Rhodes University, 19 October 2009

Presentations

• Fixing SA Schools – Graeme Bloch, Education Specialist, DBSA

• Schooling: Is There Anything We Can Do? – Dr Saleem Badat, Vice Chancellor, Rhodes University

Want to hear what was discussed?

Click on the links below:

• EC Rhodes Part 1 Introduction Dylan Wray and Rooken Podesta
• EC Rhodes Part 2 Graeme Bloch
• EC Rhodes Part 3 Dr Saleem Badat
• EC Rhodes Part 4 Interaction
• EC Rhodes Part 5 Bloch’s Response and Closing
• EC Rhodes Part 6 Badat’s Response and Challenge
• EC Rhodes Part 7 Close

Looking for Photographs?

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Articles

• To follow

Want to hear what was discussed?

Click on the links below:

• Part 1 Welcome Dylan Wray
• Part 2 Introduction Nolulamo Gwagwa DBSA
• Part 3 Ravi Naidoo DBSA
• Part 4 MEC Creecy
• Part 5 Matshiliso Dipholo SADTU
• Part 6 Dr Mduduzi Mathe Principal Bukhulani High School
• Part 7 Interaction&Close

University of Western Cape August 31

By Graeme Bloch

(DBSA Education Specialist; author of ‘The Toxic Mix – what’s wrong with SA schools and how to fix it’. Tafelberg, Sept 2009)

graemeb@dbsa.org

Guests, Mr Vice-Chancellor:

I must say, I feel like I am back at my alma mater. UWC formed much of my interest in education; and a little known fact is that Brian OConnell brought me from the radical world of destroying apartheid education into the more academic portals of UWC – where unfortunately the education department always got the first whiff of teargas as students ran for shelter after going ‘hek toe’. I also want to thank Mamphela, as my mentor – she taught me how to speak out, and how criticism and development are the same side of the coin. Thank you!

We must give our children a start, a firm foundation, so that they may go confidently into this world, so that in the spirit of democracy and human solidarity, they can indeed create the kind of world that we all imagine is possible. Teaching is indeed a difficult and complex, multi-faceted and multi-layered art and science. Apart from this, the imperatives of transformation are correctly in a country like ours, high on the agenda.

Schools cannot teach what we do not learn and see in our homes and communities.It is no good sending children to the finest schools, if society around is teaching them to be bullies .

The reality– despite vast spend and many resources – is that South African schools are failing to perform. Results are amongst the worst in Africa –some 30% of children in grades 3 or 6 perform at the level required for literacy or numeracy. Our children are just not getting it, not enough to compete and lead in a harsh international climate. Where are the skills and outcomes a developing democracy expects?

But more– while 50% or more white children go on to university, 12% of black children do. Half the children drop out before the end of matric schooling. 62,5% of grade 3’s in former white schools in the Western Cape could read and count at appropriate levels ; the corresponding figure in African townships was 0,1%. I repeat, 62,5% against 0,1%. One in 10 white kids get an A-level pass in matric; only 1 in a 1000 black kids.

Such inequalities are unsustainable in a democracy seeking to redress ills of the past –that they take on a racial dimension, makes them even harder to accept. For most of our kids, school only teaches the harsh lesson, there is no place in the hopes and dreams of the new society. Aspirations vanish and disintegrate in the failure of our schools. We are failing our children, and generations to come.

There are many reasons for this. We should never discount history and our terrible past – colonialism and apartheid demeaned educational and intellectual projects in our land. Education was to control not to liberate. HF Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid and Bantu education, said ,  ‘why should we show black people the green pastures in which they will not be allowed to graze?’. Mathematics was virtually banned in black schools. Blacks should forever be ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’.

As I say in a book I have just written – ‘The toxic mix – what is wrong with our schools and how to fix it’ this history combines in a toxic mix that is difficult and complex to change. The unsatisfactory outcomes of the past  are reinforced by policy and implementation slippages of r recent years.

Lat year’s  Education Roadmap, coordinated by the DBSA for the ANC as the incoming government , based itself on an understanding of the three key levels that hold us back.

1. Firstly, the level of ‘in-class’, the most crucial level – where teachers and their learners interact, where knowledge is shared and intellectual hunger for learning is bred. There are so many problems here, but teachers are undoubtedly the key – how they are trained, what they know, how they feel, how they are paid and supported, and whether our young are inspired to see teaching as the noble profession it should be.
2. The second level is the level of ‘support to school’: are schools resourced, are there textbooks and materials, how does the principal run and manage and inspire her staff? Is the education department and its surrounding district machinery geared to assisting the teachers to do their fundamental task of teaching?  Too many of our school districts fail to provide the pedagogical and administrative support that would enable our teachers to do what they should, too many of our officials see as their job making the schools fill in forms and comply with policy while they fail miserably to do what civil servants should actually be doing in a developmental state. Most of our schools lack libraries, or labs, or computers, sportsfields and staffrooms, or sometimes even water and toilets – they are not nice or inviting places to go to and spend the day.
3. And lastly, of course, is the social level. HIV/AIDS, child-headed households, intestinal worms, gangs and violence, foetal alcohol syndrome, poor transport, hunger, overcrowding, all make it difficult for our children to learn. This is before we acknowledge that their parents are under-educated, struggle to help with homework, feel intimidated in the face of teachers, and are not a part of a confident learning nation that is boldly looking ahead.

So much to fix…..but we are not victims. Our past may be sad, but it is what we have. We can wallow in our failures, or we can set our sights anew, and decide to be the best we can.

We need a plan and we need a vision. At school levels, it is true there has been immense progress and much to praise in the years of democracy.

So there are some bits and pieces to set us on the Road. Recently, the DBSA was asked to bring together a wide range of education stakeholders – ministers, teacher unions, government officials, NGOs, academics and policy experts – to develop a diagnosis and a set of solutions.  Out of this came a 10-point programme that has been presented to the public for discussion, and that forms the core of a debate about where to go. One of the 10 points identifies primary schools and also ECD as the base on which all else must rest. Other points range from getting teachers ‘in-class, on time teaching’,  to support for teachers;  to finding ways for management and district officials to do  their jobs and to able to do it effectively; to social compacts and initiatives to put us on track. The final points in their detail are less important than the call and challenge that they imply.

The Education Roadmap makes three implicit but crucial points:

• Firstly, we are in this together. Any attempt to fix things, must be a stakeholder driven process and must be based on society wide agreement. Together, we can do more! As the ANC slogan says.
• Secondly, we need to prioritise. We can’t do it all, so we need to decide where we start and what are the things that will have the most impact. We need agreement on which are the priorities we will pursue.
• And, lastly, we need a plan and a vision, we need real targets and we need a set of outcomes we can pursue and measure, to see if we have made progress. A vision, where we look to the sky with our feet firmly on the ground, as Amilcar Cabral used to say.

The Roadmap does not have the answers. Yet we have managed in this country to create a policy space where many things are possible. Since the peaceful revolution at Polokwane, where Thabo Mbeki was democratically replaced by Jacob Zuma to be our President, since the elections where our masses delivered their choice and their verdict, education has risen to be a national priority.

As DBSA we have decided to do certain things on  Monday 17 August, at University of Free State, is the first in our series of DBSA Education Conversations with Jonathan  Jansen talking about democracy and schooling. This is followed today in the Western Cape with Mamphela Ramphele and MEC Donald Grant; MEC Creecy and Tsei Dipholo talking about teacher development, in Gauteng on September 29 at University of Johannesburg; and the last will be held in the Eastern Cape. In all of these, the idea is to ‘get the conversation going’, to bring together people of concern, goodwill, and with the interest and skills , to try and address our education problems and talk about solutions.

Secondly, we have been working directly with MEC’s, to see how we can as an institution use our capabilities and resources especially to address government systems of delivery and accountability. We are still developing these plans, specifically in Gauteng and Weste4rn Cape, but also in interaction with some of the more rural provinces.

Lastly, we think that we can make a contribution to the processes of planning and monitoring, as new ministries and units are set up. What would be education priorities; and within those, what targets would we set, and what indicators would be most helpful. Matric pass rates, grade 3 and 6 results, drop out rates? What indicators help us focus on the issues at hand, and also help us measure as we make progress or make mistakes we need to improve on.

I also would claim, that the Roadmap has helped to empower and strengthen processes already in motion. Thus, I salute the recent Teachers Development Summit and the resolutions and carefully thought out challenges that it poses in its documents and resolutions. Similarly, the recent standoff in Soweto with MEC Creecy and Priemier Mokonyane, saw SADTU teachers sent back to school by parents. Significantly, the head of the teachers’ union also came in to tell the teachers of the non-negotiables and boundaries they should respect. Most of the MEC’s budget speeches have significantly benefited from understanding some of the priorities and diagnoses set out in the 10 Point Programme and the Education Roadmap.

It is in this space, that we are called to work and to mobilize. If we are going to rest, if we are going to wait for government to do it all, if we are going to moan and to complain, we will soon end up back where we were.

We have a window of opportunity to really make a difference. We can set ourselves on a path of progress from which there will be no retreat. We all have a responsibility to open this window. We cannot  be found wanting, for the sake of our society and our  future generations.

Articles

• The Education Roadmap: Taking education forward – DBSA Education Specialist Graeme Bloch

• Excellence in Education – MEC for Education in the Western Cape Donald Grant

• Excellence in Education: what can each of us do to turn our schools into centres of excellence? Dr Mamphela Ramphele 

Want to hear what was discussed?

Click on the links below:

• Part 1 Introduction – Prof O’ Connel Vice Chancellor UWC
• Part 2 Graeme Bloch – DBSA
• Part 3 MEC for WC Donald Grant
• Part 4 Dr Mamphela Ramphele
• Part 5 Interaction & Close – Prof O’ Connel Vice Chancellor UWC

Looking for Photographs?

Click here!

31 August 2009

“What can each of us do to turn our schools into centres of excellence?”

Professor O’Connel, Graeme Bloch, Dr Ramphele, Guests, ladies and gentlemen

I am honoured to be one of the guest speakers in the Development Bank of Southern Africa’s education conversation series. I have been invited here tonight to participate in the discussion on how we can turn our schools into centres of excellence.

During the last four months I have visited close on 100 schools throughout the Western Cape. Visiting these schools has been a learning process equal to none. I have seen first-hand the many challenges that we face in our schools, but I have also been fortunate enough to witness how successful interventions like those that we will discuss tonight, can help to create centres of excellence in our education system.

But let me be frank; South Africa is in an education crisis. As a country, our performance at every level, primary and secondary is falling way below international standards.

We are cultivating an ill-educated youth unable to take advantage of life’s opportunities or contribute meaningfully to an open, democratic society let alone compete in an increasingly tough and unforgiving global environment.

Nick Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of JET Education Services, stated recently that we are “reproducing gross levels of inequality in our society, rather then serving as a conveyer belt out of poverty”.

I have to agree.

Currently, 70 percent of young people aged 15 to 34 remain unemployed in South Africa. Even those learners who are able to obtain a matriculation endorsement are not prepared for tertiary education.

Recent studies have found that the majority of our first year students at universities across the country do not have the language and comprehension skills to handle university study without additional support. It has also been found that only a tiny proportion of students possess the mathematical skills required in higher education.

The National Benchmarking Test (NBT) project commissioned by Higher Education South Africa (HESA) found that only 43 percent of students were proficient in academic literacy, 25 percent in quantitative literacy and a mere 8 percent in mathematics.

The truth is we are failing our youth at the school level, beginning in Grade R in the foundation phase.

Literacy and numeracy results in Grades 3 and 6 confirm this. Last week the Department of Education reported to the Portfolio Committee in Parliament that four out of every five Grade 6 pupils cannot read or write at the required level and that a similar assessment for Grade 3 shows that only two in every five Grade 3 pupils meet the required levels when tested.

Equipping our learners with the skills they require to be literate and numerate is a non-negotiable. Literacy is fundamental to all areas of learning and numeracy helps to ensure that learners make progress in other areas of their learning.

Many see the Western Cape education system as the best in the country.
However, while the Western Cape’s matric pass rate is higher than that of other provinces, the figure is dropping. In 2004 we achieved an 85 percent pass rate, but this has dropped steadily over the past 5 years to 78.67 percent in 2008.

The lower pass rate, combined with the greater number of learners participating in matric exams, implies that the Western Cape Education (WCED) is not able to sustain the same quality of education across the board.

Our literacy and numeracy results are also particularly disturbing. The province’s assessment results for 2004 to 2008 for Grade 3 and Grade 6 literacy and numeracy, reveal that on average, 900 (86 percent) of our primary schools achieve less than a 40 percent pass rate (50 percent or better) in numeracy for Grade 6.

Currently, too many of our learners are being pushed through the system, despite being unable to master literacy and numeracy in the appropriate grade. Unable to cope at higher levels, many of these learners either drop out of school or fail to pass Grade 12.

According to the latest annual survey for schools, of the 97 864 learners who enrolled in public schools in the Western Cape in 1997, only 43 470 made it to Grade 12. Of those learners who remained in school, only 33 percent qualified for a matric exemption.

Statistics such as these should oblige us to rethink about the way in which we run our schools. We are obviously not providing the quality of education that our learners deserve. Too many learners are being taught by ill-qualified teachers and too many of our schools are being managed by principals who lack the requisite leadership to manage their schools effectively.

If we are even going to begin to turn our schools into centres of excellence we shall have to deal with, among other things, the problems associated with the training of our teachers and principals, and how we can improve their skills and assist them in the classroom.

I was pleased to hear President Jacob Zuma acknowledge this at the principals’ imbizo in Durban earlier this month when he said that we had “essentially come together to launch a new drive to truly change the learning, teaching and management of our schools”.

This is desperately needed and what we are striving to achieve in the Western Cape every day.

School leadership and management

One of the main priorities of our administration is to improve the leadership and management of our schools, starting with the underperforming schools.

A centre of excellence needs a good leader, responsible for the management and day to day functioning of the school. However, if a principal does not have the requisite skills, knowledge or management expertise, a well functioning school can be driven into the ground. It is therefore critical that we ensure that all principals have the skills and knowledge to lead their schools effectively.

Many of our schools in the Western Cape are led by ineffective principals. This is not necessarily their fault, as many of them have been placed in these positions despite their obvious lack of expertise and in many instances have not been provided with the necessary training to become effective managers of their schools.

In line with our priority to improve the leadership and management in schools, we have, with the support of the private sector, initiated a pilot programme with metro east principals, with a particular focus on Khayelitsha to restore positive energy to our schools offices, classrooms and playing fields.

The course includes general leadership skills, time management and accountability. The feedback from the first two training sessions has been overwhelmingly positive and we are contemplating the roll-out of this programme through all regions in due course.

The WCED’s cape learning and teaching institute also offers courses to principals for the further development of their leadership skills, assists them to think critically and systematically and explores daily experiences of leadership within the school setting. These courses are offered throughout the year and during school holidays. We intend intensifying and strengthening these programmes in order to provide all principals in this province with the tools that they require turning their schools into learning centres of excellence.

There is no doubt that many of our principals are being distracted from their core duties by increased levels of administrative and other responsibilities. To counter this, the WCED has taken up the challenge to develop a South African version of the United Kingdom (UK) certificate in school business management, entitled the Certificate of School Business Administration (CSBA).

A school business manager is a member of staff who helps to ensure the smooth and successful running of a school. School business managers support head teachers (principals) with strategic and operational issues, especially human resources, finance, administration and facilities management. In the UK, head teachers have reported a reduced workload, with the potential to free up to 30 percent of their time as administrative functions are taken over by the school business manager.

The pilot project will come to an end when the first cohort of students graduate in November 2009 and as from 2010, the CSBA will be rolled out by the respective further education training (FET) colleges in the metropolitan area of Cape Town, as well as in rural areas.

We believe that this will go a long way in assisting principals in our schools.

Quality teaching and learning in the classroom

In order to turn a school into a centre of excellence, one first needs to get back to basics and deal head-on with essential elements that determine the successful functioning of any school.

Put simply, schools need to have their five Ts in order:

Time on task
Teacher preparedness and knowledge
Ensuring that Textbooks and other materials are available ensuring equitable access to Technology interventions and Testing

Time on task

Teacher and learner “time on task” is critical as it affects the quantity and quality of learning time.

According to a 2005 Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) report, while teachers are expected to spend on average between 64 percent and 79 percent of the 35 hour a week teaching, they could only manage 46 percent of the 35 hour a week, an average of 3.2 hours a day.

In schools that have overcrowded classrooms and high teacher to learner ratios, quality teaching and learning time is further eroded as teachers struggle to attend to individual needs. Learner and teacher absenteeism also plays a major negative role.

It is high time that teachers are held to account for their lack of time in class.

Too many of our schools are ignoring the fact that they fail to give their learners quality learning time.

To tackle this problem, we are investigating possible technology interventions that can monitor learner and teacher absenteeism and attendance, with a view to giving education managers real time statistics on levels of attendance at schools throughout the Western Cape, literally at the touch of a button.

Teacher preparedness

The quality of education cannot exceed the quality of teaching.

To turn a school into a centre of excellence, it is imperative that teachers should be able to convey understanding of a subject to their learner in the proper way. However, many of our teachers lack content knowledge and have a poor pedagogy.

University of Cape Town Higher Education Specialist Nan Yeld recently told the Financial Mail, “We believe that the whole curriculum is not being taught, but only the bits that teachers can manage.”

In a study undertaken by the Joint Education Trust (JET) in a sample of rural primary schools, short tests in literacy and mathematics were administered to Grade 3 teachers. These tests were drawn up by selecting items from tests designed to assess the knowledge of Grade 6 learners.

The average score on the mathematics test for 25 teachers was 67 percent. The average score on the language test for 23 teachers was 55 percent. Unfortunately these results, according to JET, have been replicated in schools across the country, clearly indicating that most of our teachers do not have the skills and knowledge required to teach our learners.

In view of this, the department has already embarked on a re-training programme for all teachers teaching mathematics in our primary schools. We intend making this programme compulsory, affecting the necessary budget adjustments where required.

Teaching also relies heavily on the organisation of systematic learning. Teachers need to design a clear structure on how the curriculum will be taught. Given the low levels of numeracy in the province, we hope to assist teachers in organising the structure of their learning and will explore the viability on implementing a lesson by lesson plan for all mathematics teachers at primary school level.

A continuing record of teacher performance is also needed in order to tailor teaching to support individual classroom needs.

The literacy and numeracy results reveal that there is a definite need for a learning support teacher in each of our primary schools. These teachers could assist learners with specific developmental needs. One of our aims will be to have a learning support teacher in every primary school within the next three years.

Additional to a quality curriculum our young learners must be taught that to succeed in obtaining a job or starting a new business, certain skills are needed to complement a basic education. These skills include, amongst others, the importance of strong work ethics, self-discipline, having a ‘can do’ attitude, being appropriately assertive and using one’s initiative. Our teachers have an important role to play in teaching our learners these skills.

Textbooks and technology

Textbooks are an essential educational resource for the development of reading, writing and language skills and are also an integral part of the national curriculum. A centre of excellence would provide all the relevant curriculum texts along with additional texts to supplement the development of independent and collaborative learning.

Unfortunately, textbooks are often in short supply and in many schools access to good ones is limited. The sad reality is, according to the children’s institute, that only 7.2 percent of public schools in the country have stocked libraries.

Access to technology in our schools is also critical. Learners with access to technology networks are generally more successful than those whose parents are illiterate or where computers and books are not as common in the home.

The WCED has already interceded in this area. The Khanya project has, to date, provided 1 079 schools with computer facilities (42 195 PCs). A further 103 schools are in the process of receiving similar facilities. This is an outstanding achievement, without parallel in South Africa, and possibly in the entire continent.

To improve the quality of teaching in the classroom through the use of technology, we are currently exploring a number of e-learning options.
We have installed 969 interactive whiteboards, and a further 525 are in the process of being installed in 150 schools across the province.

We now have a partnership with Mindset Network, which develops and distributes educational content via satellite TV and in turn, enables schools to use lessons for group teaching by receiving digital content from Mindset via satellite.

We are also, in collaboration with Stellenbosch University, initiating a pilot project where interactive telematic teaching is being used in ten of the province’s schools. We know for a fact that the creative use of technology is one of the most important ways of improving the quality of teaching in our classrooms and we will therefore leave no stone unturned in rolling out sustainable and innovative technology solutions to the schools of the Western Cape.

Testing

In order to turn our schools into centres of excellence, we need to know where our learners’ abilities lie. If we do not set benchmarks for our learners and test them against these benchmarks on a regular basis, we will never be able to target individual learning needs.

The Western Cape is the only province that has undertaken to do its own assessment testing at Grade 3 and Grade 6 levels and we will continue to test these learners every two years. We also intend to expand this to include tests which will reflect the range of subjects being studied at Grade 9 level. National exam results at Grade 9 level will be monitored closely to identify subjects and areas requiring targeted intervention.

We will co-operate with schools to set learner achievement benchmarks, to assist them in removing the barriers to achieving these outcomes and to hold principals and teachers accountable for their performance if these outcomes are not achieved, rewarding good performance and punishing poor performance.

In order to help achieve this we are currently reviewing the Western Cape Education Act and during the course of next year we will table legislation which will enable the Western Cape to have a unique system of public education best able to respond to the myriad of challenges currently confronting us.

Other issues affecting schools

From the range of initiatives that I have discussed here, it is clear that we are working hard to ensure that our learners get the quality of education that they deserve. But, there are a number of other outstanding issues that must be resolved before we can turn our schools into centres of excellence.

These include a stable and safe school environment, access to basic infrastructure such as water and sanitation, and extra-curricular activities that can contribute to a healthy and creative lifestyle. Many of these issues require input from other sectors and I am positive that our schools can never become centres of excellence without parental and community support.

Research has shown that the greater the family and community involvement in schools, the greater the learners’ achievement and the schools’ success.

Last week, I visited a school, Vlakteplaas Primary, just outside Oudtshoorn. This farm school was once housed in a local community church. It had no resources and was certainly not in an environment conducive to learning. But, with the support of a local businessman and foreign funding, the community has built a dynamic and effective school.

For example, educators at Vlakteplaas realised how important technology was for their learners, particularly in literacy and mathematics, traditionally two problem areas. Acting on this with determination, the school now excels in these subjects, is well-run, has experienced staff with a high morale and most importantly, has excited and happy learners eager to develop their knowledge and skills.

This school is testimony to the fact that quality education can be achieved even under the most difficult circumstances.

While there is much to be concerned about, there remain beacons of hope in our education system and with the right systems, political will and levels of support, the thousands of good men and women who are working against the odds to educate our most important asset, our children, are given the levels of support and assistance that they require to provide the type of quality education so desperately deserved by our children.

This is something that none of us should forget.

Thank you.

Media enquiries:
Bronagh Casey
Cell: 072 7241 422
E-mail: brcasey@pgwc.gov.za

Issued by: Department of Education, Western Cape Provincial Government
31 August 2009

Comment by Prof. Jonathan Jansen

To get South Africans to talk about difficult things, and to talk about our very divided past, I want to start by saying that we are not going to get our country right if we don’t get our schools right.

If we don’t get children coming out of school who know about democracy, about being decent, respectful, caring and compassionate, we are not going to get it right. If you don’t get the schools right, everything else topples.

Last week a first-year student came into my office here at the University of the Free State. Because the young woman was alone I said: “Why don’t you just sit across from the desk where I sit?” She came in and with a huge smile she just sat opposite me.

So I said to her in Afrikaans: “My child, how can I help you?” She said nothing, she just smiled, just a huge smile. I thought, there’s something wrong and I decided to do something professors seldom do, which is to shut up.

And then she said to me in Afrikaans: “Professor, I just came this morning to see who you are. And I also just came this morning to see where you sit.” And with that, she jumped up, ran around the table and said: “And I came here to give you a
drukkie [hug].”

And I said to myself, what an amazing kid, [who] can take all the risk associated with coming into the office of this overweight black guy, smile without a care in the world and want to express respect, affection and care.

There are very few schools in South Africa that prepare people like that young student. There are very few homes in South Africa, dare I say, that prepare children like that one student. There are very few churches, mosques and synagogues that I know of in my country that prepare young people with such decency.

The reason South Africans have great difficulty talking about our past is simple: it’s very painful. South Africans don’t want to go back there. The problem is, if we don’t talk about the past, we cannot get through the past. Every day I am reminded of the past by the ways in which we talk to one other, by the ways in which we refer to the man and the woman alongside us.

I never thought in my wildest dreams that a leader in a major party would start to talk about minorities: “There are too many minorities in the economic cluster.” I thought that was language we struggled against during apartheid.

I also never thought my country would deny a visa to the Dalai Lama. And had you ever thought that our country would condone what happens in Burma? Would you ever have thought that our country would not have made some public statement of disgust at what happens in Zimbabwe?

And so our children watch television, read newspapers, listen to politicians and the message they get about being democratic, decent, respectful and about standing up when others are wronged, they don’t hear. That’s the part of our curriculum that scares me.

What do we do when, in many parts of our country, we have lost all sense of what it means to be deeply democratic in our commitments?

I’ve come to the University of the Free State from another university. The first morning I went to work in Umlazi in Durban I saw, as I took the turn into the university gate, a dead body. The school children from Umlazi Comtech next door walked over the body, the taxis drove around the body, my colleagues coming into the university gave one look and drove on the other side of the body. There lay the body.

Then I get inside the campus and I see photographs of the vice-chancellor sjamboking — I’m not talking metaphorically here — sjamboking a member of senate for daring to ask a question.

And that was the day I realised South Africa is a lot more traumatised than we think. Our country is in trouble. So how does one begin to go against this incredible culture of indecency, of disrespect, of undemocratic living?

I am scared at the damage we do to our young people because of our political timidity. We are scared to speak out, some of us because we want contracts and tenders, others because we as a country haven’t learned how to be democratic. Being democratic means speaking up for what is right, speaking up for those who cannot speak and insisting that there is no difference between criticism and commitment.

How then does one teach children, teach university students, teach our own children at home to be democratic in a dangerous world, in a dangerous country?

Number one, we have to broaden the notion of what it means to be a citizen. When you teach children to be proud South Africans, what you’re also doing is limiting their understanding to national borders. But when you teach children that they need to be able to understand their roles as citizens of the world, that changes their understanding of what it means to be democratic and what it means to be decent.

Unless you can feel the pain of a mother in Baghdad, as she sees the bombs raining down on her home and loses a child, in the same way as you feel the pain of a South African, then you’re not truly decent. And unless you can also feel the pain of the American soldier who’s just lost his life for defending something that’s indefensible, unless you can feel the pain of that person’s family, you don’t really know what it means to be decent.

Number two: you’ve got to make young people and older people recognise their mutual vulnerability in the face of danger. This past Sunday I saw the American journalist Christiane Amanpour interview a Palestinian family who lost everything — two daughters, their home — in an Israeli air raid. Amanpour goes to the father, who had taught his children from a young age not to answer hate with hate, not to answer anger with spite. And she goes to the teenage daughter and asks: “Don’t you sometimes just want to hate because of what happened to your sisters?” I’ll never forget her answer as long as I live. She said: “Hate who?”

That young woman and her family recognise that their future is co-dependent on the enemy, on the people on the other side, that they’re both mutually vulnerable in that dangerous part of the world. One of the problems we have as South Africans, black and white, is that we tend to think that we can resolve our own problems separately from our brothers and sisters.

The third thing we need to recognise as we try to demonstrate what it means to prepare democratic -citizens is the skill of counter–cultural leadership — that is, leadership that goes against the grain of everything expected of you.

Countercultural leadership for me is the leadership of a man who spent 27 years in prison and walks out of that prison and captures and captivates the people who put him there with his grace, with his demeanour, with his generosity. I cannot tell you how often I have been in fairly right-wing meetings, where I’ve seen Nelson Mandela speak and seen people sitting there with tears in their eyes listening to a person who exercises not hate but love, countercultural leadership.

Countercultural leadership is a woman called Anita Maritz, who wakes up one morning and says: “I think I need to change my school because my white children are being disadvantaged. They are not learning how to be democratic in a dangerous world.” The school in Alberton in the south of Johannesburg was named after a fellow called Strijdom — they used to call him the Lion of the North in those days. And she decides that the school will be called Diversity High.

But what she realised was that, for these kids to get a fair shake at democracy, she also had to change the membership of the school governing body and the people who came through the gates as students and she had to get the best black teachers to teach in her school in a desperately poor white working-class area.

Anita would tell, with a tear in her eye, how she was no longer greeted in the market place, how people no longer invited her children to -parties, how she was isolated by her countercultural leadership. But the tear was only in one eye: in the other eye she sparkled because she recognised how many more friends she had drawn into her home and her life as a result of her kind of leadership.

By leadership as exemplar I don’t mean leadership that doesn’t stumble, leadership that does not make mistakes. It’s precisely because of our vulnerability and our fallibility as leaders that we can lead. The challenge remains this: the children are not going to respond democratically if we don’t behave democratically as parents, as teachers, as principals, as vice-chancellors, as citizens. Our children, our students are watching us.

Jonathan Jansen is vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State. This is an edited version of his address this week in Bloemfontein, launching the series Education Conversations, co-hosted by the Shikaya and the Field Education, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Mail & Guardian. On August 31, Dr. Mamphela Ramphele and Western Cape education MEC Donald Grant will speak at the second of the series, in the Library Auditorium at the University of Western Cape, followed by Gauteng education MEC Barbara Creecy on September 29 at the University of Johannesburg.

Mail & Guardian, 21 August 2009, copyright © Mail & Guardian

By Graeme Bloch

(DBSA Education Specialist; author of ‘The Toxic Mix – what’s wrong with SA schools and how to fix it’. Tafelberg, Sept 2009)

graemeb@dbsa.org

Guests, Mr Vice-Chancellor:

I have known Jonathan Jansen for some years.

I know him as a teacher, as an educationist and commentator, and as a great activist and human being. His mission is to build excellence and a striving for achievement throughout our society. Jonathan, as I am afraid the Minister of Education recently discovered, is known for speaking his mind. A little known story is that when we drew up the Education Roadmap, one of the participating unions challenged Jonathan’s presence in a meeting. He has called us ‘skurke and boewe’ they said. ‘How can we be in a meeting with someone who refuses to accept our bona fides?’

We defused the tension by saying no-one in the meeting would call anyone a skurk, and we would all accept each others’ bona fides. But just as we didn’t want to silence Sadtu outside the meeting, we were sure they didn’t want to silence Jonathan outside the meeting either. Besides which, he cannot be silenced, even by the kind of roughing over and tsotsi tactics the Minister’s party spokesperson used against him.

It is with great regret that we hand him over to the care of you here in the Free State: I hope you realize what an asset you have gained, and that you will both nurture him and use him for the multiple and excellent ways he can contribute.

These are troubled and difficult times, times of economic decline and crisis, times of war, of diseases from unknown viruses that mutate as fast as we identify them, diseases such as HIV/AIDS that have ravaged through our communities. These are times of hunger and despair in the midst of plenty, times of people being thrust to the margins of development in a world that has the resources and the means to ensure a decent life for all, times of environmental degradation and global warming.

We must give our children a start, a firm foundation, so that they may go confidently into this world, so that in the spirit of democracy and human solidarity, they can indeed create the kind of world that we all imagine is possible. Teaching is indeed a difficult and complex, multi-faceted and multi-layered art and science. Apart from this, the imperatives of transformation are correctly in a country like ours, high on the agenda.

Schools cannot teach what we do not learn and see in our homes and communities.It is no good sending children to the finest schools, if society around is teaching them to be bullies .

The reality– despite vast spend and many resources – is that South African schools are failing to perform. Results are amongst the worst in Africa –some 30% of children in grades 3 or 6 perform at the level required for literacy or numeracy. Our children are just not getting it, not enough to compete and lead in a harsh international climate. Where are the skills and outcomes a developing democracy expects?

But more– while 50% or more white children go on to university, 12% of black children do. Half the children drop out before the end of matric schooling. 62,5% of grade 3’s in former white schools in the Western Cape could read and count at appropriate levels ; the corresponding figure in African townships was 0,1%. I repeat, 62,5% against 0,1%. One in 10 white kids get an A-level pass in matric; only 1 in a 1000 black kids.

Such inequalities are unsustainable in a democracy seeking to redress ills of the past –that they take on a racial dimension, makes them even harder to accept. For most of our kids, school only teaches the harsh lesson, there is no place in the hopes and dreams of the new society. Aspirations vanish and disintegrate in the failure of our schools. We are failing our children, and generations to come.

There are many reasons for this. We should never discount history and our terrible past – colonialism and apartheid demeaned educational and intellectual projects in our land. Education was to control not to liberate. HF Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid and Bantu education, said ,  ‘why should we show black people the green pastures in which they will not be allowed to graze?’. Mathematics was virtually banned in black schools. Blacks should forever be ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’.

As I say in a book I have just written – ‘The toxic mix – what is wrong with our schools and how to fix it’ this history combines in a toxic mix that is difficult and complex to change. The unsatisfactory outcomes of the past  are reinforced by policy and implementation slippages of r recent years.

Lat year’s  Education Roadmap, coordinated by the DBSA for the ANC as the incoming government , based itself on an understanding of the three key levels that hold us back.

1. Firstly, the level of ‘in-class’, the most crucial level – where teachers and their learners interact, where knowledge is shared and intellectual hunger for learning is bred. There are so many problems here, but teachers are undoubtedly the key – how they are trained, what they know, how they feel, how they are paid and supported, and whether our young are inspired to see teaching as the noble profession it should be.
2. The second level is the level of ‘support to school’: are schools resourced, are there textbooks and materials, how does the principal run and manage and inspire her staff? Is the education department and its surrounding district machinery geared to assisting the teachers to do their fundamental task of teaching?  Too many of our school districts fail to provide the pedagogical and administrative support that would enable our teachers to do what they should, too many of our officials see as their job making the schools fill in forms and comply with policy while they fail miserably to do what civil servants should actually be doing in a developmental state. Most of our schools lack libraries, or labs, or computers, sportsfields and staffrooms, or sometimes even water and toilets – they are not nice or inviting places to go to and spend the day.
3. And lastly, of course, is the social level. HIV/AIDS, child-headed households, intestinal worms, gangs and violence, foetal alcohol syndrome, poor transport, hunger, overcrowding, all make it difficult for our children to learn. This is before we acknowledge that their parents are under-educated, struggle to help with homework, feel intimidated in the face of teachers, and are not a part of a confident learning nation that is boldly looking ahead.

So much to fix…..but we are not victims. Our past may be sad, but it is what we have. We can wallow in our failures, or we can set our sights anew, and decide to be the best we can.

We need a plan and we need a vision. At school levels, it is true there has been immense progress and much to praise in the years of democracy.

So there are some bits and pieces to set us on the Road. Recently, the DBSA was asked to bring together a wide range of education stakeholders – ministers, teacher unions, government officials, NGOs, academics and policy experts – to develop a diagnosis and a set of solutions.  Out of this came a 10-point programme,  that has been presented to the public for discussion, and that forms the core of a debate about where to go. One of the 10 points identifies primary schools and also ECD as the base on which all else must rest. Other points range from getting teachers ‘in-class, on time teaching’,  to support for teachers;  to finding ways for management and district officials to do  their jobs and to able to do it effectively; to social compacts and initiatives to put us on track. The final points in their detail are less important than the call and challenge that they imply.

The Education Roadmap makes three implicit but crucial points:

• Firstly, we are in this together. Any attempt to fix things, must be a stakeholder driven process and must be based on society wide agreement. Together, we can do more! As the ANC slogan says.
• Secondly, we need to prioritise. We can’t do it all, so we need to decide where we start and what are the things that will have the most impact. We need agreement on which are the priorities we will pursue.
• And, lastly, we need a plan and a vision, we need real targets and we need a set of outcomes we can pursue and measure, to see if we have made progress. A vision, where we look to the sky with our feet firmly on the ground, as Amilcar Cabral used to say.

The Roadmap does not have the answers. Yet we have managed in this country to create a policy space where many things are possible. Since the peaceful revolution at Polokwane, where Thabo Mbeki was democratically replaced by Jacob Zuma to be our President, since the elections where our masses delivered their choice and their verdict, education has risen to be a national priority.

As DBSA we have decided to do certain things – today  Monday 17 August, at University of Free State, is the first in our series of DBSA Education Conversations with Jonathan  Jansen talking about democracy and schooling. This is followed in the Western Cape with Mamphela Ramphele and MEC Donald Grant on August 31; MEC Creecy in Gauteng on September 29 at University of Johannesburg; and the last will be held in the Eastern Cape. In all of these, the idea is to ‘get the conversation going’, to bring together people of concern, goodwill, and with the interest and skills , to try and address our education problems and talk about solutions.

Secondly, we have been working directly with MEC’s, to see how we can as an institution use our capabilities and resources especially to address government systems of delivery and accountability. We are still developing these plans, specifically in Gauteng and Western Cape, but also in interaction with some of the more rural provinces.

Lastly, we think that we can make a contribution to the processes of planning and monitoring, as new ministries and units are set up. What would be education priorities; and within those, what targets would we set, and what indicators would be most helpful. Matric pass rates, grade 3 and 6 results, drop out rates? What indicators help us focus on the issues at hand, and also help us measure as we make progress or make mistakes we need to improve on.

I also would claim, that the Roadmap has helped to empower and strengthen processes already in motion. Thus, I salute the recent Teachers Development Summit and the carefully thought out challenges that it poses in its documents and resolutions. Similarly, the recent standoff in Soweto with MEC Creecy and Premier Mokonyane, saw SADTU teachers sent back to school by parents. Significantly, the head of the teachers’ union also came in to tell the teachers of the non-negotiables and boundaries they should respect. Most of the MEC’s budget speeches have significantly benefited from understanding some of the priorities and diagnoses set out in the 10 Point Programme and the Education Roadmap.

It is in this space, that we are called to work and to mobilize. If we are going to rest, if we are going to wait for government to do it all, if we are going to moan and to complain, we will soon end up back where we were.

We have a window of opportunity to really make a difference. We can set ourselves on a path of progress from which there will be no retreat. We all have a responsibility to open this window. We cannot  be found wanting, for the sake of our society and our  future generations.

University of the Free State,17 August 2009

Articles

• The Education Roadmap: Taking education forward - DBSA Education Specialist Graeme Bloch

• Racing to decency. Our children need to be taught a culture or respect and democratic commitment – Prof Jonathan Jansen Vice Chancellor of Free State University

Want to hear what was discussed?

Click on the links below:

• Part 1 Introduction FS
• Part 2 Graeme Bloch DBSA FS
• Part 3 Prof Jansen FSU FS
• Part 4 Interaction and Close FS

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