Educational
development in Africa most certainly
needs to be focused on solving current economic problems and generating
economic ‘drivers’, not just ‘passengers’.
But there are other equally important problems and challenges. In South Africa in particular, these relate
to the profoundly detrimental effects of Segregation/Apartheid in general and
the Verwoerdian Separate Development and Vorster/Bothaian brutality that
followed. http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/verwoerd-should-not-be-remembered-fondly?utm_source=Politicsweb+Daily+Headlines&utm_campaign=ad23e044b4-DHN_20_Sept_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a86f25db99-ad23e044b4-140202025
South African
masses, especially (but not only) poor people, have been (and to some extent
continue to be) educationally, socially and psychologically disabled/emasculated. This is why the Black Consciousness Movement
emerged and developed rapidly.
Tragically, it was crushed by the Vorster/Botha Regimes and morphed into
multiple, amorphous (in some cases antagonistic) entities pursuing political
‘agendas’ that have and continue to focus on ‘reverse racism’ at the expense of
self-discipline and educational development, Afrocentric or otherwise.
My alma mater
and employer for more than four decades is an excellent example of how
universities have failed to deliver the academic ‘goods’. The foundational failure is in the production
of skilled basic educators. There is no
longer an undergraduate programme dedicated to producing school teachers. What educational education that does occur is
post bachelors and attempts to develop subject specialist graduates (even those
with PhDs who regard teaching as career plan “B”) into teachers. The closure of teachers training colleges was
a major blow as well.
On top of this,
UCT has admitted and continues to admit large numbers of school-leavers who,
despite performing adequately on the UCT-admission-filter test, fail to
complete their undergraduate degree on time (often not at all) or do so with
barely passing marks. In too many cases
these aspirant members of society are only not socio-assets, they are bitter,
unemployed who have wasted 3-5 years and tens of thousands of Rands or carry
this as unpaid debt. This a recipe for
the disaster that is happening at UCT as I write.
Even if the
inadequate admissions test were remedied to identify bright, passionate,
hard-working matriculants capable of coping with the myriad of challenges
presented by life at UCT, which is inherently competitive and profoundly
foreign to the school experience, the process is failing. Many of even the best and brightest enter
without the knowledge and knowledge-acquiring skills needed to succeed. On top of this, even after a generation of
post-liberation, many are handicapped in terms of the lingering effects of
Apartheid sensu lato and daily
outside-UCT existence. They need
nurturing in the form of decent accommodation, food and social interaction with
the full spectrum of their colleagues.
What is ‘the’
solution?
Of course there
is no ‘quick-fix’ or panacea. But here
are some suggestions, most (probably all) of which will offend the ‘Fallists’
at one extreme and reactionary ‘crypto-colonists’ at the other.
First, in the almost
certain absence of massive new investment financially and in new,
appropriately-skilled staff (if they could be found and recruited), fewer educationally
disabled school-leavers should be admitted.
These should be chosen carefully, by means of one-on-one interviews and
background investigations – not just a test – to maximize their chances for
success. Depending on the students’
access to finance, flexible support for ALL their needs (not wants/demands –
food, accommodation, books, internet access, multi-diversity socialization,
etc.) MUST be provided. This could be in
the form of full scholarships for the best/brightest/poorest to repayable loans
or post-graduate service (as is currently the practice with medical graduates)
for the more affluent. To allow massive intake of academically weak,
ill-supported first-year students is a recipe for disaster for all concerned.
Second, all (not
some) disciplinary curricula should be reviewed to demonstrate the extent to
which they equip bachelors graduates with the requisite skills to compete in
the real world (get jobs). Where there
are ‘deficiencies’ in this regard, they need to be justified (e.g. in terms of unequivocally
defensible academic ‘standards’) or remedied.
Also, when and where it can be justified, cross-disciplinary educational
programmes that add intellectual ‘strings’ to the students’ ‘bows’ should be
explored. Topics such as basic history
with strong (but not sole) African/philosophical components and applied
mathematics/statistics make sense to me.
Fundamentally, there should be no compromise of educational excellence
in favour of ‘good-enough-for-government-work competence’. UCT graduates should be able to compete on an
international scale.
Third, increase
the basic bachelor’s degree to four years and do away with the honours year.
Fourth,
carefully explore opportunities for rapid, relevant post-graduate
development. To that end, UCT IN THE
NEWS has an article on the highly successful M.Sc. Programme in Conservation
Biology.
Now to what will
make me some more enemies, also across the Fallist/crypto-colonist spectrum.
Academics need
to make the most major long-term transformations. Currently, UCT’s staff is disproportionately
white and male. If a newly appointed
lecturer survives a review after three years’ service (and nearly all do),
he/she becomes “tenured” and effectively ‘un-fireable’. I recollect only a handful of academics who
have been removed from their posts for cause.
Now, of course, with a potential looming financial bottle-neck, some
academics may be retrenched. For my
initial ideas on this see: http://www.groundup.org.za/article/uct-jobs-shed/
My current views
are as follows. The ‘good old days’,
such as they were are gone. It’s now
virtually impossible for an academic to have unfettered choice about what to
teach and study. It never really
was.
Contrary to
Fallists’ claims, most (if not all) academics at UCT do not see their jobs and
education as commodity-driven. They see
their profession as a vocation and many choose to work at UCT for much less remuneration
that they could obtain elsewhere. Most
see education as an intellectual adventure during which they feel free to explore
and debate all matter of ideas. Some are
more set in their ideas than others.
The reality is
that universities are going to (or should) make hard choices where to cut
posts. To a great extent, these choices should
take cognizance of South Africa’s immediate needs and projected ‘wants’. In my broad field, biology, at the undergraduate
level, these are largely in education (producing school teachers). The existing departmental structure, a
partitioning into molecular and whole-organism biology, does not address this
need. It is beyond my expertise to offer
a solution beyond merging departments without compromising students academics
have choices
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