Improved schooling can change the face of SA quickly

It is a pity that President Cyril Ramaphosa, in working to achieve a new beginning for SA, has not yet focused on basic education. Improved schooling has the potential to deliver substantial gains quite quickly in the living standards of the majority of South Africans.

The transformative potential of schooling is confirmed by the World Bank’s 2018 World Development Report, which is devoted to education. Referring to the economic and social benefits of education, it says: “For individuals, education promotes employment, earnings and health. It raises pride and opens new horizons. For societies, it drives long-term economic growth, reduces poverty, spurs innovation, strengthens institutions and fosters social cohesion.” These are clearly urgent needs for SA.

Importantly, they can be achieved quickly, because children pass through the schooling system rapidly. The report notes that at the end of the Korean War it was assumed that South Korea would not survive without foreign aid and that its ability to repay debt would be so constrained that even the World Bank should not lend to it. However, South Korea gave priority to educating its children well. The result is a prosperous country whose children perform with the very best in various international learning assessments.

There are many other examples of rapid education success. Vietnam was ravaged by war and misrule for generations, yet in 2012 it performed as well as Germany in an assessment of the learning attainments of 15-year-olds.

The World Bank cautions that teaching and learning each needs careful attention. Simply increasing the amount of teaching is not enough. What matters is the quality of learning. This is why if we are to improve schooling, learning progress must be regularly assessed. The World Bank argues that assessment is necessary not as “tools for administering rewards and punishments” by identifying good or bad teachers as may be feared. Rather, it is necessary to identify where children are being left behind, enabling the government to “spotlight hidden exclusions, make choices, and evaluate progress”. Without assessment we cannot know when children begin to struggle and fall behind and whether costly interventions are yielding hoped-for improvements.

The World Bank’s second requirement for schooling success is to focus on proven interventions. It notes that “evidence on how people learn has exploded”. Countries can adopt a range of schooling innovations that draw on these new understandings. The early years of schooling are where significant victories can be won. If left unaddressed, a child’s learning weaknesses compound with each additional year. The inability to master the basics of reading and numbers early on morphs into serious obstacles to sustained learning in the middle and later years of school. By then, it is too late.

There are plenty of ways to fix these weaknesses. Much has been written about the inability of our Grade 4 pupils to understand what they are reading. Yet a Grahamstown initiative identified that the reading ability of Grade 3s was one and a half years behind where it ought to have been. After a one-year “catch-up” intervention by the school, the average reading ability had improved to the point where children were reading as required at the end of Grade 3.

The state should announce plans to replicate this sort of improvement nationwide in the next three to five years.

However, the World Bank warns there is a third requirement, which is “to make the whole system work for learning”. It warns that classroom innovations will not succeed if technical and political barriers prevent the system as a whole from supporting learning.

This is probably Ramaphosa’s greatest challenge. To be effective, our schools require systemic support at district, provincial and national levels. As a small illustration, the inability of officials to advertise timeously for a new school principal may be a greater hindrance to teaching than any weaknesses at the school itself.

Regular assessment, innovation and supportive systems are the keys for turning education into meaningful learning. Does SA have the will to follow global best practice and fix our schools?

FOR INDIVIDUALS, EDUCATION PROMOTES EMPLOYMENT, EARNINGS AND HEALTH. IT RAISES PRIDE AND OPENS NEW HORIZONS FOR SOCIETIES, IT DRIVES ECONOMIC GROWTH, REDUCES POVERTY, SPURS INNOVATION, STRENGTHENS INSTITUTIONS AND FOSTERS COHESION