*Education needs to be made fashionable for all*
Many young people are able to access education mainly because there are more schools in all communities than before 1994. Research shows more young people are attending early childhood development centres and more are passing Grade 12 with university admission. Such indicates government is taking education seriously. It also shows how South Africans are starting to contribute positively in making education a societal issue and fashionable to all people, young and old. We need to encourage pupils and students to improve their academic qualifications and those who are still at primary or high school, to study hard to get the best results. For this to be possible, every parent and community should be part of the education of our children, brothers and sisters, and not leave education issues to the school governing bodies. All stakeholders should form part of monitoring schools on issues such as whether the culture of teaching and learning is indeed being entrenched at all schools. Schools must allow and have open days in which parents and community stakeholders are allowed to visit and have access to information such as results, pass rates and the kinds of projects the schools put in place to ensure pupils are getting the best education. The departments of sports, arts and culture, as the custodians of libraries, should build more libraries in our communities, particularly in villages and townships, to support and serve pupils, as well as the whole community. It could assist societies to using such places not only for studying to pass exams or to get job promotions. The kinds of programmes such institutions run could assist in broadening perspectives on the environment, our history and science. They could help people make time to read novels, promoting African novelists. This should also be taken up by the departments of education as there are still schools without libraries. We need to encourage community stakeholders to start programmes dedicated to infrastructure development, fundraising for more classrooms, libraries, laboratories and sports facilities in which they must involve businesses to help by funding a project a year. The Young Communist League took a resolution in 2011 to make education fashionable and accessible and the ANC’s 2012 Mangaung conference’s organisational renewal document resolution says “every ANC member should be involved in a project to improve the quality of learning and teaching and raise the level of education, skills and literacy”. The ANC-led government, civil society and the private sector together can do more to make sure working-class children can walk proudly not because they have secured a fancy job in government offices or in big companies or a big government tender but because of academic qualifications. Taking from the ANC resolution above it means that members of the branches should be engaging in ways to assist educational development in villages and townships. The YCL’s call to make education fashionable to all young people is gaining momentum and support from ordinary South Africans. The YCL, ANC Youth League and the Congress of South African Students, as well as other progressive NGOs and civil society movements, should be able to or else find ways to keep track records of what happens to youth who have passed grade 12. We should have programmes that assist those who have tertiary qualifications to find jobs. These programmes should also reach out to those who have dropped out or who want to drop out. It is important to have a database and necessary to keep records of our constituency. Cosas should be the champion at high schools to make sure no one drops out without completing Grade 12 with good results. Sasco in the higher institutions of learning should do the same by keeping abreast of students who face challenges socially, politically or economically. If we all play the roles that we should, no one in South Africa will lack education. Together we can do more by making education fashionable and accessible. Poverty, inequality and unemployment will be a thing of the past. * **Rendani Thanyani is deputy chairperson of the Limpopo Young Communist League. * -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
