest, believe me, or if you don't, check worldwide statistics and experience, will follow by itself. Sending children to school in a language they battle with is a sure-fire way of screwing up their heads for life. Killing off the potential of generations of children through sheer laxity, neglect or lack of political will is heinous. Stop it. You have the resources and the expertise, government. Make it happen if you are in the least interested in the well-being of the people who have elected you to govern.
2. Foster a culture of pride in obtaining knowledge and lifelong learning. That would be the equivalent of "kill the NAFI germ" that seems to have reached endemic proportions in the majority of South African children, teens and young adults. To start on this project, one of the first steps would be to remove all traces of the entitlement mentality that has teachers, administrators, unions and learners in its thrall. Nothing is gained by doing nothing, holding your hand out and blaming others for your lack of success. This needs to be drilled into learners from the first contact with formal schooling. Maybe, over a generation or so, it will be drilled in at home as it will become the prevalent way of thinking. The worst example South African children have is the Sunday Times Mampara of 2012. The current South African dream is a dreadful, nightmarish twist on the American one: you can become president even if you have no education to speak of. Then you can have lots of wives, children and things ( = consume madly), act like a fool, do the most seriously corrupt and stupid things, and still try to act like you're not only president but also a champion psychologist in trying to "decolonise people's minds". We have to move away from any thinking along those lines, otherwise any and all current initiatives aimed at improving education in SA are doomed to fail in the long run.
3. Encourage a wide frame of reference. The more things, people, places, ideas and facts children know about, the more intelligent choices they are able to make when the time comes for career decisions. And the better they will know themselves and where they fit into the bigger picture. At the moment, because of past inequalities, even many in decision-making position know preciously little about not only their own subject matter, but seriously important issues around it. That not only results in a "lack of capacity", but in the worst cases PERPETUATES ignorance and has horrendous practical implications for anyone in that particular sphere of influence. To illustrate the last complicated sentence: I am aware of an FET-level work-readiness programme of which the tender gets awarded to the same company year after year - and the programme is based on outdated Scientology material, full of glaring inaccuracies and techniques that are utterly useless for South African circumstances. Is the person who awards the tender, spending South African taxpayers' money on advancing Scientology, a closet Scientologist working undercover? Or just terribly uninformed and in the process jeopardising thousands of students' ability to perform meaningfully in their field of study?
I have seen more than one tender process go very wrong through either corruption (subject of other blogs and opinions) or sheer ignorance on the part of those in control. South Africa could have had a thriving agritourism industry in the rural areas if the consortium with the knowledge and expertise had been awarded a certain tender in 2005. But because people in control were greedy and UNINFORMED it never happened, and is still not happening.
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