Critical Challenges Of The South African School System

Greetings to all ..

Yes, this week I will concentrate on the education sector as it is very close to home for me.Secondly, most of us been through the ups and downs of the education sector and most of us are still dealing with the education sector.

Yes, I am talking about the critical challenges that the South African Education Sector is facing amidst all the other problems that our country are facing daily.It is a discussion that needs to be held and it is an important one.So share this with whoever you want and let us get talking.

I am a solution driven person and I love sharing information so that more people can know what is happening out there.Information is power.

As we all know , inequality is one of the biggest obstacles preventing the country from giving students a fair and quality education.

It is a shame but, the education sector, particularly primary and secondary school learning, is a constant reminder of the country’s unjust past, and recent failures of the government to provide quality education for all students.

In township and rural schools particularly, children face harsh challenges of inadequate infrastructure not conducive to effective learning.

Schools are falling apart, there’s a shocking lack of sanitary facilities available, overcrowded classrooms, problems of unqualified teachers, disciplinary issues, violence in school, and more.

This is the opposite scenario for schools in more?“well-off”?areas, which are well resourced in ways that help their students to succeed academically.

These factors impact the learning that happens inside classrooms – and urgent solutions are needed to address them.

“Of all the African’s countries, South African society is suffering [the most] from the impact of a public education system failing on a massive scale,”

Dr Mamphela Ramphele?

Dr Ramphele refused to blame apartheid for SA’s poor education system. “It wasn’t apartheid that set the Matric pass rate at 30 per cent.” According to her SA did allocate enough of its budget for education, but corruption eroded these funds.

South Africa has one of the most unequal school systems in the world.?Children in the top 200 schools achieve more distinctions in mathematics than children in the next 6,600 schools combined.?The gap in test scores between the top 20% of schools and the other 80% is wider than any other country in the world.

According to the OECD(The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), South Africa’s education system ranks 75th?out of 76 mainly rich countries.??

27% of students who have attended school for 6 years cannot read.?After 5 years of school only about half can figure out that 24 divided by 3= 8.?Only 37% of children starting school go on to pass the matriculation exam and just 4% earn a degree.The above statement is on the website of Teach with Africa.

Teach With Africa?is a non-profit organisation empowering students and teachers in a reciprocal exchange of teaching and learning in Africa and the United States. Teach With Africa seeks to reduce the embedded inequities in our societies by working to provide access to #quality #education in order to transform children’s lives, #schools , and #communities .Teach With Africa provides high-quality professional development for teachers and teachers-in-training, focusing on instructional programs and educational leadership initiatives through programs in South Africa and the U.S.?Since 2008, we have engaged more than 4,000 teachers and served more than 150,000 children, increasing our scope of service year after year.

Room to Read again provided this information on their website.

Did You Know...?

1. Only 14 percent of South Africa's black?students?finish high?school,?compared to 65 percent of their white peers.

2.?80 percent?of South African students have no library.

3. Today, roughly one-third of South Africans live below the poverty line.?

4.We're bringing more quality books in local languages to communities.

Room to Read collaborated with?local governments in the communities they work in to creating systemic change. Their latest project in South Africa partners with the country's Ministry of Education to?address?the lack of children's reading materials in the country - a necessity to raising literacy rates for all children regardless of their mother tongue!

So who controls education in South Africa?

Education in South Africa is governed by two national departments, namely the Department of Basic Education (DBE), which is responsible for primary and secondary schools, and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), which is responsible for tertiary education and vocational training.

What are current issues in education in South Africa?

When analysing the school system in South Africa it became clear that the education system was flawed, with poorly performing teachers, poor work ethics, lack of community and parental support, poor control by education authorities, poor support for teachers and very low levels of accountability.

What is the right to education discussion point in South Africa?

Section 29 of the South African Constitution enshrines the right to education and defines the positive responsibilities of the state in this respect. The section states, “Everyone has the right to a basic education, including adult basic education.”

What is the biggest problem facing the education system in South Africa?

A shortage of quality teachers and the consequent ongoing delivery of poor educational outcomes are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the challenges facing basic education in South Africa.

What are the key challenges in South African classrooms?

Schools are falling apart, there's a shocking?lack of sanitary facilities available, overcrowded classrooms, problems of unqualified teachers, disciplinary issues, violence in school, and more.

What are three issues related to barriers to teaching and learning in South Africa?

Low confidence levels of teachers in their own content knowledge (of the subjects), inappropriate teaching skills of teachers, and poor access to quality educational resources that stimulate young minds have been identified as key contributory factors that hinder learner achievement in the critical subjects.

What causes poor performance in South African schools?

This would take into account the contextual factors that play a part in underperformance at schools, which include?teacher quality, teacher retention, learner dropout rates, problems around management, and leadership of the school.

What challenges do South African teachers face everyday?

There are many issues affecting educators worldwide. In South Africa these issues include the quality of teaching and learning, the lack of resources, the relationship between social problems and learners (such as HIV/Aids, poverty and lawlessness) and the amount of abuse our children are experiencing.

What are the challenges faced by rural schools in South Africa?

The media always reveal that?most rural schools do not have water, sanitation, or electricity, and classrooms are in a terrible state. These issues have serious implications for effective teaching and learning.?

Why is there a lack of teachers in South Africa?

According to Paul Esterhuizen, chief executive of education NGO School-Days,?the department is not hiring an adequate number of teachers to replace those expected to be leaving the workforce, and school budgets are constrained, so they don't have the capacity to hire new teachers.

Final Thoughts:

In spite of these challenges, effective teaching remains a powerful approach.

We know,?through research, that effective teaching massively impacts students’ academic, physical, emotional, and behavioural well-being.Effective teaching happens when stakeholders, policymakers, parents, and communities play an active role in students learning.

So it seems like there is hope.. and where there is hope there is solutions.

South Africa's Education system needs bold reforms and this requires bold leadership to take the lead.

Nearly all school governing bodies in government schools are dysfunctional and there is no true democratic participation by parents who have children at the schools. Where the parents have some involvement, it is ineffective and superficial because most parents are illiterate and unable to contribute meaningfully.