From: gavan@UCT_elc.mth.uct.ac.za (Gavan Tredoux)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african,sanet.talk.politics,apc.reg.safrica
Subject: Re: The point... why turn Gavin African?
Date: 25 Jul 92 13:40:07 GMT
Article-I.D.: ucthpx.1992Jul25.134007.2936
Organization: University of Cape Town
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

mokaba@binah.cc.brandeis.edu writes:
: Gavan, you do not want to tell me that we South Africans  are going to
: take the world economic contest with our dusty classrooms in our black
: schools... Are you saying that it is okay to continue the format of
: speding highly on white children and less on black students? Are you sure
: that South African can praise itself in ten years for having decided not to
: invest in the educational infrustructure...

Actually, spending on black education has increased 6000% since 1970.
Look the figures up. Of course we should spend as much as is feasible. 
Try to answer the question - where is the money going to come from?
How can we spend more than 5-6% of GDP on education? Answering this question
doesn't involve more aparheid history, just figures, resources, reasoning.
 
: One way of achieving effective investment maybe to shift some of our resources
: arround creating a singly educational structure...and cutting down on the
: multiple ministries of education... While I am sure you do know that wealth
: is a result of investment defined loosely..

Any such saving would not be substantial, and would not finance any major
increases in per capita spending. Even the ANC realise this now.
 
[endless personal remarks deleted]

: >2. Social and political stability is a prerequisite for black
: >education to get back on track. As recently as 1980 we had a
: >70% pass rate (or equivalent) at matric level.
 
: Gavan check your statistics.. in 1980 you had one of the lowest pass rate
: for africans...

Hmm. I'll look up the figures again. I have them from 1970 - 1990. Get back
to you.
 
: >Political
: >distrubances have all but destroyed the system

: Yes they have... Gavin that is the system that had said that Mokaba
: cannot erespective of his ability dream and get to be an engineer.

Actually, they have destroyed what education there was, and there was
some. Some is better than none, and that some is what any policy
would have to build on and expand. And spare us, we all know how inadequate
that some was and is - but it's getting far far worse.

: >The Institute
: >of Race Relations has an interesting catalogue of disruptions
: >at black schools since 1990, boycotts, burnings stonings
: >and assaults on teachers, and demands like "pass one pass all".
: 
: The school require much more than a catalogue of boycotts... By resting 
: changes in the early sixties South Africa has set itself on a roller
: coster of student empowement and militancy. Get this Gavan the african 
: student of today demands his right... and we all of us have lost
: some of control. 

Reducing this to apartheid again won't help, however much it may please
you and soothe your conscience. The blame here lies squarely in
the black "liberation politics" camp. Remember "liberation before
education"? The Institute blames the ANC directly for the disastrous
1990 school year, largely because of its mass action campaigns.

: >I'll post these sometime. Current matric pass rate is below
: >40%. Interestingly enough, thr *rural* pass rates are *way*
: >above the national, and the worst cases are in places like
: >Soweto.

: Gavan, Have you ever visited the so called rural school's ...:

Avoiding the point again with this endless "but you
aren't black" peeve. Examine the figures, and you will see the 
remarkable correlation between percentage pass and location, urban
or rural.
 
: >There is no indication that this instability would
: >vanish under a non racial govt. It may in fact increase.

: Any ideas about what causes this... any posible solution besides
: detention with trials or kicking them out os school.

This is the "victim" mentality again, blaming everyone and everything
else. Unfortunately, and this is a hard truth, you are going to
have to get your own house in order, and you cannot rely on anyone else
to help you. However comforting it may be to transfer blame, that
instability, and the collapse of black education, will continue
unless something is done about it. Can anything be done? I wonder.
 
: the rural high school that you so praised
: for the 40% pass rate (rember that for white is 97-99%).

Misreading what I said totally. Read it again.
 
: >5. South Africa is likely to remain relatively poor, and in the face
: >of burgeoning population growth, with a shrinking economic base relative
: >to that population. 

: A whole new issue ,.... population explosion. Boom... the black cloud
: swallows you!!!

This has got to take the cake. On the contrary, it will swallow *you*.
And everything else here. But then we could always dredge up some more
apartheid history, blame colonization, the tokoloshe, Sir George Grey,
international monopoly capital, the developed world, Asian minorities
(viz East Africa and Idi Amin), "bantu" education ... (add your favourite)
And in the end the ordinary people starve, while Mokaba polishes his 
Brandeis badge, and writes touching unofficial biographies of innocents
on the net.

Gavan Tredoux
UCT