Fix education from bottom
THE Dispatch editor’s statement “getting the foundation phase right” (DD, January 18) struck a chord. At last it appears someone is on the right path to solving our country’s dismal education record over the past 20 years.
Of the 120 000 grade 1 pupils who reported for the first day of their schooling life, how many will have attended pre-schooling?
My guess is less than 10%! And here lies the kernel of the country’s education debacle.
How can one expect a six-year-old child to achieve the required levels of intellect and the resilience necessary to pursue careers in higher education in 12 years’ time, having been denied the benefit of developing the brain in its most important phase – from six months to six years old with sponge-like absorption.
This deficit will undoubtedly result in a permanent state of “catch-up” , further handicapped by equally spirit-sapping tangible shortcomings in teacher/pupil ratios, transport, textbooks et al.
If the new ANC leadership is serious about putting the country FIRST then it must start with the foundation of our future, our children. — Rob, Gonubie
Clean up gutter gardens
ON WEDNESDAY morning I had photographs taken of the weeds in the gutters along Bonza Bay Road near Retail Park, East London – some were almost as tall as me!
This is an incredibly busy road, with hundreds of cars passing per hour, and this was what visitors to our metro saw this holiday. Multiply this scene across the metro – there are weeds growing in gutters and around lamp-posts along most main thoroughfares.
Despite many colleagues reporting the problem and begging for the gutters to be cleared out and swept before the holiday season began, nothing was done.
While I acknowledge that the weeds along Bonza Bay Road were cleared on Thursday, the problem persists all over our city and cannot be ignored. Why should BCM be known for it’s “gutter gardens” when we have so much more to offer the visitors to our metro! — Marion Mackley, DA councillor for Beacon Bay, Ward 28
New head, new deal
I AM a strong believer in the saying “a fish rots from the head”.
The new ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa represents something entirely fresh, new and honourable that will ripple down.
He is a beacon of hope and the sentiments he has expressed so far are exactly what one would expect of a true leader given the current situation.
That he also practices what he preaches is the second in the order of things.
So far he has been perfectly on point, but he will need to become the state president pretty soon in order to action all the things that he promised – in the ANC 106th birthday statement and earlier.
If he and the ANC national executive committee can deliver on these undertakings to the people of South Africa, then the ANC will undoubtedly obtain a two thirds majority in the general elections of next year.
Everything Ramaphosa said in East London on January 8 was what our people have been desperate to hear.
The forces of division have finally been dealt a fatal blow. Viva ANC!
Hope has finally dawned upon the nation of South Africa. Amandla! — Viwe Sidali, ANC activist, Duncan Village