New education minister needs to go back to basics to fix problems

Basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube says she will prioritise cordial relations with teacher unions with the aim of placing the interests of pupils at the centre of basic education. File photo.
Basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube says she will prioritise cordial relations with teacher unions with the aim of placing the interests of pupils at the centre of basic education. File photo.
Image: Freddy Mavunda/Business Day

Minister Siviwe Gwarube’s basic education budget vote speech for the 2024/5 fiscal year was understandably bland and nikseggend (Afrikaans for empty, saying nothing).

She has just arrived on the job, and that halfway through the school year. Her hands are tied for there is a five-year planning cycle already in motion. And there is no money or in the minister’s words, the current government operates under ‘extremely difficult fiscal conditions.’

And yet, ahead of the speech the minister has already said things that a good director-general should have warned her against.

First, the minister says that she will review the curriculum. Why? This curriculum has been reviewed more times in three decades than in any other African country.

The main reason for this premature announcement is that the curriculum is a most useful political football for politicians who can’t change anything on the ground since education is a provincial competence. So, they kick around this powerful symbol of cultural and political import, the school curriculum.

It appears you are fixing things but you’re doing none of that. We had the loosest curriculum in terms of content specification in the 1990s to probably the most prescriptive curriculum in our history. It’s like we can’t makeup our minds.

This constant chopping and changing of the curriculum burdens teachers, confuses pupils, escalates training costs, and distracts from the real problems of overcrowded classrooms and under-resourced schools.

The second commitment the minister made is to fix pit latrine toilets.

Every other minister has made the same grand announcement and failed. Why? Because such a basic infrastructural commitment is held hostage by corrupt forces up and down the country. Unless the job is given to sometimes violent actors in communities, they would rather risk the safety and lives of the children.

The construction mafia is real. Trying to fix the problem of pit toilets is like appealing to taxis to be considerate of other vehicles on the road. Good luck with that.

I put my head on the block that long after Gwarube has changed ministerial portfolios the problem of pit latrine toilets (and potholes) will still be with us.

There is another silliness that is repeated in the budget vote speech and that is ‘evidence’ or evidence-based targets.’ Again, an informed education department would have warned its new minister against such meaningless statements. In African countries, in particular, the primary driver of policy is not evidence but politics.

If we acted on evidence to guide our education decisions and investments we would have shifted massive funding towards the education foundations of the school system. The evidence is overwhelming. But where does the critical funding accumulate? In universities because that’s where the noise comes from.

Sure, the appeal to evidence makes us all sound very rational, sophisticated, scientific and smart. But it is not the driver of policy and that is why our grade 4 learning outcomes are worst within two measurement cycles.

The rest of the minister’s speech is a collection of saccharine statements that could worsen your diabetes.

We need quality education. We must improve literacy and numeracy skills. We must improve school environments for learners and teachers. We must improve access to early childhood education.

Yawn.

This is not a good start even at this early stage. I don’t think this minister has or will have a compelling vision of what a revitalised school system must look like.

There is nothing that even begins to suggest she has a plan to deal with the basics of basic education.

As I write this column I just received a WhatsApp message for pencils, erasers and calculators from an impoverished school because it has none of these basics. Unbelievable.

In the absence of substance we are left with slogans, like one the minister reminded us of in this week’s budget vote --- Action Plan to 2024: Towards the realisation of schooling 2030. What the hell does that even mean? It is grammatically clumsy and substantially vacuous. Realisation of what? I ask you. And the random date 2030?

The mention in more than one place of children with learning disabilities is a good sign. And the announcement that the minister will establish ‘an advisory council representative of the basic education system’ is a relief.

Such a council will be able to give the minister focus, content, strategy and confidence in shaping a powerful plan for school renewal in SA. But no party hacks, minister. Choose the best thinkers in school change who are not beholden to power or their own interests.

Otherwise, these speeches like the many before them will remain little more than hot air.


subscribe

Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.