DOCUMENTS

Our schools are failing our children on a massive scale - Mamphela Ramphele

Agang SA leader says we have a second-class system that accepts second-rate results

Speaking notes for Dr Mamphela Ramphele's keynote address to Africa Education Week, Sandton International Convention Centre, June 20 2013

True freedom begins with an education

It is a great privilege to be with you today and spend time with the dedicated educators who are shaping our continent's future citizens and leaders.

I could not more emphatically agree with the theme of this year's African Education Week conference - ‘Empowerment for all through quality education'.

Quality education is the great social leveller when made accessible to all. Given the right learning environments and access to opportunity, our children play, learn, work and become better citizens together.

Education creates active citizens, who know their rights and are empowered to use them to hold their governments accountable and to fully participate in their economies.

Active societies are those in which the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom for all a country's citizens are protected.

We have made great strides as a continent, growing our economies, attracting investment and seeing peaceful elections in exemplary constitutional democracies.

The growth of the African middle classes is encouraging but at the same time it is middle-income developing countries, like South Africa, in which the inequality gap is widening at an alarming rate.

In many African countries we are seeing two speed education systems in which the middle and upper class have bought themselves out of the failing public education systems and are paying for first class education for their children. The gap between poor and well to do children is growing on our continent.

Left unchecked this threatens the future stability and prosperity of our countries, particularly given the young age of many of our populations.

Education is one of Africa's great missed opportunities, plagued by mistakes and mismanagement, played out over generations from the very first post-colonial governments.

We have not and, in too many cases, we still do no not invest enough as we should do in education.

This year's World Economic Forum debated ways in which we can ‘unlock Africa's talent'.

Business leaders know that it is education that creates productive and capable workers and they often invest in developing their people to.

Academics and policy makers set down fine strategies. And there are many teachers and educators who take great pride in their profession and care in their role as the guardians of young people.

And yet we are still failing too many of our young people.

From my time as Vice Chancellor at the University of Cape Town I understand and I share the frustrations that many of you must have at the failings in our public education system.

At the national government level we do not prioritise the allocation of our resources. Nor do we follow through from policy to practice. Education departments are often led by the weakest Government cabinet members.

Few post-colonial countries saw education as strategic enough to appoint the best to head their ministries. On the contrary, the weakest and least powerful political appointees tend to be allocated education as a portfolio to head.

It appears sometimes as though some governments have little appreciation of the strategic importance of education to their economies and its vital role in creating citizens who take their place in socially cohesive societies.

Of all the African's countries South African society is suffering from the impacts of a public education system failing on a massive scale.

It is tragic because what ignited the fervour for freedom in our country's struggle against apartheid were young people who revolted against an inferior education system and being taught in a language that was not their own and one not linked to economic opportunities.

They stood up against the might of apartheid to set about systematically undermining the Bantu education system, an evil policy that saw black people as undeserving of a proper education.

As someone who has overcome the many challenges placed in the way of a rural black woman I am deeply angry that after 20 years since freedom in South Africa, we are still failing millions of young people.

South Africa needs to rapidly and dramatically change course. The problems in our education system are clear.

Our schools are failing our children on a massive scale:

  • 745,000 (66%) students who enrolled in grade 1 as 6 year olds in 2001 did not make it to or did not pass their matric exams in 2012
  • Today's grade 6 learners average only 43% in Literacy tests and 27% in Numeracy tests
  • Only 10% of 2012's ‘born free' cohort were eligible for studies at tertiary level
  • South Africa with the highest proportion of GDP spent on education at R234bn per year has the worst performance of all African countries in the outcomes of the teaching of maths and science, 143 out of 144 countries, only better than Yemen - a conflict ridden poor country.

In 20 years the South African government has not adequately addressed the biggest issue: poor teacher quality and training.

It is staggering but in a recent study, just 38% of grade 6 maths teachers could answer questions from a grade 6 test.

We have a second-class system that accepts second-rate results. 30% or 40% is not a pass. No one wants a nurse, teacher or plumber who only knows 40% of the requirements in their field.

What dismays me is that these falling standards are not caused by a failure of policy and it not down to a lack of spending on education in South Africa. It is a failure of political will to live the values of human dignity, equality and true freedom for all in our beloved country.

It is down to a massive failure of governance and accountability that has allowed corruption and a culture of impunity to corrode government.

No less than 30bn rands a year are lost to corruption and mismanagement and the impact on our education system is huge.

For too many young learners mud schools, pit latrines, no libraries and no electricity are a daily reality.

These collective failures in teaching, infrastructure and student performance are emblematic of where South Africa is as a society. Why should a sophisticated county like South Africa not ensure that we use our highly developed ICT industry to leapfrog the challenges of enhancing quality education? Why do we still depend on textbooks in the 21st century when tablets can do the job? It only because it pays for politically connected people to milk the system through pretences at providing unnecessary services s middle men.

Our country is at a crossroads: the government's mismanagement of our education system is robbing our youth of their rightful future as well as handicapping the prospects of our country.

We have reached a critical moment in South Africa's history but I have faith that our fellow citizens will act. It our huge potential for the future, for the building of a great society and the immense, unbreakable spirit of our people that inspired me at the age of 65 to enter South African politics and to found Agang South Africa.

On Saturday my colleagues and I will launch Agang South Africa as a new political party.

The time has come to restore the promise of a free South Africa, to offer hope and the prospect of a dignified life for every one of us.

True freedom for all people begins with a quality educaiton. I believe that we can provide a 21st century education system to ensure that young people have the skills needed to drive our economy.

Agang SA will make good on the core principle of the struggle that all South Africans have a right to quality education so they can escape poverty and undo the injustices of the past.

We must set the bar higher and aim for excellence, both in the results we need to see from learners and from the quality of education provided to teachers.

We will aim to be a top 10 education system globally and make decisions accordingly. Incremental change will no longer be accepted.

We will also immediately raise our pass rates back to 50% and above.

Over the next weeks and months Agang will be consulting on our draft education policies as we prepare our manifesto to contest the 2014 election.

I would like to take this opportunity to begin that process in the presence of so many of our leading educators.

WE WILL PUT STUDENTS FIRST by conducting subject-specific competency tests of all teachers; provide intensive teacher training and link pay increases to competency/qualifications.

WE WILL INTRODUCE MINIMUM STANDARDS for new teacher hires with an eventual goal of all teachers having bachelor degrees.

WE WILL FILL TEACHER VACANCIES by hiring 15,000 more teachers with a focus on unemployed youth with bachelor degrees; provide allowances for working in rural areas and scarce skills (e.g., maths).

WE WILL UPGRADE INFRASTRUCTURE, eradicating mud schools, fixing basic infrastructure and building libraries to provide proper learning environments.

WE WILL SET MINIMUM STANDARDS for all elements of the education system so parents know what they should expect from government and can hold it accountable.

WE WILL TOP-UP SOCIAL GRANTS FOR EDUCATION RESULTS, providing additional social grant money to families for students who achieve a 70% pass in any year and for matriculation.

These are ideas and polices that I think have great relevance not just here in South Africa, but to many countries in Africa and indeed the wider world.

To be effective in delivering these changes requires political will and a coalition of policy makers, administrators, educators and of course students themselves.

In South Africa I believe that together we can build an education system that restores pride in the profession, creating highly qualified teachers, proper infrastructure and learning environments so young people get the education they deserve and have the best possible opportunity of dignified jobs.

If we upgrade the education system and get the economy moving to create jobs, we can start to tackle the poverty and despair that are at the heart of our social problems. We can and we will.

Given that Africa is the youngest young population and I see a greater future for my country and our continent if we can sort out our education systems.

As educators and administrators, policymakers and politicians it is our duty to work together to nurture our young people, the most important step toward building a better future for Africa.

Thank you

Issued by Agang SA, June 20 2013

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter