Cherish Afrikaans schools; - PDF document

Cherish Afrikaans schools; don’t chastise them Open letter to Mr Panyaza Lesufi, Gauteng MEC for Education, from Dr Danie Brink, Chief Executive: Solidarity Helping Hand. Solidarity Helping Hand is home to the Support Centre for Schools, which in turn incorporates, among others, the Association for Afrikaans Mathematics Educators (VAW) and the Society of Afrikaans Language Educators (GeRAT). Dear Mr Lesufi Afrikaans schools in your province, Gauteng, are excellent schools. Almost without exception, the se schools scored in excess of 95% in the matric exams – even 100% – and regularly. According to UP’s Professor Gerrit Stols, in an article published in the South African Journal for Science and Technology, these are schools whose grade 8 pupils had achiev ed the tenth position in maths in the international TIMSS tests. These are schools staffed by educators with almost unheard - of commitment: people who offer their pupils not only world - class academic training but also extended extramural programmes – witho ut a thought for working hours or contracts or trade unions. These are schools that, without coercion, spontaneously reach out to other less - privileged schools. These are schools whose parents hardly shy away from scholastic challenges. They collect funds for quality education, to appoint additional educators, and to support needy pupils. Yet, Mr Lesufi, at least once a week you find a stick for the chastisement of Afrikaans schools. My open question to you is simply: why? You have the greater portion of the Gauteng budget at your disposal, enabling you to achieve much. The pupils in your province are in dire need of toilets: there is only one toilet for every 100 pupils, and 70% of their schools have no soap. In fact, your department had already broken it s promise to deal with the situation by 16 June 2015. More than 80% of South Africa’s schools are dysfunctional. I doubt whether your percentage in Gauteng could be much better. Fewer than half the kids enrolled for grade 1 complete their school career w ith a grade 12 qualification – that, while spending from the national education budget has doubled over the last five years. Only 35% of our children can read properly. Strikes, mainly by SADTU members, take up at least 10 schooldays a year: a loss of at l east 5% of the school year. According to a CSIR study, some 20% of all educators are absent on a Monday or a Friday. Another finding is that educators at black schools give lessons for only 3,5 hours a day, as against the 6,5 hours of their colleagues at p reviously white schools. Your schools also have a staggering drug problem: 85% of pupils know where to buy dagga, while 29% said they had been approached by a dealer. Another question: Mr Lesufi, your department is spending millions of rands on techno logy and you promise that even more is to be spent. Very recently you announced that the 88 000 tablets given to schools had to be withdrawn because they were being stolen. And as part of a R17 billion plan, you further promised that all matric classes in Gauteng would have a smart board by July of this year. Ignoring the theft and your department’s bad planning for the moment: do you realise that technology in the classroom is not a magic wand? Do you realise that, on the list of important things that gen uine educationists would have changed in a major school system such as Gauteng’s, technology might not have made the list? Do you realise that your ideal of a paperless school system really doesn’t make a lot of sense from an educational point of view? Don ’t think for a moment that genuine educationists regard your throwing technology at schools as a sound option! On what educational research did you choose to prioritise technology in such a way? In view of the problems mentioned, don’t you think that techn ology should have ranked rather lower down on your list of priorities? Mr Lesufi, your “struggle CV” may be impressive, but your want of educational training and knowledge has sadly failed you. In order for you to best serve the pupils in your province, y ou simply have to listen to educationists. You would benefit from cherishing Afrikaans schools, and you should stop chastising them with threats such as switching them to parallel - medium schools and to force others to implement your plans for “twinning”. A part from the fact that the courts have already declared some of your plans unlawful, it makes no sense to bully the flagship schools in your province. Incidentally, your decision last week to try and kick up a racial fuss about Curro Roodeplaat’s outing was in very bad taste. It confirmed my suspicion that you are wielding the Gauteng Department of Education as a political instrument (and, politically, you do have a strong CV); however, it is tragic that our children and their education have to suffer un der your agenda (because, educationally, your CV is pitiable). Would you deny that SADTU and its actions are hurting our kids’ education more than the so - called Afrikaans “enclaves” you so love to chastise? Are so many schools in your province struggling so much because Afrikaans schools are doing so well? Alternatively, are Afrikaans schools doing so well because so many schools in your province are struggling so much?