The deteriorating levels of discipline at many South African schools continue to be cause for concern and calls into question the capacity of the state to provide education to South African children. The news cycle is dominated by incidents of bullying, teachers attacked by pupils, schoolyard murders and other grim occurrences.
Our schools have become havens for gangsters, drug dealers, murderers and all sorts of miscreants. In addition, the rate of schoolgirls falling pregnant makes for depressing reading. The complete breakdown of discipline aided and abetted by parental apathy and governance dysfunction results in negative spin-offs including dismal academic performance and low teacher morale among others.
It would not be an exaggeration to state that our education finds itself in a state of siege. What is clear is that this unpalatable state of affairs can no longer be left to the tendentious whims of the ANC government which cannot run a bath. It takes a village to raise a child and to this end other agents of socialisation must take the cudgels to salvage the future of our nation.
Since education is the single most powerful way to break the transmission of deprivation from one generation to the next, it becomes imperative that the mission to restore its essence is tackled with the urgency it deserves. Of all agents of socialisation, churches are best placed to provide formal education, as they have done for centuries.
The government needs to subsidise them to perform this function. Churches cannot afford to look the other way when the country is confronted with challenges that hamper the development of our citizens to fulfil the promise of abundant lives. To advocate a leading role for the church in the provision of education should not mean an uncritical teaching of religion which can lead to a total loss of faith when the slightest doubt occurs.
The moral degeneration within society in general and in schools in particular, calls upon the church to play a more active role to ensure that our nation is not doomed. Martin Luther, a German priest and theology professor, asserted, “I am afraid that schools will prove to be great gates of hell unless they diligently labour in explaining the holy scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the scriptures do not reign paramount.”
For Christian parents, it makes sense for them to place their children in an environment that aligns with what is taught in church and at home. What does not make sense though is that a denomination as huge as the Methodist Church does not have even one school in Soweto. The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu had this to say, “Any religion that does not engage with the concerns of humanity is an abomination.”
For religion to negate what Karl Marx said about it being the opium of the masses, the church has to speak out about societal ills such as corruption, crime, poverty and violence. This has to be coupled with programmes of action to intervene in an effort to minimise or eradicate these scourges. To be silent in the midst of injustice would amount to a betrayal as propounded by Martin Luther King Jr.
The penalty for Christians to refuse to participate in politics is that they end up being governed by the Antichrists, to paraphrase Plato. On the subject of religion, King said, “Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.”
Churches have to stand up and be counted in the struggle to win back our schools from the evil forces which have usurped them. Some of the benefits of a Christian education include the fact that pupils are taught the Bible with the interpretation of other subjects with biblical truth. In many instances, the teachers and other staff members supply positive role models for the pupils.
These schools are mostly characterised by high involvement and support from parents and other families. They also offer a positive Christian environment in academic pursuits and extra-curricular activities. Most importantly, they are characterised by high academic rigour because of the accreditation of the academic credentials of the administrative staff and teachers.
It must be said that Christian schools are not utopian as they also have their challenges such as the financial cost associated with them. Another challenge relates to a sense of isolation from the society, which can affect pupils from these schools. Sometimes this may come out as a sense of superiority or ethnocentrism. Christian schools require sacrifice as parents and other family members need to make a substantial financial investment to send their children to these schools.
The poor state of South African public education serves as a barrier to an escape from poverty which makes Christian schools a necessity. It is clear that the role to provide education cannot be the monopoly of the state and a few expensive private schools. A home, church and school triangle can greatly contribute to the external investment in the godly upbringing of children and restore hope to the future of our nation.
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