Education - SOS

The Sunday Times of last weekend published an article written by Michael Rice, who taught for many years at the Johannesburg College of Education. He really hit the nail on the head in discussing ‘After OBE, let’s stop the rot in our schools.’

The issue is close to my heart. It’s tragic that the thousands of students who sit in classrooms don’t gain maximum education, if any at all.

I wrote to the Sunday Times and hope that the letter will feature in the readers page.

Here it is:

Students beg: Stop the rot in our schools!

Being a 17 year-old student and having attended five different government schools in Gauteng, I could only agree that Michael Rice captured the exact essence of the countries educational crisis in his article ‘After OBE, let’s stop the rot in our schools’. His plea for a serious shift in attitude is urgent!

There are two main issues that affect me and all other students. Firstly core leadership in this department is crumbling with incompetence, resulting in teachers with poor ethics. From there hang the results. Teachers need to start becoming productive. However not all of them are useless. Those who are passionate and professional can teach without textbooks and computers. They can control a class without merits and demerits. They respect students and don’t waste their time. These teachers are scarce and do not get the credit their hard work deserves.

The second issue lies within the constant systems modifications. The department needs to implement a long term system that is compatible with both ‘first and third world’ schools, so to speak. The OBE concept is fantastic, but it has succeeded in only some cases. It can not work without resources, one of which is accomplished teachers.

Michael emphasized that professionalism involves self sacrifice. That all very good, but at this stage it’s not a mater of going the noble extra mile. Teachers need to do their jobs. They need to lead by example. They need to respect in order to be respected. Handing out exam answers to compensate for laziness says its okay to slack and leech off someone else. Mooching around the class watching movies from off a laptop during lessons says it’s ok to slouch around the house and abandon homework. Sexually harassing students in view of a young audience says it’s okay to exploit others. Fabricating marks says it’s okay to cheat….

The millions of young South African minds are valuable. The youth is powerful. The institutes that mold them need to be free of corruption. They should be places of learning, development and discipline, lead by morally upright and professional teachers.

I just wonder: What will actually be done to address this crisis?