Where are the people in ANC’S education proposals?

WHAT the African National Congress (ANC) has to say about education in its policy proposals (and hence at its policy conference) will seriously affect the quality of education, as well as the lives of young South Africans, for years to come. We do not need to remind readers that education is in crisis.

Sadly, little of this is apparent in the draft policy documents. Indeed, though education is listed as the top national priority in various government statements, one would struggle to notice this. Most surprisingly, for a political movement especially, politics is virtually absent from the drafts. Where are the people? How can a political movement not mention the role of a mobilised and organised people in the search for solutions?

Education fails to give young children foundations of reading and counting. Poor basics lead to insufficient high-level skills for a developing nation, a shortage of scientists, accountants, lawyers and business people, let alone artists and poets to interpret our transition. Plumbers and electricians find a weak and uneven vocational further education and training system. We, as adults, are failing the new nonracial generations that expect this democracy to work for them.

This absence is most apparent in the absence of the young themselves. It is surely around our children that education revolves? As we approach Youth Day and beyond, we should be aware of the role young people have played in our freedom. Today, the disciplined actions of Equal Education and its calls for libraries in all schools, for minimum norms and standards, should alert us to the role that the young continue to play.

For years, the ANC and the internal mass democratic movement, in formations such as the United Democratic Front and the National Education Crisis Committee, took care of the schoolchildren and engaged with the concerns of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas). We cannot meet the young only in disciplinary committees when it is too late. Cosas in 1981 was among the first to adopt the Freedom Charter with its startling promise that the “doors of learning and culture shall be opened.”

And surely something needs to be said about teachers? Accountability and management are essential for teachers, as well as officials, principals and even politicians. The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), has a proud history. It is a middle-class organisation that has an inordinate influence in the ANC and union movement. It organises almost 240 000 of 390 000 teachers in the public sector. As a giant, it could do much to advance struggles around education.

Sadtu’s current focus, largely on the immediate negotiating needs of its members, and its use of real backlogs and problems only to make excuses for its work, belies its proud origins and negates the crucial contribution it should be making. Teachers and the ANC are betraying themselves if they do not develop concrete strategies to make teacher unions a central part of education quality change.

A vision for education, calls for excellence and for hard work to create a learning nation are severely lacking. To encourage arts, sports and debating, let alone better achievement in maths and literacy at the foundation phase, we will have to look beyond the government’s Action Plan 2014 or the National Planning Commission or ANC policy proposals.

What is the role of parents and communities? There is no understanding of how partnerships will be built, of how communities will discover their voices and fight for the rights of their children, or pressure provincial governments that neglect to deliver textbooks or to rebuild mud schools or to allocate teachers to where they are needed.

So we may tackle the ANC on detail. Draft resolutions for a new state publishing company may reduce costs, but it is hard to set up and can distract from priorities. Free university education may come at the cost of basics, or burden future generations. Language parity is essential. Of course, Chinese students learn in Chinese, Arabic students in Arabic. English is not always superior. Do we start with teacher training or with textbooks? How will we encourage a reading culture among adults and youth alike?

How will we get there, beyond rhetoric? What are the concrete plans, how will they be implemented and how will we pay? Without jobs, what is the meaning of education?

There is much work to be done.

Bloch is visiting adjunct professor at the Wits School of Public and Development Management.