Angie gets dose of harsh reality

BASIC Education Minister Angie Motshekga put a brave face on the Class of 2016 matric results‚ but she woke up on Friday to a dose of harsh reality.

Readers of respected weekly magazine The Economist were greeted by a headline that read: “SA has one of the world’s worst education systems: Why it is bottom of the class”.

“In a league table of education systems drawn up in 2015 by the OECD club of mainly rich countries‚ SA ranks 75th out of 76‚” the article reports.

“In November, the latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (Timss)‚ a quadrennial test sat by 580 000 pupils in 57 countries‚ had SA at or near the bottom of its various rankings‚ though its scores had improved since 2011. Its children are behind those in poorer parts of the continent.

“A shocking 27% of pupils who have attended school for six years cannot read‚ compared with 4% in Tanzania and 19% in Zimbabwe.

“After five years of school about half cannot work out that 24 divided by three is eight. Only 37% of children starting school go on to pass the matriculation exam, just 4% earn a degree.”

The Economist says few countries spend so much on education to so little effect. And it points the finger of blame at the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union‚ quoting from a report published in May which found widespread corruption in teacher appointments.

“The government has done little in response. Perhaps this is unsurprising; all six of the senior civil servants running education are Sadtu members‚” it says. There are rays of hope in the shape of low-cost private schools run by companies like Spark and Future Nation‚ as well as the “collaboration schools” pilot in the Western Cape‚ funded by the state but run by independent operators.