FET: Failed Education and Thinking

By Chayse Kriel

I have been at school for 11 years now and am entering my final year as a matric pupil at Glenwood High School, one of Durban’s best high schools, steeped in tradition and known for its high standards.

I have been fortunate enough to have been given a sound upbringing at home, and the influence of some truly amazing teachers — who, quite frankly, deserve so much more than their meagre salaries. As you read this, think back to your childhood and remember your teachers, your old school friends and, most importantly, the values and lessons you learnt.

I started off at Glenwood in grade eight with 256 eager young boys who were both excited and nervous at the prospect of starting off in a new school and, more significantly, in a high school. I was placed in the boarding house, also referred to as the BE.

There I discovered so many different things. But what stands out is that the environment in which I was placed, strict homework times and a rigid routine helped put me in a better position to work hard at school.

I have just completed grade 11 — the first year of pupils to be tried out on the new FET (Further Education and Training) system.

Our authorities are notorious for trying to bring about meaningful change through renaming things. Pupils and students become learners and teachers are suddenly educators and, abracadabra, everything is better. It is odd how these authorities believe that by changing something they will create “a better future” for others. I suppose they are entitled to their rights and opinions, and that, if they truly believe in something, there is no reason why it cannot work.

Well, I am telling you, it did not work!

I was fortunate this year to have had some truly amazing and gifted teachers who tried their best to teach us the government’s prescribed curriculum. The problem was that in places it is so advanced our teachers had to go back to their university textbooks and revise work that they had only been taught at their matric and first-year university levels.

I noticed this with my science and mathematics teachers the most. Every lesson was a rush to complete the work and, if we did not manage it in class, we were given homework. In places this too was simply too difficult even to understand, let alone attempt.

You’re probably thinking: “Life’s hard if you’re thick, kid. Deal with it.” But I am a high-B-grade student and have always tried my best when it comes to achieving good grades, and I can tell you, this year was a nightmare! And something of a fiasco!

The first and second terms of the school year are always hard. Students are piled with work and swamped in homework.

But this is not what concerns me. We are acclimatised to this from grade eight. It came in the third term in the form of the public unions’ strike. This was a disaster for all public sectors, and my teachers and peers felt it more than the protagonists, either the union leaders or the government, would like you to believe.

Towards the end of the second term we as students were sent back to school and then sent away again as though it were some exciting new video game on the market. You can imagine how badly this affected our marks. Students who normally achieved As and had done so since grade eight were now only sub-standard B grades, and as for the rest of us, well, we suffered and battled, to put it lightly. And Glenwood is an excellent, top-performing school.

I shudder to think how kids in rural, ill-equipped, understaffed and badly managed schools have coped.

You may be asking, what is this kid trying to prove? Well, I think it is evident. I am deeply disappointed and angry!

What I believed to be a good, functioning and fruitful education system has been proven misplaced. The first year of FET, this hailed “new thing”, has failed all of us. Its failure was exacerbated by the strike (however justified) and what seems like this government’s desperate scrabble to prove to the world that standards of education are not dropping, as everyone else seems to feel.

The final straw was the final examinations. For example, the entire country wrote a national mathematics paper on the same day and at the same time, and the overwhelming majority of us all felt the same effect: shock and disappointment! I am a good maths student who usually attains A grades for it at the end of the term. But it was not to be. The maths paper was so ridiculously difficult that I was barely able to scrape 40%. I have asked some of my good friends who are in higher maths classes, and the answer is the same everywhere.

When I received my report today, I saw what a negative effect bad planning and a poor understanding of the country’s current standard of education can lead to. How is a student who is nearing the end of his schooling career supposed to apply to universities or even careers in specialised fields when he or she receives below sub-standard grades? Worse — the grades bear no relation to what the student is really capable of.

The answer is simple: we don’t apply. In a world that is demanding smarter and more talented people to lead us into the future, we need the best grounding available to us and a supportive system that does not paint a false picture — just because some minister or regime wants to look good. All we ask is a fair reflection of our abilities and efforts. This, we have been denied by the first year of the experimental FET.

If our education system wants to use us as “guinea pigs”, then I’m afraid our futures are not looking very bright at all.

Think, look around and understand what is happening to our beloved country, because for me the feeling is complete disappointment and anger. And I think I am too young to feel so disillusioned and angry. Don’t you?

Dammit! I’m still proud of the youngster — all 2m of him. Chayse is 17 and is so cheesed off with his results that I invited him to express it on my blog. What he doesn’t mention is the As he scored in geography, drama, life orientation and, yes, English. — Llewellyn