Zwelinzima Vavi's Speech to SADTU Eastern Cape Provincial Congress, ICC, East London, September 28 2011
I am grateful for this opportunity to speak at this very important Congress. Today I want to speak exclusively about what I consider to be the greatest challenge we face as revolutionaries of our generation - the education crisis and our role as revolutionaries in solving this unfolding human tragedy.
Let me repeat one of my favourite quotes from one of the African intellectual giants who once said: "each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it, or betray it".
On Sunday the 2nd October 2011, at Butterworth here in the Eastern Cape, COSATU together with a range of other social forces including SADTU and the government, shall be launching a campaign to adopt schools as part of ensuring we eliminate dysfunctional schools everywhere in the country.
This forms part of the 14 campaigns COSATU is running from its Central Committee. This launch forms part of the endeavour to turn the many words we have spoken into practical action that can actually make a difference. It is an attempt to take forward a recently signed accord between labour, business, government and community organisations. This accord is one of the critical elements to address the apartheid fault lines we have identified.
From this perspective, this Congress is not only well timed but historic in that it has a potential to be used as platform to ensure that we build broader support for this critical campaign.
Our education system is in a crisis. In fact calling it a crisis is an understatement. This is a catastrophe. Every day children of the working class and the poor are being condemned into a deep black hole with minimal chances of escape.
In a few days time, SADTU will be turning 21 years of age. This is a significant milestone in the history of education struggles in South Africa. The launch of this union 21 years ago represented a total rejection of the apartheid's attempt to divide and rule the working class and an utter denunciation of the policy of having separate education departments for different ethnic groups. The unity marked by SADTU's launch marked a significant break with racially divided unions and was an important step in cementing the vision of a non-racial trade union for teachers.
SADTU carries the potential to be the revolutionary shield that spares the working class from the daily ideological onslaught meted out by the bourgeoisie.
Every child and every human being develops from the tutelage of teachers, who therefore occupy a special role in our quest to change the world and do away with the evils of the capitalist system and oppression.
We know only too well that without a critical mass of teachers, armed with revolutionary theory and commitment, our revolution would be greatly compromised. Indeed if we did not have a revolutionary teacher's union such as SADTU, many of the contradictions that the capitalist schooling system imposes in the classroom would go unchallenged.
It is now common knowledge how the apartheid state suppressed teachers from dissenting from an apartheid curriculum which aimed at instilling in the black mind the ideas of white supremacy and black servitude. Apartheid education infused black learners with the notion that whites are superior and that blacks should serve as nothing more than cheap labour to be utilised in creating wealth for a few white South Africans.
Under apartheid, the whole idea that the role of teachers is to empower their students to question existing racial and class power relations was significantly suppressed.
Instead teachers were expected to teach their students to accept their unequal and inferior place in a racialised capitalist education system and to learn the art of abiding by the rules and discipline of the powers that be.
It was in direct opposition to this that the struggle for people's education was born. The struggle for people's education was geared at democratising the education system and using it as one of the driving forces for social transformation.
It was in utter rejection of using the concept of professionalism to demobilise teachers from having a critical approach to the system of apartheid and the gross violations that characterised it.
People's education sought to teach students that their fate is directly tied up with that of their parents in the factories, the farms, and mines and with that of the reserve army of the unemployed in our rural areas and townships. It is an education that equips students with the tools to challenge class exploitation and racial and gender oppression. It is from a strong conviction that we assert that SADTU is best placed to help us achieve this noble vision.
Decades have since past since the vision of a people's education was first articulated in this country. We now need to reflect on some of the advances made in the transformation of education in the post-1994 period.
It is crucial to emphasise that the children of the working class students are still at the receiving end of an unequal education system that is marked by unequal access to resources such as libraries, laboratories, learner support materials and even teachers.
Whilst we have made tremendous progress on many areas, such as improving infrastructure, delivery of books, enrolment of children, in particular the girl child, improving access by opening more no-fee schools, etc. we have not succeeded on transforming the education system in both quality and quantity.
Apartheid fault-lines remain stubbornly in place in our education system. Children born to poor parents remain trapped in an inferior education with wholly inadequate infrastructure; 70% of our schools do not have libraries and 60% do not have laboratories; 60% of children are pushed out of the schooling system before they reach grade 12.
Of the 1 550 790 South African children who started school in 1998, only 551 940 of them registered for the matriculation class. That is a dropout rate of 64%. Of these 551 940 who wrote matriculation exams, only 334 609 (60.6%) passed matriculation and just 109 697 achieved university entrance. That means that 1 216 181 of the original 1998 intake are left with no qualifications and, given the current rate of unemployment this simply mean no jobs, no hope and no future. Using these figures of the class of 1998, only 24% were able to complete matriculation in the minimum of 12 years.
As you know 70% of (matriculation) exam passes are accounted for by just 11% of schools, i.e. the former White, Coloured, and Asian schools[1]. What is of major concern is that 12-year olds in South Africa perform three times worse than 11-year olds in Russia when it comes to reading and 16-year olds in South Africa perform three times worse than 14-year olds in Cyprus when it comes to mathematics[2]. It is estimated that only 3% of the children who enter the schooling system eventually complete with higher-grade mathematics. Nevertheless, white learners perform in line with the international average in both science and mathematics, which is twice the score of African learners.
The National Planning Commission in its diagnostic report states that in 2008, teachers scored less than minimum scores expected from the average learner in the subjects they teach. This underlines the need to contentiously upgrade and retrain educators - something that is largely neglected in our country.
In the same report the National Planning Commission says 88% of African schools are regarded as dysfunctional. Only 1% of African schools are top performing in terms of the high school certification results versus. This contrasts sharply with the 31% of formerly privileged schools. Policy and personnel are also problematic - for example the Eastern Cape has had 14 MECs of education since 1994.
This crisis manifests itself more profoundly in this very province, the Eastern Cape. The Eastern Cape basic education system is simply dysfunctional. The province is a home to 395 mud schools, which collapse at the mere idea of heavy rain. Approximately a hundred thousand learners in this province are subjected to walking long kilometres to schools due to the inefficiency and poor management of the scholar transport system. Tens of thousands are going hungry because the School Nutrition Program in the Eastern Cape has been stopped due to lack of funds. Political hyenas have identified even this Nutrition Programme as a feeding trough. This was particularly disheartening given that the province's under spending in previous years.
Eastern Cape is rivalled only by Limpopo as a province with most schools without libraries. A report by Equal Education indicates that 90.2% of Eastern Cape schools have no libraries.
Earlier this year, 6000 temporary teachers arrived at schools to find that their contracts had not been renewed because the department could no longer pay them. I want to thank those who took this matter up in the courts and reversed this decision. I would have been more proud if it was SADTU that registered this victory. Failure of both COSATU and SADTU to challenge this and use every means possible is a subject that we must discuss on another day. But the bottom line is that in a democracy we cannot allow others to use instruments of democracy whilst we who are responsible for that democracy in the first place remain flat footed in fear that we will be labelled oppositionist. We must oppose government policy in areas where we feel that it places working class livelihoods and wellbeing at stake. If we are labelled oppositionist because of this role, then this is a label we should wear with pride.
Yes indeed we are oppositionists when it comes to corruption, nepotism, cronyism, information bill, lack of revolutionary discipline and revolutionary morality and self-enrichment programmes. We are the champions of the decent work agenda, a new growth path, National Health Insurance, public transport system and education campaigns. We are the friends of the oppressed everywhere in the world. Ask the people of Swaziland, Palestine, and Zimbabwe they know who we are. We are revolutionaries that are in no way perfect, but we pride ourselves in the fact that the working class regards us as the moral authority of South African politics. That is who we are!
Going back to my subject of the day, I must state that it is the working class children in rural schools that were hardest hit by the education crisis in this province. Many of these children had to pull themselves through as the image of a classroom without a teacher was becoming increasingly normalized.
The Eastern Cape Department of Basic Education has been receiving qualified reports from the Auditor General since 2005. This simply means that the education department in this province, much like all others is haunted by a reality of financial mismanagement.
How can the nation and the world expect learners produced under such circumstances to score top marks and secure entry into the country's higher education system when the playing field is so unequal. Today the Eastern Cape province competes with the bottom three worst performing provinces in the country. This is enough to make Mathew Goniwe, SEK Mqhayi and Enoch Sontonga to turn in their graves.
Let us emphasize that we simply cannot expect teachers to produce miraculous results in this kind of situation. This is more so since this bleak picture also replicates as the working environment for thousands of teachers in this province.
We know very well that this situation has meant that many teachers in Tsomo, Butterworth, Idutywa and other places in the province have become social workers and psychologists at the same time. We must continue to salute the teachers that have been consistent in raising the plight of poverty-stricken children with the provincial education department and those teachers that continue to provide a revolutionary service to the poor despite these morbid circumstances.
The consequences of this education crisis are that we have a demoralised cohort of teachers, 55% of whom would leave the profession if granted the opportunity to do so. This is also symptomatic of an ineffective and dysfunctional education system.
This is the crisis that our education system faces! Let us again emphasize that if we don't reverse this situation then for many liberation will be without any value.
Whilst this disaster is unfolding, the children of the rich are in private schools. The children of the middle class who are now joined by a minority of blacks are in former Model C schools. Both private and former Model C schools are in varying degrees far better than the schools where working class and black children find themselves.
The connection between the high failure rates in schools and youth unemployment needs to be emphasized. Of the unemployed 72% are below the age of 35 years. The majority of those unemployed do not have standard seven or matric. In fact 95% of all people who are unemployed do not have tertiary education. This is what we have called a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. Already that bomb is exploding in many parts of the country through violent service delivery protests.
There is also a strong connection between these sordid statistics and the scourge of HIV and AIDS as well as the collapse of family values. Most of the serial rapists and women and child abuses are found in the ranks of those who have been robbed of a chance to develop. Those who burn houses of others and kill mothers and their grand children in parts of the Eastern Cape accusing them of being witches are also found amongst these most marginalised.
It goes without saying that government has a primary responsibility to address this crisis. The governments' move to place the education department in this province under National Administration was a good starting point. It's a pity that national government appears to have simply backed off for political expediency.
We must continue to demand free, quality public education for all; a deliberate programme to upgrade infrastructure in public schools; the elimination of mud schools and the reinstatement of the feeding scheme and the scholar transport system and an increased training and support for teachers in rural and township public schools.
However, the critical question all of us must answer in this congress is: what is the role of a revolutionary trade union movement in making a contribution towards resolving this crisis? A collective effort is required to work together to overhaul the situation in our schools. We need a change of mindset among teachers, learners and parents in order to ensure quality education delivery for learners, particularly in poorly performing schools.
We appeal to teachers, as amongst some of the most important public servants to commit to the provision of good and quality teaching and uphold ethical and professional behaviour at all times. We must adopt a zero tolerance towards teachers who arrive late for class and leave early. Those who prey on young girls and treat them as objects of sexual lust must find no space amongst us. Let us be both objects and subjects of change. Let us campaign to ensure that teachers do not abuse their power in society by impregnating school kids and often infecting them with HIV. As a revolutionary trade union, we must expose and isolate such gross acts of misconduct.
So please join us in Butterworth on Sunday to - in the words of Frantz Fanon - fulfil our mission to save our nation from this disaster that continues to make Verwoerd smile whilst inflicting untold pain on the likes of Steve Biko.
One of the campaigns COSATU is undertaking is geared towards changing the culture of service in the public sector. A new culture that seeks to make the wellbeing of the working class a priority is needed in the public sector. All public servants must understand that they are the hands and feet of the revolutionary ideals that we seek to realise.
We have a responsibility to inculcate a revolutionary morality, which seeks to radically alter the status quo. A revolutionary morality derives from a yearning to build something different, something new and something that is opposite to what exists. It is zeal to incite the forces of change in the struggle against the terrible state of things. It is impossible for teachers to breed a new generation of anti-capitalist fighters unless we inspire learners from a young age and show them and their parents that we really do have their best interests at heart. This is the essence of a revolutionary morality - the realisation that overthrowing exploitation will require a struggle waged in different but interconnected terrains.
It is now time that we cease to sloganise and roll up our sleeves to mobilise and galvanise not only SADTU members but the entire society behind a campaign to save our collective future as a nation.
The works of the great teacher and music composer Enoch Sontonga must inspire us to motivate those we teach in the present for generations to come. Just like Sontonga's brilliance in composing Nkosi' Sikelel' iAfrika, which became the battle cry and was adapted to different languages by those fighting colonial oppression in this continent, the learners that pass through your hands must remember your teachings and apply them for generations to come.
Teachers in this province must be inspired by the legacy of the likes of Mathew Goniwe. Mathew Goniwe was a dedicated teacher and a revolutionary with an utter disgust for inequality and injustice. Although he knew only too well the injustices of apartheid, he refused to be idle and wait for the rise of democracy. Goniwe demonstrated his passion for education by establishing a school in this very province outside Mthatha.
COSATU urges all of you to reignite your souls and ensure that the work of these great giants lives on through your deeds, your teachings and your revolutionary commitment.
We must remember Goniwe the great teacher whose passion for education led him to study mathematics and science at the University of Fort Hare. We must remember that Goniwe was a revolutionary who was highly involved in student politics. A communist at heart and an organiser par excellence. We must never forget his passion for humanity, which led him to work tirelessly to improve the conditions of the communities that surrounded him. Goniwe was a fearless fighter against alcohol abuse and drug addiction and was always motivated by his belief that teachers should always lead by example and instil a set of good values amongst those they have a responsibility to teach.
Let us never forget the great Enoch Sontonga, whose lyrical gift has inspired many African revolutions. The work of this great man of Uitenhage still lives with us today. Teachers should always strive to leave permanent imprints on the hearts and minds of those they have a responsibility to mould and develop.
Inspired by these great teachers, including Oliver Tambo, let us join hands together with others to save the future of the children of Eastern Cape and the entire South Africa.
Thank you for listening
Issued by COSATU, September 28 2011
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