We always hear the world talking about the most expensive and most advanced schools, the best quality of education it could offer to everyone. But sadly, not all countries are blessed with these kinds of quality education and yet we never hear the world talk much about this issue. We feel lazy and entitled when it comes to school but we often forget there are millions of children out there who would give everything just to sit in a clean and balanced classroom with trained teachers who actually care about them.
Education system in South African Schools
“How are we supposed to help these children?” that is still one of the biggest questions South Africa fails to answer until now. According to TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, a quadrennial test sat by 580,000 pupils in 57 countries, had South Africa at or near the bottom of its various rankings (see chart), though its scores had improved since 2011. Most of the worst performing schools somewhere in the remote areas in SA are contemplating to close down but the parents of these children don’t want the schools to close. “Why close it down when you can find ways to fix it?”, “The next school is too far away”, “What about the future of these children?”, are just a few out of the many complaints of the parents. They all fear their children will never school or even make it to 6th grade, the students have to endure an entire year with no math, science, or any other major subjects. “All 17 pupils who wrote matric failed. Isivivane Senior Secondary School is in the Chris Hani West education district, near Queenstown, and is one of two schools in the Eastern Cape and seven around the country that scored a 0% matric pass last year.” – NEWS24 report. The villagers of Rhodani village think that the plan to close down these schools is a way of the provincial department of education to avoid taking responsibilities of these problems. Nosakhiwo Jibilika, the treasurer of the school, said that because there were no teachers, parents had to fork out R100 per child a month so they could appoint informal teachers from the area – residents who had passed matric themselves – to teach the children.
- 9/20 – PHOTO PACKAGE ON CHILDREN GOING TO SCHOOL – MORE AVAILABLE ON IMAGEFORUM: http://www.imageforum-diffusion.afp.com/ImfDiffusion/themes/ShowTheme.aspx?ThemeID=3103846&chgCtx=1&mui=1 This picture taken on July 16, 2013AFP PHOTO / Tony KARUMBA RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE
World and Society 