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<div class="entry-top"><h1 class="gmail-article-title">Education Charter will bring greater parental involvement in failing schools</h1>
<span class="gmail-time">1 day ago</span>
<span>written by <a href="https://www.sapromo.com/author/peterchurch" title="Posts by Grant Foster" rel="author">Grant Foster</a></span>
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<div class="excerpt-1"><p>An Education Charter
to give South Africans the opportunity to endorse greater parental
involvement in schools as a first step to rescuing the education system
from its grave crisis has been launched by the Institute of Race
Relations (IRR).</p>
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<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s1">The Charter
is addressed to the politicians who are directly involved in managing
the country’s schooling system; the Minister of Basic Education, the
nine provincial education MECs and the Official Opposition’s Shadow
Minister of Basic Education and urge them all to heed growing public
anxiety about the state of education in South Africa. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s1">According to the call made within the
charter these role players should implement policies that give parents
greater control and influence over schools which, universally, have led
to better results in the classroom.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s1">The creation of the charters is based on IRR research has show how desperately South Africa needs this approach. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s1">According to a media statement by the
IRR, a measure “of our schooling crisis is that, in the absence of a
dramatic change in policy, a grade one learner starting school this year
will have only a 50% chance of making it to grade 12, a less than even
chance of finishing matric, and even lower chance of passing well enough
to go to university”.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s1">A good maths pass in matric is a key
marker of a young person’s chances of making it into the middle classes –
but our pass marks in mathematics are dismal, the IRR argues.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s2">“</span><span class="gmail-s1">Only about 12%
of matric learners pass with more than 60%. Worryingly, most of these –
nearly half – are in the better-resourced Quintile Five schools, meaning
that those in poorer schools (most of whom are black) suffer
disproportionately.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s2">“</span><span class="gmail-s1">This is to say
nothing of South Africa’s poor performance in international rankings – a
recent study found that 80% of our grade fours are illiterate. The
consequence of all this is that most South African children are finding
themselves unprepared either for university or for the world of work.
High drop-out rates at university and high unemployment rates reflect
this. A minority of students manage to pass their degrees within three
years and more than half of people aged between 15 and 24 are
unemployed. This is an untenable situation which will have dire
consequences for South Africa’s future.”</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s1">The root of this crisis lies in poor South African schools, the think tank says.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s1">South African schools are undermined by
hostile unions whose actions suggest they are more interested in
protecting underperforming teachers than in educating children, as well
as by poor administration, and policy that is often driven by ideology
rather than the practical demands of delivering effective education.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s2">“</span><span class="gmail-s1">Giving parents and communities control of schools will go some way to addressing our education crisis.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s1">Parents should be allowed to choose the
ethos and curriculum of schools, as well as have a say over staff
appointments. Language policy – within reason – should also be under the
control of parents of learners at the school, and of members of
surrounding communities.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s2">“</span><span class="gmail-s1">This is the
thrust of the Education Charter the IRR launches today as a means of
giving parents and community members the chance to express their support
for control of schools being given to them, rather than to politicians
and bureaucrats.”</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s1">The Charter is part of an IRR campaign
for greater parental choice in schooling. This can be achieved through
giving parents and communities greater control over schools,
implementing charter schools or a similar model in this country, or
giving parents education vouchers and allowing them to send their
children to the school of their choice.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s1">Where parents have more choice, and more control over schools, results are better.</span></p>
<p class="gmail-p3"><span class="gmail-s1">Ending the crisis in education,
especially in our schools, is something that concerns all South
Africans, whether they have children at school or not. South Africa has
the potential to provide all its children with excellent schooling, but
this is not a task that we can leave to the government alone – it is
vital that parents and communities get involved.</span></p></div></div></div></article>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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