Department must work to fix education impasse
DEAR Loyiso Pulumani,
You are being disingenuous with the truth and state of affairs in government schools at present, with your response in The Herald on Thursday with regard to parents', teachers', principals' and pupils' actions in our schools and streets here in the northern areas last week ("Schools threaten to boycott national assessments")!
That only 11 principals were present out of those of 70-plus schools in our areas at the meeting called by district director Dr Nyathi Ntsiko speaks to problems that your administration has not begun to try to alleviate within our schools over many years. Please, the "other forces at play" is a tried and tested lie of right wing mentality proportions and serves only to pass the burning teacher shortage buck while you face a crippling educational crisis as a whole, of your own making over time, I might add.
This is camouflaged under budget constraints, while the gravy train-entangled corruption in your department is rife and nowhere near being controlled effectively! (Witness the ghost teacher fraud case at present in the Commercial Crimes Court here in Port Elizabeth where your boss is compelled by that court to give evidence against Pankie Sizani.)
Since the dawn of democracy your department has fumbled from one crisis to the next, without ever removing a single problem in the whole educational process up to the present revolutionary process. This action is designed to force your hand into alleviating shortages of teachers in our schools, the overcrowding of classrooms by this act of non-appointment of tutors and the untenable teacher to pupil ratio.
You talk of "boycotting annual national assessments (ANA) has a direct bearing on pupils because these results shape the education department interventions in the classroom"! That is hogwash, Sir.
That is to check pupils' readiness for end of year exams, to my mind! What interventions exactly have you carried out so far if parents have to see that their children are not being educated by a system that is failing their children?
Your disingenuous deflection of the true state of education in government schools across the length and breath of this country speaks of local, provincial and national government that is toying with this country's precious future. We as parents of this country's future scream "Halt" in the face of your educational institution's weak management abilities, coupled to a non-workable, constant education syllabus changing, pointing to a human resource education hierarchy that knows not what it is doing and is just stumbling and fumbling in the proverbial dark!
This situation is untenable and the blame lays squarely at your door, Sir. Do not shirk your responsibility at this hour of educational peril.
Get involved and work with these principals, teachers and concerned parents who are de facto managers, team leaders and humanity at large. The answers to this vexing educational bog are with us all.
Come to the party and play the open book that is required to defuse this educational quagmire steadily deteriorating. Rescue the situation for it is in your hands, capacity and capability to do so, underpinned by our inevitable involvement, as these are our kids we are ultimately defending and fighting for.
You won't find us wanting in this regard as all we ever wanted was a solution to our kids' and teachers' plight. Teachers have died of stress and other related illnesses in this educational milieu you, as educational administration people, have orchestrated! Enough is enough.
Denzyl Harper, Korsten, Port Elizabeth
