The Times on their fabulous new site had an item about the “Plan to dumb down matric” for South African pupils which automatically got me thinking that the geniuses who had come up with this idea had probably achieved a dumbed-down matric themselves.
It entails a distinction in any subject, if this proposal goes ahead, being lowered from the traditional 80% to a far more mediocre 70%.
Needless to say the academics are bursting blood vessels and threatening anarchy if this lunacy were to see light of day. It will, according to them, dumb down the students and drop the standards in our education quite dramatically. To this I might add that we are at present not producing anything like the required skills our country needs if it is to become competitive on a global level.
Why then would you lower the standards of an underperforming system?
What needs to be achieved is uplifting the value of a decent education in the minds of all South Africans. Instead of only praising sportsmen and women, politicians and musicians, hold up the great minds of our country and make it sexy for children to aspire to academic heights.
The entire mindset needs to change and passing more failures is definitely not the answer to our country’s needs.
Of course brilliance in the field of education is something that has to be seen to be believed in this country.
A couple of days ago the teachers’ union Sadtu were telling the education department that they were responsible for ensuring the safety of teachers and pupils resulting from the shooting of a teacher in Pretoria by a pupil who was tired of being caned. Fortunately for all concerned the teacher appears to be recovering splendidly.
This violent incident is unfortunately a million miles away from being an isolated case and represents perhaps the biggest challenge to our education system.
Not only must education be valued by all South Africans but also the teachers, who daily grind knowledge into the heads of the great unwashed and unwilling, need to be respected. To ask these people to do it in a violent and dangerous classroom is insanity, particularly when you consider the pittance they are being paid for doing so.
My eldest son Joshua is studying to become a teacher and I shudder to think what the pupils will be like when he qualifies.
Of course Sadtu does wonderful work in promoting the plight of teachers but they should refrain from getting involved in politics as they did when they supported Gwede Mantashe for another term this week. I have no problem with the ANC general secretary but it is not the role of the teachers’ union to get mixed up in politics.
With all our problems you’d think they’d remain focussed on education and the multitude of problems associated with it.
Like the genius who stole Tembisa Primary’s school gates.
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