Perseverance at school

by Michael Shackleton · January 18, 2012

The minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, had hardly congratulated the matriculation class of 2011 on a National Senior Certificate pass rate of 70.2%, when the vice chancellor of the University of the Free State, Jonathan Jansen, poured more than a trickle of cold water on the announcement.

In a media comment, Dr Jansen pointed out that in the year 2000, slightly more than one million pupils started school in Grade 1 but only 496000 showed up to write the finals in the Grade 12 class of 2011. This meant that more than half disappeared from the system. Dr Jansen described this as a disgrace, and wanted to know where they had disappeared to.

He went further and gave figures showing that since 2008, there has been a gradual decline in the number of pupils enrolled for Grade 12. The Minister, he said, had not referred to these negatives. His brickbats were followed by more critical reviews from educationists and political commentators.

The two main concerns highlighted here: the disappearance of more than half a cohort of one million pupils and the annual drop in the number enrolled for Grade 12, provide very unwelcome news.

The increasing number of school drop-outs and the shrinking number of proficient school-leavers means that South Africa will be unable to generate proficient learners who can undertake higher learning and skills for the benefit of the nation�s future growth and development.

It would be unfitting for Catholic schools to feel smug about this reality, while still glowing with the success of their 99.9% pass rate in the Independent Education Board exams. The total number of IEB full-time candidates who wrote matric in 2011 were likewise 41 000 fewer than in 2010.

Dr Jansen�s question is pertinent: where do the drop-outs disappear to? They do not have the necessary learning and skills to build up their community constructively. Instead, do they inevitably have to turn to the destructive criminal activity that tears communities apart? There is a common view that this is the real danger that is already bedevilling our people.

Education, and in particular the shocking quality of education predominantly in many public schools, is not in a healthy state. The causes for this are variously attributed to poverty, inefficient systems, inadequate exam-writing abilities, idle or incompetent teachers and disinterested parents.

These have been pinpointed before but the remedy is still either lacking or ineffectual.

Dr Jansen remarked that the Minister had not referred to or recognised the good work that has been done by retired teachers, church-based initiatives, NGOs or charities to motivate high school pupils and support them in their studies. Catholic individuals and organisations are already at work here but they can do no more than lessen the strain on underprivileged pupils.

What appears to be necessary now is for the government, school bodies, parents, teachers and the learners themselves to be re-educated to appreciate that without slogging hard to achieve useful and gainful skills, no population can sustain itself in this high-powered, techno-savvy world of ours.

Parishes in which it is known that school-going children from homes without an understanding of books and reading or an appreciation of what doors can be opened by studious learning methods, could possibly organise some way of encouraging a deeper involvement by parents and the broader family in the education of their children. Retired teachers and others may be willing to assist.

The goal would be not only to contribute to raising standards of teaching and learning but also to urge pupils to persevere at school from Grade 1 to Grade 12.