Documentary highlights education collapse

Sneeky

Sneeky

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Despite the fact that our education department enjoys a massive chunk of our national budget it has long been known that it is failing the people and is dysfunctional.

Pressure mounts from all sides to socially engineer the job market to reflect the demographics of the country yet the education system fails to deliver the necessary candidates into the system to effect this reform.
The result is vacant positions and skilled people of certain race groups leaving as they are not considered for these positions due to policy.
Ultimately most of these positions will be filled with less than desirable candidates.
Just look at any government department or institution for 'in your face' proof of this.

The 'masses' of this country though will continue to vote for their own uninterrupted spiral into the abyss through their uncompromising support for an orginisation that is incapable of getting the job done.
When will the people of this country hold the ANC to account?
We often see the question in the press asking 'what makes a Zimbabwean angry'. I wonder how far we as citizens will let this slide before we ask some serious questions of the ANC.

The film was shown in Joburg on Thursday to education experts, teachers, principals, Department of Education officials and union members.

All expressed shock at seeing something that most knew all along: a dysfunctional education system that is failing the majority of our children.

In an article which ran in the Cape Times, an education specialist at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Graeme Bloch, explained how serious the problem is.

"In matric, disparities remain: 39,4 percent of black candidates failed last year against 1,6 percent of whites. Exemptions for black students in matric in 2007 (10,9 percent versus 52 percent for whites) show that little has changed since 1991, when the figure was 10,8 percent.
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http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080523054804169C716049
 
Exemptions for black students in matric in 2007 (10,9 percent versus 52 percent for whites) show that little has changed since 1991, when the figure was 10,8 percent.
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Can anything be more damning than that one line?
 
Remember. 98% of whites passed, with 50% qualifying for uni.
Only around 60% of blacks managed to pass.
It is that failure rate that sux.
 
Moederloos said:
Remember. 98% of whites passed, with 50% qualifying for uni.
Only around 60% of blacks managed to pass.
It is that failure rate that sux.
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I stand corrected with my Maths here. I don't think that percentage comparison is a "good" one.
Suppose there are 300 000 students (black & while) a year. I'm sure 250 000 will be black, and then 50 000 be white. Then 60% will be 150 000 for blacks. 98% will be 49 000 for whites.
 
There have been some small imrpovements over the past year or two in getting qualified and well trained teachers. A very large portion of money has been provided in the form of bursaries to teachers studying to be Maths, Science and English teachers.

The biggest problem being faced is that black graduates are not choosing teaching as a career. It is thought that this is due mainly to them following careers where they will be better remunerated. This means that the vast majority of new teachers are white and in particular white women. This also makes it harder for schools to be more representative.
 
Moederloos said:
Can anything be more damning than that one line?
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Percentages can be misleading though.
It is truly a damning statement but I would wager that there are more people of colour being exposed to 'education' now than what there were in '91.
Without trying to hard though the previous regime seemed to however obtain an equal statistical result, not very flattering at all for the comrades.

The single most important thing that can be done to uplift society is to empower them with a quality eduction, the effects of which are permanent, not mere window dressing.

An even more worrying aspect of this is the lack of maths and science graduates amongst the majority racial groupings, the subjects critical to careers in engineering and the like.
 
Heita_Hola said:
I stand corrected with my Maths here. I don't think that percentage comparison is a "good" one.
Suppose there are 300 000 students (black & while) a year. I'm sure 250 000 will be black, and then 50 000 be white. Then 60% will be 150 000 for blacks. 98% will be 49 000 for whites.
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I fail to see your point.
Are you trying to say more blacks passed than whites? If so, that is pretty meaningless. There are afterall many more blacks.
 
Heita_Hola said:
I stand corrected with my Maths here. I don't think that percentage comparison is a "good" one.
Suppose there are 300 000 students (black & while) a year. I'm sure 250 000 will be black, and then 50 000 be white. Then 60% will be 150 000 for blacks. 98% will be 49 000 for whites.
Click to expand...

Yes, you beat me to it ;) but if you dig deeper into the pass rates, and the subjects taken the story unravels. Still the percentages mentioned can never really be defended as acceptable by any measure I am sure you would agree.
 
children and youth are the pillars of any country and the education system what strengthens or weakens those pillars. Funny thing is that, whilst many of us seat comfortably in the top office, we do not realize that we are weakening the pillars, weaken the integrity of our economy which will affect everyone in the end.
 
dlk001 said:
children and youth are the pillars of any country and the education system what strengthens or weakens those pillars. Funny thing is that, whilst many of us seat comfortably in the top office, we do not realize that we are weakening the pillars, weaken the integrity of our economy which will affect everyone in the end.
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I agree with you but how are "we" weakening the pillars? That implies we're at fault, which I wouldn't agree with.
 
Sneeky said:
Yes, you beat me to it ;) but if you dig deeper into the pass rates, and the subjects taken the story unravels. Still the percentages mentioned can never really be defended as acceptable by any measure I am sure you would agree.
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Yes, but in this case there is a direct comparison to the past (and hopefully the same method) stats. In 1991 only 10.8% of blacks qualified for University, today that number is still about the same (10.9%).

I do not know how schools work back in pre-1994 for the black people, but it'd be safe to assume that it would not have matched white schools for quality. Now, when the black schools shouldn't be at a disadvantage, the black people are not benefiting from the new south africa. Corruption, lack of skills or even the attitude of the youth may be the cause. Either way it's a clear sign that the education system is not as affective as is should be for black people.
 
didn't study for matric exams, hated school, never did my homework, teachers hated me, I passed =)
 
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eltherza said:
Yes, but in this case there is a direct comparison to the past (and hopefully the same method) stats. In 1991 only 10.8% of blacks qualified for University, today that number is still about the same (10.9%).

I do not know how schools work back in pre-1994 for the black people, but it'd be safe to assume that it would not have matched white schools for quality. Now, when the black schools shouldn't be at a disadvantage, the black people are not benefiting from the new south africa. Corruption, lack of skills or even the attitude of the youth may be the cause. Either way it's a clear sign that the education system is not as affective as is should be for black people.
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Unfortunately, it will take many more years to even things out. I was looking at one of the top previously disadvantaged schools in WC and the number of students to a PC was really bad. They also did not have a science lab. At other worse off schools a large number of teachers had a Standard 10 pass or less and no tertiary qualifications. The current government have made it worse due to decisions they made in the 90's, which they are now trying to rectify. The WC just announced the biggest ever budget for education. It will eventualy improve but black schools remain at a massive disadvantage, even today.
 
Syndyre said:
I agree with you but how are "we" weakening the pillars? That implies we're at fault, which I wouldn't agree with.
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No, I do not mean to imply that we, as ordinary citizens, are at fault because the ultimate blame goes to the people who control the policies, the Government.

However, my voluntary role as an Engineer is to motivate and mentor students about my discipline and hope that everyone does their respective full time job. Government is failing but my voluntary role continues.

What I see a lot is people like my bosses, who have resources to make a difference but do nothing to promote the education of Engineers, yet they complain all the time about the system not bringing in skills.
 
Moederloos said:
I fail to see your point.
Are you trying to say more blacks passed than whites? If so, that is pretty meaningless. There are afterall many more blacks.
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Percentage wise, more whites have passed.
Number wise, obviously there are more black pupils per my example.
You don't have to see my point though.
 
eltherza said:
Even the attitude of the youth may be the cause. Either way it's a clear sign that the education system is not as affective as is should be for black people.
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So many things affect the attitude of the Youth indeed. What sad to me is the high unemployment rate, yet within many fields, the Agents, Companies are fighting for skilled people.
 
what a govt really wants is an uneducated voting populous... you get what you pay for..and the ANC is def getting what it wants.
 
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