Education system’s a huge flop and needs drastic intervention
NOW THAT all the fanfare, backslapping, award ceremonies, accolades, excessive praise-singing and all due reverence have been paid to our magnificent MECs of Education for the fantastic matric results, let’s look at the bigger picture.
Our education system is a flop. Even with the pass requirements of 30% and 40% we have failures. The requirements should be 50% and 60% before we start boasting.
Then there is the condoning of marks where marks are upped in order to pass failures and increase the pass rate. Next is the extremely high dropout rate of those who started in Grade 1 and never reached matric. Added to this are the Grade 11s who are failed so that the Grade 12 statistics are not messed up. No wonder the actual pass rate is below 40%.
I would like to see an investigative task team, headed by former MEC and education expert Mary Metcalfe, and made up of experienced inspectors of education to visit between 30 and 40 rural primary schools in each province. That is, if the Education Departments know where the schools are. The inspectors should assess the reading, writing, comprehension and maths of all Grade 4s and 7s. Then, after, say, a year, issue a report on their findings to the departments and the public. This should give us a fair reflection of the standard of education in our poorly resourced and understaffed rural primary schools. It should be a revelation. However, I’m sure the challenge will not be accepted as it would be too condemning.