Education

South Africa has remarkable participation rates of children in primary education, reflecting a commitment to education. Despite this eagerness to learn, systematic research indicates that the South African schooling system is not teaching young people to think, read, write and enumerate with any confidence, and that young people are growing disillusioned with a schooling system that leaves them unable to succeed and function in the workplace.

The figures for South African education are dismal. In 2003, of all school leavers with a matric certificate, only 7% achieved results that made them eligible for tertiary education. And of those who do enter tertiary education institutions, the large majority struggle to read and write at an undergraduate level.

Despite the best intentions it seems that the schooling system is reproducing the patterns of poverty and apartheid South Africa, which goes on to cause frustration – not only for policy makers but most importantly for educators and learners. They are surrounded by negativity and failure and it becomes more and more difficult to succeed in these conditions. The cycle of poverty and oppression continues.

Mr Mandela has always been committed to education. His belief is that the rural education setting limits children, not because of its geographical setting, but because it is excluded from the education process by policy makers who do not see, let alone understand, its unique challenges.

With these challenges in mind we have cast our attention to what matters most, to help us start getting it right for the millions of children who deserve the opportunity to succeed.

Context matters
We have not yet discovered an effective strategy to understand the relationship between poor communities and poor education. Often educational policies and innovations are tried out in better-resourced schools and communities and then exported to rural areas where they fail. It is important to recommit ourselves to the detailed investigation of which educational policies and practices help to create educational excellence in the specific context of rural poverty.

Classrooms matter
The infrastructure of a school creates an environment conducive to educational expression or one conducive to mere survival. All classrooms need walls to present text, adequate space to move around, space to sit and learn and protection from the elements. Schools also need proper sanitation facilities – this in fact may be one of the quickest and easiest things to get right quickly.

Resources matter
Beyond infrastructure, resources matter. Well-developed educational resources in the classroom assist in the learning process. Resources are particularly valuable if they are tailored to the bilingual challenges in South African schools.

Nutrition matters
Children need to eat regular and nutritious meals to learn. We don’t have adequate nutritional programmes and those schools that do have feeding schemes find them logistically demanding, often cutting into teaching time. Our approach to feeding schemes should be linked to strategies to kick-start local agricultural production.

Language matters
The majority of children in South Africa face a language mismatch: their language is different from and socially less powerful than their medium of instruction. Most South Africans feel that all children should learn English, but unless this is done extremely carefully we can undermine children’s ability to think and be creative not only in English but also in their home language. This can produce children who manage in school but whose creative thinking is largely separate from their academic way of thinking. This is primarily because our approach to teaching literacy is informed by policy that isn’t tailored to the rural context.

Teachers and pedagogy matter
Teacher training in South Africa needs to be reassessed with the needs of the rural context in mind, to ensure that teachers are equipped with the skills that allow them to teach effectively. Often, teachers teach the way they were taught, and this is not always conducive to learning in a rural context.

We also need to encourage our best students to enter the teaching profession and, in particular, bring them into bilingual foundation phase classrooms.

National literacy matters
Children who come from communities with a weak culture of reading and writing struggle to gain confident reading and writing skills. To address this problem it is important that we animate our national literacy culture and that leaders on all levels commit to mobilising literacy through multilingual writers, festivals and reading clubs.

Further education and training matters
South Africa is known for its high levels of primary school enrolment but only a tiny proportion of those who enter schooling ever matriculate or go on to access further education and training. The middle tier of the education system, known as further education and training, is in a mess and while resources have been earmarked for sector education and training authorities (SETAs)  there is little evidence to suggest that these funds improve the life chances of young rural people.

There is also a lack of integration between education and training – an integrated system is key to building capacity in the rural areas.

Higher education matters
Higher education institutions are responsible for teaching our young people to think creatively and critically and are essential in generating African leaders and African thinkers. Historically, university education has had limited engagement with the majority of South Africans and it is important for us to invest more in our higher education institutions.

Enthusiasm matters
The human element matters in education and it is important that we no longer see young people as a problem that needs to be fixed but as the future of South Africa. The state of the education system is not pretty and it requires enthusiasm and commitment to strive to address the problems and break the cycle of apathy.