Are we doing enough?
EDUCATION SYSTEM: WE ARE FAILING OUR CHILDREN IN SOUTH AFRICA
Performance-based pay for our teachers, as is the case in most other professions, would increase accountability.
As we embark on a new school year, now is an opportune time to ask some difficult questions about whether we are doing enough to give our country’s children the education they deserve.
It has been clear for decades that our education sector is in crisis, with too many children struggling to complete schooling that prepares them for the modern world.
Yet we must ask whether the solutions proposed for this challenge address what really ails our school system.
The proposed Grade 9 certificate by Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga does not confront the root causes of poor quality education.
The question we should be asking ourselves as a society is why after 25 years of poor-quality education outcomes, we are still struggling to confront the root causes of this tragedy?
Is there perhaps a mindset that propels us to have low expectations of our children, our teachers and ourselves?
What society sets 30% and 40% as pass rates for its children in a modern knowledge-driven global community?
What society tolerates 20% absenteeism of teachers on Mondays and Fridays, rising to 33% at the end of every month? What society tolerates the culture that has normalised the practice that in schools serving predominantly poor black children, only an average 3.5 hours per school day is spent teaching compared to 6.5 hours in the middle and upper-class schools? All children are born with an innate capability to be the best at what interests them provided the environment in the home, community, school and wider society nurtures them with love and support to self-actualise.
We have a system failure that results in close to 50% of each age group of pupils starting school each year ending up dropping out before Grade 12.
Of those who write matric, a tiny percentage (14% bachelor and 12% diploma passes) end up with high enough grades to enter tertiary levels studies.
The drop-out rate at tertiary level is 25% with only 4% of the cohort eventually obtaining a degree.
How in the world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution do we think we can be competitive?
It is unthinkable that a society that claims to believe in social justice would contemplate throwing the very children we have failed out of the school system with a meaningless Grade 9 certificate.
Performance-based pay for teachers, as is the case in most professions, would increase accountability.
Ramphele is the co-founder of ReimagineSA.