MEC on mission to ditch Irish coffee education
EDUCATION MEC Panyaza Lesufi is on a quest to change the complexion of South Africa’s education system.
Since his appointment, Lesufi has confronted many challenges including the “Irish coffee” education.
“Our education system is like an Irish coffee, black at the bottom and white on top.
“We must start to create a South African coffee and not an Irish coffee. It mustn’t be that education continues to be bad because we don’t take poor people seriously,” said the man who caused a stir when he started distributing electronic tablets at poor schools.
“People must know that privilege must not determine the nature of the education that you get,” said Lesufi.
Under his leadership, children shouldn’t “smell chalk” or be sent outside to clean a chalkboard duster.
That type of learning belonged in a museum, he said.
Lesufi was speaking at a Women in Sports and Broadcasting Workshop hosted by SuperSport TV sports commentator Baba Mthethwa at the weekend.
Emphasis must be placed on education in order to address a number of social ills plaguing the country, he said.
“We are creating a country where people are quick to blame. Even when the weather is not right, they (people) want to blame this government. It can’t be so,” he said.
But the biggest challenge confronting the youth was alcohol, he pointed out.
“The way we are drinking is too much. The problem of alcohol is that it leads to sex, and related to sex is teenage pregnancy and diseases.”
Lesufi said pupils should not depend on “sugar daddies and Ben 10s (young men)”.
They must be empowered through education to stand on their own and not rely on handouts or wait for employment opportunities.
“I don’t want a girl to go and queue for a social grant. I want to empower her so that she can earn a salary, which will be her own social grant. I don’t want them queuing for an RDP house. I want that child to be able to buy his or her own house.
“When they are finished with their education, I don’t want them, when asked how much they earn, to say ‘this much’. “I want them to say ‘I don’t earn a salary, I pay salaries’,” he said.