Northern Province MEC for Education Joyce Mashamba promises to attend to problems
Unless people stop using past injustice as an excuse for the poor quality of education in South Africa, the situation will not get any better, according to Joyce Mashamba, recently appointed MEC for Education in the Northern Province.
Speaking at a workshop for principals of schools which performed poorly in the 2000 matric examinations, she said one should draw from the past only if it meant one would be the wiser.
The workshop was held last month in Pietersburg as one of several initiatives to assist poor-performing schools to pull up their socks. ”I am going to make sure that all your problems are attended to. The purpose of this workshop is to empower and give you strategies on to how to get out of this quagmire” she said.
Mashamba pointed out that last year 102 schools in the province obtained a pass rate between 0 and 20%. This figure was an improvement when compared to 1999, when 257 schools had between had a pass rate between 0 and 20%.
Principals at the workshop blamed inexperienced educators, lack of understanding of the new curriculum, ill-discipline among learners and inadequate learning materials for the problems in the province.
”We must take this not only as a departmental problem but as a responsibility facing us as a nation,” Mashamba said.
She also spoke of the need for parental support in ”school activities”. ”Children are best known by their parents. And in most cases they (children) tend to respect their parents more than they would respect teachers. So parents can play a very important role to strengthen co-operation between teachers and the children,” Mashamba said.
Meanwhile, thousands of educators in the province who are unemployed recently went on a march to highlight their situation.
”We are concerned about the challenges that confront the crisis-hit and dysfunctional education system in the province, said Saltiel Rathobotha, chairperson of the Northern Province Unemployed Teachers Forum.
He said it was clear that the government wanted to deal with the lack of knowledge caused by illiteracy but there were no adult basic education and training centres in the province.
— The Teacher/M&G Media, May 2001.
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