Politics And Education In South Africa Case Study

SECTION A: SHORT QUESTIONS

QUESTION 1

Explain the author’s views about politics and education in South Africa.

According to the author, many people in South Africa were deprived their right to access quality education due to apartheid and colonialism. The founder of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd, was blamed by a senior politician for the failure of education in the country and apartheid continues to negatively affect the nation. The ruling government in South Africa uses education to score political points from the public by making it seem as if they are achieving high percentage pass rates in secondary schools by using low 30% and 40% pass rates instead of 50% the universally accepted pass rate. If they used 50%, the result will be poor

South Africa’s education especially for numeracy and literacy tests is now ranked below other countries in Africa with poor education despite its strongest economy in the continent. A student to pass 4 subjects need between 30% and 40% which is seen as lowering of standards because universally the accepted pass rate is 50%. 75% has been the regional pass rate but the statistics are being criticised and the government does not want to be made a failure if the pass rate drops. Lastly, the author felt that standards, fairness and reliability need damage control and not serve political

Political crisis and economic decline have left many sectors including education on the verge of collapse.

Brain drain is causing highly skilled teachers and Professors to leave schools and universities in search for greener pastures abroad and in neighbouring countries due to lower and unattractive teacher salaries and poor working conditions. A large number of Sciences, Maths and English teachers are lost each year affecting the quality of the country’s education sector. Universities are also suffering severe shortages of both academic and non-academic staff due to brain drain and sciences departments have been the mostly affected.

Textbook supplies have dropped very low and in most cases parents finance the textbooks from levies and their own household income. It is estimated that they are 15 children for each textbook in the core subjects in primary schools whilst a survey conducted by UNICEF showed that at least 12% of secondary schools had no maths textbooks at all in 2009. The textbook to student ratio is affecting the pass rate of the