Recently, basic education minister Angie Motshekga addressed the nation on “Learning losses due to Covid-19 pandemic”, and acknowledged the impact of the pandemic on the sector. Her address outlined the following five areas of significance:
• function shift of early childhood development (ECD),
• teenage pregnancy,
• return of primary school learners,
• vaccination, and
• the 2021 school calendar.
I commend her and the team for the effort. Although the suggested interventions are plausible and relevant, “The devil is in the details” to gauge the implementation efficacy and effectiveness. The informatics about the state of ECD sector is crucial, it is already overdue.
Broadening access has infinite meanings; paucity on what it implies creates anxiety about the object of the national integrated ECD policy. About 27 years since the dawn of democracy, the ECD sector remains differentiated and hugely unequal in provisioning and access.
Universality and access remain a distant mirage. Paucity of details on the mechanisation of the informatics to shape policy, access, quality and universality is susceptible to assumptive trap and that déjà vu syndrome. While the integration of the informatics on ECD into the department's Education Management Information System (EMIS) will add value to the systems informatics, the sector has a history of not exploiting data to transform certain operations.
How will this be different? Relying on the good will conscience and participation by ECD practitioners may not be realistic given our historical imbalances. We should do more to affirm the rights of children to access quality education and training. It cannot be left to personal feel-good about it. Some policy directive and coordination should prevail to circumvent illegal centres doing disservice to the next generation.
The narrative about the growing numbers of teenage pregnancies needs a different strategy by sector stakeholders and those with expert knowledge to arrest the spiraling numbers. It’s about time we de-stigmatise sex and sexuality within our homes, churches and community at large to provide the youth with appropriate information for decision making.
The current sex education offerings could also be reframed to mainstream the youth so that they can fully take ownership. While health experts have emphasised the need to keep learners at school provided all health prevention protocols are in place, the reality is that the sector remains hugely unequal to meet this challenge.
The rolling-out of vaccines has brought some hope and more needs to be done to vaccinate learners. In her speech, the minister acknowledged the impact of Covid-19 on schooling, including incidences of poor performance ultimately resulting in high learner dropouts.
Covid-19 has had serious psychological impact on everyone. Both teachers and learners require counselling interventions to address their anxieties about being back at school during Covid-19 infections. A stable and sound mind is the practical step to leveraging learner commitment to effective learning. Times of crises require changing or amending plans and operations. The sector too had to review school calendar to circumvent current challenges.
That recovering lost time has been left at the discretion of schools and district officials is double-edged sword. More clarity and guidelines would assist, given that some of these entities have failed to live up to the mandate – dysfunctional schools exist within districts and that does not give much confidence to recover school time lost due to Covid-19. The novelty of Covid-19 pandemic has augmented the challenges by highlighting serious deficiencies towards effective and quality teaching and learning.
Many learners have missed out of normal schooling and the remote interventions currently deployed do not offer the best for learners in rural areas where IT connectivity is non-existent. Failure to offer educational services to deserving learners is a serious breach of their rights to quality education and schooling opportunities.
The resultant Covid-19 lockdowns interfered with schooling calendar, which proves difficult to recover. It is also indicated that assistant teachers shall be recruited to fast-track "catching up with lessons". While it is a commendable gesture to create jobs for the unemployed, the approach has serious pedagogical implications if not properly implemented.
In her address to the Wits SRC Education, then former education minister Naledi Pandor argued that “Good education relies on the availability of good teachers. These are teachers who are themselves fully versed in the knowledge areas, that learners must learn and just as importantly, have a thorough knowledge of ways in which this knowledge can be learnt”.
Covid-19 has emboldened schooling limitations. Some of these challenges recur with monotony.
It is a national indictment to tertiary institutions and other private entities entrusted with teacher training and development. It recommends “a new social compact for schooling” to circumvent dyslexic accountability within the sector. Let improve our commitment for the sake of our children’s education.
• Monyooe is a Sowetan reader
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.