It has been reported that 1.1 million little boys and girls enrolled for Grade 1 throughout the country this year.
These beautiful ones who were born into a free and democratic society may be likened to a garden of what South Africa will look like in 2022. These are the little boys and girls who will wake up one morning to check their matric results in the newspapers to see how they have performed.
It is only then, a dozen years from now, that we shall know whether the education system has addressed the underperformance of African pupils or not.
It is those results that will tell if there is any change in the performance of black pupils against their white and Indian counterparts.
We all know that over the past 15 years, if not decades, the education of the African child and their performance in school, especially matric, has been allowed to run wild.
What we observed in 2009 should be a cause for alarm, especially in the black community.
But the reopening of schools in 2010 lays bare yet another chance for parents and educators, especially in the African community, to choose. Whatever decision they arrive at will inform this nation and the world whether they have cultivated new values in the character of African children or they will have continued to neglect them.
When 2022 finally arrives, it will be twelve years after the first Fifa World Cup in Africa.
If nothing is done to teach the young ones self-responsibility, focus, discipline and hard work, they will always look back and blame 2010 for their underperformance or failure.
But if they are taught that 2010 marks the crossing of the line from blaming the so-called apartheid legacy for the character flaws in the African personality, then they will have none but themselves to blame for success or failure.
We have to let go of the excuse of blaming outside forces and factors for the poor performance of black pupils.
The black community can no longer afford to produce and reproduce underperforming pupils, especially in matric, where they are outshone by their white and Indian peers.
It is no longer a secret that white and Indian students do not possess extraordinary intelligence which makes them glow like the flowers of this nation. But what we understand from their results is that they understand what is required to be straight-A pupils: work, work and more hard work.
The garden of 2022 needs to be cultivated now to make sure that black pupils get rid of their lazy attitude.
The little boys and girls who are at the entry level of the schooling career need to be told what is required for them to be the professionals, leaders and managers beyond 2022.
We have to weed out all the wrong, useless and impure thoughts of entitlement and affirmative action.
Instead, what is needed is to cultivate them towards a new perfection where they will understand that every man or woman is responsible for what happens in their lives.
No more lies of blaming the circumstances.
The leaders, school authorities, parents and everybody else knows what the solution is: good resources and, above all, self-responsibility and commitment.
By pursuing this approach, we shall have contributed towards the ultimate realisation of the dream of an equal opportunity and non-racial South Africa.
The process may result in today’s little boys and girls growing up with the understanding that the rules of success do not change: focus, self-discipline and hard work.
They will have been taught that apartheid or not, how you are focused, disciplined and hard-working will determine how far you will rise in life.
We tend to forget or conveniently overlook the fact that the group of boys and girls who started school in the new South Africa of 1994 finished their matric in 2005.
The question that has not been answered is: where are they and how are they doing now?
How many of those youngsters, especially from the black community, finished their studies? If we want to control the future we must study the past.
And if we want to change the past we must critically examine the present and identify the weaknesses.
The present is here and now in the form of 2010.
The thought and character of what South Africa will look like through its matric results in 2022 can only manifest and be discovered through the performance of today’s 7-year-olds in Grade 1.
How are we going to help them to help themselves?
What we have to accept is that the outer conditions that the children grow up in may not be radically different or change much.
This does not mean that circumstances under which the pupils are going to study are not a factor in how their results are going to be.
But it will always be the values that are inculcated into them at a very young age that will determine how high or low the young ones will rise.
For now, they are all taking that small step we have to turn into a giant leap into 2022 and beyond.
What excuse will black people have, then, if and when they are still outshone by whites and Indians?
Let the race against mediocre black performance begin.
Precisely! Excellent! …and very brave. You realise that you are now going to be called a racist, don’t you?
The people to really blame is the PARENTS and PEERS
This is one of the most thoughtful articles you have written so far. it would be nice however, if you would desist making distictions that seem to indicate that if one is not black they are not African. Whte, Black or Brown in SOuth Africa, Zimbabwe or any other African country are all Africans.
Why do you insist on beating this drum? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – in no way can you say that the average black/coloured student has anything LIKE the chances the average white/Indian student has. Have you even been to a township (or even a ‘better’ school in the suburbs) school lately? I have, having been involved in music outreach. Looking from the perspective of a middle-class white education I am APPALLED.
One of the schools I teach at (down the road from my middle-class suburban home) basically has a rotating student body. My pupils consistently fail to appear for lessons, citing taxi violence, Guy Fawkes Day, no money for transport, rain, hunger, or just no reason at all. This problem is so widespread in the school that no-one even blinks an eye if they have a 50% turn-out. Remember this is definitely one of the nicer schools, so much so that most of the pupils come in daily from Mitchells Plain, Langa, Blue Downs, and similar areas.
I struggle to compare this with Westerford, the (government) school I went to, situated in Newlands. Westerford is the best government school in the country. No-one fails matric, not even one person. Academic distinction is sought after as a much-prized goal. Westerford is the biggest feeder school for UCT.
Now how in the blue f**king blazes are the pupils of these two schools supposed to compete?
I generally like your positive article.
Indeed we should stop blaming others. But here’s the rub, “What we have to accept is that the outer conditions that the children grow up in may not be radically different or change much.” Need i say more… I think we’re in agreement.
Our divergence begins, i suppose, with the paragraph on Values, particularly if read together with the entire piece in relation the challenges of our education system (resources, better teaching, etc). Let me ask it thus: So, you reckon if good values are inculcated, things will dramatically change? And if so, are you therefore suggesting that those who pass (again, you must know who’s in the majority here) do so because there was some good nurturing with good values?
But then again, i suppose we should all be positive, right?! otherwise what else can one say in this messy system bequethed to us – oops, i’ve just played the blame game again – my bad. We indeed shouldn’t blame, it will not take us anywhere. Parents should inculcate good values.
Mr Mamela,
How do we (as a community) assist?
My understanding is that pre-schooling is one of the biggest differentiators. My daughter started grade 1 this year – she has 3 years of Montessori + 1 year in grade 0 at a private school.
I get really depressed when I see the racial composition of her class. 98% whits & indian.
We are a 2 parent family who have spent a significant amount of cash on this pre schooling as well as extra curricular activities.
Current “township” or “black” or “sadtu” schools have no chance – except for the “outliers” or exceptional individuals.
Lets focus on the pre-school facilities for long term improvements.
Excellent piece – and so true. Encouraging children to be and do their best, in spite of circumstances which have not been of their making, is exactly the way forward.
Attitude will overcome lassitude every single time.
Sandile….may I tell you a story? My brother and I were brought up in a single parent family. My mother did cleaning work and we were poor. I was embarassed at school because I did not have the correct school uniform. BUT, I had a mother who said “whatever you do in life, do it to the best of your ability” even if its just sweeping a floor.I did get a good education, I worked hard at it and I enjoy a better lifestyle than my parent. Parents need to encourage their children aim high but you will always do better, whatever your lot in life, if you are willing and hard-working. By the way, and simply because we are always interested in race it seems…I am white. But my silver spoon got lost somewhere LOL
Am an old pale male and agree with you mostly but you do ignore and leave out the thousands/maybe millions that are prevented from work, work, hard work by their circumstances like proximity to crime/social disruption, no lights to study by at night, many unproductive hours spent getting to and from school and many other things inflicted on Blacks much more than White students.
So yes do what you say but also fix up these bad circumstances that are holding back even those who do want to work hard. I know this from practical experience of assisting black kids in their education.
Brent
Good article. Some observations:
1. Don’t make race the issue. Make a culture of responsibility and effort the issue. “White” and “Indian” students feel just as intimidated by the work ethic and success rate of “Chinese” students.
2. Despite all the expert advice to the contrary, matric and education isn’t everything. A matric doesn’t guarantee you a job. A job doesn’t guarantee you wealth. Wealth doesn’t guarantee you happiness. If you compare Africans to Europeans, then Africans seem to be better at finding happiness despite appalling circumstances than their European counterparts, who seem to find something to piss them off in any situation.
3. Africans as represented by the ANC won the war in South Africa. They hold all the aces, call all the tunes. Yet they continue to behave like guilty schoolboys who unexpectedly found a key to the tuck shop. Stuff as much as you can down the front of your jersey, then run like hell before a teacher comes. If you get caught, deny everything, no matter how implausible. They don’t seem to have realised they own the tuckshop, and could make a fortune for everyone out of managing it effectively.
4. Take real responsibility. If you don’t like the matric results, fire the minister. And keep firing ministers until you get one who does the job. And if that one happens to be white or indian or african, so what? If you don’t like the crime, fire the minister….
Boy am I glad that a black person wrote this article. Not only it touched some very real and painful issues wrt. black pupil’s underperformance but even more importantly now someone has said something remarkable about this sensitive topic without having to fear for being labelled a racist by those still playing the apartheid blame game.
In 1996 I spent time in Vietnam, a country still recovering from years of bloody war. There was a chronic shortage of schools and teachers. An entire generation had lost out being educated. I was amazed how this deeply divided nation were determined to work together to heal their wounds. The communist regime had placed mass education as a priority.
Unoccupied buildings were taken over. A blackboard, some chalk and crude desks and chairs were acquired. From 07:00 to 12:00 classrooms were occupied by juniors pupils. From 12:00 to 17:00 it was the turn of older children then from 19:00 onwards the adults came. Teachers were not well paid but they were highly respected.
The culture of learning, the thirst for knowledge, began with the parents. High powered government officials were not allowed to send their children outside the country to be educated in private schools, nor for superior medical treatment.
If the 2022 matriculation results are not to be the same as 2009 then SA Government must encourage free adult education. Start at the top as well as the bottom. Unlike Vietnam we have the resources but, do we have the will power to pick ourselves up? Dispose of unwanted submarines and frigates before the rust destroys them. No more million rand government cars. Let’s really make use of our education facilities. Make them the centres of communities, loved, cared for and used by all.
Mr Memela
I broadly agree with the sentiment expressed in this post.
However, I feel that, inadvertent though this may be, it suggests a certain lack of urgency. We cannot afford to wait until 2022 to witness tangible improvement in the country’s matric results; the situation is far too dire for that.
I cannot offer a panacea, however it cannot be that when the situation has struck rock bottom as it has in our education system, we cannot conceive of measures drastically to improve the situation. Even the most modest intervention is likely to produce a tangible improvement.
I pray that teachers, parents, pupils and the education authorities can urgently find the common cause and will to redeem this national shame. Then, perhaps, 2022 can be the culmination of project 2010.
And, kids, I don’t mean the ruddy football!
Sandile, any society moreso the leadership coming from oppression needs critical consciousness to tackle what needs to be done. Equally it needs a vision that articulates the kind of society that it wants to attain. It cannot stop at non-racist, non-sexist, etc but must articulate the human development aspects as well as economic aspects, legal aspects. Do we have a holistic vision of what we want to be? If so how articulated is it?
Materially what apartheid did was to underdevelop the black community. Chief among this was human underdevelopment. The struggle is fought using cultural tools and hence you have words like hegemony and conscientising. How much conscientising of the value of education have we done. How much of it have we lived? In other words is there any indication that we have a culture that upholds the importance of education and remove any cultural barrier to the attainment of educational goals.
Sandile you emphasise culture.From culture flows everything else. The concepts of culture go hand in hand with the concept of the intelligentsia and hegemony. The dominant informants of popular culture or intelligentsia in South Africa are all linked to the ANC machine of hegemony starting with Zuma, the ANCYL, SACP, COSATU, COSAS, SADTU etc and the public broadcaster. How do each of these entities fare in critical consciousness of the role of education? How do they fare in what should be unambiguous commitment to the goal of an educated society?
Not all white/Indian pupils rise to the top. The UK secondary modern vs public school system inhibits poor, tho’ bright pupils from doing intellectual/academic subjects, but ensures that secondary modern pupils have the opportunity to forge ahead technically. The UK has also brought back the apprenticeship system, excellent for kids who learn better by practise than from books, or are good with their hands. More kids also have the chance to earn a salary of some sort, even tho’ only those who try the hardest progress the most; which is essentially what life is about.
University was only ever meant to harbour those of above-average intelligence. We still need fewer ‘chiefs’ than ‘Indians’ and I know several qualified white engineers who studied by night while they worked full-time. Had they never progressed beyond the messenger/tea lady/skivvy stage, that’s where they would have stayed. They wanted more, badly enough.
I was shocked to hear that W Cape said it was short 80 schools; how did things reach this stage without any reaction? I was also horried to hear that Durban is paying bus drivers who aren’t even providing a service, R8 000 a month; a similar salary to interns/doctors.
Entry level jobs are meant for school leavers, those with bad attitudes or with little ambition. Starter salaries were never meant to keep 4-6 person families. And army recruits who now earn R4 800 while in training? That’s good pocket money…
If you don’t need to have a matric to be president, earn huge wealth, drive big cars and be “the man”, why bother with an “edukashun”!
You can study for 14 years to be an office drone working 8 or more hours a day (and fired at the drop of a hat), or you can kill a few people in a week and be a millionaire?
Real power and authority doesn’t come from the educated, it comes from the crime lords and taxi bosses. That is what young people learn from an early age – crime doesn’t pay, it pays BIG TIME.
Dear Everybody
I understand the concerns of those who want to over-emphasize the material conditions over character traits. I speak the way I do becos I am a township product, myself.
My mother was a ‘tea girl’ (sic) all her life and my father died a ‘messenger.’ But what they stressed to all of us was the value of education and hard work, focus and discipline.
it does not matter where you come from. it is where you are going that it important, now.
the material conditions of the many may NOT change except for a RDP house. So what should they do to change their own situation? look for someone to blame? it dont help much.
what i know, now, is that in 2022 history will judge US. the big question will be: why did we allow the 2010 grade-1s to use the lame excuses of the apartheid past?
we all tend to do a lot of treadmilling in this country. it is time to move one step forward.
what can we do? each one can adopt one child, perhaps, beginning with the ones in the family. this is not the best solutions. i am not the one to say who should do what. in fact, i have exhausted my role by highlighting the problem. but each one of us can do something. we must listen to the voice that stirs our individual souls.
thank you very much for the engagement. i hope it is worth it
@Joe Phadima – You are quite correct, that is the blame game at its worst. “this messy system bequethed to us” – What! If you are talking the education system, “this messy system”, meaning OBE X previously disadvantaged education, is what the ANC govt. replaced previously advantaged education with. Equality at last – the same bad (exorbitantly expensive) education for all. White and Indian kids are not genial, their parents simply take an interest in their future and actively support them in the learning process. My daughter learned to read at the age of 4. Who do you think taught her?
@Sandile. Yes,you don’t always use the right grammar or spell correctly, but you did damn well. Your comment is excellent.
Dear Mr Memela,
I am glad there are whites in this forum who are telling you how you have missed the plot.
You need to compare like to like, Go an examine the lives of black students who had thesame privileges as their white counterparts and if you still find them poor performers, then you will be permitted to insult us all blacks. You can’t ask us not to blame when there are circumstances that need to be changed and made better for the future generation so that we can have a better society.
You see, I am originally from Africa (like we say in SA).I came to SA under somewhat privileged circumstances and went to a good university where some of the accounting exams started at 07:30 in the morning. I obviously had no problem with it given I had a car and stayed relatively close to campus. Well one of my colleagues (a black South African) struggled so when I one day asked him, he told me he lived in Springs and needed 3 taxis, and a train ride to get to campus. He had to leave at 04:30 to make it on time. Please don’t tell me that because there was no apartheid during this period his circumstances should not have affected him!
Only after AA or whatever measures have brought all South Africans to livable social standing can you compare like that. Right now, kids from poor circumstances struggle period!
The most important thing that a child must learn is the difference between a corrupt one party state and true democratic co-operation.
Currently we are gleefully repeating, to the dismay of true Africans everywhere, the single party tenets [ with all the corrupt activities that such a system permits] of the hated apartheid regime.
Still generalising i see there Sandile,shame man.How about copying this “highly-generalising” column to that might organisation known as SADTU?especially a certain Mr Nyathi from SADTU regional structure in Soweto?
Excellent comment, and similar to your last article. However (and sadly), for the majority of the Grade ones enrolling in school in 2010, it is already too late. In addition to the formidable challenges they are going to face (commented on by others, so I will not repeat those) the sad fact is that their best and most important learning years are already behind them, and those did not go well. Single parent families, absence of books and educational toys, lack of structured learning opportunities, malnutrition, the list goes on.
The ANC government made a huge strategic mistake by concentrating (initially) on providing opportunities in tertiary education, and now focusing on high school education. That is not where the problem is. The problem lies with the lack of education for 2 to 7 year old children.
By the time a child goes to to school, she or he is capable of reading, writing, basic arithmetic, and fluency in two or more languages.
Instead, our children arrive at school having never seen or touched a book.
I respect anyone, from whatever race, who fights the odds and breaks the vicious cycle that is poverty.
I simply find it slightly strange that one can so easily blow off the insane problems which educators and students have to confront on a daily basis. Our education system is not in the business of teaching – it is essentially damage control. Its about time we admitted that.
Once again, I will point out that comparing the average black student against the average white student is not fair. It is not a matter of race, intelligence, culture, or up-bringing – it is a sad division of the haves and the have-nots.
May I reiterate that in no way does this situation exclude people from succeeding, despite the odds. Proof of this (as has been pointed out) abounds in our society.
you know, as much as i want to leave this place — and i was supposed to be leaving a week from today, but events have occurred such that this won’t be happening — i’m seriously thinking about staying on and teaching english at the primary school level. since most matric exams are in english or afrikaans, it’s very key to get the english language concepts at an early age.
[of course, as a black foreigner, my chances to actually be able to do this are probably quite slim. but one can dream.]
however, the major reason that i am not teaching here already has a lot to do with the level of bureaucracy and politics in most schools. it honestly isn’t really worth it.
you really need the teachers to be there 7 hours a day, teaching, rather than rocking up if and when they feel like it.
I wish to see the Indians and the so called white pupils attending shool far away from where they stay or better say in townships,waking up at 4am getting ready for school bus or overloaded taxi that will take two hours collecting other kids before the school begins with classes.Some or most of these kids are so tired after these trips they are finished even before the school classes begin.The reasons their parents take them to these schools range from one to the other but kids suffer in the process.These are not lazy kids,Sandile,if you need to point a fingure,surely this is a wrong tree to bark.Address the conditions and the reasons that force these learners to migrate to other schools or be forced to stay at schools that have conditions unfit for learning.You are a busy man to notice these conditions in your writting,no kid wishes to fail in life,they all aspire to be of success,they all have good dreams let no one fail them