Human rights in education became a point of discussion with the advent of democracy in SA as the country sought to move away from the old bantu education system.
I am not sure how it happened but somehow our parents associated the enforcement of human rights policies such as the removal of corporal punishment in the schooling environment with bad behaviour. For many the abolishment of corporal punishment in the SA Schools Act during 1996 became synonymous with allowing children to run amok and be disrespectful.
It is not uncommon to catch parents lamenting the fact that children these days have too many rights, which has created a society of obnoxious and disrespectful human beings. They would tell you that back in the day if you reported receiving a beating from a teacher, your parents would also add to the beating because surely your teacher would not administer punishment without good reason.
But the way I see it, the enforcement of human rights in schools is not the problem. It is not the reason we have high teenage pregnancy rates or rampant gangsterism in our schools. Education itself is regarded as a basic human right in section 29 of the constitution.
Over the years, working in the education sector as an activist and social entrepreneur I have learnt that we actually have more to gain as a country if we expose our children to conducive learning environments. Such environments mean that pupils are safe, have access to the necessary materials, nutrition and are surrounded by good infrastructure. According to Unesco, challenges that prevent countries from providing access to education include lack of finances, migration or displacement, and the quality of learning.
Crafting and implementing sound human rights policies in schools will also help us reduce the number of dropouts. Civil rights organisation The Zero Dropout states that “despite SA’s large investment in basic education, about 40% of Grade 1 learners will exit the schooling system before reaching Grade 12. Many will remain stuck in poverty and unemployment as young people are 8% more likely to find employment if they have a matric certificate.”
This is a worrying indication that we need to change our ways to keep our children interested in education until they become functional members of society. Moreover, this will also help in addressing transformation by tackling racial and gender inequality in our society.
So whenever someone says human rights are the problem, we should remind them that actually the failure to address such issues in the classroom and society in general is the real enemy.
• Ngobese is the CEO and actuarial analyst of Wesolve4x
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