Idea won’t improve education

ON March 25 there was an article on HeraldLIVE about a group of young people calling themselves the #NationalisePrivateSchools National Task Team who in a statement released on March 24 called for the nationalisation of private schools and “commodification” of education (“Call to nationalise private schools”).

I am a bit confused by the use of the term “commodification”.

According to The Cambridge Dictionary this means: the fact that something is treated or considered as a commodity, that is a product that can be bought and sold.

Private education is already a commodity.

Their being poor students, their desire to nationalise private schools is in conflict with commodification, as they are not able to pay the fees (buy the product).

The group is understandably unhappy with the low standard of public education vs the high standard of (expensive) private education.

I have sympathy for their desire for equality in education.

For much too long the poor and even the middle class (especially those in rural areas) have suffered from sub-standard education and limited resources.

They have been let down by the Department of Basic Education and are not afforded the same opportunities as the children of rich parents.

We would love to see a high standard of education supported by competent and motivated teachers, adequate resources and parental involvement in the running of schools across the country.

But this is not the reality and it won’t be in the near or not-so-near future.

The department is struggling to support and manage the schools currently under its care.

If thousands of private schools were to be added, it simply would not cope and it would lead to a severe drop in quality.

Yes, we would have equality, but at what cost?

If all pupils were submitted to overcrowding, insufficient resources and demotivated teachers our country would face a dark future.

The statement in the report that I found most alarming was, “The government should directly have control over what is being taught to its young people”.

If we allow the government to dictate/ control what is being taught, we might as well kiss our democracy goodbye and burn the constitution.

Parents and children should have a choice of education options (be it home education, public schools, cottage schools or private schools) as well as in the choice of curricula (using different approaches suited to the child’s way of learning, and subjects that will support and grow their skills and talents). Parents should be co-opted as partners in education and should be given the opportunity to take responsibility for the education of their children.

It is after all their children, not the government’s children, that are the concern.

This is the only way we can raise a nation that will be leaders, innovators, critical thinkers and entrepreneurs.

In the words of this group, “young people (we) can no longer be subjected to an education system that says to us ‘forget all your skills and talents and focus on learning so you can work for someone else’ ”.

Anelle Burger, Cape Town