Our education system is in shambles - full stop!
Our kids and grand kids are tomorrow's leaders. Our daughters are tomorrow's mothers. If 78 per cent plus of Grade fours cannot read for meaning in any language (PIRLS report), we are in deep trouble and we are all - every last one - responsible.
During Innibos this year, I covered an event at the Laerskool Nelspruit's art centre. What a beautiful space it is! I thought, well, we expect only the best results from learners at these schools. Compared to this school, the conditions at most rural schools are shocking; nevertheless, we still expect similar results from the learners at these schools too. Are we are out of our minds?
Yes, the parents at private and former model C schools pay an arm and a leg in terms of school fees and I have no quarrel with this. Rural communities do not have this capacity, but this does not mean that we should accept this as the norm. Government should have a laser-focused approach towards the upliftment of these schools. And if they do not, which is quite obvious, we should vehemently query this at every opportunity. We have a collective responsibility towards our children - mine and yours.
I was invited to share some insights and motivation with a number of rural school principals and business leaders recently. The school where we convened had a large, beautiful, but unused science lab. There was not a single piece of scientific equipment or instrument available. None - zero - zilch. And no, it was not destroyed in protest. It was just never supplied. They have a well-equipped computer class, but cannot afford an adequate enough data bundle or Wi-Fi to enable them to utilise the facility to its optimum...
This is just totally unacceptable! This, while in another world, as someone said on Twitter, "Eskom millionaire managers demand an increase in salary from the same company they bankrupted through bad management".
Where did we go wrong - where did I go wrong? Where did we not set the right example? Where did we illustrate the lack of capacity to not live authentically? Where did we fail in our responsibility to share our blessings equally? Where did we - both black and white - consider ourselves superior to the needs and aspirations of another human being?
What you sow, you reap and yes, let it known - karma is a bitch!
As parents - all parents - we have the same aspirations for our children, but this situation is an indictment towards our education system. At one point, a principal expressed her delight and gratitude about her child who is performing exceptionally well at school - a school in Mbombela. We shared her joy. This observation is absolutely not meant as a criticism, but affirms that something is radically wrong and yes, we are responsible.
I do not have all the answers. I do not claim perfection either. But when I think about these things, my soul is not well - not at all well! If we don't take hands and accept our collective responsibility to address the education of our children today, we are failing humanity - we are showing ubuntu the middle finger - we are neglecting our purpose to illustrate Godliness.
Future generations will become our accusers if we continue to act as if we have been disinfected and dislodged from our inner voice - our souls. We will be held responsible for the many single stories of failure - of lost potential - for the many who tried and would have been successful if only we had not been so stubborn in our lack of support.
I have learned throughout my life, and now also through my PfP involvement, that it is the small, often considered insignificant things, that creates the most powerful, deep and infinite changes.
Which is it going to be? How do you plan to show up? What is your single story going to tell?
Tell me on matthys@lowvelder.co.za
