Education

Andrew Layman:  PCB CEO

It was announced a little while ago that the Minister of Basic Education had signed her performance agreement with the President as required by government’s accountability programme, which, of course, is based on the measurement of quantitative achievement.    (A reader who detects a note of cynicism in this would be reading accurately between the lines – I do not subscribe unconditionally to the notion that what can’t be measured, can’t be managed.)   She is required to improve the matric pass rate in 2010 by ten percent.     She has only another six months in which to achieve this and whether she does so will depend on the efforts of thousands of teachers throughout the country and a good deal of luck, luck that the current group of matriculants is so much more capable than last year’s group that this significant difference may be made up.   While one applauds the objective, the expectation is absurd, frankly.   

This announcement followed by a couple of days a presentation made in Durban by the Minister Collins Chabane who is responsible for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation.   In speaking of education and its woeful state, he observed that what is required is that all learners throughout the country at a particular grade (he mentioned grade 5, I think) should be dealing with the same pages of the textbook during each school term.    Such standardisation would enable proper monitoring to take place and would ensure that no young people were disadvantaged by any omissions from the curriculum.   

What an appalling prospect!   We know that there are many poor teachers in the country, but surely the profession hasn’t reached such a low point that regulation of this nature has to be introduced.    Or has it?    And will this offer a solution, anyway?   Personally, I doubt it.    Among my long-standing concerns is the official outlook on textbooks which places them at the very centre of teaching.   I remember lessons conducted between page 203 and 209 of the textbook with the injunction to read the next ten pages for homework.   This is not the way to teach, nor the way to learn.    The textbook has two values: it is the safety net for the learner whose teacher is either deficient in knowledge and understanding of the subject or absent or, for the good teacher, it is one of many resources that may be used as a learning tool.   Its elevation to omnipotent status provides an escape route for unimaginative and idle teachers.   It places greater responsibility on the learner who by simply going though the textbook should pass. 

Effective teachers require freedom to employ methods that work, some of which are directly related to personality and an ability to engage pupils constructively.    I have memories of good teachers.   One in what was standard five, drilled us so effectively that I can still remember Latin declensions recited in the row before we went to assembly.    Others succeeded because they were dynamic and creative and they made the subjects interesting.   In truth, they were interesting, so their subjects were favoured.     Some were really very poor, though at the time we would not have dared to pass judgement.    What separated one group from the other was the level of commitment to the responsibility of teaching.   It is not just a job, a daily grind that enables one to earn a salary.    It is an opportunity to expand young minds and, by a variety of ways, prepare them for the years to come and, ultimately, for the world at large. 

Improvement in South African education will depend on many factors, not least of which is the development of infrastructure towards some sort of equity in teaching and learning environments (this is planned, I’m pleased to say).    Accountability is essentially a matter of personal conscience.  No regulation will facilitate it beyond the ticking of boxes which may or may not actually reflect that the job has been done.    If we want better education, we must have better teachers – those whose consciences, rather than the union or the department’s regulation, will direct their efforts which should reflect a pre-eminence of learner-interest.

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