After 12 years of schooling, learners still lack basic skills. Fixing education requires focus on teaching, not political debates.
There’s a lot of fuss made over changes to our education system but regardless of the outcome, one thing is certain; our education system sucks.
You don’t need to do a comprehensive research paper to know this. You can do the test yourself. Put a post out on social media that you’re hiring and that you’re accepting walk-ins, write off your next day and then witness the line of desperation accumulating at your door.
Take the first couple of CVs and read how, on top of being desperate, the people have been so let down by the system that even motivating why they should get work is an apparent difficulty.
Sure, the first time you read that an applicant is “very computer literacy” you can have a little chuckle and when you read “hily attentive to detal” you can pass it off as an honest typo, but when you start noticing the patterns, it gets alarming.
As I type this, I get what an elitist git I must seem like and maybe that’s the case. Regardless, it doesn’t change the serious issue that is our kids are spending 12 years in schools that don’t really seem to give them much.
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The Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Act doesn’t ensure teachers are at their posts any more than any other instrument.
It doesn’t ensure pupils have an international standard of education. It doesn’t do much to motivate for the usefulness of a matric certificate.
It doesn’t even do much to ensure that an applicant knows what “highly motivated and dedicated” means other than just something ChatGPT will write on all your CVs.
We should cheer at the notion that at least the legislature is doing something to address education issues but for the big issues that really affect pupils, it’s akin to throwing a blanket over a house fire and looking around proudly for some recognition that you contributed to the solution.
Bela or no Bela, our education system leans ever closer to being a wasted 12 years of existence rather than an enriching one.
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We’ve been subjected to this debate for so long and, at no point, was any argument made for the best interests of pupils.
It’s odd but telling that throughout this, the children are just what they’ve always been; pawns in a political smash-up.
You don’t fix the education system by politicising the administration around it. You fix the education system by making the kids learn and dedicating resources to that end.
Let the politicians politician but at some point, you’re going to have to make the teachers teach.
Until then, you may be better off considering the Derek Zoolander Centre For Kids Who Can’t Read Good.
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