Return to basics
Editorial, Business Day, Johannesburg, 14 January 2010
THE new school year has just kicked off. To ensure we do not fail the
class of 2010, it is important that we reflect critically on what needs
to change in our underperforming education system.
We must stop acting surprised when poor matric results are released.
The obvious truth is that a school career spans at least 12 years. We
know, for example, that our primary school pupils consistently score
worse than our international competitors — including other African
countries — on comparative test scores for core subjects such as maths
and science.
Why then should we be surprised that science results in matric are
poor? Poor matric results are not reducible to a single event, such as
a teachers’ strike, that unexpectedly occurred in the final school
year. They are the consequence of a poisonous mix of systemic failures
that in turn requires intervention at various points of pupils’
educational journeys.
The poisonous mix includes facts endogenous to the education system —
such as inadequate teaching skill, needlessly bureaucratic teaching
assessment tools, and poor commitment on the part of educators — as
well as exogenous facts not attributable to teachers, such as learners
from poor backgrounds arriving on empty stomachs, unable to concentrate
in class.
It is pointless trying to pick out the dominant driver of
underperformance. We need to deal each one of these contributing
factors a fatal blow.
On the teaching side it is encouraging that the education department
has done away with the needlessly time-consuming and complex evaluation
of each learner’s performance. Teachers should now start focusing more
fully on imparting knowledge and developing basic skills rather than
stressing about the methodologically fraudulent philosophy of
outcomes-based education.
Still, even with these important changes the department needs to
provide additional scaffolding to teachers such as ensuring learner
support material arrives in time and school facilities are repaired or
provided speedily. Sadly, many schools have already started the year
with vandalised buildings. A bigger portion of the education budget
needs to deal with material inequalities between schools.
As for the exogenous facts, it is important for national and provincial
cabinets to see education as a team responsibility rather than as a
singular departmental one. This means that interministerial, clustered
interventions are necessary. For example, the welfare department should
be roped in to help poor students. Hunger correlates with poor
performance, and should be eliminated.
We can defeat these systemic problems. But to do so we must start
seeing education as the joint responsibility of society, educationists
and the whole of the Cabinet.
From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=91183
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Posted By DomzaNet to Communist University on 1/14/2010 06:45:00 AM
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