Three decades of freedom: Too many flaws in SA’s education system

In June 1976, thousands of black school children took to the streets in Soweto over the use of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction at majority black schools. More than 100 pupils died and approximately 700 were injured that day, and their bravery marked a turning point in South Africa’s liberation struggle. Almost 50 years since that fateful day, and 30 years since the advent of democracy, and the struggle of the class of 1976 continues, as the medium of instruction remains a fundamental flaw in the current basic education system.

According to Dr Xolisa Guzula, an early literacy expert in the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) School of Education, this is one of four reasons why South Africa finds itself in the grips of a literacy crisis and 80% of children in Grade 4 cannot read for meaning. The other three reasons include: a narrow conceptualisation of literacy as a skill while failing to understand it as a social practice; using English logic with teaching, reading and writing in African languages; and applying literacy pedagogies that emphasise rote learning (a memorisation technique based on repetition). For Dr Guzula and her peers, who are in the field working to evaluate and test innovative ways of getting children to read with understanding, this crucial sector of society has achieved “very little” in the past three decades.

“There are very few achievements. What we’ve managed to do is to ensure universal access to education and all children are expected to attend school. We’ve also managed to introduce a single curriculum for all children, unlike the differentiated curriculums for whites, blacks, coloureds and Indians under apartheid, and increased educational spending per child,” Guzula said. “But there remains so much inequality materially. Things like science labs, school libraries, sports fields, school halls, as well as other enrichment activities such as the arts and sports between schools are nowhere near being equal.”

UCT News spoke to Guzula to get some insight into the current state of the education system, 30 years into the democratic dispensation. She also provided tangible suggestions on how to turn the giant tanker around and improve education outcomes for millions of children.

Change the medium of instruction and improve pedagogy, content knowledge

To start, Guzula said the Department of Basic Education (DBE) must make a concerted effort with changing the medium of instruction in schools with majority of African language-speaking learners and improve pedagogic and content knowledge.

Currently, she said, African-language-speaking learners begin learning in their mother tongue from Grades 1 to 3. But once they reach Grade 4, they are forced to switch to English as the preferred medium of instruction. This, she explained, causes havoc and means that learners need to move from learning monolingually in their home languages to learning in English, even though they can’t speak, read, or write in English at the required level expected of a child in Grade 4.

“English- and Afrikaans-speaking children are at an advantage when compared to their African-language-speaking peers.”

“With the result, English- and Afrikaans-speaking children are at an advantage when compared to their African-language-speaking peers. They have the opportunity to learn in their mother tongues from Grade 1 to matric and beyond, but African-language-speaking children need to contend with an automatic language switch in Grade 4. This has countless ripple effects,” she said.

“And what’s worse is that the parents of African first-language speakers also find it difficult to help their children understand content at home because they don’t understand it themselves.”

Develop bilingual and multilingual education

During the early days of the democratic dispensation, Guzula said the department was committed to addressing this need and introduced the Bilingual/Multilingual Education Policy in 1997, which encourages the use of two or more languages for teaching, learning and assessment. The policy states that learning more than one language should be general practice and principle in South Africa and “being multilingual should be a defining characteristic of being South African”. But there’s been little movement with implementation.

Consequently, for African-speaking first-language learners, Guzula said, school textbooks are only published in English and are produced by English first-language speakers. School tasks and assessments are set in English as well. To support African first-language speakers and improve their learning outcomes, she said the DBE must focus on implementing the language policy, and train teachers on how best to develop bilingual textbooks and learning material to support their learners.

“Producing textbooks in English privileges the language, as well as the culture and identities associated with the language, which makes it challenging for learners to understand if they can’t relate. And if assessments are set in English, learners struggle to express themselves both orally and in writing. This leads to them failing subjects, which ultimately leads to high grade repetition rates and dropout levels. We need to focus on developing multilingual education in order for our learners to flourish,” she said.

Decolonise education

But that’s not all. Guzula said the country has also made “very little progress” with decolonising education, which, she added, includes language, knowledge, pedagogies and being. She said the Rhodes Must Fall movement of 2015 called for decolonised education at universities. But this applies to schools as well.

At the time, she said, the students reminded everyone of the colonial matrix of power, which intersects to create hierarchies of privilege and inequality in society, as well as just how common it is for western knowledge and languages to dominate high status domains in the Global South.  

“The result has been the expectation that indigenous people must be proficient in colonial languages and [absorb] colonial knowledge in Global South colonies [because] colonial languages dominate the curriculum and books.”

“The result has been the expectation that indigenous people must be proficient in colonial languages and [absorb] colonial knowledge in Global South colonies [because] colonial languages dominate the curriculum and books. Kolonilingo-normativity needs to change in global south contexts,” she said.  

Train teachers adequately

And a large part of decolonising education starts with training African language-speaking teachers in their mother tongues and in English. This will help their learners to develop a proficiency in English, while preserving the cultures, traditions and stories that have been a part of the fabric of teachers’ lives and imparting it onto their learners.

“Because language carries knowledge, training teachers exclusively in a language that is different to their mother tongue erases African languages in the education system, as well as from teachers’ knowledge, and means they start learning mechanically when learning in a new language,” Guzula said. “Recently, there have been comments about teachers’ lack of content knowledge. Yes, teachers also struggle if they are required to learn in English only and flourish when they are taught bi/multilingually. It applies to their learners too.”

“What we need to do is embrace both technical skills and literacy practices and make reading and writing a daily social practice.”

With this, she said, teachers also need to improve the way in which they teach literacy, which is expected to come naturally as they are given an opportunity to learn and teach in their mother tongue.

“We also need to move away from thinking of literacy as teaching and learning technical skills. Instead, what we need to do is embrace both technical skills and literacy practices and make reading and writing a daily social practice. To become better at reading and writing, you need to make it part of your daily activities,” she said. “And in teaching literacy skills, educators need to work with phonological and morphological approaches to ensure learners grasp reading with meaning.”

Moving forward

Despite the many flaws in the system, Guzula said the sector has made progress with moving the Grade R aspect of early childhood development (ECD) learning from the Department of Social Development to the DBE. And ECD practitioners, specialists and academics have long advocated for this move. This approach, she said, places a standardised training programme in place to ensure ECD specialists offer children early learning opportunities besides just care and protection.

Reassuringly, the department has also made some progress on the language of teaching, learning and assessment issue – a fundamental step towards developing multilingual learning spaces. On 21 February, the minister of DBE, Angie Motshekga launched the Mother-Tongue-based Bilingual Education programme, which stipulates that Grade 4 learners will be allowed to continue learning in an African language, while adding English as the second medium of instruction.

“This programme is a positive step forward and will be a game-changer in learners’ learning journeys.”

“Research shows us that children learn best in the languages they know best, and our systems should allow for this. By adopting multilingual education, our children will feel like they are important and that their languages are valued and appreciated. This programme is a positive step forward and will be a game-changer in learners’ learning journeys,” Guzula said.