Three Reasons Education Is Failing Children - Manuel by Mark Peach (featured in the latest edition of Chalkline)

In an address at the Presidential Guest House to celebrate the National Teaching Awards, Minister Trevor Manuel outlined three reasons the education system was failing South Africa’s children. “Firstly, in a developmental state, surely the role of teaching unions cannot just be about salary increases. Surely it is the role of teaching unions to promote quality education, to promote time on task, to support weaker schools, to provide professional advice and counsel to poorly performing teachers and to act against those who sully the good name of this profession. On the contrary, in several areas, teacher unions are part of the problem, jostling for power over promotions and acting to undermine centres of excellence, he said. Turning to the functioning of provinces and school districts Manuel charged that some education departments “are run in ways that frustrate the best efforts of schools instead of complementing them.” He pointed out that in several provinces school books have still not been delivered and in at least one province and in several school districts, the school feeding scheme has collapsed due to some sort of mismanagement. “In many school districts, promotions have become contested, undermining the spirit of rewarding quality teaching,” said Manuel. Also, in many cases, he said, school districts are bureaucratic post offices raising the regulatory burden on principals and teachers without adding any value to the quality of teaching and learning. The third failure that Manuel highlighted was a lack of support for schools from communities and parents. “While we have the legislative framework for community involvement in education, this is often paid lip service to in practice. The problem lies in several quarters, with schools, with the department and with parents themselves,” he said. What do you think? Governing bodies carry a great deal of responsibility under the legislation that Manuel references. How is your governing body making a difference; what is working and what is not working as well as it could with reference to the role they fill. Let us know about the successes of your governing body and how they are doing things differently. Mail us at studio@peachcom.co.za