The education system is about making dreams come true and bridging the gap for a lifetime of opportunities, within and across generations. It is an intersection between social justice and economic development, an investment in knowledge that shapes social advancement and addresses issues of multigenerational poverty. It should be a central point of discussion at the national dialogue.
While policymakers and business leaders are trying to simultaneously resolve a number of crises — from energy to water, rail infrastructure and crime — achieving better outcomes from the schooling system is equally important to South Africa’s long-term prosperity.
A huge effort is required to create a fit-for-purpose education sector capable of breaking the poverty cycle and narrowing inequalities. The discussion on education focuses on reconceptualising the future of work, economic participation, socioeconomic progress and national competitiveness.
The “Asian Tigers” — Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan — provide a great example of how targeted investments in education can have a multiplier effect. Their rapid industrialisation in the second half of the 20th century is largely attributable to their focus on educating and training their workforces. using this to integrate with the global economy.
There are plenty of case studies out there from which the government of national unity can draw lessons. The Brazilian state of Ceará is a recent success story with relevance to the South African situation. Despite being one of Brazil’s poorer states, Ceará has quickly transformed itself into an education powerhouse — on the back of bold sectoral reforms.
Among other things, laws were passed to make sure teachers and principals were selected on technical criteria, rather than for political reasons. The regional government also invested heavily in professional training for its teachers, and started rewarding municipalities that improved their educational results by giving them a bigger share of tax revenues. This led to a virtuous process of continuous improvement rather than a vicious cycle of stagnation.
One of the main goals was ensuring all children were literate early in their schooling years, since all other learning depended on this.
South Africa is well positioned to draw on these lessons as it has the foundational institutional mechanisms in its education systems that make the possibilities of improvement much easier. It also has the experience of building collaborative partnerships for shared solutions. The various actors in the education sector have shown willingness to work on improvements, albeit the pace has been slow and leadership across the system inconsistent — including the role of unions.
In particular, we must implement reforms to strengthen management and oversight structures. Qualified principals, governing bodies and regulators are essential, as is accountability for performance.
The road to a great education system will be long and fraught with challenges. But we must recognise what is at stake for the next generation of pupils and the country at large, and prioritise the reforms that are so desperately needed
Since quality teachers can change the lives of their students, we must ensure the profession is adequately valued. In essence, the professionals who help our children — and the environments in which they work — must be supported. Most teachers in the country are underpaid and do not have sufficient support and resources, which has led many to move abroad, or to become demotivated.
To address this, the education department will need to ensure minimum standards for classrooms — in both urban and rural areas — while also investing in teacher development and reward mechanisms for those that deliver good outcomes.
In addition, South Africa needs to draw lessons from the harmful effect of closing teacher training colleges, where the ability to increase the number of teachers — who are so needed — was lost. There is also the challenge of not having fully dealt with the apartheid legacy, notwithstanding the remarkable efforts over the past decade to better integrate the social support system, which has led to improvements in results, in particular from quintile 1 – 3 schools. The perception and reality of quality difference between schools in the townships and rural areas compared to the historically-advantaged white schools — including the school infrastructure — shows the enormity of the challenge.
Considering the position we are in now, the road to a great education system will be long and fraught with challenges. But we must recognise what is at stake for the next generation of pupils and the country at large, and prioritise the reforms that are so desperately needed.
Even incremental improvements in the schooling system will have a positive effect on social cohesion, crime, employment, and inequality. Creating a solid basic education sector should be the first order of business, because everything else depends on it.
Meanwhile, we will also need to modernise the curriculum to align it with the socio-technological requirements of the future and South Africa’s natural competitive advantages. If we do not, then matriculants — even at the best schools in the country — will be ill-prepared for the future of work.
The government of national unity should collaborate with all social partners and stakeholder groups to set the education system — and South Africa — on a better path.
• Sithebe is an economist
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