Schooling in the New SA

Gomario said:
How about this http://www.timeslive.co.za/news/article127858.ece
Sometimes I wonder if the bantu schooling was not better. Certainly, most, if not all, African forum members, will think not. However, the ones whom opinions I would like to hear, are not able to 'talk' (for obvious reasons).
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you know what, this is the governments doing. Personally this new OBE crap isn't ideal, but it's designed to let kids walking out of school have something more the X+Y= ? in their heads.

Schools like the one you have shown are simply under funded, and the government doesn't send them better teachers/more funding.

Greenside High has a better matriculation record then some private schools, and Greenside High isn't an reception, there's many government schools that are very very good.

People just love throwing papers in the air and making a bloody fuss. All the negative things you see are rather isolated, and usually happens when discipline at home is limited (eg: townships), these kids don't go to school to learn, but use it more other things.

Another problem is people send their children to school in hoping that the school can discipline their children, but sadly things don't happen that way. Corporal punishment must make a return, as I know I won't get a fat klap at school, but if I got caught smoking on school property, or broke a window, the school would call my dad and he with give me a fat slap (or two), and that puts the fear of god into you. Since most parents don't wanna smack a naughty child, and the school won't, kids just do what they want, and don't really receive any worth while punishment.

The government must do something, and they must do it fast. it's my (i'm in matric) generation that seems like it's the last of people who give a shyte about their future. I go to a Private school, and even kids in grade 11 (but mainly lower) couldn't give a shyte about school, they don't respect themselves (these kids look like freaks from a circus), and they don't respect anyone else. I remember going into grade 8, 4 years ago, I got sticky taped to a tree branch (my mom and a friend cut me down). Now if anyone does that it's assault, or something else. wtf is happening to the world?
 
Nerfherder said:
What obvious reasons ?
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Well, the children/youths who are affected by the situation, are not in the position to reply to my post. I thought is obvious. Obviously I was wrong :D What I find interesting is the low standard of the final exam (Matric). And yet hordes of african pupils fail. This fact supports the findings in my original post. I doubt this is a isolated case. It will be interesting to hear what teachers of african/rural schools have to say.
 
Wrong... its school holidays and I think you will find loads of the little ****s running around.

I agree about the standards of Matric though.
 
Nerfherder said:
Wrong... its school holidays and I think you will find loads of the little ****s running around.

I agree about the standards of Matric though.
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Gee . . . Bud, you keep on missing the point. Sorry, I wish I could explain it to you in a African language. To keep it simple - is nothing wrong with the pupils ! They were at the school :D The teachers were not there. Is a organisation, government etc etc issue. Please, feel free to ask if you need a simpler explanation.
 
Kids from good schools are taught at varsity to read faster and to learn how to write and spell correctly.
The ANC dropped the standard of education - now everyone has en equally crap education.
I know (inside knowledge) you need about 7% to pass maths, as grades gets pushed up so much.
 
lsuacner said:
Kids from good schools are taught at varsity to read faster and to learn how to write and spell correctly.
The ANC dropped the standard of education - now everyone has en equally crap education.
I know (inside knowledge) you need about 7% to pass maths, as grades gets pushed up so much.
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funny, I wrote matric last year, I am in varsity at the moment, no one taught me to write and spell at that level, I had to realize myself even in grade 7 or 8 that spelling is very important, unless you like having loads of red crosses around your essays and tests. I guess my bantu education isn't that bad eh?
 
Morgoth said:
funny, I wrote matric last year, I am in varsity at the moment, no one taught me to write and spell at that level, I had to realize myself even in grade 7 or 8 that spelling is very important, unless you like having loads of red crosses around your essays and tests. I guess my bantu education isn't that bad eh?
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Then you are one of the upper 20% of the students who are on university standard. The other 80% never finish their studies as they don't have the basics necessary to start in the first place. Even Zuma agrees that the average teacher is only in class for 3.5 hours a day, if at all.
 
Stokstert said:
Then you are one of the upper 20% of the students who are on university standard. The other 80% never finish their studies as they don't have the basics necessary to start in the first place. Even Zuma agrees that the average teacher is only in class for 3.5 hours a day, if at all.
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As far as I know the average lecturer and teacher have always done only half a day's work?
Nationally only 18% of students who start tertiary education finish their studies in the allocated time, its not been different for years.
 
As a school goer myself (and a member of the MyBB youth league), I fully agree with scotty!! Nothing more needs to be said
 
scotty777 said:
you know what, this is the governments doing. Personally this new OBE crap isn't ideal, but it's designed to let kids walking out of school have something more the X+Y= ? in their heads.

Schools like the one you have shown are simply under funded, and the government doesn't send them better teachers/more funding.

Greenside High has a better matriculation record then some private schools, and Greenside High isn't an reception, there's many government schools that are very very good.

People just love throwing papers in the air and making a bloody fuss. All the negative things you see are rather isolated, and usually happens when discipline at home is limited (eg: townships), these kids don't go to school to learn, but use it more other things.

Another problem is people send their children to school in hoping that the school can discipline their children, but sadly things don't happen that way. Corporal punishment must make a return, as I know I won't get a fat klap at school, but if I got caught smoking on school property, or broke a window, the school would call my dad and he with give me a fat slap (or two), and that puts the fear of god into you. Since most parents don't wanna smack a naughty child, and the school won't, kids just do what they want, and don't really receive any worth while punishment.

The government must do something, and they must do it fast. it's my (i'm in matric) generation that seems like it's the last of people who give a shyte about their future. I go to a Private school, and even kids in grade 11 (but mainly lower) couldn't give a shyte about school, they don't respect themselves (these kids look like freaks from a circus), and they don't respect anyone else. I remember going into grade 8, 4 years ago, I got sticky taped to a tree branch (my mom and a friend cut me down). Now if anyone does that it's assault, or something else. wtf is happening to the world?
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corporal punishment encourages sadism from teachers... leave it in the past where it belongs. If parents aren't capable of parenting without it then they shouldn't be parents?.. Its an alfa male type system ... do it and I moer you.

The issue about kids giving a shyte about school is the snobish schooling system in SA, there are many against it, but guess what even they have to finish school eventually.
 
Morgoth said:
corporal punishment encourages sadism from teachers... leave it in the past where it belongs. If parents aren't capable of parenting without it then they shouldn't be parents?.. Its an alfa male type system ... do it and I moer you.

The issue about kids giving a shyte about school is the snobish schooling system in SA, there are many against it, but guess what even they have to finish school eventually.
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What you studying btw Morgoth?

What I don't understand is the general attitude of kids. in grade 10, I realised my English marks were pretty bad, so I went out and I fixed it. I learnt ways to spell better, and I learnt new works. I've never been a novel book reader, so what I did to compensate is I read encyclopedias, web pages, news stories online. This seems to be paying off rather well.

I've never liked going to extra lessons because I knew I could get the work done if I studied. But what is concerning is the fact that more A students (people that if they just worked their bums off, they would be getting A's) are going for extra lessons, while kids that need the extra lessons because they really are a bit slow on the intake of ideas sit at home and expect shyte to fall into their laps. I don't think it's just the education system to blame, I think it's the children too.

I'm telling you, if children wanted to study, learn and develop their lives, teaching would be easier, and more enjoyable, marks would go up, and wow, suddenly it's not so bleak. However, kids are behaving like animals, and obviously this means the teachers don't want to deal with the pupils, and now you have this downward spiral.

And maybe corporal punishment isn't the most ideal way to teach discipline, but something needs to be done. We have to get kids to understand that if you don't do your homework to your best ability, then you will suffer the consequences (in primary school I had this one teacher that got so angry at my friend because he didn't do his homework 4 days in a row, that he grabbed a hockey stick and smashed in through the door. Now that puts fear into you. Everyone did their homework from their on).
 
If we want to address this situation properly, we should take certain things into account.
1. The teacher learner ratio is totally out of whack. I am sitting with 45 learners in a
class. This is true for all my fellow teachers at my school.
2. ELSEN learners were forced into mainstream education with no support structure in
place for both learner and teacher.
3. The ever-changing OBE, NCS and RNCS policies completely throws everything haywire.
4. After every new change being implemented, we as teachers have to go for training
workshops.
5. New Assessment criteria being introduced, sometimes in the middle of the year, like
last year.
6. Teachers do not work half day. You would be shocked to find out that most of us
work 24 hours a day.
During exams, we sit up marking right through the night due to the large amounts of
scripts we have to mark
7. Then there's the sportig codes we have to facilitate after hours, sometimes I get
home after 7.
8. Dont forget all the other school events like parent evenings, school bazaars, fetes,
big walks, prefect camps, award evenings, valedictory services, various fundraising
events, matric farewells, etc.
9. And for all this we get paid a mere pittance.
10. I once asked the dept what my hourly rate was. The response: You get paid 24 hrs
a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, use that as a measuring stick.
11. When I change schools due to redeployment, I have to wait 3 months and 2 weeks
for my salary.
12.You tell me who can survive for three months without a salary
13.Then there are teachers who wait months for the pittance of a salary we receive.
14.We get no danger pay, but we are exposed to all these delinquent children on a daily basis.
15. If a learners assaults a teacher, we are instructed not to do anything otherwise we'll end up in jail.
16. Last year a colleague of mine opened her desk drawer only to find a snake in there (alive)!!!
17.I could go on and on and on lamenting on teachers' woes and why the education in our country sucs, but you forumites have better things to do than listen to me.
 
@Woelig Thanks for bothering to share 'the teachers point of view'. I am sure, there (still) are plenty of good teachers out there but, just as with the police, there are plenty of 'rotten apples' too, and more are on the way. In the police we've been thought to shoot then not to shoot and now again to shoot. WTF the ruling party has no clue what's going on. They are trying this and that and changing things as they please hopping they will hit the jackpot some day :D Another spyker in the coffin - and this is a f***en big one.
 
Gomario said:
@Woelig Thanks for bothering to share 'the teachers point of view'. I am sure, there (still) are plenty of good teachers out there but, just as with the police, there are plenty of 'rotten apples' too, and more are on the way. In the police we've been thought to shoot then not to shoot and now again to shoot. WTF the ruling party has no clue what's going on. They are trying this and that and changing things as they please hopping they will hit the jackpot some day :D Another spyker in the coffin - and this is a f***en big one.
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I agree. But we allstart out as good teachers then the system starts messing us around. BTW we are not the only victims here. I pity the learners in this new SA. The changes in education they have to deal with on a regularr basis is frightening. The learning content changes at a moments notice, and evrytime they get used to one thing another thing gets introduced. The subject content gets so loaded and they simply just have to cope.
We have suggested to the dept that teachers should have input in drawing up pace setters and subject content, and not some fat oomie up in his office who knows nothing of what happens in the classroom situation.
Needless to say, they didn't bite.
Us teachers are really at our wit's end. Many who've had enough just leave the profession, then the old fools who believe we can make a difference stay behind and get stuck with a double workload.
I'm still foolish enough to hope things will change for the better.
The matric results last year were poor for the mane reason that they changed the curriculum in the middle of the year with no advance warning. we tried as best we could to prepare these unsuspecting learners, and then the finger was pointed at the teachers, not the dept who messed with something that wasn't broke.
Do you know that the pass requirements have changed again (in the middle of the year). Grades 10 and 11 will be hardest hit.
They have also done away with the rule that you can only stay a certain amount of years (3) in one phase, then you must be condoned to the next grade. Now, even if you fail 12 tiimes in any particular phase, there you'll stay.
The situation in my registered class (grade 10) is as follows:
1. 7 students turning 21
2. 8 girls who have 1 child each
3. 4 girls who have 2 kids each
4. 9 boys who are fathers already
5. 2 boys (which i know of) sells dagga at school
6. 3 learners who sell cigarettes at school

and that's just in my registered class :eek:

It is sad to see good teachers go bad, but what else can we do if the system is against us? We do try our best. At the moment it is holiday, but I am getting ready to go to school to give extra maths classes since the results were not what we anticipated. And I do this free of charge. There is no overtime pay.

bTW gotta go. will be back after 2h30. just have to pack in the redbull then i'm off.
 
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Nice one, woelig. My wife (qualified JP teacher with remedial) says you are spot on. You left out all the administrative work...ongoing rubric assessment forms per pupil, etc.

How they dumped ELSEN pupils into the mainstream is beyond me (ftw ELSEN is the old special needs pupils).

I'm also pro-corporal punishment. I got bliksemmed quite a bit and it did not damage my psyche!

Teaching is such a poorly paid vocation that it is cheaper for my wife to be a housewife than for her to teach. The cost of after school care for my 2 kids, employing domestics, etc was higher than her take home salary!!

BTW, my wife apologises on behalf of her fellow junior school teachers for sending you illiterate brats - they may not fail anyone!!!

IMO teaching is a calling not a salaried career. Unfortunately the calling is not keeping our teachers in SA as many emigrate to greener pastures.
 
At the end of the day I know its my responsibility to make sure my kids get the education they deserve even if it means I have to pick up the slack.

I'm also pro-corpral punishment - Spare the rod and all that - you learn that actions have consequences.
 
bwana said:
At the end of the day I know its my responsibility to make sure my kids get the education they deserve even if it means I have to pick up the slack.
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That's why I married a teacher!!! :p

/hope she does not read this post!!!
 
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