Then what is the purpose of school? A letter to Angie Motshekga

I think it would be a great idea to cut the first three grades of schooling, don’t you think so, Ms Minister of Basic Education? Or better yet, I think it would be a great idea to hand them matric certificates after primary school.

I mean, with help from “experts”, again! You propose another policy that doesn’t add any value to the development of learners. These learners are supposed to be the ones playing a part in developing the economy, these learners are supposed to be the next actuaries or the next statisticians or the next computer geeks that the country needs to compete in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

How on Earth can you and your “experts” propose a policy that will see learners aged six to 10 years being pushed through from Grade 1 to Grade 3 just because they are struggling? If it doesn’t make any educational sense to let these learners repeat a grade then what sense does it make?

What did you just say? “For many affected children, repetition is a powerful early signal of failure – a signal that lasts through the individual’s life.”

Then why should they go to school? Wouldn’t it be better if they just sit at home and expect a matric certificate after 12 years?

Over one million children start Grade 1 each and every year and parents of these young ones put their hopes in you and your system.

I hear you are planning to introduce coding and robotics in the school curriculum. That’s good, by the way, it’s been long overdue. However, from my experience with coding, I have learnt that failure is certain. A simple programme such as a calculator will fail at first and your learners who were pushed through their schooling years, who by the way were made to avoid failure at all cost, will never make it through their first coding experience.

One powerful trait we can learn from Germany about the Great War, the First World War,  is that we don’t stop until the lady sings – we soldier on. It took Britain, France and a fresh military army from the United States to finally bring Germany to its knees.

Minister, what would it take to bring South Africa’s basic education system to its knees? Making the history subject compulsory? Making Swahili a compulsory school subject? Which of those do you think will make parents sleep peacefully at night? Knowing that their children will be armed for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In the first few steps a baby takes, he falls. He falls until he is able to walk and the parents know and understand that the baby has to fall – failure is normal to them.

A while ago protesters in Hong Kong pushed the police so hard that they decided to rest after a day of trying to fight the protesters. Even if the protesters fail, at least they tried, at least they soldiered on.

What about our basic education system? Instead of developing strategies that will help these learners understand the basics of mathematics even after they fail we choose to push them through to the next grade, creating more problems for the next teacher. Grade 1 teachers may well just sit and do nothing, I mean they can’t be wasting their effort if eventually, their learners are going to progress to the next grade without any hassle.

It’s a shame, learners are just getting by and it’s getting worse now.

Henry Ford once said: “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” DM