Our education sector has much in common with the ANC and it's 100 year bash: Desperately poor planning, a huge waste of money and unimaginative excuses for non-performance. When new Education Minister Nzimande blurted out that 8 Billion Rand (a stack of 100 Rand notes with a height of 9 km!) of public education funds had been wasted recently - the words corruption, foolishness and greed were not mentioned by him - nobody was surprised, except maybe at his bravery.  But there is another reason for our plight which is less obvious...

   Education has been deemed 'in crisis' because the 50% (officially 25%) unemployment  has been linked to terrible matric results particularly in the technology-related subjects. There is an assumption that good maths and good science results would greatly reduce unemployment. 

Good education achieves any or all of the following objectives:

1. Provision of a safe environment for young people.

2. Competence to do things.

3. Acquisition of a useful attitude/mindset.  

4. Learning a useful sense of self. 

5. Membership of the old-boy network with a background of known quality.

Anyone can have their own ranking, but I believe Number 3 is key, probably in conjunction with Number 4, rather than Number 2 on its own. Because competence is useless if combined with a poor work ethic or destructive personality, while incompetence can always be rectified with learning, given the will to learn.

Discussion of a useful attitude/mindset is probably only advisable once everybody wears assault protective gear and/or remembers that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. Attitude/mindset may be influenced by cultural values, group thinking, competitiveness of the environment, personal quirks,.... - but in the National Interest surely     

good work ethic,      

willingness to learn (even the famous 'enquiring mind')        

and positive social awareness    stand out.

How to go about achieving this admirable mindset? Well it helps to take cognizance of a few parameters.  

Firstly, by age 2 years, personality seems to be largely set, broadly, into

the more common Type B (lifestyle orientated)

or the less common Type A (achievement orientated, neurotic) 

and depends upon genetics, family and environment happenings.

Secondly, Types B and A need different stimuli to perform.

Thirdly, the focus of a person's energy depends upon the information available to that person. A very admirable mindset may turn to crime, drugs or emigration if there is a perception that it is futile to hope for a desired career.

    Interestingly enough, and this will discomfort some readers, traditional mass education systems have purposefully beavered away at Number 4 above - learning a useful sense of self - to perpetuate the existing order:                                                                            

      By teaching mathematics at a level which ensures that 80 out of 100 pupils abhor the subject (and none of them ever need Algebra or fancy Geometry in everyday life or at work), a useful inferiority complex with respect to technology and much respect for the 'more intelligent' academics was achieved. Result: Winning MATERIALISM and GLOBALISATION! And winning big companies and technology countries!

     Strangely, South Africa has chosen to go the same route, to a ridiculous extent, by getting 50% of all learners to write a university entrance exam (our matric) when there are only university places for ~13% of all learners (in Germany, 30% of all learners write matric and 27% of all learners can go to university). Failure by Design. 

Thus the Recipe for Education has the following ingredients:

       No corruption.  

       11 and 13 year school leaver diplomas. 

        Well-paid teachers.

        Different Teaching Methodologies  for Type B and A personalities targetting an admirable mindset.

        History, culture and sport content which support a good sense of self.

        And a political leadership which gives hope for the future and inspires teachers, learners and parents to perform. Because unemployment will drop drastically if company taxation  seriously advantages 'local is lekker', if import regulation advantages locally made goods, if more than half the police is clean and stops crime, if the state president and his power brokers demonstrate a social conscience. 

     Of course, it is highly unlikely that the ANC will implement any worthwhile changes - judging by their actions and utterances the only point on any agenda is their internal power struggle. And one doesn't really want to bankrupt South African Airways by voting them out.       

     Maybe the only hope is the emergence of a new party, like the ruling Workers' Party in Brazil, founded  in a meeting of the minds between trade unionists, socialist church intellectuals and left wing intellectuals. When Lula da Silva, a trained machinist, departed as the country's president after 8 years, his approval rating was a phenomenal 83%. Inspiring stuff.

      And don't forget our hole card: We've got resources everybody needs.

~Letter to The Star, Mail & Guardian in Jan 2012