When we think of “Education in South Africa” we think of children dying in pit latrines, parents sending their children off to school with no idea if they will return home in the evening and if they do return home they may return as victims of abuse.
What makes this worse, if it can be made worse, is that children are running this gauntlet of risk to receive an education that will not in general help them secure jobs and which despite massive expenditure produces minimal results.
But there is a place in South Africa where education works. It is place where families form communities that work together to educate their children. It is true community-based education in action.
Whether it is home-educators, cottage schools, learning centres and schools offering alternative education approaches like Montessori, Low-fee independent schools or the providers of foreign matrics and distance education, this is the sector where our country’s educational needs are being met by the people themselves.
It is producing social cohesion, entrepreneurship, academic and sporting excellence as well as providing a highly individualized education that benefits learners with special educational needs. It is highly flexible and responsive and constantly adapting to meet the waves of disruption impacting society and it is preparing learners for the 4th Industrial revolution and beyond.
It equally honours and respects children and allows them to exercise their own right to determine how they navigate this rapidly changing world. Not every child will want to become a nuclear or robotics engineer, some will be very happy building a career as a primitive skills specialist using the digital economy to make a living.
The main issue is that this thriving community-based sector is being hindered rather than helped by government. If government would dialogue rather than frustrate this sector it will find solutions to challenges in the public and traditional independent school sectors.
There is no single educational system or method that is suitable for all learners. Parents whose children don't fit that system easily recognise this, but others, not so much. The solution is a free market with a range of educational options from which parents can choose. Besides home education, which is legal, the current regulations deprive many parents of the right to choose other forms of education that are suitable and in the best interests of their children. A government monopoly driven by compulsory schooling laws and prescribed content serves the ideological goal of producing ruling party's "ideal citizen", rather than being responsive to the needs of the consumers. Set learning free!
As a home educator of many years, my Cottage School sprang from the desire to do more. To provide an alternative for those who don't fit a system, can't afford the system, or those that the system has already chewed up and spat out. The number of children lost in the current system could easily be reduced if more people would take the view that 'it takes a village to raise a child' rather than seeing children and their parents as a 'target market' and exploiting them until they're dry. Education is vital, unless we start giving it the importance it is due, we run the risk of yet another failed generation. We should be ashamed of ourselves that this…