Lack of transformation will still linger after statues fall
THE unpleasant whiff of lack of transformation at South African universities will never go away.
That is until we scrutinise the basic education system that continues to produce under-prepared candidates for such institutions. The #RhodesMustFall debate is just the aftermath of the root cause of the problem.
It unprecedentedly unveiled so much about our educational ills: choking schools, recycled teachers and officials incapable of amending the system.
Rest assured the lack of transformation at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and other institutions of higher learning will still linger the day after the statue of Cecil John Rhodes is removed.
We are not seeing an increase of black professors and students in historically white universities simply because the education system has failed to harvest learners that can easily progress to PhD level.
The first black vice-chancellor at the University of the Free State Jonathan Jansen was able to place his finger on the problem. Debating this issue as a panellist at UCT ’ s Baxter Concert Hall on October 21 2014, Jansen admitted “transformation is not a straight line ”.
It involves a combination of socio-economic interventions. So “in practice it is difficult … messy, costly and sometimes life threatening ”.
Politicians that jumped at the opportunity to weigh in on the debate have disappointedly failed to look beyond the symbolic aspect of the problem.
As usual Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema took it up a notch, shifting focus from the Rhodes sculpture to the Louis Botha statue in front of parliament.
He has also pledged his party ’ s resources in taking down any other visible symbol of white privilege.
Although this will be, hypothetically speaking, the first symbolic step in trying to make people (or students in this case) feel more comfortable, it will not solve the problem.
Higher Education and Training Minister Blade “who-hardly-gets-it-right ” Nzimande, proved me wrong this time around. I couldn ’ t agree more with what the minister said about how institutions can radically change their entrenched ways.
Apart from him appealing to UCT students to protest peacefully, as he has always done, Nzimande asserted that “producing quality education and research is just as important as having appropriate symbols and changing demographics ”.
If the 2014 Annual National Assessment report is anything to go by, fewer future black students will successfully manoeuvre their way to the graduation hall. After all they will be competing with students from private schools that are used to scoring well above the 80% mark. The performance of grade nine pupils in mathematics and languages is scary.
Last year, grade nine learners obtained an average of 13% and 48% in the subjects respectively. Regardless, education officials make a spectacle of mediocre matric results during televised ceremonies. They stroke the furry wall by ignoring the warning signs and assure the nation the same set of interventions will yield a different outcome the following year.
The transformation debate should be kept alive but with caution. We have an even bigger problem on our hands; a rotting education system that threatens to derail our new legacy.
The legacy left by Rhodes is part of our DNA, with or without his statue. You do not need to be anti-Rhodes to get with the programme. Transformation will take more than causing apartheid and colonial statues to fall.
Gumede is a freelance writer and a radio talk show host
“In practice transformation is messy, costly and
life-threatening