Time for parents and the community of the Eastern Cape to take responsibility for the education of their children

The abysmal state of education in the Eastern Cape Province and the bickering among those tasked with the responsibility to administer our education in this province is a tragedy of monumental proportions. The recent developments regarding the suspension of school nutrition system, school transport system and termination of contracts of temporary teachers point to a decaying system that should make us ask uncomfortable questions about whether the officials tasked with this critical endeavour of educating the future custodians of South Africa appreciate the magnitude and seriousness of their responsibility.

Are they aware that this current state of education in the province has become a prototype of apartheid education system that produced most black children with neither skills nor requisite capacity for any meaningful economic participation except for being drawers and hewers of wood and water?

I think the Superintendant General for education in the province, Adv. Modidima Mannya, should indulge us and explain what consultation process he embarked on before terminating the crucial services meant for learners. Did he consult with the parents of these learners and other important stakeholders before taking such an important decision to cancel the critical services to learners? If he did, what was their response? If he did not why had he not done so about so crucial a decision to cancel the necessary basic services to learners of the province?

I raise this because it is so easy for a government accounting officer like Adv. Mannya to take unilateral decisions that will have untold repercussions and only justifying such decisions by saying it was financially prudent to do so. I understand Mr. Mannya's dilemma when faced with the unavailability of funds to provide and sustain these services to learners and his respect for the provisions of the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA). 

But, it is my view that had he consulted widely with parents and other critical stakeholders on education in the province, he would have gained a consensus that would have approached the matter differently than a wholesale cancellation of these services.

Secondly, the bickering between different provincial government officials and those of the ruling party regarding which cause of action to take in arresting the crippling effects of the current impasse in education is an indication that things are falling apart. The imminent national government intervention in terms of the constitution to take over the running of education in the province is further testimony to how far things have deteriorated.

Whether this kind of intervention by national government should be a matter of last resort can still be explored. What is clear though is that the education in the province is in tatters. We all need to acknowledge this fact and start doing something about it not only as government, but all of us including parents, learners, business, labour, NGOs and the clergy.

The silence by parents and other critical voices in the community over the current education crisis in the province is worrying to say the least. Parents need to come to terms with the reality that the education of their children is first and foremost their responsibility. Government is there to provide the basic means by which to acquire education. However, government is not always readily available to provide these means by which children must acquire their education. This then places a necessary responsibility on parents and communities to exert pressure on government to uphold its end of the bargain by providing the necessary means so that schooling can continue and the children can be educated.

The truth is that there is a need for a wide ranging, active, direct popular and participatory democracy that will complement the current representative democracy in order to urgently address the crisis of education in the province. The time for heavily relying only on the elected representatives to address the myriad of challenges facing our communities is fast waning thin. There are a number of constraints that sometimes handicap our elected representatives from urgently attending to basic needs that communities require. The Eastern Cape public representatives are no exception to this. 

It is therefore my humble but strongly held view that the current crisis in education in the province calls for a parent led multi-stakeholder initiative to demand that government urgently provide the necessary environment and means to ensure the education of the children in the province. With the way things are it would seem that there is a need for the formation of an Education Crisis Committee in the Eastern Cape. This committee should include a diverse range of stakeholders who are, or should be, concerned about the state of education in the Eastern Cape.

These stakeholders should be drawn from, but not limited to, parents, learners, universities, labour movement, business, NGOs and churches. The main object of this committee should be to urgently address the crisis and the deteriorating state of education in the Eastern Cape. This committee would have to urgently organise a Provincial Education Crisis Summit in order to draw up an intervention plan that will salvage the education of the children of this province.

This plan should be the basis on which to actively and robustly engage government in all its spheres so that there is a coordinated point plan that will immediately put a lid on those hotspots that need urgent attention while phasing in a long term and sustainable programme to fix education in the province. This should be done as a matter of extreme urgency so as to avert further damage.

Taking matters to this level is not only necessary to secure the future of our children but also to seek to urgently liberate them from the current clutches of red-tape bureaucracy, inefficiency and inertia that continue to condemn them to perpetual status of being sub-standard learners. The motto by which our parents raised us which says 'I will educate my children even though I myself am not educated' should be the guiding torch to a brighter future for our children. As Napoleon once noted, "the world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, But because of the silence of good people!

Mzukisi Makatse is a Master of Laws candidate with the University of Fort Hare. He writes in his personal capacity.

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