South African Children Are Not Stupid

We have been blessed (or cursed) with the characteristic of being one of, if not, the most diverse country the world over. We have 11 official languages which are understood and spoken by a few among us. We have all sorts of contradictions among ourselves; we have very poor people and very rich people, the strongest economy in the continent with the highest unemployment rate, we have a public education systems that's in sixes and sevens, while the private education system is so good, it's worth all the money going into it from its funders.

But there is one thing we must all be certain about: South African kids are not stupid. Hell, no kid is stupid. With that said though, we need to recognise and accept that out assertions and decisions form the basis for the marginalisation of the South African child.

If you fail to populate the classroom in Seshego, Limpopo, with textbooks, you are sure going to have a South African Grade 9 learner fail the Timms Numeracy and Literacy test of a Grade 8 learner (international benchmark) when next countries partake. If the learner in Boekenhouhoek and Mathys Zyn Loop still continues to occupy a supposed science laboratory devoid of all scientific apparatus for experiments, that learner will not make it past first year of tertiary education, if they even go that far.

So long is the youth beheld with an eye beaming with suspicion and heart oozing with doubt; so long as the teacher in Toisekraal Primary in Queenstown refuses to acknowledge that his duty goes beyond the call of the eight hours allocated by the government, the South African kid will have a problem apprehending the content of a biology class.

That until the parent walks to the school, not to demand that her child be moved to the next grade even when they have failed, but to demand that her child be committed to an after school programme, the University of Cape Town will not register that kid for their academic programmes. The parent must understand that her child is not stupid but needs support as would anyone else going through tests, for education is a test of character among other things

I have, on many occasions, pointed my index finger at government - and not unduly-  but I want to turn my attention now to the school governing bodies. What programmes are these structures proposing for the betterment of the youth education? What do they do when a school, like where I matriculated in 2005, is being threatened with closure as a consequence of poor, if not dismal performances in the matric results.

Learners in South Africa gathered in a classroom made from deteriorating corrugated iron sheet.  Photo: Reuters

Is it an impossible task for the SGB to develop strategies to raise finances for textbooks for learners? Or to seek sponsorships of other forms of necessary tools needed to develop the cognitive facilities of a kid whose only knowledge of the world is limited to the small village in which he grew up?

Some of these kids won't graduate to high school due to the despicable learning conditions they endure: Photo: The New Age

And then there is the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU). As much as I understand and feel for them when their employer is messing with their feelings, I still feel they have a higher responsibility that for them to easily disrupt class through their various motions (be it strikes, go-slows or stay-aways). In the picture below, MEC for education in the Western Cape, Donald Grant, was forced to jump over the school fence like a common criminal because SADTU had decided to lock the gates.

Western Cape MEC for education jumps the fence after SADTU locked the gates of a school as they demonstrated against the department. Photo: TimesLive

Fact of the matter is that these children are not stupid. The Korean, Chinese, Japanese and the other Asian kids who continue to conquer the world in terms of Maths education, are not smarter. They are no more special than the South African kid. Over there, kids and adults alike, are made to understand that learning is important. The culture that is amplified in those parts of the world is that Education is everything. Because that is the amplified knowledge over there, the populations of these countries have accepted and acknowledged that education is indeed the most important thing they have.

South Africans must take collective responsibility and advance to change the course and the approach they have towards the attainment of education, for if this is not so, only a few will ever see the doors of a university to the detriment of the whole country.

Our children are not stupid. They just need love and unwavering support from everyone who thinks he values education and the benefits it has on human prosperity.