There is no true democracy and true nation building when our national
matric results remind us of our past. Nothing rainbow about this disturbing reality. We are told the class of twenty-sixteen is the largest since the nineteen-nightly-four breakthrough. We applaud the efforts made to ensure that our children are in class learning at the correct time. We congratulate ‘access’ to a class room. It was not always like this. We also take annotation that in this twenty-two-years, our children have had
to receive different education methods as we continued to try and improve
on what we fed them. In the very footnote, our education system has not
ran short of many challenges ranging from Teacher Unions, Nutritional
Feeding Schemes and scholar transport. In all these things, we have been
able to rise and ensure more and more childre are in class. More and more
kids can now be in school regardless of their socio economic upbringing.
With the announcements of the class of 2016 matric results; clearly things have not changed and as a people we are expected to clap hands for wrong things. Wrong things which give us wrong impressions that we are doing well as a people while the reality is that we are not. Why are we as a people silent on the slow; very slow pace of ensuring that the African Black child truly competes with his fellow White privileged child? A thing we seem shy to talk about. We are expected to clap hands and say the African child is getting an education while the true reflection is something else.
The reality is that in majority of those with your so called Bachelors and
National certificates, a majority of blacks will never see the door of a University. Others will make it into faculties like Humanities reduced to study communications and HR. While a majority of their white counterparts
will be competing in the engineering and science faculties. Worse we have merged our institution in ‘name’ while their intake and placement still does not respond positively for the historically disadvantaged.
The reality is that with those who have passed, entering a university, TVET college or University of Technology remains a dream they will never realise. They will roam our streets frustrated, daily reminded that we are an unequal society. Our Youth continue to be frustrated daily.
The black child remains a victim and we still have done little to change this. All we have done as a people is to fill our class rooms with our children, reduce pass marks, give them certificates and now they will carton faculties which are not the core of our economy. Others will be in Universities which are not comparative with your former white Universities.
We must accept that as we continue to advocate for free quality education
until first degrees, we have ‘two-twined’ education systems which are not
integrated. We produce matric students who’s education was never linked
with the expectation of our universities.
No wonder we have so many unemployed graduates. No wonder our children complete their studies and fail to even become job creators. In all these
things, in the main we need to take a serious conscious decision that all
is not well and things must change.
Rhulani Thembi Siweya is the founder of Africa Unmasked and NEC member of the ANCYL. She writes in her personal capacity.
Ends