Applauding 30 percent pass?

Reading headlines and listening to debates about the state of education in our country makes filing your tax returns sound like fun.

The moment the matric results were public almost every person with any political ambition jumped on the bandwagon eager to lay

blame at their opposition’s feet. Teachers, principals and curricula were all in the firing line.

Very few people actually offered suggestions for change and those that did, like the ANC who proposed extending the schooling period to 14 years rather than 12, left me rolling my eyes and laughing.

Whether we change the curriculum, make sure everyone has text books, extend the years of schooling, ensure smaller classes or invest in educating teachers properly, seems rather useless to me if we leave the pass rate at 30 percent.

What are we teaching our children when 30 percent is good enough to pass a subject? If I do 30 percent of my work I highly doubt my boss is going to say “well done,” and I guarantee that if my journalists only do 70, let alone 30 percent of their work, they’ll be packing their things and heading for the door faster than you can say 30 percent.

School is supposed to prepare children for the big wide world, not set them up to fail. Shouldn’t we be investing in the youth? They are after all our future.

I propose it should be compulsory for the children of all government employees to attend public schools. I guarantee you all the politicians loudly defending the education system and the department that runs it are currently sending their children to private schools.

And, while we’re on the subject of government employees, they should all be subjected to the public health system too. No private doctors or hospitals from them.