South Africa’s Education System Needs an Overhaul, not Band-Aids
Picture source: Mediamodifier
Money Spent on Education is a Priority
For its 2018/19 budget, South Africa
committed to spending R246 billion on education. This is over 16.5% of its
budget. This is more than an African
country like Kenya spends on its students. Amazingly, as a proportion of
budget, it is also more than Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States
of America.
The Education Budget is Not Yielding Results
But higher spending has simply not
led to better education outcomes in South Africa. The stats are all over the
Internet. Eight out of ten South African grade fours cannot read with
understanding. After four years of schooling, children are still not literate. But
the problem goes back even further than this. Studies have shown that already
nine out of ten pupils struggling to read in grade one will not catch up by
grade four. Already the foundation that should be laid in grade R and grade one
is lacking. And 75% of pupils struggling in grade 4 will never catch up in
reading skills by the time they reach high school.
South Africa’s performance in maths
and science is among the worst in the world. Fewer and fewer students are
taking these subjects to matric. At a 30% pass mark, our matric certificate
lacks international quality to begin with. Only 37% of matriculants passed maths
with 40% or more. Even locally, further study is not an option with these
marks. With a pass rate of 30% matriculants cannot enter local universities
even though they have a matric certificate.
A Proposed Solution that won’t fix anything
The focus should be on remedying the
structural problems in our foundation phase. Basic Education
Minister Angie Motshekga has announced another strategy, however. What the
department proposes is an evaluation in grade 9. This General Education
Certificate (GEC) will evaluate that children have the basic skills of reading
and mathematical comprehension. They can then decide which education stream
they want to embark on.
There are three
pathways that a learner can then decide on. These are academic pathway, the technical vocational pathway and
the technical or occupational pathway. The technical vocational pathway aims to
produce at least ten thousand artisans a year.
This would be
commendable. But the fact is the real problem has been already assessed. And it
is being ignored. Our young learners cannot read when they reach grade 4. Giving
them another test five years later that we know they will likely fail is not going
to help anything. Before introducing the GEC, we should be ensuring that reading
comprehension is being addressed. Basic maths skills should be imparted to our
grade 1’s to 3’s.
Our country does
lack artisans. More will definitely be a boost for the country’s economy. And a
focus on learning these skills will mean that children who excel in practical
skills will have a career path that might be overlooked by many right now. But
artisans need to be able to read, and read well. And our schooling is not
producing matriculants that can read. Our artisans need to be mathematically
literate too.
The Focus Needs to be on the Foundation Phase
Studies have shown that producing
young children than can read and do maths is the key to future academic
success. The South African education system needs an overhaul if it is ever to
produce such learners. Focusing on getting matrics to pass by lowering the
standard of the pass requirement is not going to solve the problem. If anything
it is going to compound the challenges this country faces. These are challenges
such as joblessness and unemployability.
Focus must be on implementing a
learning system that gives us grade 4’s that can read. And that can read with
understanding. They must be able to do basic maths at this stage, too. This is
the surest way to ensure that when our students are in grade 12, they will be
able to pursue whatever tertiary training they need. This will give them the
required skills to attain the certifications that will make them valuable
employees. These certifications will then open doors to fulfilling and
profitable careers.
Remedial Education is a Key Component to Solving this Crisis
To assist those students that are
struggling, a more remedial approach should be followed. In primary school, we
need teachers with the ability to help students catch up on reading and
mathematics. This will also help us avoid the remedial crisis that the USA is
facing. Many of their school leavers spend a lot of money on expensive
post-high school remedial classes. The annual spend adds up to billions of
dollars each year. Many of these students do not complete these expensive
courses. Even fewer then complete a tertiary qualification. This means
literally billions of dollars wasted on incomplete education.
By focusing spending on the
formative years of schooling, we can avoid this trap. If we can see that the
millions of students who have fallen behind are helped to catch up, we can have
success. Matriculants that can pursue further qualifications are desperately
needed for long-term success in this country.
The long-term goal would be to
produce learners that don’t fall behind. But we need to assist our current
learners. They need to gain the reading and maths skills required to be
productive members of society. And they need these skills now. Remedial learning will be a key to see that
need met.
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