17 April 2001
Five theses on deepening and advancing educational transformation in the current conjuncture
Introduction
I would like to open my input by congratulating SADTU on the convening of this national education policy conference. There are three reasons why this education conference is important and historic. Firstly, it is one of the very few truly national educational conferences convened by one of the organisations of the democratic movement since 1994. Secondly, it is a path-breaking conference in that an organ of the democratic movement has seen it fit to convene such a conference as an attempt to discuss the tasks of advancing educational transformation in the current period. Thirdly, departing from tradition, a large percentage of delegates here are ordinary members of SADTU, who normally do not get a chance to attend national events of SADTU nor those of the democratic or liberation movement as a whole. This conference therefore serves as an important means for grassroots SADTU members to participate in the debates and processes involved in the struggle for educational transformation at a national level.
SADTU is also holding this conference against enormous progress made in transforming our country and its education system since the installation of the democratic government in 1994. The educational transformation underway is a direct result of decades of struggles by our people, as well as the very important groundwork laid during the first five years of democratic government. I know that I have been invited here mainly in my capacity as an educationalist, though it is difficult to separate myself from the SACP. In any case there is no contradiction in being an educationalist and a communist at the same time. In fact the two have historically gone together very well!
Five theses on educational transformation
I have decided to approach the question of educational transformation, the relationship between education struggles and policy processes in the current period by advancing five theses on deepening and advancing educational transformation. The aim of these theses - which are propositions based on a theoretical framework of locating educational transformation within the context of our national democratic revolution - is to provide a basis on which we need to understand our tasks in the educational arena, as well as a platform for further debating and refining our strategy and tactics in the educational sphere.
But much more importantly these theses are informed by the need to always return to the basics in order to understand the line of march in educational transformation as well as not to lose sight of the very key objectives of educational transformation in our national democratic revolution. In addition, these theses are informed by our understanding, as part of the working class movement, that much as our immediate struggle is that of deepening the national democratic revolution, but that this struggle is integrally linked to that of a socialist transformation, as the only route towards resolving the contradictions facing South African society today.
Education is not a neutral phenomenon but it is an ideology
Education is one of the most crucial vehicles for shaping broader societal values. It is always a carrier of particular messages, both explicitly and implicitly. For these reasons education is not neutral, and it is important to understand this truism as a basis for approaching the tasks at hand. In the South African context, like in many other post-colonial societies, it carries and imparts particular racial, gender and class messages. It is therefore important that as part of this conference, we try to be as explicit as possible in identifying the key messages that our transforming education system is imparting, and what kind of values will we like to see being carried by our education system in general.
Under apartheid, education was used to reinforce notions of white superiority and black inferiority, as well as the reproduction of notions of male superiority and female inferiority. These messages were not only imparted through the curriculum, but in the very structure of our classrooms, the different racially segregated schools, as well as the different roles of boys and girls as well as male and female teachers in the entire apartheid schooling regime.
In a capitalist system, which in South Africa still remains dominant, the education system continues to reinforce notions of class inequalities and class ideology. This manifest itself, amongst other things, through the presentation of profit maximisation and a market system as the superior form of organisation of society and its economic life. It is a justification of a system based on exploitation of the majority by a few.
Teachers, in any education system, are vital in being carriers of particular messages in the manner in which they teach and the content of the subjects that they teach. In many instance teachers are agents of this or that particular ideology. An attempt used to hide this role of teachers is the notion of "professionalism". We all agree that teachers should be professionals, but the content of that professionalism needs to be clearly articulated and understood. Sometimes the notion of professionalism is used as a means to prevent teachers from questioning the ideology in a particular education system. That being a professional means doing whatever you are asked to do in the most "professional" manner. One of the key challenges teachers face today, is that of redefining professionalism to be in line with the developmental needs and objectives of one's community and broader society.
For instance some of you continue to teach economics and business economics at school whereby workers - human beings - are merely categorised as factors of production. Yet you daily teach hungry children whose parents have been retrenched precisely because the economic system regards them merely as factors of production - "things" - that can be gotten rid of as requirements of profit determine. To what extent are you, in your own teaching make the connection between this principle of business economics and the reality of hunger in the classroom as a result of the fact that workers are not factors of production but are living human beings?
I would argue that the current processes of curriculum transformation, under the auspices of OBE, provide a unique opportunity for teachers to combat the ideologies of racial inequality, gender inequality and class exploitation. We must teach our children the practical meaning and effects of these ideologies, and seek to teach them different values of the kind of society we would like to build. We must however reject the notion of OBE that advances the notion of having no syllabus, as if, as a people we have no history or values that we seek to inculcate. On the other hand we must also reject rigid curricular and syllabi that allows no space for teacher and learner creativity in the classroom.
Therefore one of the key challenges is for teachers to take an active interest and role in shaping the new curriculum in a manner that advances the kinds of values we seek to promote. When we introduced OBE, the DP and NNP mounted a huge offensive against these changes precisely because they want to protect as much of apartheid and capitalist ideology in our curriculum as possible. Our task therefore is to embark, using this conference as a start, on an extensive debate about the kinds of values we want in our education system. The national conference on values in education was an important start, but it is teachers and parents who need to be at the centre of this debate, and not be limited to experts who have little to do with the daily activities in our schools.
The task for SADTU therefore is to lead a national debate on the question of values and ideology in our education system. Every school and every SGB should be involved in this all-important debate. Part of this should be to seek to advance values of solidarity, equality and egalitarianism and the building of an economic system that benefits the overwhelming majority of our people. Let SADTU, in line with its own ideological commitments, use this as a platform to open debate in our schools about the evils of capitalism, the evils of racism and the evils of gender inequality!
I am very pleased to hear SADTU talking about creating its own institute for curriculum studies, as an important means to assist in the process of developing a new teacher. A teacher who understands that education is an ideology; a teacher who understands the kinds of values we seek to promote in our society; a teacher who is committed to the total liberation of our country; and a teacher who is committed to produce a new person with high a quality of education.
Education can both be an instrument of oppression and of liberation
Precisely because education is ideological and an important instrument and mechanism for shaping societal values, it can both be used as an instrument of oppression as well as of liberation. Education as an instrument of oppression can happen in both explicit and implicit ways. Apartheid education was explicitly formulated and implemented as an instrument of national oppression. But the most dangerous forms through which education can be used as an instrument of oppression is when this is done implicitly and in hidden ways, through what we call the "hidden syllabus".
It is possible that even in liberated societies education can continue to play an oppressive role, subtly shaping the minds of all involved. This necessitates that we use this conference to ask the question: To what extent have our education values changed in line with the evolving democracy in our country? Yes, there are many positive changes that have been introduced over the last seven years, which we must be proud of and must deepen. For instance, the constitutional right to basic education, the end to racially segregated schools, the progressive policy framework that we have in place, and so on. But there are still many features of apartheid education that we still live with e.g., the legacy of inequalities in our schools, lack of basic resources in the majority of the schools serving the black communities; and lack of a focused and systematic programme on teacher re-education and development.
A key challenge in implementing our educational policies is that of seeking to turn our education system into an instrument and mechanism for the total liberation of our people. We should not be ashamed in advancing this objective and goal, nor should we be intimidated by the power of those who control enormous resources and therefore seek to preserve backward notions of education in our country. This however means that as teachers we need to also to be part of an overall offensive to challenge some of the values that still imprison our minds, not least those in the media and public broadcaster. In essence one of the struggles we have is to challenge attempts to turn South Africa into an ideological colony of the US, through what is taught and shown on television and in the media in general.
Education can only be transformed through a people-driven process
One of the most important lessons we must keep in the entire struggles against apartheid education, particularly since 1976 is that there is no single institutional site that can on its own be able to transform education. One of the most important lessons we learnt as from the mid-1980's through the struggle of people's education for people's power is that unless we mobilise the mass of our people to lead the process of transforming education, our victories may be reversed. Education, by its very nature, is a mass activity.
We took these lessons into the very educational policy development initiatives starting in the late 1980's, up to the production of the famous ANC Yellow Book on education. Since 1994 the ANC and its Allies deliberately sought to continue these people-driven process by establishing the Education National Co-ordinating Forum, which was very instrumental in driving the implementation of educational policies. This is a tradition we must never allow to disappear, as this might lead to the isolation of government from the mass of the people, and also isolate the mass of our people from government processes in educational transformation.
During my time as chair of the Education Portfolio Committee, every policy measure as well as legislation was subjected to thorough debate and scrutiny within the Alliance and the broader democratic movement, without undermining the capacity of government to drive and implement progressive policies. Instead this strengthened government in many ways, through the high quality of interventions by democratic forces during public hearings, as well as having a single purpose in implementing government legislation and other measures. Through these processes we were able to deal with some of the most difficult policy issues that confronted us in the educational arena e.g. the issue of school fees, the educational clause in the constitution, the composition of SGBs, and employment conditions of educators. We dare not abandon this tradition of our movement!
In order to strengthen this tradition of a people-driven educational transformation process we must combat the two dangerous tendencies that sometimes surface within our structures. The one is that of seeing people's involvement as detraction from the role of government to govern. The danger of counterpoising the role of government and that of the masses is that of a bureaucratic process of transformation, which weakens both the masses and government, itself. As the RDP states, there is no contradiction between the role of government and that of mass participation and consultation in both policy development and implementation. To cast these as contradictory and undermining government is a notion foreign to our movement and history of educational transformation.
The other danger is that of teachers tending to focus exclusively on their own needs and conditions of service, at the expense of a broader perspective about the role of education and teachers in the national democratic revolution as a whole. We need to pursue both decent conditions of employment for teachers within the context of the broader task of deepening and advancing the national democratic revolution.
In concrete terms the above means that we need to revive these Alliance processes at all levels as a matter of strategic and tactical priority. In addition we need to resuscitate the notion of parent-teacher-student alliances, through the building of strong governing bodies. We need to empower governing bodies such that they are able to understand and relate their roles in day to day administration of schools to the broader challenges of educational transformation. SADTU in particular needs to play a leading role in further debating how to strengthen governing bodies, as the most important organs of people's participation and reviving the parent-student-teacher alliances.
Teachers are both educators and cadres of the working class movement in the national democratic revolution
Directly related to the above proposition is the need for teachers to understand themselves as educators as well as cadres of the working class movement and the democratic revolution as a whole. The danger of narrowing teacher unions to being only collective bargaining entities is that the broader working class struggle and its goal of leading society as a whole is abandoned or severely compromised.
The struggle for educational transformation is integrally linked to the overall struggles of the working class. The majority of the students in our schools are children of the working class, and teachers themselves are part of the working class. Therefore a critical dimension of the education struggle is to re-claim and transform our education in favour of the working class. This means that we need to transform ourselves into new teachers; teachers who understand that it is only a society led by the working class that is best capable of resolving the key problems facing South African society. This also means that SADTU has a particular role in broadening the ideological outlook of teachers, rather than narrowly embarking on academic paper chase without a broader understanding that education goes beyond just formal academic qualifications, important as these may be.
A crucial and interrelated issue in this task of teachers as cadres of the working class movement is the challenge of literacy in our country. One of the key obstacles to accelerating educational transformation is the high level of illiteracy in our country. This undermines the capacity of working class parents to effectively participate in the education of their own children as well as broader transformation tasks. I would like to argue that one of the key reasons for the growth and strength of the Cuban revolution are the high levels of literacy - a direct result of Cuba's literacy campaign in the early 1960's.
One key challenge in this regard is what role should teachers be playing in the all-important task of eradicating illiteracy in our country? Is it not time that SADTU - as the largest teacher union in our country - should play a role in this struggle? Is it not time that we mobilise teachers to use some of their holidays and spare time to embark on literacy projects?
Of course this task cannot be left to teacher organisations alone. It is a task that government needs to take up in a much bigger way than is the case at the moment. For instance I think that it is time that we consider a massive programme of partnership between government, unions, business and other stakeholders to tackle the scourge of illiteracy. It is for instance estimated that there are more than 45 000 qualified but unemployed teachers in our country, let alone other unemployed but highly qualified people. If we take the 45 000 unemployed teachers alone, and given that there is an estimated 13 million people who are either completely illiterate or functionally illiterate, should we not be engaging government and other stakeholders for a programme of using these teachers over a 3-5 year period to embark on full time literacy work? This would translate to one unemployed teacher being responsible for just over 300 illiterate or semi-literate people over a period of 3-5 years. Combining government, private sector and donor resources over a targetted period would take us closer to wiping out illiteracy in the medium term. This would of course require sacrifices on all sides, but the outcome would be immeasurably positive. Apart from providing employment for these teachers, we would also be producing a new kind of a teacher who is equally at home both in the classroom and under a tree teaching an old woman how to read and write. An important means of also overcoming the method of fundamental pedagogics and didactics imparted to us by the apartheid education system! Perhaps let SADTU be the champion of this cause in the Alliance and broader society and take up this matter directly with government. This is the duty of SADTU as an organisation of both educators and working class cadres of the national democratic revolution.
The only vehicle to transform education is public sector provision of education
This is an absolutely critical matter that is also part of SADTU's own programme as adopted at its last Congress. The growth of private sector education both at school level and at higher education level needs to be much more tightly regulated as this is a direct threat to a viable, quality public education system in our country. These private institutions take away the much need human and financial resources from our public education system.
There is also the threat of neo-liberal ideology as articulated by the IMF and World Bank in particular, that once public parastatals are all privatised in developing countries the next target should be schools and our public health institutions. They talk, just like the DA, of privately run schools with each student being given a voucher by government to go and buy education from these private providers. This would surely destroy any hope of provision of education to working class and poor children.
But it is not enough to criticise or protest about the growing private education sector in our country. The task is for us to work hard, and hard and hard to ensure that public education institutions deliver better education all round. The importance of this conference for me is that these ordinary teachers you have brought together should, in discussing implementation of policies, discuss how to improve work ethic in schools and drastically transform the classroom. Our struggle to defeat neo-liberalism and the threat to public education is by leading a crusade for creating high quality public schools. SADTU has an important role in this regard, to set an example and mobilise these cadres for this all-important task of our times.
On the other hand SADTU, again, needs to seriously engage the Alliance and government around the question of the re-prioritisation of the budget to prioritise wiping out educational backlogs, particularly in our schools. SADTU needs to engage the urban renewal and rural development programme to prioritise provision of public facilities and other resources like electricity, toilets, laboratories, etc in our schools. The educational backlogs in our system are one of the most serious obstacles in implementation of our policies and accelerate the transformation of education. I dare say we need a new education deal between government, teacher unions and our communities to address this question of strengthening our public education system. Again, this requires an Alliance discussion and agreement, including the kinds of sacrifices that will have to be made by all towards this all-important task.
CONCLUSION
If the above five theses on advancing and deepening education transformation are acceptable, then the task of this conference is to move beyond just talking and sharing ideas, important as that is, to emerge with concrete proposals around which the entire education fraternity, including government needs to be engaged. Of all the teacher unions it is only SADTU that can make a decisive contribution in this regard and play its leadership role. The only way to take these issues forward is by deepening intra-alliance dialogue and effective engagement with government.