Our education system is beset with problems

Funding is not the problem so where does all the money go, asks

from Germiston

JR Whitlock

There is no doubt that Bantu education was inferior to that of whites during apartheid, and that funding was also skewed towards white schools. However, after 23 years of ANC rule, Angie Motshekga, the minister of education, has admitted that South African schools are in a crisis that is “akin to a national crisis”.

Funding is no longer a problem as over 6% of GDP is spent on education – more than any other African country. In his 2016 budget speech, Pravin Gordhan budgeted R297.5 billion for education, of which R205.8 billion was allocated to basic education. Where does all this money go? In 2014-15 South Africa’s maths and science ranked last out of 140 countries. In 2015, 213 000 pupils out of nearly 800 000 pupils failed their end of year exams (26,6%).

This is apart from the massive drop-out rate. More than half of pupils starting in Grade 1 drop out over the 12-year period.

In a recent study by Stellenbosch University the following problems were highlighted.

Poor teacher content knowledge, and the inability to impart knowledge effectively; the closure of teachers’ training colleges; multiple and continual changes in the curriculum and policy; the fact that the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union officials “had captured the education system”; and in many schools “fewer than half the official curriculum is being covered by the end of the academic year”.