A Great Deal More To Do
The political economy of South Africa sets certain inescapable requirements if the ravages of the past are to be remedied within a reasonable period of time. This is based on the presumption that until such time as the democratisation process has been completed here the South African economy based on Free Market principles will remain attached umbilically to the whims and fancies of International Capital, its Puppet Masters and local agents. One of the fundamental requirements for the survival and growth of the South African economy in this situation is the development of a mass-base of educated and trained people. The national Department of Education is one of the Think-tanks charged with directing this development course for South Africa.
This department starts under the crushing weight of a Government caught in the meshes of the Structural Adjustment Programme dictated by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). While in 1996-1997 87% of the State�s expenditure on education was spent by the Provincial Departments on college/school and other educational services, the National Department sets norms and standards for the public funding of public schools, for the exemption from school fees of parents unable to pay them and for public subsidies to independent schools. It also sets prescribed procedures for determining provincial budgets for schools. But in attempting to deal with the many challenges provinces inevitably overspend and have to be rescued by the Department of State Expenditure. This dependency on the central fiscus hamstrings the Provincial Departments of Education in their dealing with the pressure of reconciling the provision of near-universal schooling with a resultant slow-down in expansion. In short, more schools to accommodate a burgeoning school-going population are not being built because the World Bank and the IMF dictate that they shall not be built.
Poor management, high repetition and absenteeism, coupled with inadequate work effort and a considerable deficit in basic infrastructure and support materials, are noted for causing trauma in the Provincial schools. There is an admission, though, that quality education can be achieved only if glaring inequalities are addressed, efficiency increased and effectiveness improved. Neither the National Department nor the Provincial Departments are given the necessary funding to remedy these shortcomings. The government predicts that the Medium-Term Expenditure (budget) Framework (MTEF) will provide the financial resources to provide the impetus for the rate of growth on all levels of the Provincial school system. But this is a pipe-dream in the face of the harsh realities of the massive devaluation of the South African currency and the collapse of the traditional markets for the local economy. That the begging bowl is constantly used by South Africa to find financing for basic needs from foreign sources prompts the question: What returns do the donors expect? Is their very substantial funding of specific projects as disinterested and gratuitous as they wish to suggest? The several bilateral and multi-lateral support agreements from which the Department of Education benefits directly could suggest that apart from direct reciprocal benefits (trade?) the politicians of the major Capitalist countries are intent on keeping Southern Africa halted from progress towards its full democratic potential.
The masses here await the fruits of free education, of accelerated training in the mathematical and scientific bases of technological development and await, too, the opportunities to share directly in the skills and knowledge acquired by the citizens of the very countries that formerly exploited the material and human resources of Southern Africa. For them the crumbs of aid now dispensed can only have a bitter taste. To add insult to injury the "formerly disadvantaged", as the poor and exploited are now euphemistically labeled, are expected to pay fees to have their children at school, to pay for the provision of water, toilets and electricity on school property, to pay for books and learning materials, to pay for repairs and renovations to State property and to swallow undigested the principle that the "user pays". For this "privilege", the mass of parents are expected to be grateful to be rewarded with the right to "govern" their own schools. This mass deception in the name of democracy is on a scale comparable with the deceptions practised by the Apartheid regimes in selling to sections of the oppressed the wonderful benefits of self-government and Independence.
As part of the Government movement to control labour in the guise of a Constitution granting rights to organise and take industrial action, the teachers of the nation are being enmeshed in controls to limit their freedom to teach and freedom of association. The National Department of Education represents the State in The South African Council of Educators and the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC). The National Department of Education compels all teachers to register if they wish to teach and the ELRC negotiates with the Minister of Education on Labour Relations, Conditions of Service, and other matters relevant to school and college education.
The National Department of Education directs and dominates these sectors with the disastrous results evident in every province. Professing to pursue equitable distribution of material resources and teaching personnel the Department has set in motion in education the State policy of right-sizing the public service, so as to reduce expenditure in a search to create a deficit small enough to satisfy the authors of the structural adjustment programme. The fixing of the arbitrary quotas of staffing of schools has resulted in the formation of hare-brained retrenchment and redeployment schemes by an Education Labour Relations Council. Its objective should be the preservation of the jobs of its teacher-base, improving the school and classroom environment to promote efficiency and productivity and to resist the prostitution of the Education sector by a Government eager to maintain good relations with the international loan sharks. Instead depleted school staffs, over-crowded classrooms, demotivated teachers spell disaster for building the skills-base demanded by a rapidly expanding technological economic environment.
Attempts to inculcate a culture of learning and skills-development through a Youth/Community programme unsupported by an assured employment future cannot hope to succeed while growth and expansion depend on donor generosity. The formulation of policy for Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) and Life-Long Learning requires close collaboration with potential adult-learners, non-government organisations, industry and labour. Getting a 10-year programme of the ground remains problematical while funding is unsatisfactory, even with initial support of R35 million from the European Union and Provincial departments which, while committed to recruitment goals, remain unorganised. Co-ordination with the National Qualifications Framework and the South African Qualifications Authority in respect of standards, assessment and certifications remains to be clarified. Growth in the economy requires a rapid increase in skills; and the expansion of the Adult sector will be most crucially determined by Government policies to foster growth in all sectors of the economy.
The Higher Education sector, from which ideally should flow the intellectual leadership for development in all aspects of our society, is going through a traumatic period. There are the pressures to produce graduates of quality. But along with these have come the demands that the transformation of administrative bodies should be demographically representative.
A resurgence of foreign interest in Africa as a rich resource of material to study the origins and development of mankind has been accompanied by a need to rewrite the modern history of Africa from new perspectives. The conflict with the older traditional and conservative interpretations of the social sciences, in particular, has produced overtones of racism and intolerance. The universities are expected to provide tuition and service with reduced funding by the State. They are under pressure to admit larger numbers of students ill-prepared by the old school systems, to meet what to these students appear racially-motivated unusually high admission and achievement standards. An attempt has been made to upgrade the historically disadvantaged institutions (former Bush Colleges) with specific projects coordinated by the British Council, but these will bear fruit only in years to come. The Higher Education institutions also face the prospect of incorporating the colleges catering for various sectors. Education Training Colleges, already drastically reduced in number and student intake, have already suffered under the rationalisation mania. Since increasing the number and quality of learners at the school level is vital for education at all further levels the future of the Colleges of Education must be finalised urgently.
An Education Ministry must be seen to perform. It must be judged by the quality of service it provides to the country as a whole. In 1996 the Bengu Ministry launched with great fanfare the Education Programme claimed to be the magic formula to change the thinking patterns and learning methods of children at school so that by 2005 the Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) methodology would be firmly established. The assumptions were that new learning methods would stimulate creativity, intellectual independence and critical understanding of the natural environment and human society in pupils at the Primary level. This would make for accelerated progress at Secondary and Higher levels. Rushed preparation (or none at all) of teachers-in-service against a background of threats of retrenchment and redeployment is making the first year of the system a nightmare for teachers willing and able to do justice to their responsibilities. The shortage of resource materials, unsatisfactory class-numbers and inefficient professional support compound their difficulties. The authorities hope that the emergence of OBE-trained teachers from the colleges (if and when posts are available for them) will strengthen this base of the South African political economy.
In attempting to make a fair assessment of the performance of the National Department of Education it must be stressed that it functions under the financial constraints and the political priorities of a majority party anxious to consolidate a firm base in constituency riven by traditional, regional and language factions. Hence, to be revised urgently, is the national policy that recognises eleven national languages as primary school-language policy for about 40 million people scattered in cities, towns and villages dependent either directly or indirectly on late 20th century industry, commerce and technology. It is folly to exacerbate the class divisions inherent in an economic system of private profit by imposing special taxes on education and depleting its most essential resource base - its teachers. On these counts alone the National Department of Education for its 1996-�97 performance stands guilty as charged - of having done very little to bring about education transformation.
[THE EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL VOL.68 #4, OFFICIAL ORGAN
OF THE TEACHERS' LEAGUE OF SOUTH AFRICA, JULY-AUGUST 1998]
EDITOR: Mrs. HN Kies, 15 Upper Bloem Street, Cape Town, 8001
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