#Revisit1976SowetoUprising – The pitfall of the South African education system
Opinion: Has the South African education changed since 1976.
Education in South Africa has been highly contested, be it the 1976 youth of Soweto fighting to be instructed in a medium they understood, the primary school children fighting for proper sanitation at Tholimfundo Primary School here in Protea Glen or the university students fighting for the free education promised to them at the dawn of South Africa’s freedom.
South Africa will be celebrating Youth Day on June 16, this day commemorates the day Soweto’s youth marched against the Bantu Education system in 1976 which resulted in the apartheid police using live ammunition on the high scholars. It is important to reflect on how much, if at all, education in the country has changed since then.
Black children’s education was placed on the back burner with R42 being spent on one black child in comparison to R644 spent on one white child in public schools at the time according to SA History. This can be contrasted against government committing R57 billion to tertiary education following the announcement made by former president, Jacob Zuma, on December 16 2017 that students with a combined household income of R350 000 p/a would be eligible to apply for free education.
In 2019 in this land of ours a student activist is under house arrest for demanding free education! In South Africa in 2019 there is someone under house arrest for protesting!!!!!! 😪 In deep trouble! https://t.co/jy0L8XS1Gv
— Coceka Mfundisi (@Cmfundisi) March 20, 2019
These are the MTT‘s final recommendations deduced from the four scenarios being presented to the Misnister of @DBE_SA. The task team reccomend that History be phased in incrementally as a compulsory FET subject from 2023-2025 @CAPSRadioSA #HistoryMTTReport pic.twitter.com/xfCIJHo1AS
— National Education Collaboration Trust (@The_NECT) May 31, 2018
#History may become a compulsory subject for grade 10 to 12 learners in SA.
The Basic Education ministerial task team has made this recommendation in its report on history in schools & dismissed suggestions that the proposal is for the benefit of the ANC's agenda..— Leanne Manas (@LeanneManas) June 1, 2018
#HistoryRoundtable Appointed in 2015, the History Ministerial Task Team undertook a comparative case study on compulsory History, similar to an Africa-wide project being conducted by the AU and UNESCO on History curriculums across the continent and the relevance of the subject. pic.twitter.com/5vmw8IfgqA
— Dep. Basic Education (@DBE_SA) May 31, 2018
I have heard that History is gonna be compulsory subject now at school BUT MY QUESTION IS WHAT ABOUT FINANCIAL EDUCATION where most of the youth in SA is struggling, most youth leaves tertiary without financial education and end up misusing their money.
— Nkosikhona Msani (@NkosikhonaMsani) June 5, 2018
South Africa’s post-apartheid government has made strides in improving the country’s previously racially divided education system but are still lacking in many departments. Earlier this year, an Afrikaans school in the Vaal made headlines with its refusal to accept 55 English-speaking students to the school after it was instructed by the DBE to do so. During court proceedings it was revealed that the DBE had put in place an English teacher, study material and furniture to accommodate the students. This incident brought the question of whether race in South African public schools, particularly former model C schools, still played a part.
Also I wanted to comment on that hoerskool in the Vaal. They're an Afrikaans medium school, they say they cannot cater to English students. Why are we fighting them? It's THEIR school! We're so entitled man
— Codi Nkulu (@Codi_Cool) January 19, 2018
More than 9000 schools in the country, according to a report released by the DBE in 2016, still use pit toilets which compromise the safety of pupils as was evidenced by the deaths of Michael Komape in 2014 and more recently, Lumka Mkewta. Their deaths follow the DBE’s failure to meet its deadline to eliminate all elements in schools that posed a threat to the safety of pupils in schools by November 2016.
@DBE_SA according to @equal_education, there're over 9000 schools that still use pit toilets/latrines @Trevornoah @Julius_S_Malema
— PItToilets (@PitToilets) March 19, 2018
https://twitter.com/_TangsnThangs/status/974550375633010690
Another blow to the South African education system is a report released by the University of Pretoria in 2017 which found that 8/10 grade four learners in South African schools could not read at an appropriate level. Extramarks Education believes the way to combat this is to focus on primary and high school learners as these are the foundations for tertiary education and entering the job market.
“By focussing on primary and high school learners, where intervention is still a possibility, learners can become equipped with the tools needed to improve their academic performance and excel at further education,” said Tanay Kulshreshtha, Country Head of Extramarks Education for South Africa.
The Institute of Race Relations in South Africa (IRR) also recently released an education charter to be considered by the heads of education in government which proposes more parental involvement alongside principal and teacher commitment in schools as a way to combat low pass rates and poor educational standards.
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