Philippa Garson
Class Struggle
It’s early days yet but the appointment of a delivery-oriented leader, in the feisty form of Kader Asmal, is already raising hopes for the resurrection of education.
During an exclusive interview with Asmal recently, it became clear that his appointment to the position of education minister is the best news we’ve had for a long time.
It’s not that Asmal has unveiled some new and elaborate plan.
The man, like any good doctor intent on the true healing of his patient instead of silencing him with a quick-fix remedy, is in listening mode. He is asking more questions – and by all accounts the right questions – than he is answering, right now.
This is exactly what we need when those clamouring for real remedies will no longer be seduced into respectful silence by grand talk about legislation and policies and other face-saving exercises.
The time for hauling out the ruler to make some crude measurements, then getting down to the serious business of fixing things, is long overdue.
And that’s why the approach of this man, who appears keen to fast-track the process, is already exciting.
He is honing in on the essential problems – illiteracy, the poor culture of learning and teaching, under-qualified teachers, the sense of hopelessness among the youth … He is, in his own words, getting back to basics.
But he is irritated by insinuations that not enough has been done, particularly regarding racial integration of schools, and points to the enormous strides that have been made since the government inherited a warped country at war with itself five years ago.
“We have to batten down the hatches and get to work [but] there is no magic wand in all this. We have to remember that we have moved a long way.
“A few years in the sands of time is nothing. And how can you have a culture of learning and teaching when many schools have no water, sanitation or windows – unless of course, you return to Victorian- style discipline.”
Those arguing for a return to corporal punishment will be met with astute argument from Asmal, whose legal mind and impressive record as a human rights campaigner, not to mention his experiences as water and forestry minister, equip him well for his new portfolio.
He remembers his own school days, when “teachers compensated for their lack of teaching by whacking us”.
Good teachers, he says, “need not fear the abolition of corporal punishment”.
Asmal, an academic who like President Thabo Mbeki constantly invokes the wise words of philosophers, writers, poets and politicians to make his point, was once a teacher himself. He worked as a primary and secondary school teacher in the late 1950s in Natal, before he studied law at the London School of Economics.
“When I was a teacher 40 years ago, there was much greater resilience and hope than there is now,” he says.
“We need to get teachers to have a vision of their work and it must be their vision.”
He has already set targets (some say too ambitious) to eradicate illiteracy by the end of his term in office.
“My mother and father could not read or write, so for me, illiteracy is not an academic thing.
“I’ve lived through it, I know about the pain of being [unable to] engage in society because one cannot write a bill, or a letter of complaint – I will emphasise illiteracy as an immediate priority,” he says.
He is also keen to keep quality in the system while concentrating personnel on pulling others up.
No one, he says, will be pushed down in order to lift others up.
But adds that “as long as we have vast inequalities we will have tensions in our society”.
One has a sense that Asmal has a big ego. But one feels that it is true achievement and not the flashing light bulbs that will really gratify it.
He describes himself as having “a little bit of anger” and “fire in his belly” – qualities crucial to any inspired leader whose demand for hard work and delivery is greater than his need to stay in favour with his officials.
Rumours are that he is already sending shock waves through the corridors of 123 Schoeman Street with his determined, no- nonsense approach.
For the past five years the national Department of Education has been energetic in its delivery of good education legislation and policies.
In the domain of real delivery, however, it has been paralysed by the fact that education delivery is technically a provincial competence. And provinces, short on expertise and capacity, have not always measured up in this regard.
But technicalities, Asmal has made clear, won’t stop him achieving what he wants to. Neither will they give him an excuse to sit back and do nothing.
“If you have all the responsibility but no power then you are a eunuch. And I can’t see myself being a eunuch,” he told the Mail & Guardian.
He has made it clear he will use a co- operative rather than “stick” approach with provinces, where the setting and meeting of targets – from better matric results to textbook delivery – will be a team effort.
Philippa Garson is editor of The Teacher, a sister publication to the Mail & Guardian
ENDS
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