Bright ideas: Panyaza Lesufi. Picture: Oupa Mokoena/African News Agency (ANA)
I am so bothered by the pending redundancy of 2 400 of the Western Cape’s teachers, that I have dug out previous opinions that I have written about the critical need for a better education system.
I can guarantee you that if the children of our politicians attended public schools, this would not be happening.
Thirty years into democracy and I’m wondering how we have tolerated an education system entirely driven by capitalism for as long as we have.
It is painfully obvious to me that the key to our prosperity as a nation is an intense and laser-sharp focus on quality education.
Last year, I found myself agreeing with Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi - that all our leaners should be educated to the same standards, so that they can all comfortably take the same exams.
Lesufi wants our two examination systems to be amalgamated, instead of one for government schools and a perceived higher quality one for private schools.
It’s no secret that most, if not all, politicians send their own kids to private schools with the comfortable salary packages that they approve for themselves from our tax money.
And if that is not an admission of government-school failure of sorts, then I don’t know what is.
Another interesting suggestion from him is that teacher salaries be tax-free, as an incentive for them stay in the public school system.
Whether you agree or not, the status quo is not tenable, as the majority of South African kids enter the adult world at an extreme disadvantage not of their own doing.
And it’s not tenable that business tacitly supports this by giving preference to young people with a “better education”.
Instead of supporting equality across the board, business instead exploits the situation by investing in even more private schools. Profit over social justice, it seems, as they profit off the hopeless misery of our youth and the desperation of parents.
So how do we fix it? Painfully and with unwavering political will is the short answer.
This is a generational curse whose back must be broken over a long period of time.
Destroy existing township schools; go on a national construction campaign to build as many quality schools as needed.
Incentivise the private sector to fund this drive. Make sure these schools all have the exact same facilities that will nurture all aptitudes in children, by passionate, well-paid teachers.
Keep kids at school all day and make sure they are safe, stimulated, engaged and fed.
Make all of this free, including free university, tied to compulsory community service afterwards, as a form of payback that will support their profession of choice.
Keep doing this for two generations and watch South Africa propel itself into prosperity. And the way you sustain this and keep the quality up is by making it mandatory for all public servants’ children to attend public schools.
Politicians will only care about something if it affects them personally.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za
Related Topics: