Education is not only about figures, but also about people
Education is not about figures only, but about people who want to be taught and who want to learn photo credit: canva
In analysing the matric pass rate, many commentators tend to consider only the figures. And in the process, they make the same mistake that is so often made in schools, namely, they fail to consider the educational reality behind those figures.
This is according to Dr. Wynand Boshoff, FF Plus MP and chief spokesperson: Basic Education
ALSO READ: Human trafficking – child stealer sentenced
In schools there is a growing tendency to focus so strongly on the number of learners who obtain certain marks that exam coaching has started to take the place of true education and training. At the same time, one must consider what educational contribution a school makes to a specific local community and not just the figures.
The truth is that education is all about people; people and their attitudes towards the learning process.
Naturally, children who receive education in their mother tongue have a great advantage, but that is not all. The prevalent attitude towards education in a community is even more pivotal.
It is in this regard that the imbalances of the past cause the greatest divides between schools and learners.
Since 1976, education was approached from the standpoint expressed by the slogan “liberation before education”. It means that schools that were deemed inadequate were burnt down rather than built up.
Educators were considered traitors because they were part of a dispensation that seemingly wanted to subdue revolutionary learners. Educators responded by trying to outdo learners in their political activism in a desperate attempt to gain some respect.
The divide between successful and unsuccessful schools in South Africa is not equal to the divide between rich and poor, black and white or rural and urban. It is equal to the divide in the approach to learning in schools where educators belong to specific trade unions.
Education is a partnership between parents, their children, educators and the rest of the community. In communities where that partnership is united in its striving for good quality education, the results speak for themselves. The same goes for where the opposite is the case.
*Press release
Read more articles here
