Barry Streek
The government this week promised immediate and tough action to promote greater
and quicker integration of South African schools.
Minister of Education Kader Asmal said the government would, in particular, enforce its “language in education” policy to accelerate integration and it would be examining the composition of teaching bodies.
After seven years of democratic government, the existing situation could not be
tolerated any longer, he stressed in a hard-hitting speech to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
Asmal, who was speaking during the education budget debate in the NCOP, said it
had to be recognised that the problems in the schooling system “do not only exist in township and rural areas because there are schools in urban areas. I
have visited some of them which remain all white, authoritarian and embrace
values that are at odds with those of a democratic South Africa.
“Seven years after freedom we cannot tolerate this in schools which enjoy extraordinary provision whilst less than two kilometres away there are children
learning in crowded township schools.
“Provinces over the next year are enjoined to bring about greater integration in these schools. This also means enforcing our language in education policy to
assist with that integration and looking to the composition of the teaching body.”
Asmal said it was important that provincial and national policies were aligned
and significant progress in ensuring this through the Council of Education Ministers was happening “but too often I get the feeling that in some structures
it is done begrudgingly or an as an afterthought. This we must correct.
“It is only through dynamic interaction between national policy and provincial
implementation that we will succeed in providing an education system in South
Africa that is free of bias and of which we can call be proud, and I refer not
to those 30% or so of schools which function very well but to all of our schools.
“We cannot and should never subject children to any discrimination on the basis
of their social class, and even their social origin. This is more important in a country which is still largely characterised by vast inequalities.”