Deep inequality in society is reflected in an unequal education system
WHEN we write letters to the press, we often, because of the limitation of space, write cryptically, in a shorthand fashion, and we trust that thoughtful readers will, in a sense, read also between the lines and add the implied inferences and draw appropriate conclusions.
However, in so doing, we also invite any number of mischief makers to nitpick, deflect and sow confusion, to the point that those of us who attempt to cast a revealing light on some serious anomalies within our society can be dubbed as being “misguided”.
The crisis in the schools of the poor has been highlighted, painted and analysed beyond description. The work of Jonathan Jansen, Aslam Fataar, Saliem Vally and Enver Motalla, Richard Pithouse, lately also Xolela Mangcu and countless other academics and commentators all concur that “we have not had the game-changing intervention that alters the essential character of dysfunctionality in (poor schools)…
“Discipline is one, but one critical element in this equation. What goes for the nation, goes for this province too.”
What measures have the WCED put in place to ameliorate the negative impact on poor schools of some policies for which the national Education Department stands to be blamed? The school communities of the wealthy elite quickly recognised the egregious effect the removal of 7 000 posts will have on the education of their children, and put in place measures to make sure their schools do not lose any teachers. Poor school communities were/are unable to do likewise.
What was/is the response of the WCED? All schools are treated equally as per the Schools Act of 1996. So, while some schools were able to keep their full staff component, other schools were reduced to half the number of teachers they had before. Transformation is a costly affair. Poor people know this better than all because it always hits them in the gut. Others can parry and deflect the cost. Those who struggle to put bread on the table, keep a roof over their heads and pay school fees can’t. So, we have an understanding and an appreciation of the strains and stresses of the budgetary process.
But the Western Cape provincial government, and by extension its education department, is by no means a poor household. It has unspeakable (to some of us) resources that can fund the building and upkeep of grand, “world-class” white elephants.
The WCED has the wherewithal to spend countless millions on litigation to close poor schools, and more on opposing, in court, the demands for justice of a teacher who has suffered severe abuse and injury at the hands of a pupil. “It is not acceptable for the right to schooling of other willing pupils to be sacrificed on the altar of the rights of disruptive and destructive individuals.”
But the rights of precisely those guilty ones are now championed by some, who, through dodgy maths and dubious financial analyses, try to convince us that a decent education for the poor is not feasible.
When the current generation (and earlier ones) of teachers and principals were at school, the only form of discipline they experienced, both at home and at school, was the lash or cane. Probably the most common refrain between an adult and a child who displeased said adult in some way is: “I’ll hit you!” To load the correction of something so fundamental as this on to principals, who themselves were schooled in this way, is simply diabolic. Clearly the WCED should have embarked on a massive training programme to empower teachers with alternative ways to discipline errant pupils. This was not done.
The deep inequality in our society is reflected in the unequal education system in operation, which in itself is one of the mechanisms that maintains the status quo. All this is underpinned by the simple but brutal logic (or illogic, if you like) of the Zero-Sum. It’s a logic that informs all exploitative and repressive systems. It informs racism and xenophobia. It says simply that the less we give them, the more we have for ourselves. If this were not so, they would break the bank in order to transform the country and our divided and exploitative society.
But there is an alternative logic. This is one that says every individual has an intrinsic value and can contribute to the collective talent pool if given the opportunity to develop to his or her fullest potential. It is also a logic that showcases the strength of a society through the way it treats its weakest citizens. Only a free, fair and materially equal-quality education system bears the hope of lifting us out of this morass.
Leith is a retired teacher