Carol’s Column

Schools crisis a threat to all in SA

On Monday, in a desperate move, Archie Lewis, the school principal of Beacon Hill High School in Mitchell's Plain, Cape Town, closed his school for three days. An unprecedented action in South Africa. It opens again tomorrow.

A brief recap. On June 16 1976, the schoolchildren of Soweto marched through the township to the local police station to protest against Bantu education, more specifically the use of Afrikaans as the language of teaching. The result of their march and the ensuing Soweto uprising is well documented. It precipitated the change in the history of South Africa.

For the past few weeks, the high school children of Cape Town, mostly in Mitchell's Plain and townships such as Langa and Nyanga have staged protest marches. But, a march also started from the Wynberg Senior Secondary School situated in the predominantly white suburb of Wynberg.

The pupils have been protesting against the massive teacher cut in the Western Province, the lack of facilities, the non-existence of textbooks and the resulting low standard of education. That's if they're among the fortunate ones attending school. Many receive no education as schools are grossly overcrowded. Classes have been increased to unmanageable numbers of pupils with decreasing teacher-pupil ratios because of retrenchments.

Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu has axed approximately 6 000 teachers in the Cape; another 6 000 will go before the end of the year. That's just in the Western Cape. Countrywide, the figures of axed or about to be disposed of teachers runs into hundreds of thousands.

Bengu is also the man who is on record as telling members of the book industry that textbooks are not necessary as teachers are capable of producing their own materials.

The fact that there are too few teachers, that they have inadequate materials (of every kind), and are forced to plagiarise and illegally copy from existing textbooks (which are out of date) is a travesty.

The long-term effect of this is that ultimately our children will suffer. Throughout the world it has been scientifically proven that up-to-date textbooks are essential to learning.

To return to Lewis. In a moving interview with Gaye Davis of Cape Talk, he spoke with despair of the terrible circumstances provoking the dramatic closure of his school.

He told of student marches to protest against the lack of teachers. He described the escalating violence, how youngsters, often not scholars, had thrown stones and burning tyres at the marchers. How criminality was escalating, how his remaining teachers were physically and verbally brutalised.

Lewis loves teaching. He has devoted his life to educating young people. More than anything he wants to impart knowledge and training to his high school pupils. To give them a future.

He also wants his school to be safe, for his children to learn in a secure environment, for his teachers to be able to perform their jobs without being in fear of their lives.

To close the school was an agonising decision because, above all, he believes children have the right to learn, teachers the right to teach. During the three-day period, Lewis will meet with various authorities, with parents, with everyone involved in order to attempt to rectify an intolerable situation.

The tragedy is that what is happening at Beacon Hill High School is happening throughout our country. The reality of the situation is that this affects us all.

If every child in South Africa does not receive a decent education, we are truly doomed.

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