There’s a new second in command in the education ministry. Julia Grey spoke to Mosibudi Mangena about himself and what he thinks is needed in our education system
Mosibudi Mangena is determined to remain close to his roots and champion things African.
A look at Mangena’s background speaks volumes about why he identifies so closely with ”ordinary” people. ”My parents were farm labourers with very little education,” says Mangena. ”Seeing the conditions on the farms, where my parents — and their children — had to work for three months for nothing, just to stay there, really affected me.” Both he and his two brothers were helped to ”escape the farm system” by their parents. After a false start at the local farmschool, Mangena started his schooling in earnest at age 10 in Pietersburg, finally matriculating at Heilbron Training College in 1969.
It was at the University of Zululand where Mangena became politicised. ”I met Steve Biko and the rest, and there was this consciousness that unless black people got together and organised ourselves to get rid of the system, it would never go away. How apartheid denigrated and dehumanised us just struck a chord with me,” explains Mangena.
As one of the founders of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) — and more recently, as the president of the Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) and its only representative in Parliament — Mangena believes in the value of the BCM philosophy in promoting the well-being of Africans: ”The whole ethos of the movement is giving people dignity, and as much credit and space to develop themselves as possible,” he explains.
One crucial area which he hopes will gradually be transformed to reflect its context is the curriculum. ”In order to make education more relevant, we must harmonise it with the values of the vast majority,” says Mangena, ”or else it will have the effect of alienating them.”
The use of indigenous languages as the language of education is one area that he believes needs more attention. ”Almost nil is being done to promote [indigenous] languages. I passionately believe in it. Particularly, African children have been disadvantaged a great deal by having to deal with concepts in a foreign language. We are putting obstacles in the path of learning for our children.”
Another of his passions is maths and science — not surprisingly, as he holds a masters degree in science in applied mathematics from the University of South Africa. Mangena describes the current state of maths and science in our schools as ”horrible”, and places the blame on ”inadequate teachers who need to be re-trained, skilled and empowered”. He adds that there are not enough maths and science teachers being produced by the education system, so there is a need to emphasise these subjects in teacher training.
Mangena is mindful of ”problems that are also caused by dysfunctional conditions arising from apartheid and from fighting that system”. One crucial issue is that of material redress: ”The education system is still very influenced by past injustices and the vast majority suffer those disadvantages,” he says. ”I’m hoping that I’ll be joining others who are trying to bring about as equal a society as we can.” Consequences of not addressing these disparities could be dire, he warns:
”Democracy and society will implode if the inequalities are allowed to continue.” But the solution to improving the education system is not all about money; people’s mindsets also need to be shifted. ”There’s a general chain of lost authority that permeates and brings with it the kind of disorder and lack of direction that we are seeing in our schools. It goes from circuit officers to principals to the teachers with the children — and even parents can’t guide and socialise their children as they should,” says Mangena. ”Even the police have lost the authority to enable them to enforce the law, because of the [apartheid] past.”
One strategy towards changing this dilemma –there’s no ”quick fix”, he believes — is to ”work within the community. That is where I am from. We have something we call the ‘black experience’, and unless you have been there, unless you know what makes people tick, you won’t be able to get into their souls and go along with them.”
It is this identification with the people on the ground that Mangena intends to make the most of in his position as deputy minister, making use of his experience in the struggle against apartheid to ”mobilise” them. ”When I think back to university days when there was a lull in political activity and a sense of defeat settled on us, we went out and told people that we can change our circumstances. The power is in our hands. The same kind of message can be given to school governing bodies, teacher unions, learners and teachers. Their future is in their hands, and with sufficient motivation they’ll take it.”
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, March, 2001.
M&G Supplements