Volume 10, No.1 - February 2001

United and Strong

Education - still a long way to go

By Moloto Mothapo Determination is building within the education sector in this country in preparation for the 2001 academic year. Education Minister, Kader Asmal and the provincial MECs, started the first week of the year with surprise visits to the country's various schools, Teachers' and students' organisations are also on track.

In a joint media conference held in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, the South African Students' Congress (SASCO), Congress for South African Students (COSAS) and the COSATU affiliated South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU) came up with new mechanisms in an effort to shape and consolidate the education system in this country.

Under the theme "Enhancing a Culture of Learning for our Future", the three organisations came up with a number of resolutions for the year 2001 as well as focusing on the past achievements since 1994. Among objectives that have been successfully carried out since 1994 are:

• The creation of a unified non-racial education system;
• The development of Outcomes Based Curriculum 2005 to overcome the short-comings of apartheid education; · Greater democratic governance of education institutions, for example via School Governing Bodies;
• The establishment of a National Qualifications Framework (NQF) to provide a platform for life long learning and national skills development.

However, as Sadtu secretary-general Thulas Nxesi emphasizes, there are currently objectives set by the ANC in 1994 that still have not been thoroughly and adequately addressed. These include:

• Provision of Early Childhood Development (pre-school) to all children;
• Equal access to public schooling - currently prevented by user fee system;
• Equal access to Higher Education, particularly for women, and students from rural and working class communities; · A national system of Adult Basic Education and Training to combat illiteracy (currently between 6-9 million adults), make the goal of life long learning a reality, and create access for young adults - including Matric repeaters - to Further Education and Training (FET) facilities.

Concerning the last of these objectives, Comrade Thulas Nxesi says that there are shocking statistics of Matric failures that don't return to schools each succeeding year, which is a major concern at the moment. "Where do those students go? Isn't this a waste of funds? Something should be done by the government to make sure that those students finish what they started…rather than going to the streets," says comrade Thulas.

Unequal access to public schools is another major concern. The fees being paid in these school should be exposed for making these schools inaccessible for students from disadvantaged communities," he says. Nxesi also attributed Matric failures to a lack of provision of adequate training to teachers by the government to implement the new curriculum and insufficient facilities in many of the country's schools.

"To say that school "A" performed well in last year's exams with no proper facilities than school "B" (with sufficient facilities) is absolutely unreasonable. That is one in a million!" disputes comrade Nxesi. He adds that problems in the matric level are still rife.

The 'better performance' in last year's matric exams is not necessarily a true reflection of the students' performance in a sense that the results were "doctored". "Students were 'forced' to register their subjects in Standard grade instead of higher grade in order to generate higher pass rate. Now they are being beaten by Universities and Technikons' points system," emphasizes comrade Nxesi. He adds that the issue should be addressed.

The three education organisations have come up with programme of action for the year 2001 academic year. It includes:

• The right to learn;
• The right to know, to inform parents regarding school fee exemptions; national literacy;
• Operation Mazibuye, to safeguard school assets and secure the return of text books;
• Back-to-school, campaign that will ensure that children of school-going age are attending school;
• Anti-crime and drugs campaign;
• Operation fundisa, which will focus on discipline, supplementary tuition and cleaning up schools. For the fostering and consolidation of the country's education system, SASCO, SADTU, and COSAS resolved to "support each other in the strengthening of their respective organisations, and to work to rebuild the MDM Education Alliance."

They resolved among others, to get the ANC, SACP, COSATU and other MDM formations to such as NEHAWU and YCS to appoint representatives to their Education Desk, and to request the ANC to appoint a person to coordinate education matters.