On Tuesday, 21 May 2013, former South African state president and Nobel prize laureate, FW de Klerk formally opened Process Expo Africa 2013.
SA Instrumentation & Control asked de Klerk for his ideas on how the catestrophic state of education in South Africa could be improved.
SA Instrumentation & Control:
"Mr de Klerk, you used to be the minister of education in South Africa. If you were to be re-appointed to that portfolio now, what would you do to rectify the catastrophe that we are currently experiencing in education?"
F.W. de Klerk:
Firstly
"The crucial test is not to lower the quality of education for anybody but to improve it where it was not good enough. That should be the guideline. There’s a tendency to put pressure on schools which offer good education and this to my mind is the wrong way to go. You know there used to be what were called ‘Model C’ schools? Instead of having 300 of these schools throughout the country, a starting point to move towards 1000 such schools.
"One should have enough of these ‘special schools’ with very good principals, given some extra money to attract extra teachers, so that where one can identify a child with special qualities and special potential, that child can get the very best education.
"This would only be an interim step. In the end, it must be for everybody.
"But to throw up our hands in the air and say, 'The problem is too big', we cannot afford to do that!
"We owe it to the children of South Africa to tackle the quality of education."
School principals
"The second thing I would do would be to revise the position of all school principals. To test the principals and to demote those who are not capable of being a leader within his/her school. It has been proven in squatter-towns that two schools drawing their children from exactly the same social circumstances:
1. the one school performs admirably,
2. the one next to it performs dismally,
3. the difference was in what the principals were doing, including how the principal of the school was disciplining the teachers and how they were playing the role of ‘leader’ in the school.
So, we need to address the issue of having a good top manager in each and every school, whether small or big."
Vocational education
"Thirdly, I would go for vocational education at a fairly early age. We can’t deliver to the labour market people who did not have training which is applicable to the needs of the economy.
We must again upgrade the technical colleges. We must go back to special schools where from, let’s say grade 8, you already begin to learn a certain trade so that when you get your matric, you’re already semi-trained to enter the technical fields… that is where our shortage lies."
Tertiary education
"I would re-instate the concept of ‘Technikons’. The late Mr Kadar Asmal was a good friend of mine. We had many interesting debates. But, I think he made a big mistake when he forced the Technikons and the Universities together. Our output of technically trained people is way below what the needs of industry requires, whereas our output of trained people in general subjects is much higher than required.
"'Make education more relevant', would be my guideline."
Process Expo Africa 2013 runs from 21 – 23 May 2013 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) at Johannesburg Expo Centre, Nasrec.
To avoid the queues, register online at http://www.process-expo.co.za.
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