The South African Constitution declares that everyone has a right
to basic and further education. Without free and compulsory education paid for
by the state, society will be vulnerable to an unnatural aristocracy formed by
those who afford paid and private education. The desire to have the white race of South
Africa as an aristocracy was arguably the deeper reason why Verwoerd targeted
disparities in education as the surest template to make apartheid work. The long-term benefits of his policy still torment the country to date. The apartheid state knew that education was not only about maths and science
but creativity, imagination, and innovation. Denying equal and
comprehensive quality education would guarantee the achievement of social engineering objectives which the
apartheid ideology set for South Africa.
Education as a right obligates the state to respect, protect,
promote and fulfil its provision in South Africa. It being enshrined in the Bill of
Rights is evidence that without free basic education, the democratic order is
incomplete. Free education is, therefore, not about parents not paying only. It is about
what the state puts at the disposal of society to ensure that the right to
basic education is fulfilled.
One of the fundamental capital investments a society can make in education is the quality of teachers, human or otherwise, it allows in front of its learners. Producing quality teachers is thus an anchor activity for any national development planning effort because development outcomes are a function of how the education system is synchronised with the economic objectives of a democratic or political order. Suppose our NDP comprises a network of interdependent parts that work towards eliminating poverty and reducing inequality. In that case, it needs to draw on the energies of its people, whose education is a core determinant. As much as society sees all other capital investments as key in propelling GDP per capita, they should see the shortage of one quality teacher as many in a nation's quest to be competitive?
One of the permanent indictments the post-1994 state must be imprisoned for, is its crimes against human capital investment in South Africa. The first and main charge should be the closure of teacher training colleges. To paraphrase President Ramaphosa 'the post-1994 democratic state may not stand alone in the dock on the crimes of human capital underdevelopment and choking the basic education teacher supply side, but it does stand as accused number one. If a commission of policy inquiry is to be constituted. The impact of this crime will make the somewhat overrated Zondo Commission Report a walk in the park. The latest report on the quality of teaching and teachers is the tip of the iceberg the titanic South Africa is fast approaching to collide.
Suppose
the possibility of a less than 50% performance by any political party in the
next election is anything to go by. In that case, society should demand the
reopening of teacher training colleges from the coalition government of the day
to rapidly deal with the supply side of basic human capital development demands.
Education of society is the single most important tool that a nation can use to
feed its soul. Teaching is a vocation that should be in the domain of humans. Machines do not have the
human touch to transmit the intangibles that humanity learns from
observation.
The
collapse of values as manifest in crime impunity, the rise of strange breeds of
leaders, the growing disrespect and disregard of public infrastructure, the
education-linked limitations to being globally competitive, and the inability
to learn and relearn as the epitome of a quality education system is choked by
the gross disregard of teachers as part of the nation's capital investment
assets. The IMF and other multilateral bodies' structural adjustment programs
have made 'the government of the day' see teachers as overheads whose
mechanical reduction from the staff establishment makes the national balance
sheet look good.
If
the situation is not reversed, it will be a permanent indictment to whoever led
higher education during the teacher quality decline. Teacher training colleges,
like their other counterparts, nursing, were institutions created to be
only about how to teach and nurse. They focused on basic education curricula as subject
specialisation; the rest was about how best to make the education occurrence of
a basic education learner meaningful. The outcomes of what teacher training
college produced, and no longer does, is the declining sports, arts, and culture prowess of
South Africa in comparative terms.
The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Education Research report is another piece of evidence that a reset button on who the public that our public service is serving should be found and pressed. The reset process should answer if humans in the public service are organs of the state, and if they are, how much of a capital investment they are on the national balance sheet. Through our teachers, we have learnt that "if you want to succeed in life, most often you need to put in the hours, develop good habits, work well with others, and work your way through the system. They made sure we know that this is true "whether you study English, physics, history, engineering or business", you still need to be a self determined sovereign individual. These were the teachers from closed colleges such as TCE, Setotolwane, Tivumveni, Hoxana, Tshiya, Hebron, Soweto Teachers College, and many others. All these institutions are today lying empty and derelict whilst the proverbial education Rome is burning. CUT!!!
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