The Legacy

Students outside a school in Johannesburg, South Africa (Photo courtesy of thomas_sly)

This week's country of interest is South Africa.  Unlike Japan and Singapore, countries that boast some of the greatest test scores across the board, South Africa struggles in this category.  More than 25% of kids who took their end-of-year examination failed.  Of course, myriad factors influence the success of an education system as a whole, and it's particularly difficult to pinpoint specific causes for this statistic.

I can try, though.

First and foremost, let us start with something simple and concrete.  Compulsory education in South Africa starts at age seven, and concludes at age fifteen; this equates to attending school from grades one through seven.  Compared to more developed education systems, South Africans are stripped of nearly five years of education due to these regulations.  Along with these reduced standards comes an astonishingly high drop out rate after compulsory education ends.  An astonishing number of students drop out from school.  Less than half of the students who enrolled in school in the year 2001 passed the graduation exam over a decade later.

It must be a money problem, right?  Turns out not.  South Africa is one of the top investors in public education in the world at about 7% of their GDP and 20% of their total state expenditure.  So what could it be that is leading to these results?

South Africa invests more money into public education than any other African nation
(Photo courtesy of Georgia Popplewell)

The answer lies in the past.  The harsh effects of Apartheid, yes, that thing that "ended over two decades ago", continue to ravage the educational system of South Africa.  The actions of the Apartheid government decades ago invested so little in education for blacks, that In Africa, the disparity between whites and blacks still defines much of the social landscape.  Just to give some context, black children in South Africa are 100 times more likely to grow up in poverty compared to whites, while whites are 6 times more likely to attended a higher education institution.  Even the students that have access to better quality education have to cram into small buses to travel long distances, daily.  Has much really changed?

Well, the days where the government spent four times more on a white child's education compared to that of a black child are gone, but it is hard to assume that guarantees anything.  To emphasize this, language barriers still get in the way of educational progress and achievement.  According to an article by the BBC , when 400 students in a rural province of South Africa were asked to calculate 7 times 17, 130 got the problem correct.  However, when the problem was reconstructed into a word problem in english, none of them got the problem correct.

Teachers in rural areas have little experience with teaching in English due to the variety of language and lack of teaching tools in English.  Some teachers simply do not show up to school some days of the week, which lessens the amount of time students are learning even during the years for compulsory education.  It is outrageous and unthinkable in our society for teachers to simply not show up for days or weeks without reason.

While South Africa's government has obviously done little to regulate the staff at public institutions in rural areas, some schools have done extremely well even in the face of adversity.  For example, Mbwili Secondary School, in an area that can only barely fulfill basic equipment needs, recently saw all of their students pass their graduation exam.

So, there's hope.  However, the long-lasting effects of Apartheid will be felt for decades to come, according to the education minister of South Africa, Ms. Motshekga.  Much like the situation of blacks after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, black students in South Africa will pay the price for the events of an unjust past.

Will time be the only medicine for this educational crisis?  It's incredibly hard to say.  The money that the government in funneling into public education, more than any other African nation, is obviously not being spent in the most optimal fashion.  Furthermore, the longer this unbalanced system stays intact, the worse it may become.  Since students need to pass their graduation exams to receive a higher education, it is incredibly tough to move up the socioeconomic ladder in rural South Africa.  While I believe change is coming, the speed at which it arrives may just be too slow.  Only time will tell.

What do you think about the system implemented in South Africa?