Brian Isaacs
The curtain closes on education in 2015. What have we done successfully and what have we failed to do?
Since the advent of democracy in South Africa the national Department of Basic Education (NDBE) has provided free education for all pupils from Grade 1 to 9.
This is a remarkable achievement and the ruling regime must be credited for this. There have also been a concerted efforts to replace prefabricated schools with brick buildings.
Every person involved in education must be serious about the task at hand. As teachers, we have to build our educational system so that we can give quality education to all our children.
How do we all improve the educational system?
l Create a centralised system of education. Do away with provincial education departments. Every child in South Africa needs to receive a quality education. Why should we have provincial education departments boasting about pass rates and their successes compared to other provinces. All our skills should be shared among the different areas. Every child is important, including children from other countries.
l For every two primary schools there is only one high school in South Africa.
The NDBE should discuss this matter openly with teacher unions and interested groups. My appeal here to the NDBE is not to be devious but to admit we have a problem with pupils not being able to obtain places in high schools.
l Open teacher training colleges. Staff these colleges with teachers who have a track record of good teaching. Let these colleges award degrees in teaching, especially primary school teaching.
l South Africans should have open debates about discipline in schools.
The rights of pupils should be balanced against the right of teachers. The anti-teacher labour relations departments around the country should adopt a more objective and discerning modus operandi, and the main concern should be bringing opposing parties together.
Teachers should be treated with more respect by NDBE officials.
l High-ranking officials should not just be messengers. They must listen to logic and then advocate for the necessary changes to be made.
l The NDBE should not promote pupils who do not meet the required standards. The quality will never improve if pupils are promoted just to increase the number of passes. I am not sure if the Senior Certificate pass rates are manipulated to make them look good.
l Teachers who are not qualified must be given the opportunity to obtain their qualifications in a specific period of time or leave teaching. Officials must use the necessary means to see that teachers are doing their work. The same applies to principals and teachers, who must see that officials are doing their work.
l Scrap the Annual National Assessment tests (ANAs) and Western Cape Education Department (WCED) Diagnostic tests. If the NDBE wants to test the system, test grades 3/6/9 in home language and mathematics as part of the final exams in November.
It will make more sense to do it then and it will count towards the final results. These ANAs and WCED tests come smack bang late in September or early in October and lead nowhere.
l Stop closing poor schools. Lyndoch Primary in Stellenbosch is facing closure. The NDBE and WCED must stop traumatising communities. The only thing these poor communities have are their schools. Stop seeing these schools as invisible, as Ferial Haffejee states in If There Were No Whites in SA. In South Africa we fought for people to engage in discussion with others. This creates a dynamic society. Without it we will once again head for an authoritarian state.
l Isaacs is the Principal of South Peninsula High School