Schweizer-Reneke: costly lessons learnt
THE dust over Schweizer-Reneke has not yet settled.
Costly lessons were learnt and communities, schools and teachers will have to take note and guide their approach to schools and education accordingly. This is election year and, as in the past, education may be abused by political parties for their own gain. Their actions will not necessarily be in the best interests of education.
It is well known that amendments are being made to the SA Schools Act, which aims at the dramatic restriction of the limited autonomy of school governing bodies (SGBs).
It is clear Schweizer-Reneke could be the catalyst for an intensified onslaught on schools. The original purpose of the SA Schools Act was to move away from the pre-1976 model of state schools to public schools and to enable communities to establish schools and extensions of the democratic values and norms of their communities through their SGBs.
But it seems education decision-makers have been hardened in their resolve by the emotive opposition to the amendments and the pronouncements of senior educators, as well as political parties, and therefore a reversal of the envisaged legislative changes can be difficult.
Schools and teachers will have to reconsider management of classrooms and lesson presentations with an extremely critical eye.
The approach of Schweizer-Reneke Primary School makes a lot of sense from a pragmatic perspective, but it is clear that sound educational arguments will not easily be accepted by an education department that peers through subjective, political spectacles rather than focusing on educational merit: the approach simply means that bona fide teaching staff who strive for efficient quality education are easily abused.
The ills and abuses of social media that spread like wildfire must undoubtedly also be taken into account.
Schools, parents and educators will have to ensure that any message and/ or photo they decide to send/post will survive in the highly charged political environment in the future.
In this particular case, the lesson learnt about how easily selective messages for selfish purposes can be abused turned out to be a very expensive lesson indeed.
The stereotyping of Afrikaans communities is clearly still a convenient stick with which to beat communities such as Schweizer-Reneke, while the refutation of misconceptions is equally clearly not what the education authorities have in mind. Any attempt by a minority community to establish a school, representative of a particular character, will be deliberately misinterpreted and distorted. How these misconceptions can be reversed will undoubtedly require the wisdom of Solomon. However, what is clear is that minority communities will have to think really deeply about how to address erroneously held perceptions.
Similarly, if the method of inquiry driven by the North-West Department of Education is taken as a benchmark, education staff would be well-advised not to establish their trust in their employers.
It became obvious that populist demands carried greater weight than the interests of educators. A skilled, professional teacher who does not initially and consciously register the colour of her pupils is sacrificed, without a blink of an eye and with no respect whatever for her labour rights.
It is therefore clear that the role of trade unions in protecting educators from intimidation and abuse of power will increase exponentially in complexity.
It was expected that a well-balanced and educated department of education would act immediately and prevent pupils from panicking when protesters entered the school grounds illegally. But exactly the opposite happened: the pandemonium was misused to promote a politically-driven agenda.
Furthermore, it was also notable that they objected to the presence of guards to protect the school grounds, pupils and staff.
This one-eyed approach, which does not aim at protecting and enhancing education, is probably the main reason why the vast majority of schools in the province are doing so poorly. Any school that performs well in spite of great challenges will probably only increase their embarrassment and ire and further prevent them from actually getting to grips with broadbased education.
The reality is that elections will take place soon, service delivery at all levels is a miserable failure and the only way to divert the attention of voters is to focus on a functioning school and bang the populist drum.
It does not require a Joseph in a Technicolor dreamcoat to predict that such an approach is myopic in the extreme as it will do nothing about the pitiful departmental and regional service and the upliftment of under-performing schools.
What it is quite clear is that school communities are at the forefront of a political threat and that they need to be extremely careful in terms of current education practices and statements. No slip will be overlooked by those who would seek to use it against them for own political gain.