Page 71 - CAO 25th Ann Coffee Table Book

And many schools don’t even offer maths – I bet they are not in the suburbs, as it were. So there is much to talk about, including culture and language, I am sure. There are many solutions even if some are interim. There are also many challenges.
Whether 30% or 50% for National Senior Certificate (NSC), there are just not enough places in tertiary institutions. We need more places, we need more tertiary institutions. Partly, the question is where will the money come from? Do we simply stop building toilets in rural schools, or do we up tertiary scholarships? So just getting in is only a start. There is much more to be done. We need tertiary graduates as well as plumbers, electricians and mechanics, as well as labourers.
We know our academics are aging and largely white. We know too that academia is chronically underpaid and seldom a first choice for young graduates. So how do we make it attractive, and not just wash or wipe our hands? These are some of the challenges UKZN has been grappling with. They will not be solved quickly or overnight.
I think starting at the tertiary level helps. But we really have to emphasise foundations. It is early on that the foundation is established; now even Early Childhood Development (ECD) is emphasised. We can go very far back just to encourage a good start. Yes, we need quality and good maths teaching, but our history held back on good maths teachers or quality: thank you Dr Verwoerd! And as I said, it is not just about maths or Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Education, crucial as these are, and how much we need
science or Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in a modern globalised world.
So it is about remembering the past, not harping on it; knowing where we are and developing a plan for getting out. The present and what we inherited are good places to start and are what we have right now, as our Minister reminds us.
Yet the answers to our challenges are complex, not simple and not simplistic: yes, we shouldn’t accept the present, but blaming teachers or schools or large classes or inequalities is not enough. Keeping our kids out of school doesn’t help, as we have seen in Northern Cape. Hoping for jobs without questioning the recent economic collapse doesn’t help.
Then too we need a discussion. Who will be critical and academic; how will we encourage critical thought while encouraging teachers to do their job too; and establish an unvarying foundation? Will everyone do maths; how do we encourage the best without encouraging the easy choices, like maths literacy? How will we encourage humanities, and humanists, critical thought and excellence with compassion and caring?
Most importantly, how will we as a country use our talent and potential, deep as it is in this country and continent – develop right up to the top without encouraging huge inequalities? Will we accept that the poor and marginalised are part of our future, and have much or much more to contribute?
Being ‘middle class’ may help, but being born on the right side of the tracks is not enough to determine your future. Or should not be, in this period of transition.
So what is my call, especially to the young?
• Challenge things, above all what you are learning, in the institution and its structures, and
above all in the classroom.
• Be the best you can be as you challenge things.
It doesn’t help to just be put through for its own
sake.
• Build alliances. Why shout at fellow students
when they are supposed to be allies? Is your own programme the limitation that holds you back on being heard?
• Ask the difficult questions of yourself as well as of others. “Why?” is an important word, and the answer is not just because we inherited it from Europe or America.
Nor is it acceptable to let them simply get way ahead, by out-competing us. The best cannot be elsewhere, even the dominant. If they are best elsewhere they WILL dominate. How we achieve, in our own way, build on our own strengths, plan for the future while understanding the past – these are crucial questions for which we need tertiary graduates, with sensitivity and compassion.
So I am congratulating you, as CAO and as UKZN. Much more needs to be done. We can rise to the task. We have to, as a country and a continent.
Education, like democracy, helps. Yet too many educated people, like Whites who voted for apartheid, or people in Zimbabwe, have made too many mistakes. Education, like democracy, is necessary but not sufficient.
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