SCHOOLS MUST UNITE TO FIGHT THE ILLS IN OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM

WE ARE supposed to live in a democratic society. This is on paper in our Constitution. But do we as ordinary citizens take what is on paper and practise democracy?

We blame the DA in the Western Cape and the ANC in the other eight provinces for the ills in our society. The Mail & Guardian recently reported that so many government officials are accused of corruption but very few are brought to book.

Whistle-blowers seem to have little support from the government. People in their places of work in the private and public sector seem to be towing the line and subjecting themselves to all kinds of oppression in the workplace. Employers seem to threaten workers with retrenchment because of the work situation and Covid-19 pandemic.

This attitude has a trickle-down effect on teachers. One would have thought that the Struggle for liberation in South Africa would have caused teachers to be in the front line when fighting for justice in our country.

The national Department of Basic Education (NDBE) introduced all kinds of money-saving gimmicks which debase education. One such scheme is the appointment of teacher assistants especially at the schools of the poor.

These are post-matric students who are paid a small stipend by the Western Cape Education Department to assist the teacher in the class. Instead of schools rejecting this concept, they allow this to happen to the detriment of the teaching profession.

The NDBE have the discretion to at any time terminate these contracts. Why are the teacher trade unions so silent on this matter?

Surely this is not what we fought for. The NDBE is destroying education.

Why are the school governing bodies and representative councils of learners not fighting against inferior physical buildings, lack of teachers in the schools of the poor, lack of libraries, lack of computers in schools and well-looked after sports fields?

I remember when I belonged to a principals' body, before a meeting the leader of the principals' organisation said to the principals, before we met the head of education, that we must not be antagonistic towards her but be diplomatic. I am glad I was expelled from this organisation because I spoke my mind.

In the present situation it seems schools have decided only to look after themselves. It is my opinion that if the schools of the poor do not get together to fight the ills of the education system, the gains the teachers made prior to 1994 will be further eroded.

It will now take a concerted effort on behalf of committed, principled and revolutionary teachers to avoid the cul-de-sac we are heading for in education.

One school in Claremont, Cape Town, had the motto Nulla vestigia retrorsum – No footsteps backwards.

This school, Livingstone High, under the leadership of Richard Dudley and Rhoda Hendricks, not only produced excellent results but produced pupils who went about changing the political landscape in South Africa. It can be done.