Effective education depends on quality teachers

“STRESSED teachers need support”, POST, September 16, refers.

Section 29 of the our constitution states that everyone has the right to a basic education, including adult and further education. The state must make education progressively available and accessible to all.

We have the money and we have the government that allocates the largest part of government expenditure to education.

It’s not about money, but lack of vision, political will, and commitment by you and me as citizens. Despite these resources, our education system is the worse on the African continent.

The standard of education in South Africa is too low and with the new curriculum, the quality of the matric pass has been sacrificed at the expense of quantity.

Pupils who don’t make the grade to pass primary and secondary class examinations are pushed through, and most entering university are illprepared and lacking the basic reading, writing, comprehension and numeracy skills required at university level.

Effective education in a school depends on the quality of the teachers. It is the intent, energy and commitment of teachers that are the indicators of quality, rather than the qualifications and years of experience.

The quality of people teaching in government schools is scary. South Africa does not have professional teachers, we have “workers who are not high level professionals”.

It is shocking that despite being qualified on paper, many of the country’s teachers do not understand their subjects or how to teach them. It defeats the purpose of education, which is that the pupils need to learn for themselves how to do the work.

We are not producing quality students for universities.

Attend any graduation ceremony and watch the students from the medicine, law and accounting faculties walk across the stage to get their degrees. They are all excited, enthusiastic and full of energy.

Then watch the education students traipse across the stage. They are slow moving and depressed, lacking in energy and enthusiasm.

Teacher accountability is critical, otherwise we won’t succeed.

When teachers lack commitment there have to be consequences. Until incompetent teachers are fired, our children’s education will remain a disaster.

Sadly Sadtu does not encourage teachers to pay more attention to their job or improve the quality of teaching they offer, and our incompetent ANC-led government will do nothing to solve the problem.

Teachers in South Africa are under worked and over paid.We still have a long way to go to make sure that we prepare young people for matric exams in such a way that they derive the necessary skills that are articulated in the curriculum.

NARIAN C NAIDOO

Phoenix