by Brian Isaacs
South Africa is the most unequal country in the world according to Ed Stoddard writing in the Daily Maverick, March 13, 2022. How do we as South Africans respond to this statement?
One hardly hears from the very rich how they will share their riches with the other citizens. The middle-class say they barely manage to cope with daily living.
The majority of South Africans who are poor constantly remind the government and the bosses of industry through their trade unions that more jobs must be created and workers better paid.
In education, we see this inequality in our schools and tertiary institutions. Every year, post-matric students who qualify for university entrance are refused entrance by the 26 public universities due to the numbers they can accommodate.
I do not see the rectors challenging the government in the mainstream media about expanding accommodation for students. Rather, it is a boastful attitude – “we are full”. Who then fights for our children who meet university criteria but do not get accepted?
Now, with Covid-19, you cannot even enter some university premises without an appointment. When you call, they will not give you an appointment to find out why you were not accepted. The answer from the administrative staff is that the faculty is full.
Covid-19 has made it easy to keep students out of university. This seems to be followed by schools as well as far as enrolment is concerned.
We are a country trying to improve the education for the majority of our students. We must be reminded since 1652, the majority of people in South Africa have been oppressed.
The ANC-led government must be given the credit for introducing compulsory education for students from Grade 1 to grade 9 when they came into power. It meant they had to divert money to achieve this goal to education. Unlike the apartheid government, who spent the country’s money only on “white” children.
Today, this small “white” minority group wants to criticise the ANC government, who is seeing to it that a vast majority of South African students get an education which is free and compulsory.
The DA-led government in the Western Cape has done very little to equalise education.
How do we, as South Africans, shed this badge of dishonour being the most unequal society in the world? The first point is it is an accepted fact that, as Marcellus in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet said: “… Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”.
If this is not being discussed and debated in government, ordinary South Africans must put pressure on Parliament to do exactly that.
Since 1996, schools of the poor have been fighting the quintile financing system of government. Schools
of the poor remain massively underfunded and, therefore, will always struggle to give children an excellent education. This results in the majority of schools not doing subjects like Mathematics, Physical Sciences, Agricultural and Marine Sciences. Let us not even speak about Information Technology and Robotics.
Since 1994, there have been no progressive community and teacher organisations vociferously fighting the issues I have raised above. Progressive community organisations in 1994 felt that the struggle produced a democratic government that would look after its people. Teacher unions have become apolitical and are mainly concerned with the improved working conditions of teachers.
It is good we have an organisation like the recently formed Progressive Organisations’ Formation (POF) which is tackling important issues in education.
The National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers’ Union Education Sector (NUPSAW ES) is one of the few progressive teacher unions which is not only concerned about teachers’ working conditions but also the problems facing students.
Workers (including teachers and non-teaching-staff and parents) and students can bring about meaningful change and make a huge dent in the fact that SA is the most unequal country in the world.
* Brian Isaacs obtained a BSc (UWC) in 1975, a Secondary Teacher’s Diploma in 1976, BEd (UWC) in 1981, and MEd (UWC) in 1992. He is a former matriculant, teacher and principal at South Peninsula High School.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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