Basic Education Should Be the Top Priority In Radical Economic Transformation

Siya Manci, Dylan MacMann and Ikunda Maruma: Rhodes University 

1.      Background Information to Education in South Africa

When one looks at South Africa today, there is a great amount of poverty, inequality and unemployment affecting the lives of millions of South Africans. One of the most effective ways and possibly one of the only ways to alleviate these issues is through education. The term ‘education’ can be described as the process of facilitating, learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, values and skills (Writer, 2017). If we look specifically at the basic education system, we are able to identify many issues affecting the effectiveness of the policies. These policies have been put into place with the intention of addressing and reforming the education system, with the aim of alleviating the injustices of the apartheid era. South Africa’s past is one that simply cannot be ignored as it has dispositioned and disadvantaged the vast majority of South Africans with the occurrence of a white minority rule. The biggest factor that contributed to this disposition was that the previous government conducted two separate education systems, whereby the white people received a high quality and credible education that allowed them the opportunity to gain access to top management jobs and senior positions such as managers, engineers, scientists and other specialized jobs (Writer, 2017). On the other hand, non-white people were forced to receive lower quality education that was designed to ensure that they remained under the control of the government and received low paying and low skilled jobs such as factory workers, miners, janitors and other low skilled occupations (Writer, 2017). Unfortunately, many of these disadvantaged people from the past are still faced with the implications and consequences of the apartheid era, which brings us to the idea of radical economic transformation and its intention to reform and change the lives of many South Africans to ensure equity and justice is restored.

Radical Economic Transformation is a policy strategy advocated by the ruling political party in South Africa (ANC) and it was addressed by President Jacob Zuma and this transformation aimed at changing the current social structures, institutions and systems in South Africa. Writer (2017) in his work said that, the ruling party (ANC) had said, “The main objective remains to be the liberation of blacks in general and Africans in particular. “ This is therefore a vital issue for radical economic transformation particularly in the sector which will be discussed in this essay. This essay will focus on the transformation within the basic education sector in relation to the rent creation theories, the different issues identified in this sector since 1994 up to date and lastly will be a policy framework of what can possibly be done to deal with the issues identified in the education sector.

Basic Education in South Africa before independence in 1994 and during apartheid was characterized by discriminatory and aggressive policies that favored the white people and discriminated the non-whites (De Wet and Wolhuter, 2009). It was characterized by discrimination along racial lines whereby there were schools specifically for the non-whites and the whites. De Wet and Wolhuter (2009: 365) also argued that the rise of such educational systems and structures came about due to the rise of the educational systems that were developed at the time which were proven to be discriminatory. He went further on and argued that the Bantu Education Act No. 47 of 1953 was an example of a policy that created two separate educational structures which were for the non-whites and whites separately. It therefore left majority of the South Africans uneducated and untrained (Bekker, 2016:04). A clear illustration of this issue is the alarmingly high unemployment rates throughout the 90s all the way through to 2015, with the unemployment rate currently being at 25% (Bekker, 2016:04).

 One of the distinctions between the two education systems was the difference in the skills, knowledge and capabilities that were given to the whites and not the non-whites. As a result, the quality of education provided within the respective institutions, the languages used and cultures practiced within those systems were totally different and therefore created a division between the two groups (Muller, 2016). An example of this division and differences was the neglected education of independent states over other states in South Africa pre 1994 (Muller, 2016). This was due to the fact that the states with less opportunity and potential were neglected with regards to funding, resources, infrastructure, healthcare and most importantly, education.

 

1.1 The influence of rent creation on radical economic transformation.

Radical Economic Transformation in the education sector involved rent creation among individuals who created their wealth from others without benefitting the society as a whole. Chakraborty and Norris (2002) defined rent creation as, “all largely unproductive expropriating activities which bring positive returns to the individuals but not to the society”. With regards to basic education in South Africa, it is noted that individuals particularly the academics seek to obtain funds without considering the social value of their activities (Chakraborty and Norris, 2002). Rent seeking can either enhance or reduce growth and within the education sector is definitely seen to hinder growth and it ultimately undermines the whole concept of radical economic transformation. For example, some schools in South Africa that provide basic education have teachers who teach extra lessons at a fee (Muller, 2016). This undermines the whole purpose of radical economic transformation because only a few advantaged students from the schools in the urban areas will be able to afford the extra fee whereas the students from the township areas will not be able to afford the extra fee.  Therefore it is safe to say that rent seeking in institutions in the urban areas is growth enhancing however this is not the case for the students in the township areas with bad quality education. Chakrabarty and Norris (2002) supported this argument and said that, “… the prevalence and harmful consequences of rent seeking may be worse in contexts where institutions and standards are weaker…”

1.2 Discussion of the education policies and their relevance since 1994.

Due to the Apartheid legacy in the South African educational system, there was a need to restructure and transform the educational structures and systems.  According to the Department of Education (2001), towards the end of the apartheid era in 1994, the South African Government created different frameworks and polices that aimed to alleviate all elements of discrimination. They did this by involving the establishment of inter-governmental systems. One of the policies introduced at the time was the amendment in the 1996 South African constitution which stated that, “basic education must be transformed and democratised in accordance with the values of human dignity, equality, human rights and freedom, non-racism and non-sexism”. This guaranteed everyone a right to basic education including adult basic education.

Thereafter came the establishment of the National education policy Act (NEPA) of 1996. This Act aimed at ensuring that the national education policy determined by the Minister correlates with certain principles set out in the 1996 constitution (The Department of Education). It aimed to provide consultations to be undertaken before the determination of the policy, ensuring the publication and implementation of the national education policy across the country and to monitor and evaluate education in different provinces and making sure that the principles of equity stand.

In the same year was also the establishment of the South African Schools Act of 1996 (SASA). This act aimed at promoting access to good quality education without any discrimination making school compulsory for everyone between the ages of 7 to 15. This act also highlighted for two types of schools which are the public schools which are owned by the government and the private schools owned by private individuals (The department of Education, 2001)

Following the South African Schools Act of 1996 was the establishment of the Further Education and Training Act (1998) which provided the foundation of developing a national coordinated education and training system. This act required that further secondary education be made available to children by initiating funding programmes and establishing one national curriculum for teaching and learning (The Department of Education, 2001)

According to the department of Education (2001), the relevant policies created after 1994 proved to have brought about transformation in the education sector for at least the first four years up to 1998.  The department of Education (2001) also noted that there was a significant increase in access of both primary and secondary education with a universal enrolment of 23% in secondary schools. However, the Government is still concerned with the enrolment in secondary schools as it is seen to be decreasing over the years.  Furthermore, there is also considerable improvement in the quality of education to the under-qualified educators. The Department of Education (2001) also stated that due to the access of free basic education to all people, the per capita income on the learners was seen to increase fromR2 222 in 1994 to R3 253 in 2000. And lastly was the Reconstruction and Development Programme which accounted for construction and maintenance of schools. This programme donated R1.4 billion to ensure that basic school supplies and services are made available to the teachers and students.

2.      Background information to the rise of issue identified within the Education sector.

The education system in South Africa is filled with issues which have resulted in the recent lack of productivity and the absence of skills required in the workplace. The education system has many aspects that could be linked to its failure, from concepts such as the formulation, implementation and evaluation of policies designed to address these issues, as well as the socio-cultural impacts, economic distress and political instability of the country. The main issue that will be discussed is that students are completing their education without the three basic skills - the abilities to read, write and count. This issue has contributed to the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of the present rally towards radical economic transformation. Continuing with this essay is the analysis of the issues in depth; identification and evaluation of policies that have been put into place regarding the issues; analysis of the data based on the performance of the policies; the opinions and facts of the issues and policies from the past and lastly, is what we as economic students recommend is an effective programme of action that could be done going into the future.

2.1 Main issues identified within the education sector.

The first issue that is facing our education system is the fact that many of the students completing school are ill – equipped when it comes to the basic skills of reading, writing and counting (Gaza, C, 2012). Over many years, the education system has revolved around the basic concepts of having the ability to read, write and count in the process of becoming an educated person. Most jobs and even our normal daily activities require us to communicate through these communicative mediums and has therefore become an imperative part of our lives.   Blom and Vélez (2001:03-04) state that, the inequality which prevails among the population can be attributed to how equipped different proportions of population are, that is the wage gap that can be found between the low skilled, semi-skilled to skilled workers; the wage premium between them is due to others being highly skilled whilst others are low skilled or not at all.   If South Africa had followed the same route as Brazil did, it would have been in a much better place with regards to the quality of education. In the last quarter of the 20th Century, during the decades of 1970s, 1980s and 1990, Brazil was one of the nations that began to implement universal education to both primary and secondary schools, and because of that, there was an expansion of the schooling system in those days (Blom and Vélez 2001:03-04). Though it was not up to international standards, it improved capabilities of the workforce, its average of “the number of attained years of schooling increased from 4.8 in 1976 to 6.9 in 1999” (Blom and Vélez 2001:4-5).     

 

Fourie (2008:110-11) states that, the problem with South Africa, is that it has a lot of unskilled workers. This has caused the workers to not have bargaining power like workers with formal jobs such as physicians, lawyers and engineers. This has had an effect on their wages and as a result, many of people were and still are being exploited. Since they are nonstandard workers, they are employed by employers who want to avoid restrictive labour laws and collective bargaining restraints, and in saying this, employers have become complacent and have neglected the development of their workforce. As a result of all of this, it is the standard workers, who are qualified and skilled, more specifically, the people with tertiary or at least matric level education that have the most bargaining power in the South African workplace (Manzini and Snower.,2005).

 According to Blom and Vélez (2001:06) “education continues to be the main determinant of an individual’s labour market income. Generally, wage increases monotonically with the level of education”. The one fundamental problem is basic education, with its inadequate numeracy and literacy skills. According to News 24 (2015), kids come out of the twelfth grade without the three basic R’s of education such as to read, write and arithmetic’s. These remain the core issue in South Africa.

Du Toit (2008) addresses the need to distinguish between development and human capabilities which deals with welfare needs and economic growth. In saying this, welfare will not come about due to economic growth but rather the improved capabilities of citizens in the country.  Education is one of the main tools that is needed, and cannot develop fully without fixing the foundation. This is why basic education needs to be addressed, through the improvement of literacy and numeracy levels across the country. The problem with South Africa is that it still has not achieved its desirable literacy and numeracy capabilities and according to the eNews NCA report (2013), Literacy levels of Grade 3 had an average increase from 35 % in 2011 to 52% in 2012, whilst the numeracy levels increased by 6 % from 35% to 41 % and there was a drop of 3% for the grade 6 learners. Despite the slight increase, analysts were still not satisfied with these results even though the basic education department celebrated the improvement. 

South Africa might have a huge enrolment of learners attaining basic education with huge government expenditure put to it, but it still faces the problem of achieving the desirable outcomes. This means that, it’s not just about the number of learners getting or finishing basic education but rather the quality of the education received.  (Masondo, 2016).  Schwella (2013), states how the funding of basic education had not achieved the required quality of education that South Africans need. This brings us to the problem of inequality with regard to spending on education in different areas, that is, the most advanced and urbanised provinces still receive more funding, resources and quality. 

In the report by the Citizen Press (2012), the country has the problem of a lack of mathematics being taught in schools because the teachers lack the required knowledge of the mathematics curriculum itself. To justify this, the minister of basic education herself at the time, Angie Motshekga said that, one of the reasons for this is the historical inequality of the past and that is why the schools in rural and poor areas still perform poorly. An example of this is the abandonment of previous homelands such as Transkei, Venda and Ciskei.  

The nation is persisting in the pursuit of satisfactory performance, in particular, when it comes to mathematics, however, the poor quality of teacher and learning material is still the downfall in the low quality results we see today. The fact that the country lacks qualified and skilled educators means that they are unable to teach the knowledge, skills, capabilities and values needed by the learners (Ana, 2012). Unfortunately, the education department focuses on the results of matric learners and not the process of identifying and solving the problems situated in the basic education system, which as discovered, is the starting place of issues regarding education (Ana, 2012).

 Mission of the National Development Plan (NDP): The central challenges faced by the state in fulfilling the NDP’s are to overcome unemployment, the poor quality of education received, poor allocation of infrastructure which is inadequate and under-maintained (Schwella, 2013). Public services are seen to be uneven and of poor quality with high levels of corruption and division between South African burghers (Schwella, 2013).

 The imbalances of the past with regards to education, which were the results of colonialism and apartheid have not been fully dealt with in the post-apartheid South Africa, much of the socio-economic institutions still show the effects of apartheid (Anon., 2017:02). The main aspect when it comes to development is the enhancement of human capabilities, which ultimately seeks to create many more opportunities and promotes citizen participation (Anon., 2017:02).  

The problem cannot be fixed, while our education system is still in control by trade unions such as South African Trade Teachers Union (SADTU) which does not adhere to some national education policies as some institutions still have learners who are illiterate and are not able to write an essay or paragraph that makes sense and this is because of the lack of knowledgeable teachers as it was captured by SADTU (Masondo, 2016). What the basic education level needs are teachers who are capable of transmitting knowledge to pupils in an effective way and teachers with content knowledge and pedagogical skills (Masondo, 2016). Ten years ago in 2007 it was found that, only 32% of Grade 6 mathematic teachers in South Africa had prudent and desirable knowledge of the subject by the South and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality report (Masondo, 2016). With 32% of knowledge by the mathematics teachers, it means that the quality of education provided was low.

The issue of having students finishing their education without the basic skills such as reading, writing and counting can be due to many other associated issues as discussed above. For example, many South African teachers are incompetent of teaching the learning material in an effective way as they do not have the right content knowledge to impart the necessary skills and information to the students (Gaza, C, 2012). In addition to that,  financial constraints plays a huge role in the attitudes and performance of the teachers, these low salaries and rewards result in teachers arriving late to work, increased  absenteeism, and the inability to enact the basic functions of teaching onto the learners (Gaza, C, 2012). Lastly, there is a lack of basic amenities, infrastructure and resources available to the students as well as a lack of support from family members as many of the parents of students are uneducated and are faced with poverty and unemployment as it is (Gaza, C, 2012).

2.2 Performance of the policies.

In order for any policy to be implemented and continued, the policy needs to undergo an evaluation process to identify and analyse the effectiveness of the policy. The South Africa Schools Act can be evaluated through the Annual National Assessment which is recognized as the process used to monitor levels and quality of learning outcomes specifically pertaining to literacy and numeracy skills (South Africa Year Book, 2016). However, due to unforeseen instability between the government officials and teacher unions as there was supposedly not enough time for the system to remediate (South Africa Year Book, 2016). Although, for the purpose of identifying the effectiveness of this policy, one could analyse the database of Statistics SA. According to Stats SA, the primary school completion rate was at 96% in 2013 (StatsSA, 2016). This shows that a fairly large amount of children are not being educated. In addition, the literacy rates of Gauteng primary school students in 2006 was at 52% and the numeracy skills were at 32% (Read Educational Trust, 2017). These figures show that the quality of education is not of a sufficient standard and as time progresses, these figures are only getting worse.

2.3 The Current ANC Approach

The South African government highlights the improved matric pass rates every year which at first seems to be a success on the part of the ANC and South Africa as a whole. However, with further in depth analysis, one realizes that pass requirements have simply been lowered, and in our opinion is not progress. This adaptation and change to the requirements and policies have been more detrimental to students and the economy as a whole. An example of this, is when the South African government decreased the mathematics pass requirement of grade 7 to grade 9 to 20% in 2016.

2.4 Programme of Action

As economics students, the need for developing the education system of South Africa is our main concern. The goals for the future need to be aligned to the formulation and implementation of the existing policies that have been designed to alleviate the issues surrounding our education system. The first recommendation would be to ensure that the teachers being produced are of a high quality with regards to the skills, knowledge and capabilities that they acquire. This can be achieved by hosting teacher seminars and implementing education committees that are able to ensure that an accurate evaluation is completed at the tertiary institutions where teachers are being produced as well as the primary and secondary schools across the country where teachers are already teaching. In addition, they could bring back the teacher training colleges as they provided teachers with the knowledge on how to inflict knowledge onto their students and an actual practice of teaching. This process will strive to alleviate the issue of having unqualified and unskilful teachers in the education system. Secondly, the main priority in primary schools should be the development of the numeracy and literacy skills of students to ensure that they are able to read, write and count. With the predicament that so many South Africans are placed in, a dedicated focus should be placed on improving the learning resources and social infrastructure in the townships and rural schools. This would allow for the masses to receive some form of education and to develop their skills, knowledge and capabilities with the hopes of them receiving employment and ensuring that they do not remain in poverty. Lastly, a problem that affects almost all the facets of the education system is that of the non – educational culture that South Africa has. Many of the parents of students did not receive a quality education and therefore has not allowed for them to help and motivate the youth to pursue further education. Government could look to create and implement a national program that addresses adult education as well as other South Africans who did not receive an education in order for them to gain the knowledge and skills needed to improve their own lives as well as to assist and influence the youth in their surrounding communities.

2.5 Conclusion.

To conclude this essay, one can say that education in South Africa still a lot of restructuring particularly in the provinces that are not very rich and advantaged like the Eastern Cape. Despite the efforts put into education by the South African Government, liteterature studies for the past five years suggest that the South African educational system should also consider what other African countries are doing to improve their education system.  The main issue noted from the research conducted is that the South African education system is the divided and this is witnessed in provinces therefore the Government should first address these divisions which are what ultimately result to the poor quality of education. Education therefore influences radical economic transformation by changing the structures, institutions and systems. Education is very vital in ensuring that radical economic transformation is occurs.

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