Education has been a hotly debated issue in South Africa for a long time, and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.
It was the student uprising in Soweto in 1976 , which was triggered by the imposition as Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in Black schools , and which spread like wildfire costing about 600 lives , that brought the apartheid problem under the
international spotlight, and served as a catalyst to the speedy downfall of apartheid.
About 40 years have passed since the historic uprising , but the
problems in education haven't been solved. Despite huge spending on education since 1994, when South Africa became a
free and democratic country, millions of black people, especially
in the rural areas and in the townships, have been excluded from the fruits of the new dispensation due to the lack of quality education.
The discontent among the poor occasionally erupts in the
form of 'service delivery protests' almost every day, in different
parts of the country. These protests often turn violent, sometimes
causing deaths in the people's confrontation with the police.
The destruction of public property is the order rather than the
exception. Two weeks ago, in the village of Kopela, 40 Kms
from Delareyville, the villagers went on the rampage , demanding
tarred roads, water supply etc, and burnt down Noto High School
and some other schools, and a clinic. Now, hundreds of children
are left without schooling.
Two weeks ago, University students started protests against
the increase in fees for the next academic year. Those protests
morphed into more and more demands from the students, to
the extent that all fees should be scrapped.President Zuma
intervened, and declared that there would be no increase in fees
for next year, and assured that the possibility of completely free
education up to University level would be explored.
Initially, the demands of the students had huge public support,
but that support has dwindled rapidly, due to a section of the
students resorting to senseless violence, arson, vandalism, looting
of shops and other criminal activities. Now it has become clear
that thugs have hijacked the students' agitation to fulfill some
ulterior motives.
It's a fallacy that students are progressive, but nobody dares to
tell the truth because of fear of reprisals. For example, since the
ANC took over in 1994, hundreds of billions of rands have been lost from the national coffers due to corruption, mismanagement,
nepotism and extravagance.This money could have been used
for free University education and rural development. But the
students turn a blind eye to such issues, and engage in empty
rhetoric against Capitalism and Colonialism. The so-called radical students are staunch supporters of dictators like Robert
Mugabe and Al Basheer.
Education can't flourish in an atmosphere of violence, intimidation, vandalism and arson. By resorting to violence and
intimidation, the students have lost credibility and have brought
South Africa into disrepute.Many students want to continue with
lessons, but a section of the students are bent on self-destruction.
The ANC is to be blamed for the present crisis. During the apartheid era, it used violence as a tool against the apartheid regime, and in those circumstances, it was justifiable. Unfortunately, in the post-apartheid era, the ruling party did
nothing to to eradicate the culture of violence. For example,
workers' strikes usually turn violent, as in Marikana, where
a total of 44 people were killed during a prolonged strike in a
platinum mine in 2012
While the spotlight is on University education, the poor quality
of education in the primary and secondary level is conveniently and easily forgotten, especially in the rural areas and in the townships. Many children lack numeracy and literacy skills simply due to lack of proper teaching. Many intelligent children
can't reach University level simply because they are not taught .
That there's a lack of discipline in South African schools is an undeniable fact. There's a lack of respect to authority. Violence,
bullying, and destruction of school property are common. School
authorities have no power to discipline the erring students. It's
no wonder that the culture of defiance and lawlessness have spread
into the universities in South Africa, setting the clock back.
Now, the students' agitation is like a satellite that has veered off its course, and is wandering aimlessly in the outer space.
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