SA education standards too low - Oprah

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http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/SA-education-standards-too-low-Oprah-20120116

Johannesburg - The standard of school education in South Africa is too low, US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey said at the graduation ceremony of her Leadership Academy for Girls at Henley-on-Klip over the weekend.

She was answering a question on how South Africa can learn from the success of her school.

Winfrey on Saturday congratulated the school's first matric class on their 100% pass rate and 188 distinctions.

More than half of the school’s 72 matriculants had an average of more than 75%.

All of the pupils plan to continue studying this year, at universities in South Africa and the US.

“It is the beginning of the end of poverty,” said Winfrey, referring to the matriculants who received their diplomas on Saturday.

“The girls have broken the circle of poverty in their homes and from here on they can give back to the community.”

Standards

Winfrey emphasised that South Africa had to invest in leadership so that rewards could be reaped later, especially in poor communities.

The school’s success was due to good, knowledgeable teachers and to girls who were not pampered because they came from difficult backgrounds, said Winfrey.

“I have found that people underestimate disadvantaged children and therefore lower standards.

“It is also indicative of your standards here that you can pass with 30%. Businesspeople can’t operate successfully if they function with only 30% to 40%.

“We haven’t allowed the girls to use their backgrounds as an excuse. Education is the door to freedom.”

Graça Machel, Nelson Mandela's wife and a member of the school board, was the main speaker at the event.

“Remember always that where you were born does not dictate what will become of you,” she told the class.

"But know too that privileges like you had are one side of the coin. The other side is the responsibility to make a difference.”
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*applause*

Well done! :)


Now some big ijit will try to spoil the fun... by passing some legislation or the such... so that Oprah's school will have to conform (lower their standards)...
 
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The ANCYL seem to emphasise their collective passmark of under 30% is adequate. This western imperialist notion of anything else is unreasonable...
 
I want to change the focus of the topic. It's not the schools' standards that are too low. It's the level of parental involvement and an absence of an academic culture at home that leads to the struggle teachers have in teaching kids even the very basic.
 
"Congratulations on your 100% pass rate. Now if you could look underneath your chairs ..."
 
Picard said:
I want to change the focus of the topic. It's not the schools' standards that are too low. It's the level of parental involvement and an absence of an academic culture at home that leads to the struggle teachers have in teaching kids even the very basic.
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To a certain extent I would concur, but I have family who are teachers, and close friends who are teachers and they complain about the reluctance of schools to fail learners. They are in the high school phases and a number of learners they have to teach cannot even read or write sufficiently to keep up the pace. So, a lot of remedial re-teaching is needed. Some of the learners are 3 years behind in their comprehension. A pass mark of 30% ensures that this level of not-knowing continues up the process until a large number of learners just drop-out or become too old to actually continue through to matric. There are 20 year olds failing matric. Ideally those who cannot scrape the 45% of old would have to repeat the year until they are up to speed... now 30% is enough.

This is compounded by class overcrowding, massive administrative duties, lack of facilities, financial woes amongst other "challenges".

The Department of Education lauded a 70% or so pass rate for last year, however, the number of learners entering the cycle versus the number actually writing the end-of-year exams reduces this 70% to something like 38%.

And the DoE is very very happy with their 30% pass mark.
 
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Businesspeople can’t operate successfully if they function with only 30% to 40%.
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Surely those are the people destined for management?
 
Picard said:
I want to change the focus of the topic. It's not the schools' standards that are too low. It's the level of parental involvement and an absence of an academic culture at home that leads to the struggle teachers have in teaching kids even the very basic.
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Yip that is a big part of it. I remember a black academic in the USA who done a study on why black students on average were getting lower marks than their fellow white students even though they had the same facilities and their parents were equally middle class. He looked at absolutely everything trying to figure it out, and at the end of the day found that the black parents for whatever reason were not participating as much in the development of the child after school. They weren't following up as much, discussing the school day, enforcing strict completion of homework each and every day, etc. In a sense their attitude was that they were paying the school to teach their kids, and thus had doing their job.

I'm not in any way trying to bring race into it, i'm just saying when parents don't play a role, for whatever reason, the kids don't do nearly as well. So much of it is about a culture of excellence, and that starts at home.
 
Picard said:
I want to change the focus of the topic. It's not the schools' standards that are too low. It's the level of parental involvement and an absence of an academic culture at home that leads to the struggle teachers have in teaching kids even the very basic.
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.

^^^^^^

I've seen adults who can't do basic maths like multiply by 10 and it doesn't bother them.

The school’s success was due to good, knowledgeable teachers and to girls who were not pampered because they came from difficult backgrounds, said Winfrey.
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Another culture comes from kids who feel they'll get pushed through the system because of past oppression.
 
I was watching Blade and Angie speak yesterday, and I'm not surprise they have lowered the pass mark to 30%. They sound like they have IQ's in the 70 to 80 range.
 
Picard said:
I want to change the focus of the topic. It's not the schools' standards that are too low. It's the level of parental involvement and an absence of an academic culture at home that leads to the struggle teachers have in teaching kids even the very basic.
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I think many parents either don't have enough time or knowledge. How does a parent create a love of books if they can't or can barely read?

Zyzzyva said:
Yip that is a big part of it. I remember a black academic in the USA who done a study on why black students on average were getting lower marks than their fellow white students even though they had the same facilities and their parents were equally middle class. He looked at absolutely everything trying to figure it out, and at the end of the day found that the black parents for whatever reason were not participating as much in the development of the child after school. They weren't following up as much, discussing the school day, enforcing strict completion of homework each and every day, etc. In a sense their attitude was that they were paying the school to teach their kids, and thus had doing their job.

I'm not in any way trying to bring race into it, i'm just saying when parents don't play a role, for whatever reason, the kids don't do nearly as well. So much of it is about a culture of excellence, and that starts at home.
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Regardless it does seem to be primarily socio-economic.

Quality schooling does make a difference. Inspiring teachers do make a difference. I've had some bad teachers that nearly scuppered my academic progress and I've had some brilliant ones that had me interested in subjects I had formerly considered boring.

I do think that pushing children forward is a problem. I know from my own experience that having a hole in a subject can continue to cause problems years later. Do we have schools aimed at those who are not academically inclined?
 
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