We can’t go on building physical infrastructure — roads — without, on an equally large scale, building human capital — people. This is an urgent matter; the children are in school now, they can’t repeat their childhood in years to come when we eventually get it right.
Urgent change is a matter of political will. Nelson Mandela founded our nation; Jacob Zuma, the least formally educated probable president of modern times, has the unique and historic opportunity to build our nation. All of us want to build our nation and will do anything to help. So we all need to understand that it is on the future of our education that the future of our nation depends.
Much is being done well. There are many worthy and effective nongovernmental organisations and many finer minds than my own for me to be presumptuous, but from my passionate and patriotic heart and 42 years in education, here are my suggestions of what needs to be done, urgently.
The implementation steps of a Marshall Plan for education, when pared down, are as obvious as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Give every school access to water. This is a human right, yet there are more than 3000 schools in SA without water.
Give all pupils in non-fee paying schools, or the lower quartile schools, one nutritious meal a day. I have seen the eyes of orphans at a high school looking more like hyenas’ eyes than a child’s as they looked at food being dished up for them by a local business. We are feeding our primary school children. We must do the same for our high school children. You can’t concentrate in a maths class on an empty stomach.
The next basic need is physical and emotional security: understand the damage done to individuals and communities by the ravages of HIV/AIDS and introduce a large cohort of trained counsellors who can help with grief counselling and family counselling. They must be people with a heart. Children need loving.
Fire all teachers who don’t have heart. I’ve heard of some exploitation of children that makes ubuntu sound like a joke.
Secure all schools by employing guards from the neighbourhood.
Expect all principals and senior teachers to live in the community and house them appropriately at the state’s cost. No schools are safe that are locked at 3pm and teachers leave for their homes in another town.
Instead of locking computers away for fear of them being stolen, empower children and trust them to teach each other to use them, thereby leaping the technically challenged generation.
Accept the centrality of schools in reconnecting the social fabric, inadequate though they may be. They are the only beacons of order, values and discipline in dysfunctional communities.
The question whether the school leads society, or society the school, is answered emphatically in the communities I have interacted with, where inhabitants were dumped in apartheid times and now have to cope with the added population of families and individuals from other countries. Here, the school, teachers, governing body and pupils play a key role in bringing about stability.
Create in the schools a sense of belonging through the vertical integration of age cohorts. In simple terms, a house/amakhaya system, which, when properly run, allows older teenagers to mentor younger teenagers. Structure is essential for community building.
A house system creates an easy to implement extramural programme, which stimulates interest and involvement and develops skills such as debating, singing or playing soccer. By expecting participation from all children, you create a sense of belonging. Everyone is a member of the team. This builds confidence. We can’t expect children not to abuse alcohol or fall pregnant if from 2pm, every day of their lives, they have no alternative activity to engage them.
Begin a pilot project in 800 schools — 400 high schools and 400 primary schools — immediately. Attach a retired principal to every four schools that are to be visited individually on four mornings of the week. Expect the retired principal to walk alongside the present principal, coaching, mentoring, problem solving. The same system could apply to former deputies and heads of departments with present colleagues. Pay them all appropriately. Structure them in clusters so they are not travelling excessively. There is no better method of building confidence and effectiveness than by creating trust and respect between colleagues, which comes from the sharing of wisdom and experience.
Co-ordinate the efforts of all nongovernmental organisations into these schools in a series of whole-school interventions. Bring in maths, science and English specialists over and above the present allocation in grade 8 to grade 12. Pay them. Recruit from Zimbabwe. I have never met a bad Zimbabwean teacher. Clear out all the hurdles that principals have to jump through to appoint a foreign teacher. Expand the allocation to retain effective teachers in the classroom. Create continuity and effectiveness in governing bodies.
Allow all principals to hire and fire. Fire them, in turn, if they can’t or won’t improve and grow.
Develop all schools towards section 21 status by giving every school a sensible amount of money to maintain and secure their plant; a trained manager/caretaker and enough general workers to maintain, water and clean; and expecting proper accounts by training or appointing new staff.
Continue the above-mentioned steps for 12 years so that they become self-propagating and sustainable.
I have spent the past months working with Penreach, the largest school-based outreach programme in the country, coaching and mentoring principals and school management teams in some no-fee paying schools in rural areas and townships in Mpumalanga.
The horror stories of our schools have been documented before: toilets that are unusable, especially for girls at puberty; no water; no school meals for orphans and vulnerable pupils in high schools; no libraries; no science labs; no offices; no personal assistant to the principal; no financial capacity; no shelter for assembly (try concentrating in the sun); little care (the children of the teachers are not educated in the schools they teach in); little respect for teachers, which results in absenteeism and lateness; and unfair appointments.
There are solutions to these challenges. What is exciting is that it is not too late. There are some wonderful people working in education: in departments, schools and teachers’ unions. They are people of hope and energy, who work hard for the betterment of others. But we need to act urgently. Our school children have one opportunity and it is being blown.
The urgency also lies in the fact that schools with discipline and structure are the last bastion against a disintegration of the social fabric and our values. On the future of AIDS-torn communities, the future of our nation depends. If we don’t support our poor schools, we will have no community, no sense of belonging, no confidence. Building a sense of self worth in our people is the cornerstone of building our nation. Upon the future of our education, the future of our nation depends.