Freedom Day 2021: quality education essential to attaining true freedom and #TheFutureWeWant
JOBURG – The education policies of the past have been abolished, but the bimodal schooling system they created, where the privileged attend well-functioning schools, while the disadvantaged continue to receive sub-par education, remains.
As South Africa commemorates 27 years of freedom, we once again ponder on what freedom entails in a maturing democracy.
It would certainly be remiss to reflect on the meaning of freedom without acknowledging the way in which the lives of many South Africans have tangibly changed since 1994.
Zah’Rah Khan of Symphonia for South Africa said, “Our progressive Constitution which entrenches the basic right of education is evidence of our freedom. But in a country where the divide between the have and have nots is ever-deepening, freedom remains a platitude for many – and can only be realised when quality education is the lived experience of every child.”
Khan added that the sobering reality was that South Africa’s public education system was still characterised by stark inequality and persistent underperformance.
The education policies of the past have been abolished, but the bimodal schooling system they created, where the privileged attend well-functioning schools, while the disadvantaged continue to receive sub-par education, remains, he said.
“Though universal access to education has vastly improved since 1994 thanks to years of sustained efforts by the South African government, the quality of education provided still falls short. While the necessary laws and policies are in place to ensure ‘fit for purpose’ education, apartheid’s legacy of unequal opportunity may take many more decades to dismantle,” explained Khan.
Khan added that equitable access to a quality education undoubtedly had an important role to play in undoing the social and economic inequality still suffered by the majority of our people. But addressing the challenges that plague education in South Africa has proved to be a notoriously complex undertaking. There has simply been a failure to provide school leaders, who are pivotal to achieving improved education, with the tools and skills they need to flourish in their roles.
Khan concluded by stating that the time had come for each South African to back this indispensable but often overlooked cohort of leaders who bore the enormous task of shaping our country’s future leaders. Education is ultimately a societal issue, and the feasible solutions to the many challenges in education start with an involved, socially conscious active citizenry.
