Backwards into the Future
At the beginning of 1998 there were clear indications that the government’s approach to education was horribly wrong. Delegating the State’s responsibility for the provision of education to school communities and the private sector in effect meant that the gap between the schools of the rich and those of the poor was being widened even while politicians were talking about "redressing the imbalances of apartheid" and moving towards equity. One clear pointer was provided by the 1997 Matric results: more than half of the approximately 550 000 candidates had failed and some schools could not register a single pass, whereas others had achieved a 100% pass rate - an indication of the great education divide. Other painful symptoms of a sick education system were highlighted in the media at the beginning of 1998: teacher shortages forcing schools to reduce academic and extra-mural programmes; overcrowded classrooms; the lack of books and equipment. Many children had to be turned back by schools at which there was not even standing room for more pupils. Many of the schools of the poor, traumatised by the Government’s "rationalisation" policy and the socio-economic problems associated with poverty, soon became dysfunctional. The Cape Times of 11 February 1998 reported that approximately 1 000 schools had been closed by parents in an attempt to force the government to employ more teachers and build more schools. Meanwhile at the rich schools pupils could look forward to a year of fulfilling academic, cultural and extra-mural activities, for the financial power of their school communities enabled them to enjoy a pupil-teacher ratio and learning resources that the under-privileged majority of pupils would find it hard to even visualise.
In spite of all evidence to the contrary, the education department persisted in claiming that its policies were transforming education and that it was moving towards equity. Great play was made of the introduction of OBE at grade one level in terms of a supposed movement away from the inequities of apartheid to a progressive child-based system. All the hullabaloo and fanfare were largely irrelevant, for OBE - which is based on children’s discovering things for themselves and then being given individual attention and assessment - simply could not work in most SA schools because of the large classes and the lack of opportunities for preference work. At the schools of the privileged minority the reaction was: What is the fuss about? We have followed OBE principles for years! By the second quarter of 1998 the Minister of Education had to admit that the introduction of OBE as a system had not been a success. In fact, it had not happened.
Another admitted failure is the government’s "rationalisation" policy. At most schools the number of posts was reduced and the "excess" teachers encouraged to take severance packages. This temptation/pressure led to some of the best-qualified and most experienced teachers’ leaving the profession at a time when the education system was required to become inclusive and democratic after the racial exclusivity of Apartheid. "Excess" teachers were supposed to be redeployed to underprivileged schools, yet after years of "rationalisation" no provincial or national redeployment structures were in place. But, of course, redeployment was not really a serious intention - what was important was to reduce the number of teaching posts in the education system in terms of an economic imperative. The economic imperative for the government was the need to conform to SAPs, the Structural Adjustment Programmes prescribed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in terms of which the State should only spend a limited amount on health and education programmes and social services. The implementation of SAPs is seen as a key means of producing an investor-friendly environment that encourages the capital investments which governments are so anxious to secure.
Government anxiety about capital inflow and outflow has reached new heights in the present period of rapid globalisation. Information technology and the removal of currency exchange controls make it possible to move huge sums of money from one country to another at the press of a computer button. Thus governments find themselves at the mercy of capitalist tycoons and dare not follow policies that would evoke the hostility of big business and result in that most feared of punitive measures: rapid transfer of capital to competing countries. The SA government in fact committed itself to the globalisation of capitalist exploitation when it signed the Multi-Lateral Agreement in investment in March 1997. A complicating factor is that there is no honour among capitalists: some of them indulge in fierce, no-holds-barred tactics against the rest. This is the reason why ways and means of ensuring an orderly system of currency movement were explored at the recent IMF conference. Predictably, nothing came of it for there cannot be a Geneva Convention in economic warfare!
With the SA government embroiled in this complex global capitalist jungle, is it any wonder that it has made the country investor-friendly rather than people-friendly? There are striking examples of the rulers’ reneging on promises made to the poor, apartheid-ravaged sector of the SA population. One example is that VAT has remained at 14%, whereas the former leaders of the liberatory struggle now in office had vowed to reduce VAT and eventually abolish it. But perhaps the most striking example is to be found in the field of education, where the principle of free, compulsory education has been replaced by the user principle. This principle has been explicitly stated in government documents since 1994. For example, the South African Schools Act states: The governing body of a public school must take all reasonable measures within its means to supplement the resources supplied by the State in order to improve the quality of education provided by the school to all learners at the school. (Chapter 4, clause 36).
Education has been made a commodity and the rich can naturally buy the best, whereas the poor struggle to raise the money to obtain even a mediocre version of education. Thus the rich continue to be equipped for the top positions in society, whereas the poor enter a hostile economic environment in a state of unpreparedness that makes them candidates foe economic exploitation or unemployment. The social consequences of this pattern are certainly clearly evident: uneducated or poorly-educated youngsters are often unemployed or indeed unemployable and turn to a life of gangsterism and drugs; disillusioned young people and even the not so young seek refuge in American sub-cultures...
If one accepts that school and community life are intertwined, the one influencing the other, should one be surprised that in a socio-economic milieu that focuses on the importance of money there is a tendency for pupils and teachers to downplay the importance of human values underlining compassion and service? As was the case under Apartheid, schools are again having to rise above horrific conditions in order to set the highest possible standards not only academically but also in terms of behaviour and social-consciousness. To move away from the money ethic to a service ethic is an incredibly difficult task in a country where there is a deep-seated rot in the education and socio-economic systems. Can one reasonably expect an improvement in 1999 as far as education and socio-economic policies are concerned?
Since the middle of 1998 SA has felt the first effects of the collapse of the currencies of Asian countries and Russia: a rise in the SA bank rate and a decline in the bank loans that usually generate growth; the rapid decline in the value of the rand which has made the cost of imports, not to mention debt repayments, soar in dollar terms. Bearing in mind that since 1994 government funding and socio-economic policies have been shockingly inadequate in eliminating the imbalances of the past, it is difficult to see the government doing more in an increasingly unfavourable global economic climate. Government funding of education may in real terms actually decrease, thus putting even more pressure on parents to pay for their children’s education. Considering also that economists expect a growth rate of only 0,2 percent in SA next year, the majority of parents will find it very difficult to contribute even more financially to their children’s education.
One must, unfortunately, predict that quality education will become the prerogative of the rich to an even greater extent. The National Norms and Standards on School Funding policy will not make any significant difference to the plight of under-resourced school communities. The principle of allocating the lion’s share of the provincial education budget to poorer schools and a smaller slice to the wealthier schools has been widely welcomed and sounds impressive until one examines the reality of present funding patterns. In all provinces at least 80% of the education budget is spent on teachers’ and administrators’ salaries; so the new complex distribution pattern applies to the remaining 20% or less of an inadequate amount in terms of the need for radical restructuring of apartheid-ravaged schools. An aggravating factor is that millions of rands that could have been used to improve the lot of the poor have disappeared from provincial coffers.
We have, once again, to remind this ANC-majority government that their Freedom Charter (do you remember that hastily-buried historical document?) stated that "the doors of learning shall be opened" and that all the leaders of the liberatory struggle fought for a system of free, compulsory education as the true antidote for aparte and elitist education. The 1994 election campaign speeches were strewn with promises of a quality education for all - not only for the rich!
The question is: Can the education system be transformed under the present socio-economic dispensation? The answer is an unequivocal NO! The overriding problem in SA is that the economic system that supported apartheid has not died and continues to restrict and undermine the fulfilment of democratic rights and goals. To achieve a true democracy there would have to be a government that dares to formulate and implement policies that nullify the bosberade and Kempton Park agreements that continue to protect the architects and beneficiaries of exploitation. Only then could there be real movement from exploitative socio-economic patterns to a truly democratic system which caters for the needs and aspirations of the vast majority of poverty-stricken and deprived South Africans. The employment, housing, education and health needs of those who had been systematically subjected to deprivation could then be addressed in a meaningful holistic way to redress the injustices of ruthless capitalist exploitation of which apartheid was merely one phase. Present policies, operating as they do within an unjust economic framework, are in fact widening the gap between the rich and the poor in every aspect of life.
As far as the education system is concerned, funding and content should be based on the needs and aspirations of all South Africans, but special attention must be given to the economically oppressed. A progressive education policy will have to be positioned in a process of socio-economic transformation if this country is serious about developing its human resources. It is obvious that a child cannot do himself/herself justice as a pupil when he/she lives in a shack without electricity, water and proper food...
South Africans, especially those in political office, should curb their obsession with making money and start concentrating on ways and means of accessing human capital. Educational resources must be made available to those without them - central libraries, laboratories, computers, videos... And, above all, sufficient well-trained teachers.
Curriculum changes should take into account the socio-economic setting in which the majority of schools operate. Failure to do this has resulted in the OBE fiasco.
There must be a carefully planned process of socio-economic transformation, in which a key element must be job creation, in order to change the largely intact "racially" - balkanised SA landscape. In a concomitant development new schools must be built and educational facilities provided completely removed from group area patterns. NEW schools are needed in a truly NEW socio-economic milieu.
1999 is an election year, so there will be widespread pretence of a willingness and competency to effect socio-economic transformation, but such a transformation is nor possible while the SA government is hamstrung by its deals with the agents of capitalist exploitation. Thus parents, teachers and pupils must expect to function in a daunting school and socio-economic environment. Teachers will need the co-operation and support of pupils and parents in order to fulfill their noble role of educating children, If school communities are united they can demand from a position of strength that the education department supply them with the necessary teacher and physical resources so that they may endeavour to provide the quality education that is the right of every child. It is important to present interesting and socially relevant lessons so that children see school education not as an academic exercise but as preparation for life. One source of hope is that there are still thousands of teachers who possess the commitment and resilience of spirit to carry on the noble process of education even under the potentially soul-destroying conditions which seem likely to continue in the years ahead.
[THE EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL VOL.68 #6, OFFICIAL ORGAN
OF THE TEACHERS' LEAGUE OF SOUTH AFRICA, NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1998]
EDITOR: Mrs. HN Kies, 15 Upper Bloem Street, Cape Town, 8001
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