I really believe that the state of education in South Africa is rapidly deteriorating and if not stopped from its downward spiral, it could reach catastrophic proportions. The biggest concern is the falling standards particularly in the Schooling sector and this has concomitant effects in the higher education sector. South Africa has two ministries of education in national government: The Ministry of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the Ministry of Basic Education and Training (DoET). I am of the view that part of the problem is the lack of political will and intent from political leadership which contributes to the deterioration.
Another academic year has passed with the release of the matriculation examinations results (final year of the schooling system) accompanied with the usual general outcry of the falling standards in education. Besides the few percentage points drop in the national overall pass rates, many critics point to the problem being even more severe than what the statistics show. The fact that there is such a huge drop out of pupils long before they reach the final year of schooling and take their exit exams puts the overall success or throughput rate at a mere 42% rather than the 72 % percent that the government publishes.
The cause for concern is often echoed from inside government and a range of reasons are postulated: The dropping standards in the matriculation (exit level of formal schooling) pass mark resulting in the “dumbing down” in education in the country, teacher indiscipline, lack of proper school management, the vacillation in the curriculum statements implemented in the schooling systems and the lack of proper infrastructure due to large scale corruption and tender fraud. Much to the disadvantage of children and communities who need it the most!
However the fact remains is that there is a perpetuation in the disparity between the children of the “haves” from the children of the “haves not” and the inequity among different strata of the society widens. But the problem in a country like South Africa is that it also gets conflated with inherent racial issues.
Moreover for the higher education sector the problem gets exacerbated with the growing numbers of under and un-prepared students who come into the tertiary sectors. Universities are compelled to take in the students despite their inability to cope with studying at the tertiary sector and the problem is compound with such students who come in without funding or financial support; lack of counseling; emotional and career support, and so on and so on. The common occurrence at the start of any academic year is the students’ protests which often persists during the course of the year impacting negatively on the ability to effectively complete academic programmes and does not promote effective academic performance.
I would advocate that our Universities should seriously look at the calibre and potential of the young teaches we produce in the Colleges of Education. Some of these university programmes could involve points (not necessarily from an exhaustive list) below:
· Institute programmes whereby every trainee teacher is also trained to become a guidance and career counselor as this will redress the huge gap caused by the successive education departments that cut back on this important service to students particularly in disadvantaged , rural and impoverished public schools
· Train teachers to be able to prepare students for and implement acceptable aptitude tests so that students could be convinced to branch of into the vocational education if they choose to. The Further Educational and Training (FET) sector is grossly underutilized to ensure that many young adults can be trained to become artisans.
· All trainee teachers should be trained in a range of Academic Literacies ( Language Literacies ; Quantitative Literacies and Digital Literacies) to be able to inculcate the same learning how to learn skills among their pupils
· Last, but not least these teachers should be imbued with the kinds of critical thinking skills which could ensure that they become the vanguard of the ongoing struggle to hold government responsible and accountable and ensure that the political will and promises are kept and delivered on.
Another academic year has passed with the release of the matriculation examinations results (final year of the schooling system) accompanied with the usual general outcry of the falling standards in education. Besides the few percentage points drop in the national overall pass rates, many critics point to the problem being even more severe than what the statistics show. The fact that there is such a huge drop out of pupils long before they reach the final year of schooling and take their exit exams puts the overall success or throughput rate at a mere 42% rather than the 72 % percent that the government publishes.
The cause for concern is often echoed from inside government and a range of reasons are postulated: The dropping standards in the matriculation (exit level of formal schooling) pass mark resulting in the “dumbing down” in education in the country, teacher indiscipline, lack of proper school management, the vacillation in the curriculum statements implemented in the schooling systems and the lack of proper infrastructure due to large scale corruption and tender fraud. Much to the disadvantage of children and communities who need it the most!
However the fact remains is that there is a perpetuation in the disparity between the children of the “haves” from the children of the “haves not” and the inequity among different strata of the society widens. But the problem in a country like South Africa is that it also gets conflated with inherent racial issues.
Moreover for the higher education sector the problem gets exacerbated with the growing numbers of under and un-prepared students who come into the tertiary sectors. Universities are compelled to take in the students despite their inability to cope with studying at the tertiary sector and the problem is compound with such students who come in without funding or financial support; lack of counseling; emotional and career support, and so on and so on. The common occurrence at the start of any academic year is the students’ protests which often persists during the course of the year impacting negatively on the ability to effectively complete academic programmes and does not promote effective academic performance.
I would advocate that our Universities should seriously look at the calibre and potential of the young teaches we produce in the Colleges of Education. Some of these university programmes could involve points (not necessarily from an exhaustive list) below:
· Institute programmes whereby every trainee teacher is also trained to become a guidance and career counselor as this will redress the huge gap caused by the successive education departments that cut back on this important service to students particularly in disadvantaged , rural and impoverished public schools
· Train teachers to be able to prepare students for and implement acceptable aptitude tests so that students could be convinced to branch of into the vocational education if they choose to. The Further Educational and Training (FET) sector is grossly underutilized to ensure that many young adults can be trained to become artisans.
· All trainee teachers should be trained in a range of Academic Literacies ( Language Literacies ; Quantitative Literacies and Digital Literacies) to be able to inculcate the same learning how to learn skills among their pupils
· Last, but not least these teachers should be imbued with the kinds of critical thinking skills which could ensure that they become the vanguard of the ongoing struggle to hold government responsible and accountable and ensure that the political will and promises are kept and delivered on.