Former South Peninsula High School principal Brian Isaacs’ demand model C and private schools must go
may be motivated by a politically correct, egalitarian idealism, but it does not have the interests of education and country’s future at heart. Like similar grand gestures, it’s big on ideology and short on practicalities.
First, eliminating private education for those who want it eliminates freedom of association and to make economic decisions that’s a cornerstone of democracy. These ideologues are hypocrites because democracy is not a buffet from which they can pick elements they like and discard the rest. And they have that luxury they would not have under a restricted political system. Did Fidel Castro give Cuban citizens choice?
The relatively few quality government (model C and other) and private schools are literally South Africa’s last line of defence against the nadir of educational mediocrity. This is no exaggeration.
SA ranked second last in 2016’s Trends in Maths and Science Study – 148 out of 149 (the ministry called this an “improvement”), beating conflict-ridden Kuwait but below African countries. It’s beyond belief SA spends as much on education as five African countries combined and still scores below them.
The education department’s policy that pupils can only fail once in a phase is disastrous because pupils know they don’t have to work hard and excel – they will be promoted purely on attendance. The system breeds failure and mediocrity.
A teacher told me continuously changing models – OBE (a complex system the government lacked the resources and will to properly implement), Curriculum 2005 and now CAPS makes it difficult for educators to manage. Curriculum 2005, he said, was not bad but was replaced because it was too “difficult” and pupils were failing. (And we should not forget Professor Kader Asmal closing teaching colleges.)
Private schools writing the IEB and remaining former model C, etc schools are the main source where universities and employers enrol SA’s future cohort of skilled, professional and educated people. But with the problems in higher education, which is also under pressure to enrol more students, including poorly prepared ones, to get the demographics right, the top students – the country’s future leaders – have the option to go abroad. Where will this leave SA – among the world’s failed states, where our leaders can’t count?
A couple of weeks ago the national senior certificate results will be released to self-congratulations from all involved - politicians, schools and educators, parents and pupils - about how well they’ve done. But the public is complicit in a huge con because almost everyone is overlooking the fact the government senior certificate is almost worthless as a measure of basic academic competence.
The recent announcement that pupils who fail maths will be promoted anyway (“especially if they don’t need it for their careers”) is another in a long line of insane, bad decisions rewarding mediocrity. SA is educating the majority of its people for careers as labourers and Pol Pot-type serfdom.
The educational system is broken and has failed everyone, which is one of the reasons the economy is moribund. People like Isaacs should exert their expertise and influence on fixing what’s wrong – and we know what they are – rather than trying to bring everyone down to the same, dumb-downed level because that’s where the country is heading otherwise.
may be motivated by a politically correct, egalitarian idealism, but it does not have the interests of education and country’s future at heart. Like similar grand gestures, it’s big on ideology and short on practicalities.
First, eliminating private education for those who want it eliminates freedom of association and to make economic decisions that’s a cornerstone of democracy. These ideologues are hypocrites because democracy is not a buffet from which they can pick elements they like and discard the rest. And they have that luxury they would not have under a restricted political system. Did Fidel Castro give Cuban citizens choice?
The relatively few quality government (model C and other) and private schools are literally South Africa’s last line of defence against the nadir of educational mediocrity. This is no exaggeration.
SA ranked second last in 2016’s Trends in Maths and Science Study – 148 out of 149 (the ministry called this an “improvement”), beating conflict-ridden Kuwait but below African countries. It’s beyond belief SA spends as much on education as five African countries combined and still scores below them.
The education department’s policy that pupils can only fail once in a phase is disastrous because pupils know they don’t have to work hard and excel – they will be promoted purely on attendance. The system breeds failure and mediocrity.
A teacher told me continuously changing models – OBE (a complex system the government lacked the resources and will to properly implement), Curriculum 2005 and now CAPS makes it difficult for educators to manage. Curriculum 2005, he said, was not bad but was replaced because it was too “difficult” and pupils were failing. (And we should not forget Professor Kader Asmal closing teaching colleges.)
Private schools writing the IEB and remaining former model C, etc schools are the main source where universities and employers enrol SA’s future cohort of skilled, professional and educated people. But with the problems in higher education, which is also under pressure to enrol more students, including poorly prepared ones, to get the demographics right, the top students – the country’s future leaders – have the option to go abroad. Where will this leave SA – among the world’s failed states, where our leaders can’t count?
A couple of weeks ago the national senior certificate results will be released to self-congratulations from all involved - politicians, schools and educators, parents and pupils - about how well they’ve done. But the public is complicit in a huge con because almost everyone is overlooking the fact the government senior certificate is almost worthless as a measure of basic academic competence.
The recent announcement that pupils who fail maths will be promoted anyway (“especially if they don’t need it for their careers”) is another in a long line of insane, bad decisions rewarding mediocrity. SA is educating the majority of its people for careers as labourers and Pol Pot-type serfdom.
The educational system is broken and has failed everyone, which is one of the reasons the economy is moribund. People like Isaacs should exert their expertise and influence on fixing what’s wrong – and we know what they are – rather than trying to bring everyone down to the same, dumb-downed level because that’s where the country is heading otherwise.
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