The Future of Education in South Africa
As my daughter slowly turns six I am confronted with an important question, “Where is she going to attend primary school? What kind of a school should it be? What kind of education do I want her to receive? Yes, it must offer ballet, gymnastics, swimming, drama and other extra-curricular activities that is important. However what is more important is; where is the school when it comes to e-learning.
For the past twenty years the words education for a sustainable development have been thrown around loosely. When I went to school we had a black board and a chalk, we saw illustrations in the books that we read, that is as far as our imagination could take us, but today my daughter has a tablet which she navigates relentlessly, and I am thinking, going to school to face a blackboard and a chalk will bore her to death, which brings me to the question where are we as a country when it comes to meeting the United Nations Sustainable Education Goals 2030.
Most European countries have reached their goals and are now working on cognitive intelligence infact the EU education goals 2020 has already dealt with what the UN Educations goals are trying to achieve. Europe is decades ahead of us. In Africa, Kenya, Rwanda and Zimbabwe are trying but they are nowhere near meeting these goals. After doing some research I realized that South Africa is over twenty years behind. We lack understanding of what Education for a Sustainable Development means, we have structural and systematic problems in the way education is implemented, limited access to resources in the education department, lack of commitment from the leaders and the right attitude. While all this can be dealt with and changed, the major problem has been that there is lack of good education policies. The government does not have a clear road map of where education is going. The tender process is oversubscribed and does not adhere to ESD requirements.
ESD is enabling every child to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values necessary to shape a sustainable future. It includes key sustainable development issues into teaching and learning for example climate change, disaster risk reduction and sustainable consumption. ESD engages in participatory teaching and learning methods that motivate and empower learners to change their behaviour and take action for sustainable development.
ESD requires far reaching changes in the way education is practised in South Africa. ESD promotes competencies like critical thinking, imagining future scenarios and making decisions in a collaborative way. It is about learning needed to maintain and improve our quality of life, and the quality of generations to come. ESD enables people to develop knowledge and skills to participate in decisions about the way we do things individually and collectively locally and globally that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet for the future.
However sustainable education takes more than just handing out a tablet or a laptop which is where our tender system is flawed, it is about the discipline that deals with the theory and practice of teaching and how these influence student learning. In education we call this Pedagogy. Pedagogy informs teacher actions, judgments, and teaching strategies by taking into consideration theories of learning, understandings of students and their needs, and the backgrounds and interests of the individual. The question still remains where should I enrol my child to school? Which schools in my area can give my daughter the kind of education she should be getting right in this ever changing world.
Minnie-lee Tagwirei is a PR Consultant for Jp-ik South Africa one of the biggest Education Reference Design manufactures worldwide. She took part in the setting up of smart classrooms at three school in the Western Cape, and is involved in a number of education related projects . Minnie-lee is the founder of Minnie-lee Media World a business branding and communications strategy consultancy. Email; info@minnieleemediaworld.co.za visit: www.minnieleemediaworld.co.za