EDUCATION- PRIMA DONA TO OUR KIDS

In one of his speeches, John Dewey was quoted as saying, “what the best and wisest parents wants for his own child that must the community want for all its children-Education is not a preparation for life-education is life itself”. We boast of 12 million learners, 360,000 teachers and around 28,000 schools. Basic school life span extends for 13 years and yet the results do not manifest the true reflection of these hard earned years.
The recent release of the 2009 Matric results fuelled mixed reaction on the quality of education especially for an African child. I was able to grasp three points from John Dewey’s speech which centres on Family, School and Community and all these comprise the agents of socialisation which is a sine qua non for the development of young people. The many of the mixed reaction that surfaced the media after the recent release of the Matric results all projected that African child’s failure to measure up to expectation is bound on languages. Few arguments that came through was analysing how difficult it is to teach Young African Children in a foreign language (English) and concerned parents were arguing that their kids should be taught in their respective local languages. National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa referring to difficulties with Maths, Science and English said a strategy should be put in place to ensure suitably qualified teachers are appointed in these posts and that adequate support is given to develop teachers of these subjects.
May be John Dewey’s insight will assist us to unravel the ultimate cause for this poor performance. A child automatically becomes incorporated in a family when born. A dysfunctional family produces a dysfunctional kid while a functional produces a functional kid. Family remains the main and core agent of socialisation. An estimated 40% of South Africa’s 18million children are being raised by single mothers. Seven million children are growing up with single mothers, outnumbering the 6.2million-about 34% of the country’s children-who live with both parents. Indian children are most fortunate, with 82% living with both parents. White children follow closely at 80% while 52% of coloured kids and 29% of Africans have those privilege- reports the South Africa Institute of Race Relations. The importance of our roots and our success in life remains inseparable from our family. The family ushers the stepping stone to a greater future. John Kane-Berman said, “it is now widely recognised that most public schooling in South Africa is in dire straits. But so is family life. Can one be fixed without the other? If we cannot fix education and family life, can we combat crime”? Other factors that also pose challenge in the family background is divorce, AIDS, Migrant labour and teenage pregnancies. Gail Eddy, a researcher in the South Africa Institute of Race Relations mentioned that families are the nucleus of the society because they pass down social values which shape the country and added that these values were being threatened. Hitherto, many critics argue that blaming family does not do justice as family is broad in its concept-critics highlight on how poor financial situation in families had led to disintegrating the family thereby producing unhealthy kids. May be we can borrow a few wise sayings from Dabby Govender who argued on ‘OLD SCHOOL UPBRINGING’. Old school upbringing means instilling good moral values, inspecting the kids, strict (not malicious), spending time with kids, always around when needed. All these values can prove to produce a good quality kid even when the family tends to be financially unstable-with good supervision the child still remains in an utmost supervised care.
Quality teachers and educationists come in the lime light when we discuss family because the child gets to spend about 8hours of their time in school. Poor educationists tend to imbibe bad behaviour on kids. Cases of malicious handling of kids, sexual abuse and abseentism make our headlines and destabilise our education system. Unqualified teachers send the kids to the dungeons with their illiteracy. I was encouraged with the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa commitment to ensure that suitably qualified teachers are appointed to the core posts and that adequate support is given to develop these teachers. Strict measures should be put in place to ascertain that teachers are been monitored, evaluated and compensated based on their performance and that their salary is commensurate with the contribution they make in our children’s life.
The Community remains an important agent that unites our kids. The place of our first stages of development moulds our life, integrates and gives us a sense of belonging. The government comes handy in this section. Poor infrastructures and bad development can hamper the success of our kids. Areas without good water, electricity and good roads can prove to be a disaster for a young person. Bad water can cause illness to our kids which will likely excuse them from attending lectures and set them back to achieve their educational and professional dreams. Without electricity, our children will be unable to do their studies and burning a midnight candle might affect the quality of their vision which will deter their eye. Good roads and transport system are essential to ensure that our kids are on time for school. Inadequate roads or transport system can even shorten the life span of our kids as a result of road accidents. Poor built schools and lack of adequate equipment in schools can pose an enormous threat to the future of our kids who will equip themselves with nothing but ignorant and illiteracy.
Since it is a fact that all parents wants good quality education for their kids, the community (government) must ensure that this is achieved in order to produce an energetic and future promising kids. It remains our responsibility as parents, adults, policy makers and public servants to ensure that education facilitated with an ‘Old School Upbringing’ is the first gift we bestow on our kids.