Future should be brighter for ‘born frees’

Children who were born in the year of South Africa’s first fully democratic election will write their matric this year, but one Catholic researcher believes they have not been served well, as CLAIRE?MATHIESON reports.

This year, the so-called “born frees”—those who were born in South Africa’s Year Zero, 1994—will matriculate. A Catholic researcher believes the future should have been looking brighter than it is for these young adults.

“Unlike their parents, the ‘born frees’ inherited a South Africa where they can go where they want, sit where they want, study where they want, and be who they want—a doctor, an engineer, a chartered accountant,” said Kenny Pasensie, a researcher for the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO), a body of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

“However, 18 years later, many argue that the education system failed them—government failed them.”

According to Statistics South Africa, about 600000 children were born in 1994, but it is safe to assume, that due to the high dropout rate, only about one third are in matric in 2012, Mr Pasensie said.

The born frees that have made it to matric would have been subjected, at some point in their school career, to absent educators due to teacher strikes, a lack of resources or no libraries—unless of course their parents could afford the tuition of a private school.

But, Mr Pasensie said, not all the blame should be put on the government.

“Parents take very little interest in the schooling of their children as is evident in their involvement in school governing bodies. During the recent election of school governing bodies at the more that 26000 public schools—one of the biggest elections in South Africa—many have lamented the poor turnout,” he said.

“This low turnout was not only reflected in rural schools but many urban schools as well. A well functioning governing body, together with well trained and committed staff militate against the potential adverse effects of a poor functioning education system.”

In January the Department of Basic Education (DoBE) introduced its new curriculum changes called CAPS, which stands for Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements. It’s the latest in attempts to move the education system in a positive direction, but “it’s too early to tell whether the new changes will make a significant impact”, Mr Pasensie said.

“There is a genuine hope that the current new curriculum changes will be the last because any more fiddling with the system will be absolutely disastrous,” he added.

CAPS will ensure that each subject in each grade will have a single, comprehensive and concise document—something that teachers were hankering after for a very long time. So far, the system has been introduced into Foundation Phase and Grade 10 and will be further implemented to the other grades next year.

The changes include, among others, the introduction of English as a first additional language in the Grade; reducing the number of subject in Grades 4-6 from eight to six; introducing annual national assessments for Grades 3, 6 and 9; and introducing some of the Grade 12 content in Grade 11 to alleviate the workload of matriculants.

“My hope is that a year or two from now we are not resigned to use the French writer Jean-Batiste Alphonse Karr’s epigram, ‘Plus c’est la même chose’—‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’—to describe the new curriculum changes,” said Mr Pasensie.

He predicted that as a result of the turbulent public school system, the private versus public school debate will rage on for many parents who can afford it.

“However, there is also another reality—the majority of South Africans cannot afford to send their children to private schools and the only option they have is to send their children to public schools and hope for the best,” he said.

And therefore, the education issue needs to be solved, said Mr Pasensie—and that can happen only if government and parents both take a keen interest and stick to the plans put in place for South Africa’s children.