INTEGRITY OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR

I reference my thoughts to Monday’s headlines regarding schools’ readiness for the academic year. I am going to weigh in on the issue because it seems readiness to resume classes has become a perennial problem in this country.
I call on government and all stakeholders involved to work zealously to arrest the problem and ensure that in future we will not have to deal with the issues of interruptions to the academic almanac. The impacts of interruptions to the almanac can be very dire to the child’s development and learning needs.

Impacts

Slight changes in the academic calendar result in severe impacts in the developmental needs of the learners. School is not only a space for children to explore their academic aspirations, it is also a space for children to socialise and grow as responsible citizens. Furthermore, if we normalise adjusting the almanac willy nilly, we are, in essence, utilising the schooling system to teach our children that it is ok not to plan properly, since a postponement is always an option.  I fear we will raise a generation without an understanding of systems and structures and the importance of those systems and structures in society, as a whole.

Furthermore, interruptions can be very costly to the student and to the quality of the overall education system. Shifting the academic calendar without congruent shifts in the allotted time, results in information overload. This places strain on both the educators and the learners. Also, learner preparedness is adversely affected. Learning, passing and failing are very long processes, that start with learner preparedness.Furthermore, given the socio-economic challenges facing the country currently, schools also form part of the nourishment of a large proportion of our children. Interruptions in the almanac also increase the ‘education-divide’ in education.

Education divide

I coin this word to mean the observed differences in educational outcomes, between the rich and the poor in our society. I observe with disdain how, as a country, we are failing in the basics of social provisioning vis-a-vis, health and education. Today, I will, however confine my thoughts to the education sector. The public education system exists because education is both a merit good and a public good with positive externalities. In basic terms the consumption of education is good for the community as a whole and not just for the person who has been educated. Furthermore, education is one of the conduits through which we can pull a number of our people out of poverty. Also, a well educated labour force equipped with the right skills is generally more productive and the returns on investment always outstrip the benefits in the long term. Reverting to the education-divide, the problem always lies with the public education system. If one can afford a private school, this problem does not affect them.

The outcome is a public education system which produces graduates that cannot compete at an equal footing with the private sector. Straight out of school, if one has private sector education, they are likely to get more opportunities, compared to a person who attained their basic education at a public institution. This inequality of opportunities will subsist through the life cycle of the individual and will result in a vicious spiral of inequalities in education.

Mitigation

If not arrested, we shall be faced with a very big education-divide in this country, exacerbating already existing income inequalities. I call on government and all stakeholders to ensure that funds for FPE and other ancillary payments to schools are made on time. This is particularly worrying since we all expect a smooth cashflow position, within the fiscus. We are, after all, in the land of plenty, we have record SACU receipts and domestic revenue collection is also increasing. It then boggles the mind that we still have to contend with these problems, as a country. Also, I find it prudent that we restore the teaching service to pre-attrition levels. At the very least, retired, absconding and resigned teachers should be replaced. This will ensure that the learner educator ratios are brought to levels closer to optimality. We need to demonstrate support and care to the education system, basic education is very critical and the future of our country depends on it.

Priority

One cannot discount the efforts that His Majesty’s Government is currently pursuing in ensuring that social provisioning takes priority in the country. We have seen this in the budget allocations to education and health, particularly. My analysis shows that albeit these two sectors receiving a lion’s share of the budget, they are not priority in terms of cash flow-going concern. I have long been calling for a system through which government can align the expected cash inflow with the expected budget. I argue that the government should improve its cashflow projections to align with the expected expenses. I know that this might be a tall order for the government machinery. However, if the planning office worked on the budget perpetually, it would be possible. Also, it is imperative that we adopt the medium-term expenditure framework.

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