In February 1980, after having taught for three years at a high school in Diep River, Cape Town, I was in the principal’s office when a feisty young female student knocked confidently on the office door.
She told the principal that she had been discussing the formation of a Student Representative Council (SRC) with other students.
She spoke with passion and outlined the reasons for its formation. She outlined the racist education systems in South Africa. She spoke with such conviction she had one foot on an office chair. I thought the principal would resist the formation of an SRC.
To my surprise, he calmly listened to her. So, the SRCs were formed at the majority of schools in South Africa. Schools of the ruling minority resisted the formation of politically progressive SRCs.
These schools, even in democratic South Africa, were successful in getting the name SRC removed from SA and replaced by the Representative Council of Learners (RCL).
The late Don Mattera always reminded South Africa that memory is the weapon. In the political uprising in schools in 1985, the politically aware students brought to the fore the evil of apartheid.
In 1985, progressive Parent Teacher Student Associations (PTSAs) were formed to fight the racist system in South Africa.
Again, in post 1994, PTSAs ceased to exist and were replaced by government-controlled school governing bodies (SGBs).
In 1996, the Western Cape Parent Teacher Student Forum (WCPTSF) was formed to fight the rationalisation of 20 000 teachers in South Africa.
Schools of the poor, who had the political acumen, were able to prevent teachers identified by the Education Department from leaving. The schools managed to keep their teachers.
In 1998, the new government closed 50 teacher training colleges across South Africa as part of its rationalisation programme.
I believe that to understand the present crisis in education, we must understand the mistakes made in South Africa in the past.
When one reads the views of officials in the Education Department, most ignore all the mistakes made in the past.
The Education Department, across the country, has the teachers in a vice-grip. The authorities, with their Labour Relations Departments, are intimidating teachers.
Again, I appeal to the education authorities to listen to teachers and create a school system which promotes education like the principal and student did in 1980.
* Brian Isaacs.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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