JONATHAN JANSEN: It's time we got angry about the failing education system
'Where is your leadership? Where is your outrage? And why do you allow this to happen year after year?'
EXTRACT
For some strange reason South Africans vent frustration at everything else − from racism in schools to deadly infrastructure (pit latrines) to corruption in teacher appointments. But there is not a single activist organisation or movement focused on the quality of teaching or poor pupil outcomes in schools.
Until that happens, one way to address this problem is to demand that provincial education departments establish an education ombud with the mandate to hear parents and pupils on problems with teaching and learning in public schools. Those complaints are then investigated and brought to the attention of the provincial education department with the duty to act within specified timeframes to resolve the problem.
Anxious parents have been calling a lot recently. The child is in Grade 7 and waiting to hear from the schools s/he applied to for the first year of high school. Or the young adolescent is in Grade 12 and it is not clear whether s/he will be accepted to the universities applied to. The reason? The June examination results do not look too good and could scupper chances of admission to a favoured school or university. These transitions are always difficult but especially for children from struggling families. And it is especially hard when the reason for the poor June results − the single most important factor in whether or not you access a good institution − is the teacher.I listened carefully to sometimes very emotional parents these past weeks and I could not help but share their distress. The stories go something like this. Mr Hatchett is not qualified to teach high school mathematics − “he told us himself” − but nobody else was available so the principal insisted the teacher help...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.