Land reform

[Derlyn]

My view is; If you share your leftovers with someone, you have given nothing, but if you share your last plate of food with someone, you gave some of yourself.

Blurock, truer words have never been spoken.

A friend of mine has a very well known bakery.
He donates to about 3 charities on a daily basis in the greater Alberton area.
I have witnessed him, early each morning, choosing the BEST and FRESHEST bread and bread rolls to donate. The slightly burn't or cracked bread and rolls are sold in the shop.

His lesson to me.

When you give, give the best you have, otherwise it does not come from the right place.

Peace out ... Derek.

[Blurock]

Adrian, not emotion, but pragmatism. I fail to understand how my guilt complex is going to assist my fellow man, other than creating more negative feelings.

With reference to our education system. Why should I feel guilty because the Ain’t No Consequences government has done just about nothing to improve the school system since they came to power in 1994? I intended to drop out of school after std 8 (now grade 10), as I was bored as hell and totally lost interest. School in my days was also not great, but at least there was discipline and they taught us the right values.

Minister Mthethwa claimed that our Olympic squad was not representative of the demographics of the country. So who is to blame?
We have approximately 30,000 schools in the country, 7,000 secondary and 23,000 primary.
How many of our schools offer sport at all? Maybe +/- 7000 schools offer sport on a structured basis, against that background will our representation and medal count ever really improve? The different sporting codes hold clinics and training courses, but govt does nothing! Where does the budget go?

If the future is education, creating a well educated workforce must start at Grade 1; the 50% drop out rate between grade one and matric must be resolved; the pathetic numeracy and literacy results must be dramatically improved; the 30% pass rate abandoned; Principals and teachers that deliver unacceptable results disciplined; and the power of SADTU curtailed.

The Minister and Dept. of Education should be evaluated as above and held accountable, not a previous government or something that happened more than 27 years ago! Why should I feel guilty because they are feeding themselves at the cost of our children?

[adrianh]

You should not feel guilty. Emotion is not relevant. There is a problem to solve and one has to look at it objectively without the hindrance of emotion. The problem spans over many years and the solution will also span over many years.

The education issue is also more complicated. It is said that education begins in the home. Our kids grew up with educated parents teaching them in the home. We used to play word games, number games and lots more with our kids, as our parents did with us. When I didn't understand math I could go to my dad or my neighbor and they could teach me. The general level of education of the parents was quite good when we grew up. Black people growing up in this country didn't have that luxury, their parents got no education nor did their grand parents. They couldn't learn in the home because the home was geared to survival and hatred for the oppressors. So, suddenly you have thousands upon thousands of people entering the formal education system without a general in home or social education framework. Those hordes of people have to enter and exit the system within a fair time frame. How do you do that? If you leave the standards high then 90% of kids will fail and remain in the system until they are 90. If you lower the pass rate then a large proportion of kids pass through the system with some education. The ones who want to better themselves will do so through supplementary and tertiary education. The aim is to increase the level of education over time (that includes parents)

The education system is exactly the same as the analogy I gave earlier about evolution of the spider. You can't send white kids to good schools for 3 generations whist sending black kids to crap schools (or no schools) for 3 generations and then one day want to wave a magic wand and have everybody on the same high level especially when the black kids with the poor education represent 80% of society. If evolution want's the spider to have fins then it is going to have to deal with the fact that it had developed legs over a long period - those legs have to evolve into fins over time. Likewise - if we are going to improve education then we have to recognize that the vast majority of people in this country never received formal education until recently.

Look, I am all for better education for all - the problem remains that you cannot put the bar at a point that is unattainable for the masses right now. We have to raise the bar slowly....that is the way to success.

Let me tell you a bit about the experience that my daughters had with "the high bar" and figure skating. Both my daughter were provincial figure skaters. In figure skating they have levels called Skills 1-5. To compete internationalyl they had to have Skills-5. My girls and many other girls in Cape Town did the test and failed - over and over and over again. Some went to Johannesburg and passed the test with flying colors. We fought with the Cape Town Judges over this many many times and they eventually said that they do not want to lower the bar on Skills-5 because if they did then the girls would go make fools of themselves overseas. We felt that it would be great for the girls to go overseas and represent the country even if they came dead last - who cares - they would have had a great experience and they would have learned from their international peers. When it became apparent that the girls would miss the only opportunity of their lives to represent their country in a sport - due to the Cape Town judges blocking their path all the girls that were failed over and over again left the sport. In one fell swoop 10 girls just said "F*ckit we quit" The Cape Town clowns subsequently set the bar the same as Johannesburg but it was too late - the damage was done - They tried to get the girls back but they had had enough. So look, if you make it so difficult that people can't pass then they will quit. When young people see older kids quit they tend to quit earlier because the bar just seems so out of reach.

[Blurock]

If you leave the standards high then 90% of kids will fail and remain in the system until they are 90. If you lower the pass rate then a large proportion of kids pass through the system with some education. The ones who want to better themselves will do so through supplementary and tertiary education. The aim is to increase the level of education over time (that includes parents)

The first thing that the Ain't No Consequences party did was to get rid of teacher's colleges. How can you teach without education? Since 1994 the pass rate and standards in govt schools have been lowered to such an extent that some matric students are almost illiterate. Standards are dropped to ensure high matric pass rates every year.

This may make teachers look good but is devastating for students wanting to go to tertiary education with a 30% pass rate. The reason for the high drop out rate at university and wasted funding. Employers are thus reluctant to employ the unemployable youth and would rather look for someone with experience.

This must be devastating to a young person who have wasted his time at school with a rubbish education. I know a maths teacher who has offered a bursary to the top 2 students in his class. They declined as they reckoned that they would not be able to get a job anyhow.

If standards are kept at an acceptable level, the ones that pass can get ahead and the ones that don't can be assisted with additional classes. Maybe we should concentrate more on technical abilities and not so much on academics. In Europe some countries split the curriculum after a certain level to allow kids the choice between academics and tech.

I don't have all the answers, but it is time to develop a coherent Education and Training Plan for RSA that can actually add value to our economic growth. The unemployed youth could gainfully be used in fast tracking the upskilling of our labour force and so doing drive the recovery of our economy. Let’s get back to basics and start educating the unemployed in our country…rather than dishing out the tax payers money without any reward.