In response to this statement of the Party, because of its coincidence with
the current CU course on Education
<http://studycircle.wikispaces.com/23+Education> , being serialised on the
YCLSA Discussion Forum
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/yclsa-eom-forum> , I offer the
following compilation, with my own remarks at the end:
Writing for the SACP’s Umsebenzi Online, in August 2012, and seeing a deep
crisis, the distinguished, now late, South African History Professor, Jeff
Guy, began as follows:
“We are confronted by it daily: the failure of education at every level:
attempts to remove the stifling legacy of our educational past brought to
nothing by inflexible pedagogies, inadequate teaching, stifling bureaucracy,
and inefficient administration all contributing to the waste of the funds
and material upon which young peoples' futures depend. In the press, at
conferences and workshops, this contemporary crisis is in the public view.
Open comment and criticism of this kind are essential attributes of the
democratic approach, and will lead, one has to hope, in the direction of
radical improvement. But in the past fortnight I have been confronted by
another dimension of the crisis in education. While it might appear to be
very different I believe it is one that also has its roots in our history,
and is as difficult to solve.”
In January 2013 the SACP used the occasion of the ANC Secretary-General’s
short-lived “essentialisation” campaign to issue a press release that said
that Cde Mantashe’s campaign was a waste of time, but that there is a
necessary debate to be had about the nature and purpose of education. That
SACP statement said:
“The SACP is further of the view that we should not just provide an
education that produces readily made goods for absorption by the labour
market but that our education, an education that must be essential, must be
underpinned by the vision of People’s Education for People’s Power! This
vision requires that our schooling and post schooling education systems do
not just produce skilled individuals but individuals who are able to
interpret and make sense of their political, ideological and socio‐economic
conditions and thus be actors to radically alter those conditions.”
One month earlier, the well-respected educationalist Michael Rice, in an
article prominently published by the Johannesburg newspaper, The Star, used
the occasion of the announcement of the Matric examination results to argue:
“Our obsession with exam results has devalued education to little more than
a means of obtaining a certificate to gain entrance to some sort of
professional training or a job. The cultivation of values, critical thought,
cultural sensitivity and the wide spectrum of opportunities for personal,
intellectual and moral development have become irrelevant in the pursuit of
marks.”
“What is needed is a complete revisioning of education; what it is, what it
is meant for, who it is meant to serve and how, and how to assess its worth.
The abolition of the present public exam system would go a long way to
making such a paradigm shift possible.”
...
“Sticking with the present system is not an option.”
In the ANC’s statement <http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=11909> , issued
today (8 February 2016) by the same Secretary-General, Cde Gde Gwede
Mantashe, and just prior to a curious quotation from the late PAC leader
Rober Sobukwe, Mantashe says:
“Universities should be engines of progress, not ivory towers. It is a role
they have played throughout history and as recent events in South Africa
have shown, they are forces of social change. The ANC once again calls on
students and academia to use their learning for the betterment of all South
Africans.”
In my opinion the SACP’s latest statement, as well as that of the ANC,
comes a little too close to utilitarianism, and I would ask:
Are “the basic attributes of an intellectual cadre South Africa needs”
(Cde Alex Mashilo’s words) having more to do with:
“an intellectual cadre who is capable of... discoveries and inventions,
product and production process design and innovation,”?
or with:
“individuals who are able to interpret and make sense of their political,
ideological and socio‐economic conditions and thus be actors to radically
alter those conditions”?
It may well be true that these two aspects are not in themselves dichotomous
- i.e. they are not mutually exclusive.
But the corporate bourgeoisie sanctifies a trio of “maths, science and
technology”, or appears to do so. It encourages the splitting of education
into two cultures. It does so in a paradoxical way, whereby the end result
would resemble the situation in the “advanced capitalist countries”
whereby the humanities are only taught to the ruling class, and technology
is made available to the masses.
This corporate, dichotomised vision of education is being executed through
all kinds of “partnerships,” up to and including outright privatisation of
education, whereby People’s Education for People’s Power is expected never
to raise its head again.
There are all sorts of problems with this. The immediate problem is that the
SACP’s statement on the centenary of Fort Hare (and the ANC one by Cde
Mantashe) sails past these actual problems of today. It fails to take into
account or remark upon the actual struggles of now, which are about the
hollowing out of the political content and the imposition of a dominant
utilitarian / commodification model.
Cde Mantashe and Cde Mashilo encourage us to think that if the universities
are preserved, then all will be well, but this cannot be taken for granted.
Amaaaaaandla!
VC
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