Big day for kids as school year begins

TODAY is a big day for children across the country as they go back to school for the official start of the new year. There will be excitement and some trepidation, especially for those in Grade 1 and Grade 8 who are in a new environment, while for those returning to a school and classmates they already know, there is the benefit of familiarity to ease the first-day nerves.

It is also a big day for teachers, on whose shoulders rests the responsibility of creating optimal learning conditions for those in their classes.

In an opinion piece this week, the former Gauteng MEC of Education and director-general of the Department of Higher Education and Training, Mary Metcalfe, reflected on the improved matric results of 2019, especially the progress made by schools in quintiles 1-3, which serve poorer communities.

But she also reminded us that not everyone who starts school will finish well or even finish at all, and that this is an area where further intervention is needed.

The DA said that, in 2017, 1052080 learners were enrolled in grade 10, yet only 409906 passed matric last year.

As Metcalfe says, it is in the classroom where education improves (we would add with the support of family in the home) and we need to build success from the foundation phase upwards. This includes improving numeracy and literacy from an early age, and providing teachers with the resources and support they need to improve their capacity to teach well.

Good teachers and school improvement programmes have shown how they can lift learners’ achievements and allow them to succeed.

For all starting a fresh school year today, we wish them a happy and successful one.

It is furthermore our wish that the 2020 school year is one not beset by labour problems and strike interruptions; that there are no racist incidents to detract, nor bullying, sexual preying on learners and tragedies such as children dying in pit latrines.