I, pray and hope, Sir, that under your leadership, the keywords of the party will be unity, peace, harmony and the development of all aspects of service delivery to the nation, regardless of status, creed, colour or race.
I also trust, Sir, that some of the troubling issues in the lives of the ordinary men and women in our townships and rural villages, such as poverty, deprivation, homelessness, hunger, crime, domestic violence and abuse, child neglect as well as the abuse of men, will be top on your list of priorities as you prepare the heavy workload on your desk.
In fact, Sir, topmost on your to-do list should be rectifying the dire straits our schooling system has dug itself into. First, the tertiary education issues need your immediate attention before it explodes in our faces.
Only by providing every child in the country with free quality education, as is enshrined in the Freedom Charter signed by all the peoples of our beloved land in Kliptown in 1955, will the country be able to grow and develop itself and its people. We can only achieve that by offering our children the type of quality education which develops and enlightens young minds to think rather than how to memorise information.
It is also important, Sir, that you steer our youth away from flooding the gates of academic institutions. This you could achieve by reviving the old trade and skills-training institutions. We both know, Sir, that not every matriculant is academic material. Furthermore, doctors, lawyers, accountants and academics don’t manufacture marketable and saleable commodities, whereas skilled, creative tradesmen and tradeswomen do.
We all know, Sir, how the current rote method of learning has led not only to the overarching dumbing down of our learners, but also of our educators, especially those at elementary levels of a child’s education. This has led to the lowering of the levels of quality teaching standards at most of our primary schools.
Starting at this level, by re-creating our education system, you’ll be providing them with the skills to grow into being better citizens who will make enlightened decisions and take educated choices about the future of the country.
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Tanzania finds a way with wayward teenagers
I hear the president of Tanzania, the honourable John Magufuli, has embarked on a nationwide campaign to arrest and imprison any schoolgirl who falls pregnant.
And to prove just how serious he is, Magufuli is reported to have also authorised the arrest of the parents of those girls.
Last week, in a place called Tandahimba, in the north of the country, the district police arrested several young pregnant schoolgirls together with their parents. It is not clear what the charges against the parents were, but the arrests were confirmed by the district administrative secretary, Mohamed Azizi.
“We have managed to arrest several girls and their parents. But those who impregnated the girls have escaped and we are looking for them,” Azizi was quoted as saying.
Do you think the new ANC president, Cyril Ramaphosa, should take a cue from his Tanzanian counterpart to solve the same problem in Mzansi?
