How we can improve SA’s dysfunctional education system

Dysfunctional schools can be improved through collective interventions, including better teacher training, rather than the common theorising

When Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga recently announced that the 2019 matric national pass rate was 81.3%, euphoria and boisterous ritualism justifying a decadal milestone achievement enveloped Mzansi.

There was an exponential increase in the bachelor’s pass rate and subject distinctions.

As the celebratory jamboree spread like wild fires, sadness too consumed the less successful cohort of the 2019 Grade 12 pupils.

2019 MATRIC PASS RATES – THE AFTERMATH

My name is Mbilu.

For the past 12 years, I gave it my all to succeed, but, as fate would have it, I did not pass Grade 12.

There was a unique descriptor to my failing matric exams that exacerbated my misery and family disappointment.

It was not just me who failed – the entire Grade 12 class failed!

We have set a new record for dysfunctionality and I deplore being part of this sorry history.

When my parents named me Mbilu – meaning the heart – it was a symbolic gesture bestowed on me for my relentless trials and efforts at life.

My efforts at conquering life challenges almost mimicked that arduous function of the heart organ in its endless effort, pumping blood to all bodily organs.

I had the physical and spiritual qualities to succeed in my schooling, and would have, had I been sufficiently nurtured and monitored during my twelve years.

But it remains just a pipe dream!

Mbilu, as a metaphorical name for all the pupils who failed Grade 12 and schools with zero passes, thrust into the spotlight the crisis of dysfunctionality within the education system, and seeks the adoption of effective and sustained solutions to dealing with the problematic components of it holistically.

The provision of education in South Africa is undercut by a plethora of challenges.

Access remains the dominant one, at basic, secondary and tertiary education levels.

The successful bachelor’s pass holders (186 058 of them) will find it difficult to be accommodated, based on the quality of passes and physical spaces available to accommodate such numbers.

Only three new universities were built in two decades.

We have not accelerated the number of staff with apex qualifications.

Funding in the tertiary sector remains a major challenge we experience each year.

Others shall be afforded the opportunity to prepare for supplementary examinations, or petition for remarking or redoing matric; or will just off-ramp to the proliferating short course options offered by money-spinners.

The diploma and certificate pass holders will meander into the less glamourous technical and vocational education and training colleges.

They too, must overcome institutional access and funding obligations, a recurring praxis we seem not to be able to solve, thus giving credence to the notion that the provision of education can be a wretched affair as a consequence of ineffectual state praxis.

While the pupil categories mentioned have an opportunity to start afresh, there is, regrettably, the cohort that would have reached that dreaded educational cul-de-sac.

Our educational system has historic montages of Mbilu and, somehow, we struggle to redress and fix.

When Motshekga decried the poor show in maths and science by the 2019 Grade 12 pupils, it was an admission of the prevalence of the problematic components of the education system.

Her observations have been corroborated by our performance in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study over the decade.

Our own Annual National Assessment reports have not painted a glamourous picture.

As the minister opined, “Our kids are not reading at an appropriate level as a country … there is a crisis.”

She was brutally correct about the pupil performance deficit.

Similarly, the Mbilus did not fail matric examinations for lack of effort and commitment. A myriad of contextual factors beyond their control contributed to their situation.

To circumvent another 12-year repeat, the following must be appraised:

MANAGING THE PROVINCIAL MATRICULATION ‘COMPETITIVE’ NARRATIVE

The concept of competition evokes nuanced narratives and its application within an educational context requires us to be even more circumspect.

Over the years, provinces have jostled to be at the top of the matriculation performance value chain.

Competition among pupils is acceptable only if the end goal is attainable by all of them.

It becomes a disservice when it promotes sectoral, regional and provincial aloofness.

Despite decadal interventions, our education landscape is still unequal and hugely differentiated.

We failed to materially translate the Norms and Standards for School Infrastructure Policy into successes.

REVAMPING EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Dysfunctional schools are a consequence of a myriad of factors, including poorly designed and equipped classrooms.

Improved architectural designs of schools and classrooms influence pupils’ cognitive development, while dilapidated schools and banal environments do not inspire pupils and teachers to breach the frontiers of knowledge.

Better resourced schools become safe yet powerful and inviting, enabling spaces where teachers can breathe life into classroom settings for pupils to breach knowledge boundaries.

However, poorly resourced schools become oppressive and ugly spaces that undermine quality education.

INVESTING IN DYSFUNCTIONAL SCHOOLS

Efforts to close dysfunctional schools are counter-educative since they fail to address the root cause of the problem, given South Africa’s challenges to accessing quality education.

Closing dysfunctional schools could be viewed both as sectoral and escapist rationality, because it does not improve the quality of education.

Research confirms that “there would never ever be any dysfunctional schools if educational custodians paid attention to the delivery of their core mandate”.

Closing such schools merely prolongs the national pain, given the challenges of access.

Dysfunctional schools can be turned around through collective interventions and these include allowing “more talented people to enter teaching and for them to be taught how to do their jobs well, rather than subjected to the theorising common on many teacher training courses”.

Well-prepared and professionally trained teachers lead and manage the “yeasty” classrooms efficaciously.

TIME WE MARK TEACHERS

If you can’t measure it, you may not ascertain its efficacy.

Similarly, South Africa does not have a performance management system to determine the effectiveness of teachers in their presentation of the curriculum.

Many studies, such as those done by the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality, underscore the perils of poorly trained and prepared teachers within the continent.

Ineffective recruitment processes and quick-fix teacher training programmes perpetuate dysfunctionality.

To circumvent this trend, we should explore introducing teacher monitoring and performance systems to track classroom effectiveness.

If an education system is only as good as its teachers, our country should not avoid addressing the problematic components of the system that accelerate educational dysfunctionality.

Let’s staff schools with teachers who teach to make a difference, to improve things, to participate in profoundly human and social experience, to change the world, sometimes one precious life after another.

Teacher unions and all stakeholders in education should confront this reality and change the business of education and schooling in general.

THE FUTURE

To be successful, let’s set clear targets and performance tracking mechanisms that allow a rethink on the best ways to transform current educational provisioning practices to deliver on the intentions of the National Development Plan 2030.

Addressing the above emboldened snapshots of the problematic components of the system will give transformation that much-needed credence for institutionalising excellence as the non-negotiable for the provision of quality education.

Lebusa Monyooe is a concerned citizen

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