Staff writer
SOUTH AFRICA had schools from which children emerged without knowing how to read and write and without having mastered basic numeracy, says UCT chancellor Graça Machel.
Addressing a UCT graduation ceremony last week, the widow of Nelson Mandela told graduates that in any country, in any nation, its future was defined by the quality of education it provided its young people.
Machel said the graduates knew what the country’s schools were like and the weaknesses that had to be confronted for South Africa to become a successful nation.
“I’d like to ask you to think of more than the technicalities you may have to implement, but to think seriously on a value system which is evolving. We have schools where children are not learning, they come out without reading, without writing, without mastering the basics of numeracy.
“We have schools where violence among pupils prevails. We have schools where we are confronted by early pregnancies.
“We have schools where people do not respect the teachers, but we also have teachers who are not coming to schools. And when they come, they don’t teach the whole of the curriculum,” Machel said at the graduation ceremony on Reconciliation Day.
South Africa’s education system has a serious problem, she said.
“We seek social justice, but more importantly we have to plant seeds which in 20 years’ time will enable us to reap brilliant young people who master the knowledge that will enable us to be the equal of other nations in the 21st century.
“We are going to be a winning nation where – from primary, secondary, technical and tertiary institutions – we offer to our society young people who can equal themselves to the so-called developed world. More importantly, it means they will be equipped to be productive within the very sophisticated, very complex society that the 21st century offers.”
Machel said the graduates could also regard themselves as social workers.
“My send-off to you, our graduates, is to take the challenges of the field you embraced by choice and transform the sectors you are acting in for the sake of our future generations.”