/ 27 July 1999

Education a national emergency: Asmal

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 1.45pm.

THE South African education system is in crisis, Education Minister Kader Asmal said on Tuesday.

“We have to do with what amounts to a national emergency,” he told reporters in Pretoria.

The most troubling features of the system, Asmal said, are massive inequalities in access and facilities, low teacher morale, governance and management failures, and the poor quality of learning.

“Large parts of our system are seriously dysfunctional,” he said. “It will not be an exaggeration to say that there is a crisis at each level of the system.”

Asmal announced a number of steps to reverse the situation, including breaking the back of illiteracy in five years, and reinstating morality and decency in schools.

Other priorities include making schools safe. providing decent sanitation and clean water, developing teacher skills and boosting outcomes-based education.