The last couple of months have been awash on the South
African media with images of Section 27 representatives, the Department of
Basic Education and other experts discussing how the South African education system has failed the child in Limpopo province.
It all started when Section 27 took the Basic Education
Minister, Angie Motshekga to court to order her to ensure the department
provided textbooks to schools in Limpopo. These learners have been without
books and teachers without teaching materials since the beginning of the school
year.
In Swaziland, a public sector strike for the last 5 weeks
has meant that children have been without teachers and access to education for
that long. It has meant that some teachers have been illegally fired for
engaging in strike action, in effect removing access to those children affected
by this.
In late 2009, Kenya was rocked by a major scandal (not the
first in the education ministry) where Ksh3.2billion could not be accounted
for. This money had been lent to Kenya by a number of donor countries including
the UK to assist with the rolling out of the free primary school programme
announced by President Mwai Kibaki in 2003.
And these are not isolated incidences in the continent.
Media archives and current media coverage continues to bring to the fore great
inefficiencies and maladministration regarding basic education for the African
child.
And it is not just any African child that is affected by
this. It is the poorest of the poor black African child who also has no other
option to access education. Our black African led governments have continuously
failed the black African child.
During and after the struggle for freedom in Africa, many of the continent's founding fathers including Kwame Nkrumah, Julius
Nyerere, Jomo Kenyatta and Robert Mugabe passionately preached and encouraged Africans to empower themselves by accessing the best education thatthey could. Our founding fathers entered into agreements with the West that
ensured education programmes for the African child were rolled out. During the
struggle, many Africans were in exile accessing the best education that would
ensure an efficient transition into freedom, in terms of governance and administration
of governments.
And for a while after the advent of freedom, many African
education systems were overhauled to provide the best possible education to
their citizenry.
In the late 20th Century and current 21st
century, things have changed and our forefathers must be turning in their
graves when they see the quality of education the black African child is
accessing. It must be a real let down for them when they see how good education
plans and policies often fail in the implementation phase.
It is the poorest of the poor black African child that has
had to suffer from the corruption and maladministration that has crippled the
African education system. It is the poorest black African child that has no
access to a feeding programme when the money is siphoned by a bureaucrat.
It is the black African child that has to travel by foot
kilometres and kilometres everyday to reach to school because funds to build a
new school next to his/her home or provide transport have gone to build a
politician’s million dollar mansion.
I am angry! I am angry because our politicians did not all
start out wanting to siphon money from the public coffers. I am angry because
they have turned to animals that continue to produce illiterate people from our
schooling systems, who are unable/ struggle to compete on the world stage.
I am angry that the black African child whose parent is a
politician continues to access the best private school education within and
outside the continent, a private education that very few can afford.
I am angry because the emerging middle class in the
continent are being forced to divert money that could otherwise have been used
to building wealth for the continent for their loved ones can access the best
quality private education.
I am angry that the King of Swaziland, just by a mere pronunciation that the public strike should end in Swaziland and without any
further negotiations in sight, the unions order teachers to go back to class.
To go back to class to teach when they are not satisfied with their conditions
of services and their remuneration benefits. What kind of an education can we
expect these teachers to provide to Swazi learners that have already missed 5
weeks of school?
We, the citizens of this continent, just like Section 27 and
other civil society movements, must begin to hold our governments accountable.
We, the citizens of this continent, need to fight for the
rights of the black African child to access the same education as anyone else.
Because if we do not stand up for these children, the future
of this continent, they will continue to be failed, and the continent’s
prospects will be curtailed significantly