Education: Basics are key, says expert

Although Covid has plunged the education system across the world into crisis, experts say Africa’s tragic education system, characterised by crumbling infrastructure, overcrowding and poor outcomes, affects higher learning.

Wits School of Education professor Brahm Fleisch said the crisis was a common problem in developing countries across the continent. He said it was crucial to get the foundation phase right and so good quality basic education was one of the non-negotiables, as higher or tertiary education needed sound primary and secondary education to build on.

“There certainly are various innovations that need to take place, and not just in SA but across the continent as well.

“For example, we have research evidence that supplies us with a compelling picture of what needs to happen to improve early reading,” he said.

University of KwaZulu-Natal’s prof Wayne Hugo said the biggest problem was literacy and that pupils in SA were still struggling to read. Covid had made this worse.

“There are terrible accounts in the Technical Vocational Education and Training system where students cannot read and cannot do basic arithmetic,” he added. “At the early age grades currently in our country, because of Covid and disruptions, the number of kids learning to read properly has gone down and that’s a big problem.”

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Save the Children’s Yani Horn previously told The Citizen that in 2016 at least 78% of Grade 4 children could not read for meaning in SA in any language. She said that now the situation has deteriorated because additional factors have come into play.

“Children are experiencing up to a year of learning losses due to school disruptions due to the pandemic,” she added.

“Additional compounding factors include civil unrest, damage to schools, and destruction to libraries as we have seen in KwaZulu-Natal.

“The implication is that our children have less opportunities to boost their literacy.”

This was after the University of SA hosted the University of the Future Network (UFN), in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), in the construction of global visions and pathways for higher education towards 2050.

Director of the Future of Learning and Innovation team at Unesco, Sobhi Tawil, said it was appropriate that the conference was hosted by a South African higher education institution since SA students have been at the forefront of rethinking higher education and campaigning for genuine access and inclusion, equality and change.

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Tawil said Unesco launched the Futures of Education initiative to reimagine how knowledge and learning can help shape the future of humanity, the planet and desirable possible alternative futures. Tawil added that in the face of profound social, political, economic, environmental and technological change, there is a growing consensus that today’s education systems are no longer fit for purpose.

“This calls for new social contracts for education that can repair past injustices, that can help us meet the unfulfilled promises and commitments that we have made in terms of rights to education for all and at the same time, transform the future.”

He said that education, as a foundation for inclusive societies, shaped the minds of people across the world as they fulfilled their aspirations. “It is a key to resolving many of the global and local challenges we face. We cannot heal a damaged planet, narrow huge inequalities, secure the rights of women and girls, strengthen trust or build peace without a strong commitment to education,” he added.

Meanwhile Unisa principal and vice-chancellor professor Puleng LenkaBula, said it was a perfect fit since Unisa has always been at the forefront of shaping futures. “For us to protect knowledge systems, we must ensure that the intellectual futures of South Africa, the continent and the world are protected with an understanding that we do not exist only as individuals, but also individuals who are inextricably bound to society,” she said.

“Universities in the past were considered elite environments, where only those with the financial resources could advance themselves.”

LenkaBula urged universities to take seriously the imperative for health and wellbeing in the aftermath of Covid that has made everyone aware of the vulnerability of humanity.

Universität Oberta de Catalunya in Spain and the UFN’s professor Josep Duart said institutions of higher learning had a huge challenge to explore what was happening now and how it impacted higher education institutions.

“The transformation universities are currently going through has a direct impact on the educational process,” he said.

The conference participants reimagined the futures of higher education by engaging with future research methodologies and policies required for higher education transformations over the next decades.

The conclusions of the conference will be presented at the Third World Higher Education Conference from 18-20 May in Barcelona, Spain.

– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za

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