The Old Order - What Hopes of Change?
At the beginning of 1999 it was obvious to even the most superficial observer that the Minister of Education Bengu's self-awarded average mark of 91% for his achievements in transforming the South African education scene had been grossly inflated. Indeed, his self-calculated straight As were effectively cancelled a few months later when his successor declared that South African education was in a state of crisis. Minister Asmal noted that the education system had "failed to serve poor urban and rural communities" and deplored the existence of "rampant inequality" in many parts of the education system. This diagnosis was not news to millions of teachers, parents and pupils who had personal experience of the pervasive trauma in the education sector.
The 1998 matriculation pass rate of 50.79% meant that about 300 thousand young men and women were experiencing he pain of failing a public examination. Later it appeared that the pass rate would have been even lower had it not been for some creative adjustments and the outright cheating of certain education personnel. The poor matriculation results were a reflection of conditions hostile to education that prevail at the majority of schools in South Africa. For example, some matriculants had, by the time of the examinations, not even received their prescribed books……
One wonders whether some of the persons advocating the scrapping of matriculation examinations are perhaps not trying to move to a new assessment system that would be less revealing of the critical shortcomings of the South African education system and the lack of meaningful transformation.
1999 saw a continuation of the grating uncertainties that plagued schools in 1998.
Many schools started the year not knowing how many teachers would be paid by the education departments as "right-sizing" of school staff continued in terms of a complex formula that nobody seemed to know. Even at schools that had the "correct" number of teachers in terms of the official staff establishment, principals were asked to declare colleagues "in excess" so as to bring about the prescribed number of teachers at given post levels. A further cause of anxiety for many teachers was that they were expected to implement Curriculum 2005 and adopt the Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) approach without any previous training or the necessary supportive infrastructure such as advisory services, assessment and guidance centers, school and home resources for pupils' projects. Two major complicating factors for many teachers were their overcrowded classes, which prevented their giving pupil's individual attention; and the socio-economic evils arising from the poverty that afflicted their school communities. Many school communities faced the daunting and basically unfair challenge of having to raise sufficient funds by dint of imposing unrealistically high school fees and fundraising levies to keep academic, sport and cultural programmes at reasonable levels.
In the majority of cases the problems confronting school communities at the beginning of the year have continued to undermine the provision of the quality education that needs to be sustained on a national level if the monstrous education system put in place by apartheid is to be eliminated. The poor communities continue to be plagued by school and socio-economic conditions that frustrate teachers who do their best to give their charges a quality education. Thousands of schools still operate in horribly unsuitable buildings (some "temporary structures" have been used for 50 years!). Many schools have neither running water nor electricity. Schoolchildren become victims of and participants in a web of socio-economic evils such as gangsterism, drug peddling and prostitution. Teachers suffer physical and mental exhaustion as they try to teach large classes without the proper support systems and community structures. They, too, are expected to play leading roles in raising funds required to keep schools functioning. To rub salt into the wounds the government is using the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) to undermine traditional and natural teachers rights, such as the right to a state-paid teacher substitute while one is on official leave. One can understand - while not condoning - why some teachers have switched to "survival mode", which means, it seems, that they regret the plight of their pupils but prioritise their personal welfare. Fortunately there is still a strong corps of teachers dedicated to fulfilling their role as educators by providing for their pupils a quality education. This they do even though school and socio-economic conditions are against them to a potentially demoralizing extent. These teachers are making a valiant attempt to rise above the negative conditions that have been created by the authorities' attempts to introduce a sort of business ethic into the school system. In terms of this a reduced workforce must do the work that used to be done by a bigger staff, school communities must organize the collection and raising of funds for the education process, there must be an emphasis on results with pupils' speedy movement through the school system, and staff assessments to eliminate teaching inefficiencies. Were it not for these dedicated teachers even more schools would have become dysfunctional.
But why is the education system in a state of crisis with seemingly little prospect of improvement, let alone recovery? After all, the apartheid era ended over five years ago, or did it? What is required to achieve genuine transformation of the education system, the complete destruction of apartheid and the establishment of a truly democratic system of education that empowers all South African children? The TLSA believes that a crucial part of the answer is a carefully planned but urgent progression towards a system of free, compulsory education for all children from grades 1 to 12. The present government claimed to espouse this key demand of the liberatory struggle during the apartheid period, but have in practice reneged on their responsibilities to the oppressed people of our country.
All realists accept that the severe harm done by a vicious aparte system of education cannot be repaired by some speedy magical process. It is clear that systematic implementation of progressive education planning over some years is required to undo the damage of apartheid and in a concomitant process to nurture and sustain an education system freed of "racial", economic and cultural discrimination. The education and economic policies of the present government cannot provide access to quality education for all children because these policies are failing to eliminate "racial" and economic privilege from the education system. The battle for access to quality education is inextricably linked to the fight to eliminate poverty. Unfortunately the effect of present government policies is to reinforce "racial" and class privilege. The government is moving in the wrong direction (some would say the wrong gear), for its education policy strategies are promoting privatisation in that to an ever-increasing extent the funding of schools is being shifted onto parents and other stakeholders as part of a general process of privatisation of all aspects of life in SA. The mantra is: Pay and you shall receive! Thus the overriding feature of all spheres of life in South Africa is that good money is required to buy good products, including the "commodity" of education. The objectively vicious nature of this approach is only too evident at this time when the great economic divide in South Africa is being reinforced by the deepening poverty of millions and the soaring wealth of a small economic elite. Some of the official statistics shock even hardened economists. On 19 October 1999 parliament's standing committee on labour was given official statistics: 72% of farmworkers earn less than R650 per month, the average wage being R457 per month. But some of them earn a monthly wage of only between R40 and R50. How badly free, compulsory education is needed for the children of these workers! Meanwhile top SA executives continue to earn more than a million rands per year (in 1997, according to a Labour Research Service report, the average was R100 000 per month, shares and other perks excluded). Picture the schools these top executives' children attend.
It is to be regretted that some of the stalwarts of the liberatory struggle who now hold political office have been seduced into accepting and promoting policies intended to make SA investor-friendly instead of striving to fulfil their historical duty of empowering the victims of capitalist and "racial" exploitation. Thus in the education arena there is a sickening spectacle of teacher-training colleges being closed, teaching posts being slashed, school-building programmes being frozen or curtailed, school subsidies being drastically reduced and children's academic and social development stunted because of limited or zero access to quality education. Serious commitment to the principle of free compulsory education would necessitate a national budget that prioritises education so that funds would be made available to build many more schools, to train more teachers to become dedicated agents of transformation, to provide schools with the equipment and resources they require, to structure courses of study designed to produce compassionate and enlightened citizens. The formulation of noble educational aims in the South African schools Act of 1998 and in the Further Education and Training Act of 1998 becomes an exercise in futility if their realisation is dependent on funds that the State will not or claims it cannot provide. In short, the education system must be driven by carefully assessed educational needs not economic prescriptives, and the State must accept that a national education system is its responsibility and a vital priority.
Since the education system does not operate in a vacuum, the movement to a progressive system of free, compulsory education would have to be located within the framework of socio-economic policies that are designed to change completely South Africa's largely intact apartheid landscape and to establish a new democratic order. To us it seems that the present government has made commitments to various instruments of local and international capitalism that in effect prevent its adopting the socio-economic and education policies that are required to put an end to "racial" and economic exploitation and eliminate poverty in a country that has the resources to provide a good quality of life for all its inhabitants. Its unfortunate commitments render the government powerless to stop the retrenchment of miners even with an improved gold price, to prevent farmworkers' being treated like animals while land barons garner tremendous wealth, to provide struggling schools with basic necessities while posh schools fritter away millions on playgrounds.
School and community structures must be built that can put pressure on the government to prioritise meeting the human needs and aspirations of downtrodden, poverty-stricken people rather than creating the conditions favourable for the investors reaping huge profits. The present government has achieved some heartening success in outlawing certain discriminatory practices created by apartheid. However, it definitely needs to rethink its relations with forces and structures that are hostile to the fundamental changes required on a national level if SA is to become a truly just democracy. If the government does not change course the year 2000 and many more years to come will be as barren of fundamental change for the South African masses as 1999 has been…
[THE EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL VOL.69 #6, OFFICIAL ORGAN
OF THE TEACHERS' LEAGUE OF SOUTH AFRICA, NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 1999]
EDITOR: Mrs. HN Kies, 15 Upper Bloem Street, Cape Town, 8001
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