Time to go back to the drawing board on early childhood education

The generation of 1976 fought a gallant fight that was centred on their refusal to be taught in Afrikaans, a language they viewed as part of an apartheid project to perpetuate their oppression.

This was a fight that sought to redefine the experience of the African child to begin to see themselves in a new light and not through the distorted prism of those who sought to control their destiny.

They were saying to us, the past, the present and the future should be premised on an idea that elevated their blackness and a language that affirmed them. We thank them endlessly for their sacrifice.

The challenge today, though, centres on how we have used their gift to drive this beautiful country and its people forward. 

One of the greatest tragedies of our time is reflected in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, conducted by the University of Pretoria’s centre for evaluation and assessment that paints a harrowing picture of grade 4 learners in SA, especially those from black schools, who cannot read for meaning in any language, including English and their mother tongues.

Three decades after our first democratic elections and a political party with an overwhelming majority in parliament for the duration of that period, we have children who cannot read or write?

What type of society is this? What have our priorities been for the past 30 years, especially in the education sector? Where have we been?

Social scientists and educational psychologists opine that the human brain is the last organ to develop to its fullest potential.

Research indicates that it takes 20 years for the brain to get to the point where it is fully developed, meaning that the work that is done to develop the child from adolescence to early adulthood is of vital importance to engender a culture of meaning, purpose and ultimately a drive to succeed.

If you miss it then, forget about the potential you will derive from the adult who has been neglected from the early years. Is it surprising that we have the challenges that we face in SA? Rising crime rates, homelessness, unemployment and general helplessness have come to define the experiences of many in our society.

The question we ought to ask is what is being done to instill the right focus on early education to ensure we have better results in the future.

This is not only about demonstrating how we benchmark ourselves against other nations on literacy and education. It’s also about fulfilling an agenda set by the June 16 generation to create a country and a people that will hold their heads high and take their rightful place among the community of nations.

A key challenge that most researchers point to is the absence of cognitive attention among our children at the age they are when they take these tests. This refers to the slow cognitive development experienced by a majority of our children in that age group.

Studies such as the University of Pretoria’s point to a lack of teaching skills among educators who teach at those levels, the absence of parental involvement in the education of their children and other socioeconomic challenges as the major causes of these challenges.

My own assessment is that we generally don’t have a vision as a country when it comes to defining the society that we want. SA’s budget for basic education far exceeds that of many developing nations that face similar challenges. The results, however, are far short of those achieved in some of those countries.

This problem is not about the lack of money; it is about the lack of a clear vision and an agenda that ought to drive conversations and plans about education. Having said that, we cannot help but ask, where is the money going if it is not geared towards educating our children? Iyaphi vele?

It’s embarrassing that in a state with the resources that we have, poor parents spend the last few cents they have to send their children to schools in formerly white areas with the hope of getting a better education for their children.

What happens behind closed doors in those schools, which sometimes spills into the public arena and the dehumanisation that these children face, is an indictment of our government and our political leadership.

It’s time to go back to the drawing board. The Steve Biko-inspired generation of 1976 did their part to lay the foundation for the country that we enjoy today. Let it not fail or fall apart in our own hands and lead us to be the laughingstock and ridicule of those who never saw us as humans or equals, but continue to denigrate the African child.   

*Gugulethu is the CEO of LeadingSelf Coaching and host of The LeadingSelf Podcast.