The struggle for ‘free’ public education continues
SELVAN NAIDOO
THE 2024 National Senior Certificate results are cause for celebration with the class of 2024 achieving the best pass rate of South Africa’s democratic dispensation with an impressive 87.3%.
The pass rate reflects a maturing system with most schools showing that learners have met the benchmark requirements for progression beyond secondary schooling.
Achieving a 100% pass rate is testimony to the commitment of all stakeholders to ensure that no learner is left behind. Achieving a 100% pass rate or close to it has become the hallmark of quality public education at outstanding schools like Menzi High School, Danville Park High, and Durban Girls’ High where they have consistently achieved a 100% pass rate, and an equally impressive Bachelor pass rate of 100% over several years.
In the Pinetown and Umlazi districts, where the majority of the former Indian schools are based, only Avonford Secondary, Bufflesdale Secondary, Crystal Point Secondary, Temple Valley Secondary, Shallcross Secondary and Earlington Secondary achieved a 100% pass.
Schools like Dr AD Lazarus Secondary, Stanmore Secondary, Crossmoor Secondary, Chatsworth Secondary, Arena Park Secondary, Kharwastan Secondary, Isipingo Secondary, Reservoir Hills Secondary, Southlands Secondary, and many others that once produced a convey belt of top achieving learners while producing consecutive years of 100% passes post-1994, have all dropped to the 70% to 90% pass rate quotient.
Even Greenbury Secondary, where Caden Govender came first in the province, was only able to achieve an 84.7% pass rate.
By comparison, private schools like Star College, Al-Falaah College, Orient Islamic, ex-Model C (former whites-only schools) like Danville Park Girls’ High, Durban Girls’ High, and schools in former black townships, Menzi High, Ndukwenhle High and Nwabi High were able to achieve 100% pass with a majority of them also able to achieve close to a 100% Bachelor pass rate with an 80% to 100% pass in core maths and physical science.
The declining 100% pass rate and more worryingly a steady decline in the quality Bachelor pass rate at former Indian schools point to a multitude of systemic problems that plague the delivery of normative school results. Some of the problems point to the inadequate post-provisioning norm, PPN, used to determine the ratio of teachers employed to teach learners being the main contributor to declining results with overcrowded classrooms filled with 40 to 60 learners, unable to get individual attention.
Ailing infrastructure in ageing schools with limited school resources has also contributed to the steady decline of libraries, laboratories and sporting facilities in non-existent or decaying states. Perhaps the most damaging is the deployment of high-ranking union officials into school management positions, with allegations of posts being sold to the highest bidder, being the most significant contributor to the declining standards.
Thirty years into South Africa’s democracy, custodians ensuring quality public education and the once-proud vanguard of worker rights, teacher union Sadtu has ironically lost its voice where inequalities in the deliverance of public education run rife. The union that once enjoyed the highest number of members at former Indian schools commands a national membership of 254 000 teachers paying a membership fee of R98 contributing to an annual budget of R24 million.
It stands to reason that a “reset” to deliver the goals outlined for quality public education will be better served if the R24 million is utilised to build new schools to improve the PPN ratio or have funds for the continual maintenance of schools.
A further marker of the decline in quality public education is precipitated by class-defined schooling with no government cap to the excessive school fees that parents pay to acquire a semblance of normalcy for their children. High-end quality public schools like Durban High, Glenwood High, Northwood, and Westville Boys’ High charge an average of R70 000 for their school fees.
These ex-Model C schools manage a budget of around R90 million or more, where 110 to 120 teachers teach an average of around 1 300 learners in First-World classrooms. By contrast, 90% of schools across South Africa manage on a budget of less than R10 000 with 27 teachers managing schools of 1 000 learners with 40 to 60 learners per classroom. Sporting facilities are virtually non-existent, barring one rock-hard, overgrown grass sports field.
For the ex-Model C and fast-growing private schools that host the vast majority of government officials’ children, the average class size of anywhere between 20 to 28 learners is better suited to deliver a 100% pass rate with quality Bachelor pass dividends. Learners at these schools are exposed to First-World technologies by submitting assignments via wireless networks using the Google Classroom application.
On the sporting front, they have three to four beautifully-manicured grass fields, AstroTurf hockey fields, fully-equipped gymnasiums, and heated, Olympic-sized swimming pools to give learners what ought to be the right of every child if we hope to leave no child behind.
Providing this “free” quality education remains a huge challenge for the government of South Africa. Historically, the provision of “free” quality education for our indentured immigrants remained a paltry affair for 30 years, from 1869 up to 1899, with only primary school education being offered.
The census of 1904 shows that only 5211 (5%) of 100 918 of the Natal Indians were literate in English. In the same year, there were only 40 Indian schools in Natal, 10 were privately-run “Muslim” schools, and one private “Tamil” school. The other 29 were predominantly missionary establishments, most of them community-driven and without any support from the government. These schools were poorly resourced with very poor educational facilities. Most parents could not afford to send their children to school. Children were required to contribute to the family income either by working or by taking care of their households.
In 1927, the Cape Town Agreement threatened Indian people without educational qualifications, with repatriation to India. To fast-track educational advancement, the building of schools had to be subvented (with the aid of the government) by members of the South African Indian community. Schooling for Indians was inadequate with a few state-aided schools, offering up to Standard 6 (Grade 9) passes. The need to educate KwaZulu-Natal’s Indian community by 1929 became a priority to break the cycle of poverty and most importantly to also remain in the country of their birth.
By the 1940s, the struggle to provide quality free public education continued unabated when frustrated people protested in a march that was led by the Natal Indian Congress in 1945. Schools in the 1940s were grossly overcrowded with only a handful of secondary schools. The depression of the post-war years, together with a crippled economy, saw an Indian minority focus exclusively on survival with 64% of the population living below the “bread line”.
By the 1960s, the high number of children wanting to go to school meant that three to four township schools were built within a walking radius of less than 10km of one another. Each school then had occupancy of up to 1 000 pupils in some instances. The huge enrolment meant that teachers worked in a platoon system that was in use up to 1983. This saw classrooms working in shifts with different sets of children starting school at different times of the day.
By the late 1980s and into the 1990s “free” quality public education resulted in hordes of South African Indians blooming in almost every aspect of life from the business world through to every field of professional employment. This foundation of educational success continues today where parents place high value on educational provisions.
In building on this foundation of past excellence together with the lessons of how previous generations quietly challenged their oppression by making better educational provisions for the next generation, the challenge to the present generation is to simply get involved.
The challenge of involvement from the state governing body, business society, and an ex-pupil society requires committed investment like that of ex-model C and private schools to deliver the quality public education that all our learners deserve so that no child is left behind.
We cannot fail the legacy and resilience of our ancestors that Guyanese academic David Dabydeen reminded us in telling the story of indenture, “for those that survived (the system of indenture), and some prospered, it was because of great sacrifice, binding their bellies, saving every cent for the building of schools to advance their children’s education”.
Selvan Naidoo is the Director of the 1860 Heritage Centre
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.