Christelike Afrikaanse onderwys in die weegskaal
Dit staan soos 'n paal bo water dat onderwys in SA vandag een van die aspekte is wat in 'n voortbestaanskrisis verkeer. Daar word alte deeglik deur vriend en vyand besef dat die jeug die leiers en menslik-gesproke die bepalers van die toekoms is en daarom moet welke beïnvloeding ook al op skole-en tersiêre vlak losgelaat word.
Onderwys in die branding
Dit staan soos 'n paal bo water dat onderwys in SA vandag een van die aspekte is wat in 'n voortbestaanskrisis verkeer. Daar word al...
Woensdag 19 Junie 2019
om Junie 19, 2019 Geen opmerkings nie:
Dinsdag 18 Junie 2019
Ek is ’n rassis
Ek het nie self so besluit nie, inteendeel, dit is nie eers iets wat ek myself sou noem nie. Ek vereenselwig nie met hierdie term nie. Dit is aan my gegee en ek is daarmee gedoop en daarvan beskuldig. En nou word ek daarvoor gehaat.
Wat ek wel is, is ’n Suid-Afrikaner en daarom behoort Suid-Afrika aan my.
Deur dit te sê het ek jou nie van jou reg om ’n Suid-Afrikaner te wees ontneem nie. Ek het ook nie daardeur gesê dat Suid-Afrika nie aan jou behoort nie.
Ek praat Afrikaans. Dit is een van Suid-Afrika se elf amptelike tale. Dit is my reg om dit te praat. Dit is ook my reg om aan te dring daarop dat my kind ’n opvoeding in hierdie taal ontvang.
Deur dit te sê maak ek nie jou taal af of ag dit gering nie. Ek het nie aangevoer dat die tien ander amptelike tale nie gepraat mag word of dat onderrig nie daarin mag geskied nie. Ek het ook nie geïnsinueer dat Afrikaans slegs beperk is tot wit mense nie. Ek het nie een keer gesê dat ’n bruin of swart kind nie in Afrikaans onderrig mag word of in ’n Afrikaanse skool aanvaar mag word nie.
Demografies word Afrikaans deur meer bruin mense as wit mense gepraat. Ek het nie een keer beswaar daarteen aangeteken of bepleit dat ek ’n wit Afrikaanse skool wil hê of dat dit slegs ’n taal vir wit mense is nie.
So waarom dan die agressie?
“Daar word van swart kinders verwag om hul matriekeksamens in Engels te skryf tenspyte daarvan dat dit hulle 3e of 4de taal is, Afrikaanse leerders skryf hulle vraestelle in hul moedertaal, waar is die gelykheid daarin?” -Twittergebruiker.
Daar is geen gelykheid daarin nie. Daar kan nie wees nie. Maar die oplossing is nie om almal te forseer om in Engels te leer nie. Dit is nie my taal nie en ek wil nie.
Hieroor is ek “bevoorreg” (privileged) en “geregtig” (entitled) genoem. Nee. Wanneer ek aandring op iets wat my toekom oefen ek my reg uit. Dit is nie ’n voorreg nie. Ek mag. En jy mag ook.
Volgens onderwyswetgewing (en ondersteun deur Die Konstitusie) mag ’n leerder onderrig ontvang en leer in die taal van sy/haar keuse. Meeste Afrikaanse ouers verkies hul moedertaal as taal van onderrig. Die regering moet dus in hierdie behoefte van my voorsien.
Deur dit te sê ontneem ek nie die Zulu-, Xhosa-, Sepedi-, Setswana-, Sesotho-, Tsonga-, Swati-, Venda- of Ndebele-kind van sy behoefte om in sy moedertaal onderrig te word nie. Inteendeel, dit is met die grootste oortuiging en entoesiasme waarmee ek hierdie tale wil aanmoedig om op akademiese vlak uit te brei en te ontwikkel. As hierdie ouers egter kies om hul kinders in Engels te laat onderrig, staan dit hulle vry. Dit word so vervat in Die Grondwet. Maar in hulle vryheid moet hulle dan van Engelse skole voorsien word sonder dat dit skole wat in ander moerdertale onderrig, sal inperk.
Deur dit te sê volg ek nie noodwendig ’n ideologie van segregasie nie. Ek het reeds vroeër gemeen dat taal nie noodwendig aan ras gekoppel is nie en dat veral Afrikaans nie aan hierdie stigma onderhewig is nie.
Ek glo wel dat in hierdie diverse land, kultuur nouliks verbind kan word met verskillende tale en dat kultuur in baie gevalle geïntegreer is binne ’n bepaalde ras en taal. Dink maar aan die Ndebele. Dit is die naam van die ras, taal en ook hul kleurvolle kultuur. Dit is eie aan hulle.
In sekere Afrikaanse skole volg ons sekere kulture. Wanneer jy, uit jou vrye keuse, besluit om jou onderrig in hierdie taal te ontvang, kies jy ook om jouself tot ’n mate by hierdie kultuur te skaar.
Kulture self is divers en bestaan gewoonlik uit ’n paar “maniere van doen” en ’n aantal tradisies wat deur die jare opgebou is, om nie eers van die musiek en literatuur te praat nie. Ek mag kies om my kind in ’n kultuur eie aan homself te skool. Ek mag selfs kies om in my doen en late net te assosieer met mense van my kultuur. Ek mag my kultuur uitleef. Die enigste voorwaarde hieraan is dat ek dit nie ten koste van ander kulture moet doen nie en dat ek ander kulture en die bestaansreg daarvan moet respekteer.
Hoekom kan enkelmedium skole nie ook die behoud van verskeie kulture raak nie? Dit kan ’n beskermde omgewing wees waar ou en nuwe tradisies beoefen kan word en waar identiteit behoue kan bly. Dit is ook die plek waar aanvaarding vir ander tradisies en kulture die beste aangeleer kan word.
Dít is hoe jy ’n reënboognasie suksesvol laat funksioneer.
Tog kan ek skaars so ‘n voorstel ter tafel stel of dit word met ’n groet van haat bejeen. Die onvermoë om mekaar onvoorwaardelik te aanvaar is dalk eerder die ondergang van alle betrokke partye as wat die onvermoë om op ’n beskaafde manier rede te kan voer, is. Ja, dit is die onvermoë om te besef dat ek anders mag dink en voel en doen; daardie inherente strewe na eendersheid en die onderdrukking van enige iets wat uniek of vreemd is, wat afbreek en in puin agterlaat eerder as om te bou. Dit is daardie geloof dat verskille verkeerd is. Dit is wat enige moontlike vrede vedryf.
Ek is nie ’n rassis nie. Hierdie term is eerder ’n refleksie van die een wat aan my hierdie titel gegee het. Dit plaas klem op sy eie onvermoë om te kan debateer en te kan agrumenteer op ’n waardige wyse. In sy beperkte vermoë skryf hy alles wat vreemd is af as bedreiging en klassifiseer hy dit onder hierdie dekmantel. Hy is so gefokus op wat ek in my taal en kultuur vermag dat hy sy eie vergeet en afskeep.
Dit is hartseer … dat mense in hierdie land nie kan saamwerk en aanvaar nie. Dat mense nie kan besef dat groei afsonderlik en gesamentlik tot almal se voordeel kan (en moet) plaasvind nie; dat elkeen ’n plek het en dat jy eerder moet veg vir jou regte as wat jy moet veg teen die regte van ander.
om Junie 18, 2019 Geen opmerkings nie:
· Suid-Afrikaanse skole onder beheer van die staat is geskeduleer om vanaf 2020 ‘n sg. seksopvoedingsprogram genaamd Comprehensive Sexual Education (CSE) van die Verenigde Nasies (VN) te implementeer in die vak Lewensoriëntering vir Grade 4 tot 12. CSE is daarop gemik om kinders van Graad 4 en selfs nog van so jonk as 4 jaar op diaboliese wyse seksbewus en seksgereed te maak – eintlik is CSE van so aard dat dit te aaklig is om in beskaafde geselskap in woorde te stel, maar Ditsem Nuus beskou dit as só bedreiging vir kinders dat dit in hierdie artikel as waarskuwing ronduit gestel word.
om Mei 20, 2019 Geen opmerkings nie:
Onderwys in SA: Die waarheid kaalkop
Die toekoms van Christelike Afrikaanse onderwys moet gesien word binne die konteks van die groter onderwysprentjie in die land, ‘n prentjie wat pas deur TLU SA in ‘n mediavrystelling geskets is met die feite kaalkop soos dit is en sonder om doekies om te draai. Die mediavrystelling is slegs in Engels beskikbaar en word hiermee geplaas soos dit ontvang is.
EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA - A MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE
TLU SA Contact: 012 804 8031 / info@tlu.co.za / www.tlu.co.za
After 25 years of rule, the governing African National Congress (ANC) has a shaky record on almost all fronts. In 1994 the party was handed a top rate developed country on a plate. The ANC has added very little to this state of affairs, but they have destroyed much. The bulk of South Africans are poorer than ever, unemployment has skyrocketed, and nobody really knows the country’s actual population figures. This has led to unfettered crime, a breakdown in infrastructure and heavy tax loads on a few.
After gaining control of South Africa, it should have been an easy ride for the ANC. But a developed country needs some developed mindsets at the top. Revolution was a breeze but it soon became apparent that running an industrialised first world economy takes more than fists in the air and empty slogans. The party faithful should not have needed Black Economic Empowerment because the popular narrative was that they had been suppressed for hundreds of years. With the abolition of apartheid, restrictions were lifted and thousands of impatient black entrepreneurs and budding business tycoons should have descended on South Africa’s economic domain, laptops in hand ready to take advantage of the opportunities purportedly denied them in the past. This of course didn’t happen because had there been an historical indigenous entrepreneurial spirit, it would have manifested itself hundreds of years ago: Jan van Riebeeck would have found a civilization akin to other countries of the world when he set foot in Cape Town in 1652.
Alas the Dutch gentleman came upon what other explorers found as they sailed into the outer reaches of a Eurocentric world – a society in Southern Africa differing little from what was found in the rest of Africa and other parts hitherto unknown.
The entrepreneurial spark which had created great civilizations over thousands of years was lacking in less developed terrains, and the huge cultural chasm that was at the time so conspicuous between the settlers in Southern Africa and the people who had migrated southwards from Central Africa still in fact exists today. It manifests itself in many ways, but especially in the realm of education, attitudes to learning and what can be achieved from that learning.
The progeny of those early peoples in South Africa now find themselves locked together in a political system where the black majority rules while the minorities (whites and others) have the economic power and the knowhow needed to keep modern day South Africa afloat. This was not how it was supposed to be for the ANC. Whether through self delusion or wishful thinking, they imagined that taking the reins of power would be accompanied by the savvy to know how to wield those reins.
Billions of rands have been spent on black education with extremely poor results. It soon dawned on successive education ministers that trying to equalize outcomes across the broad South African spectrum was a pipe dream. The blame game was one of the government’s first forays in this uncomfortable situation: Bantu education was the problem. But many forgot that before the advent of the National Party in 1948, black education in South Africa had been a hit and miss affair. Under the British there was no formal education plan to educate the black population. That had been left by and large to the missionaries.
The prime minister at the time Dr. H.F. Verwoerd sent education specialists out to the countryside to see the chiefs and headmen about planning and building schools in the rural areas for the education of the blacks in their areas. There was stiff resistance - many chiefs questioned the need for Western-style education - they saw it initially as a threat to their hegemony. But the oft demonised “bantu education” was in fact the start of a process to try to bring millions of illiterate people into the modern world. It was a huge undertaking. There were no black teachers, and white teachers were sent out to rural areas to tackle a task which at the time was formidable.
Black languages had to be formalised where nothing existed except verbal traditions, and millions were taught to read and write. It was a rocky road and it is still a rocky road.
The ANC government has spent billions on black education in order to eradicate “inequality”. In doing so they have created a travesty - an education system where the results are massaged and where monumental self delusion is exposed in the tortuous manipulation of results which has now become par for the course in the education ministry.
In 2015, the ANC developed a system involving “progressed learners”. It entails pushing forward (progressing) over-age pupils who have repeated Grade 11 more than once. None other than South Africa’s trade unions have seen through this subterfuge and have questioned why pupils are “progressed” through to matriculation (school leaving) but where the majority of them are barred from writing the full final exams!
Out of the 128 634 pupils who failed Grade 11 in 2017 and were pushed to matric last year (2018), only 33 412 sat for all their subjects. Of these, 20 122 passed and 2 676 obtained passes that allow them to enrol at traditional universities. So of the national pass rate trumpeted by the Basic Education minister Angie Motshekga of 78,2%, a huge 95 222 pupils (around 63%) “progressed” matrics did not sit for all their subjects and were thus unaccounted for in the final result.
Of the total number of purported 128 634 “matric students”, only 2.1/2 percent managed a university entrance pass, while only around 27% sat for exams!
So what happened to the 63% odd students who sat in class and were financed by the taxpayer? Where did they go after they had been utilised to pump up “matric class” numbers, but who were in actual fact simply wasting their time because they didn’t write the full matric exams?
This ludicrous situation meant that teachers spent much time on students who would never write exams! Plenty of wasteful expenditure here! These progressed learners “solved the problem of overage pupils”, said Professor Larry Ramrathan of the UKZN School of Education Studies. But how was this problem solved? They simply occupied seats in class and wasted teachers’ time and ended up with nothing!
National Teachers Union deputy president Allen Thompson recently decried the government’s “progression” policy. He said it demoralised teachers who spent the entire year on matrics who were not allowed to write the full exam. He accused districts of “culling” progressed pupils just before they were due to write exams. “They are made to tick for a few exams so that they do not write seven subjects so even if they fail, this will not affect the pass rate”.
This is pure chicanery. It is a betrayal of black education and of those blacks who were promised “a better life for all” but who have been set up to fail so that the education minister can look good on the front pages of the newspapers.
Another trick up the sleeve of the Basic Education department is the “100% pass rate” travesty. The rural Gcewu High School in KwaMahleka in Pietermaritzburg’s trumpeted 100% pass rate raised eyebrows until it was found that only four of its 46 matric students wrote the whole exam. The other 42 students were encouraged to write the exams over two sittings, the second in June 2019. These “progressed” pupils were pushed into matric after failing Grade 11 twice. Whether they actually wrote the full exams later on is not mentioned.
Numbers count with the Education Minister, not the quality of outcome. In the Free State, some teachers told weaker pupils not to write the exams “because you will fail”. An example of twelve schools attaining 100% pass rate was printed in a Sunday newspaper but only a small minority of pupils wrote exams. This 100% pass rate was actually dishonest propaganda.
A further manifestation of crafty results massaging is the new practice of parents buying speeches and essays on the internet. The whole point of an essay is to gauge the creative use of language and the ability to express oneself after researching a subject. This process is now completely lost. The concept of plagiarism is seemingly unknown.
Former education Professor Jonathan Jansen who is now overseas declared after the 2017 results that the SA education minister is guilty of “fake news”. “We know that 78% of SA children (almost eight out of ten) cannot read with understanding in Grade 4. A recent finding placed South Africa last among 50 countries with which South Africa was compared”. Says Professor Jansen: “Forget that we know 9% of Grade 6 black teachers cannot pass a Grade 6 Maths test. Forget that in some subjects the pass mark is 30%. In other words, ignore completely the available scientific studies of the actual state of the school system and pretend that the government is doing a good job and that the ruling party has delivered on its promises of a better life for all!”
This raises a question, says the professor. “What does it say about a government that celebrates the few who ran and survived the obstacle course from Grades 1 through 12 but ignores the majority who failed along the way? This education department is a disgrace to the nation. When the throughput of pupils from Grade 2 to matric is factored in, South Africa’s pass rate for the past three years ranges from 37% to 41%.”
This is why there is affirmative action in South Africa, despite the fact that the ANC is in power. This is why Black Economic Empowerment was created where blacks are supposedly “empowered” by placing them in visibly prominent positions in already existing enterprises. In fact there is still very little sign of real black entrepreneurship emerging even after the ANC’s 25 years at the helm.
The problem is a serious one and is in fact tragic for millions of black people because they are expected to perform and excel within someone else’s culture. It is an injustice to those black students whose parents sacrifice everything to give them an “education” while they sit in school pretending to be students yet they are not allowed to write exams because they may spoil the Education minister’s fake results.
South Africa is indeed a very unequal society, but it simply mirrors the world at large. The only difference is that the haves and the have nots are together in one geographical area called the Republic of South Africa.
om Januarie 30, 2019 Geen opmerkings nie:
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