Vuyisile Msila
Our children need textbooks and this is an undisputed fact since time immemorial – as old as modern schools.
The recent case two weeks ago when a court in Limpopo ruled about the rights of children to have textbooks attests to that. The judgment rightly states that it is every child’s right to have textbooks.
Textbooks are an important resource that can be used in conjunction with several other resources.
Today’s classrooms need as many resources as possible, including ICT tools, invitational environment, supportive parents and effective technological skills. The latest initiative by the Gauteng Education Department to introduce tablets in schools is an initiative that needs immense support. Computers and technology are the future of all modern schools.
The 21st century child might not go far without the necessary tools such as the computer and the textbook. We need to continuously improve the tools used to enhance a teaching practice that will develop every child in school.
Yet, in our quest for the best curricula and excellent results, we forget about the human aspects of education; frequently we speak of teachers only when we are criticising them, be it union activity or whatever we think is tardiness on their side.
However, it should be teachers that we think of first because they are the implementers and interpreters of innovations. Without good teachers, educational resources may not work. Computers and various other educational aids do not teach, only teachers do. Pupils in the poorest schools need huge support from conscientious, caring educators.
Our children, especially those in poor schools, need constant reassurance as well as pedagogy that accommodates their contexts in totality. The at-risk child needs a caring environment and a pedagogy that instills hope; it is the best teachers who will bring these into a classroom.
Maybe we need to first castigate teachers for being seen as people who are not taking their jobs seriously in such a way that the society continues to downplay their potentially magnanimous role. The few teachers who are derelict in their duties – absent or who do not go to class even when at school – are not helping to advance the cause of colleagues and are besmirching the name of good teachers.
Many rural schools still have underqualified and unqualified teachers and again this does not augur well for the reputation of the profession.
Yet even here, we have many unqualified teachers who are dedicated and committed to the cause of their pupils. Usually our teacher unions are not found to be helping the good cause because the society perceives them as people who are usually not supportive of their children’s cause. No one tends to sympathise with teacher unions especially when there is chalk down or some other forms of teacher strikes.
Yet ideally, we would like to see a society that supports its teachers. Teacher unions may have to change how they view teacher professionalism or else people will regard other inanimate resources more important than human resources.
Good teachers supersede all educational aids and classroom gadgets. But teachers still need to prove to society that they are bigger and more punctilious than other reputable resources.
It is high time teachers started fighting for better classrooms, decent teaching and vibrant, creative classrooms. Equal education starts with teachers who are motivated to do what they are supposed to do in classrooms – which is facilitating effective learning.
Teachers, as workers, should be allowed, and do have a right, to strike for salaries and better working conditions. However, we also need a teaching corps that will fight for the rights of their children. Teachers continue to have an immense influence in society and they should not let circumstances mar their potentially good work. Teacher unions will surely win the support of the civil society if they can be seen as interested in what the government, communities and families are rooting for. The struggle for improved teaching should be a continuing struggle that teachers fight for as professionals. There are no better placed people in fighting for teacher development than teachers themselves.
It is a pity that for various reasons there are many parents who cannot supplement what occurs in schools. Children simply are not getting enough help at home and this includes homes where parents are literate.
Apart from virtuous teachers, good textbooks need supportive homes. We need excellent teachers in schools that mainly have poor working parents who are not literate. Schools that support humanising instruction will close the gaps between schools and homes.
Excelling teachers may act as strong role models not only for the children but for their parents, as well. All parents will identify with good qualities shown by the school.
The best of textbooks may not teach discipline and they may miss telling about contextual lessons on life. Effective teachers will communicate values, culture and spirituality better than any excellent textbooks. The only challenge is when these teachers cannot be found.
We should never lose focus on the pivotal function played by educators in schools. With low literacy rates in South Africa, even good textbooks may not work when there are no good teachers to mentor children.
We should rather have inadequate textbooks and effective teachers in classrooms. Of cause, a combination of effective teachers and textbooks is the ideal that we should strive towards. The combination of excelling teachers and brilliant textbooks will indeed lead towards the development of best citizens that the country needs. Yet, textbooks are impersonal, it is good teachers who are able to utilise humanising pedagogy who will be able to support the poor children in South African schools.
The Department of Basic Education must always be applauded when textbooks are delivered on time. It shows efficiency, but we need the department to continuously develop effective teachers who are goal driven. Teachers owe it to thousands of poor families who desperately need to halt the cycle of poverty and it will always be good teachers who will instil the necessary zeal in pupils.
In a month’s time we will be talking about the Grade 12 results. We will celebrate good teachers who used the textbooks well in their classrooms. But most importantly, we will celebrate diligent teachers who made their children believe in themselves, even when circumstances were dire.
l Msila the head of Unisa’s Institute for African Renaissance Studies. He writes in his personal capacity.