In two weeks’ time from today our country will be celebrating the Soweto uprisings where a substantial number of students were shot at and killed by the Apartheid security forces for daring to protest against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. On 16 June 2012 it will be the 36th year anniversary of June 16, and as a country we will be half of that period into our democracy. As a country we need to assess progress made in the education front, especially at the basic and further education levels since the advent of democracy 18 years ago. We need to ask ourselves whether we have made the 1976 generation proud or we have betrayed them.
Since 1994 much has been done by the current ANC government in an endeavour to reverse the effects of Apartheid education on the majority of the South African citizens. Evidence from government agencies such as Statistics South Africa, Human Sciences Research Council and Centre for Education Policy Development, and from various educationists reveal that South Africa has succeeded in increasing access in basic education, especially in primary schooling. This has been attributed to progressive policies that the government has implemented such as free basic education, child support grants and school nutrition programme. These policies have been earmarked to stimulate the demand side of education at the basic level. However, scholars are in consensus that despite these policies the success rate of access at the basic level of education has not been translated to the further education and training band (Grade 10 – 12). This phase of education has been characterised by successive decline in learner enrolments, especially male learners.
A number of studies have found that one of the main contributing factors for this decline in high school learner numbers is the high rate of grade repetition throughout the schooling system especially among the African learners in Black township and rural schools. This grade repetition has resulted in African learners being behind White learners by two grades on average. Other factors include lack of income, learner pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and the fact that in some instances learners are required to perform household chores. These factors have a tendency to disrupt learner attendance and eventually lead to learners dropping out from the schooling system. As can be discerned from the existing studies these factors are prevalent in learners from low socio economic background.
On the supply side the current government has also made significant strides in resourcing the historically disadvantaged schools since it came to power in 1994. Learners on average are no longer studying in extremely overcrowded classrooms. The levels of qualifications of educators have been improved to a great extent and the national school curriculum has been revised to ensure that our learners can meet the skill demands of the 21st century. However, there are still some huge gaps in some of the poorer provinces like the Eastern Cape and Limpopo in as far as these issues are concerned. In the Eastern Cape in particular there are some schools where multi-grade teaching is still taking place. Many teachers in these provinces, especially in Black and rural schools, are not comfortable with the revised curriculum. Teacher supply and distribution is also another contested issue especially in the Eastern Cape between the teacher unions and education officials. On the one hand the officials of the Department of Education in the province claim that there is a problem of ‘double parking’ by educators in some schools who should be moved to schools where their services are needed. On the other hand the unions claim that the formula that is used to redeploy educators is not sensitive to the current demand s of the curriculum. Instead of moving educators to other schools the Department of Education needs to employ more teachers.
Another disturbing observation is the fact that the quality of our schooling system, especially for the majority of African learners is appalling. Evidence suggests that African learners in Black townships and rural schools do not perform well in all phases of the schooling system, i.e. foundation phase, intermediate phase, senior phase and the FET phase. The high rate of grade repetition by African learners that has been highlighted above is a good indicator of this poor quality. The South African schooling system is two tiered. On the one hand there is education for the upper and middle classes whose children both Black and white attend first class education in private and former Model C schools. On the other hand there are toiling poor masses of our people, mostly Africans, whose children continue to receive second class education from Black township and rural schools. As a result most parents from poor provinces like the Eastern Cape and Limpopo and from poor quality schools in Black townships and rural areas tend to vote with their feet by relocating their children to more affluent provinces and more affluent schools in urban areas. However, some arguments point out that the fact that people move from poorer provinces and areas to more affluent ones is due to natural movement of people in search of jobs and does not necessarily indicate that parents are dissatisfied with the quality of education that their children receive from poor provinces and poor quality schools.
As we approach the 36th anniversary of June 1976 South African citizens, especially Black Africans, need to critically engage with the issues in education. Education is one of the major instruments that can be used by a country’s government to improve the socio economic status of its citizens. As a nation South Africa need to take stock of its achievements and its challenges with regard to schooling. What factors need to be put in place to ensure that there is real equity in the education front? How can the government improve the quality of education in historically or currently disadvantaged areas? What role can be played by other social partners like teacher unions, businesses and churches in this regard? Sober answers to these and other questions can go a long way in remedying other ills such as unemployment, inequality and poverty that continue to characterise our society to the present day.
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