‘We dive, fall and fail unaided’
A quality education is still out of reach for many of our rural schoolchildren
AS much as the fourth Global Sustainable Development Goal seeks to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning, in South Africa only a few are granted a conducive learning environment to achieve quality education.
In 2017, visiting some rural schools is equivalent to committing suicide. Part of you dies with them. The poverty and sorrow in their sad faces is just unbearable. I always go to a school and regret imprinting my feet in the yard.
At Middle Zolo Senior Secondary in Ngqamakhwe in the Eastern Cape, the conditions were bad last year and they still are. The school is one of those that obtained a 0% pass rate in National Senior Certificate exams last year.
It’s sad to say but I think the school will have 0% matric pass rate this year as well as there is no improvement.
I think relevant stakeholders working closely with the Department of Education should be dedicated to focus on improving the resources and infrastructure in rural schools.
By now there should be a national programme for rural schools to equip them with learning materials, libraries, toilets and repair windows, leaking roofs and desks.
I am making mention particularly of Middle Zolo Senior Secondary because last year only four candidates sat for the matric exams which alone is a tragedy and impacts negatively on the image of the school.
The impression I got in the village, is that once you have failed the previous year, you sit at home and do nothing and those who are in Grade 12 are waiting for their turn to fail and join the “stay at home” team.
I don’t blame these pupils for being discouraged because they feel abandoned by the government who fails to provide them with extra support in and outside classrooms.
I think the government can assist the youth in rural areas by providing life orientation and counselling programmes for pupils and also open vocational training centres to improve the skills of those who have failed in previous years and are not working.
When 18 schools obtained 0% pass rate in the exams last year, I thought I would see an improvement this year, particularly in rural schools.
However, so far there has been absolutely no enhancement. You get to a class and notice that pupils, especially in grades 11 and 12 are directionless, not because they are stupid but they are failing to understand what they are taught.
Among the 18 “0%” schools, 10 were from KwaZulu-Natal, four from Limpopo, two from Eastern Cape and two from Gauteng.
This is indeed a sign that we dive, fall and fail unaided if there are no government officials to provide quality education for all.
We are now two months away from this year’s final matric exams, but I can tell you most of the pupils in rural areas are blank.
Which makes one curious about what plans were put in place or programmes implemented to rescue these schools from a 0% pass rate in the next matric exam?
The government has done nothing because pupils have no resources, especially learning materials and the necessary information, to prepare them for the exams and that’s when women stand together to try and seek help for their children.
Not that men don’t care, but I have noticed that women are the overseers of what happens in most homes especially in rural areas and any income they make from their piece jobs, immensely benefits their children’s education and other family needs.
I must say that illiterate women in rural areas are just too magical.
The majority of them are unemployed, don’t know English, can’t count, can’t write and read but they are the pillars of their families.
Some have never been on a school premises but they work hard so that their children can get education. And as each year certain schools in rural areas are faced with a 0% matric pass rate, mothers wipe tears away from their children’s faces. It is mothers who gives hope and instil the undying hunger for education.
It is true that when parents participate in their children’s education, pupils’ attitudes improve.
However, if productive partnerships between schools, the government and families lacks, then our goal for quality education for all becomes unattainable.
To assist rural schools that received a 0% matric pass rate, we need to put in place internal controls to increase accountability, transparency of the learning process and the use of resources for education at all government levels and in the classroom.
A proper education has the potential to increase the income-generating capacity of South Africa’s majority poor and so we must fight for a quality education for everyone.